1 Corinthians 13:13 "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." That's the concluding verse of a great chapter on love. Paul, guided by the Spirit, dedicated a whole chapter to love. God has kept these words alive by including them in His creation, the collection of His thoughts, we call the bible. This chapter was not written by chance or as an after thought. God did not save it for us because it was sandwiched in between some really important stuff like miraculous gifts or making sure all our assemblies were decently and in order.
God wanted it there, put it there, and kept it there.
Here's what bothers me...I think we may have missed the whole point of the discussion. No Way! you say. We've heard countless lessons on love. Gone over every verse time and time again...even dissected it word by word!. We've got the "love" thing down. If that's what you think...I agree with you whole heartily. We've got the answer for sure...no problem there. If the 13th chapter of I Corinthians was ever included in a game of Trivial Pursuit, we could nail it. Name 3 things love is....patient, kind, humble (all of the time). Bingo ! High Fives all around ! We've got the answer...but what was the question? I believe this could be more like Jeopardy where God has said, " ...and the answer is..." now, we are supposed to fill in the question.
Want a hint...look at the last verse in the chapter. ...the greatest of these is love. There's the question. Which is greater faith, hope, or love? Perhaps that question is misleading because of how we define "greater". The literal translation of that verse from Greek is,
" Now but stays trust hope love the three these; greater but of these the love."
I like the way it says "the three these". It brings to mind another 3 in 1...God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Perhaps to help clarify the relationship between trust(faith), hope and love, let's just change the words in the passage for just a moment so that it will read...
"Now but stays Father, Son, Spirit the three these; greater but of these the Father."
Whoa Nellie! Let's chew on that some. The implications could be enormous and should be enormous. If trust, hope, and love (TH&L) are interconnected and interdependent as the godhead 3 are, then TH&L's work in me and thru me could be just as interconnected & interdependent. I believe this was the question God, thru Paul, was answering. It was so important to the 1st century church and to us, that God stepped up and laid it out for them & us. But a debate between brothers & sisters in Christ that required God to step in and settle? Seems like overkill to me...how about you? UNLESS, I'm not understanding the question. I'll explore that next time.
