And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13
It was a big wedding. I Corinthians 13:1-13 was the reading. The speaker briefly talked about love. You could feel the warm glow of response – to an attractive couple, to the reading and to the word love. If we had been encouraged to think harder about these verses, then the warm glow may well have faded as we began to face up to the challenges, the implications of Paul’s description of love and the inevitable nostalgia and regrets of each individual human life in that church. But there was no time for reflection before we stood up for the next hymn.
Biblically love is a huge topic – God’s love for us, two commandments to love, the paean of praise to sexual love in the Song of Songs, the love of Christ as a model for a husband’s love for his wife, David and Jonathan, Naomi and Ruth. Paul speaks of love in many contexts, often linking love with faith and hope. But love is the greatest, because in the end, in heaven, faith will be swallowed up in seeing and hope will be fulfilled in knowing.
Love, in one way or another, is around every corner; it fills the airways, dominates our songs and films. ‘It’s love that makes the world go round.’
However, with only one English word to use for four Greek ones, we can be confused. Paul is usually talking about a quality that is much wider and deeper than the wonderful buzz of human attraction. And yet even for the pains and fierceness of first love, linking love with faith and hope can tell us something very important. Human love, whatever the relationship, can be a hard experience with much heartbreak, if faith, or faithfulness, and hope are not part of it. True love includes a trusting, faithful commitment between individuals who will not let each other down, or at least do not intend to. True love carries hopeful expectation for the long-term, for development and growth in the relationship, for support and care when love has quietened and roots are deep and with hope and future promise.
Finding faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ can begin to redeem our relationships, teaching us how to love others with faith and faithfulness
Biblically love is a huge topic – God’s love for us, two commandments to love, the paean of praise to sexual love in the Song of Songs, the love of Christ as a model for a husband’s love for his wife, David and Jonathan, Naomi and Ruth. Paul speaks of love in many contexts, often linking love with faith and hope. But love is the greatest, because in the end, in heaven, faith will be swallowed up in seeing and hope will be fulfilled in knowing.
Love, in one way or another, is around every corner; it fills the airways, dominates our songs and films. ‘It’s love that makes the world go round.’
However, with only one English word to use for four Greek ones, we can be confused. Paul is usually talking about a quality that is much wider and deeper than the wonderful buzz of human attraction. And yet even for the pains and fierceness of first love, linking love with faith and hope can tell us something very important. Human love, whatever the relationship, can be a hard experience with much heartbreak, if faith, or faithfulness, and hope are not part of it. True love includes a trusting, faithful commitment between individuals who will not let each other down, or at least do not intend to. True love carries hopeful expectation for the long-term, for development and growth in the relationship, for support and care when love has quietened and roots are deep and with hope and future promise.
Finding faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ can begin to redeem our relationships, teaching us how to love others with faith and faithfulness
Margaret Killingray
0 comments:
Post a Comment