On Love in Brief

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love . . .
Galatians 5.22-23

There is nothing in this passage that points to love above all else. However, some point Scripture passages where love is given the highest honor.

Jesus

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
Matthew 22.34-40, NRSV

Love is the greatest commandment.

In another manner of speaking, love is the highest ethical code.

Love is the best way to live. It is the good life.

In a way, love is greater than the will of God, because love drives the will of God. Love is the motivation for the will of God.

Paul

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13.13

Paul is in the middle of a discussion about the Gifts of the Spirit. These are the gifts that the Spirit gives in the corporate worship setting.

He pauses to paint, one of the most beautiful portraits of love in the New Testament.

Love Never Fails

To watch on YouTube CLICK

In effect, Paul states that love motivates the Gifts of the Spirit.

It’s the glue holding the church together.

John

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4.7-8

John links love to the very character of God.

Love is who God is.

We must remember, our love flows from God’s love.

John only referred to himself as, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

John identified with the love of God . . . do we?

Here are three New Testament voices who point to love above all else. Should we pay attention?