The Lord’s insight. God is Love. He doesn’t just do loving things.
1 John 4:16: “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
When Moses asked God what to say to the people who would ask God’s name. God responded by describing Himself by something inherent to being God. He simply said, tell the people “I am sent you.” The description I am it not a name. It is an inherent description of who God is.
Perhaps God wanted the people to know Him for Who He is more than by what He is called. He is the God Who Is. That is His most inherent quality. There are some things about man that inherently make them men and women. Men have the sperm needed to fertilize a woman’s egg. Women have the egg that needs fertilization by man. These things are inherent to men and women.
There is one other thing that is or should be inherent to our humanity. That is love. There can be no world without love because God is love. Love is inherent to Who God is. It is not something that God does because He cares. Love is who God is and it is the reason He does the loving things He does.
1 Corinthians 13, says, there will be many things in life that will come and go. Many things that will start and end. Many talents we will have today but lose tomorrow. Talent and skills do not make us more or better people. Love that is does that for us.
Believers should want all the gifts God has for us. We should want the talents and skills He has for us. But more than that, we should want more of the essence of Who He is. That essence is Love.
Scripture reminds us we will lose our talents and skills, but we should want the thing that will live forever. It says there are three things to desire that abide and can never be lost. They are faith, hope and love. And of these three things, Love is the greatest.
Love that is, is love that will go a long way and will endure much along the way and it is kind all the while.
Love that is, is love that is selfless as it does not want what you have, it does not want to stand out before you and it does not say “look at me.” Love that is, is all about others, never itself.
Love that is, is love that thinks about how it behaves so that it never behaves rudely. It is unshakable and can never be provoked by anything. It never thinks evil of anyone even of those who are evil. This is because love that is, is love that does not rejoice when you are down.
So, no matter what your gift or talents may be, you should want faith, hope and love because they are part of your essence as a child of God. And of these three things, love is the greatest because we are fashioned by Love in love to be love.
Our hopes are the dreams and desires that live in our lives. Faith lives in each of us as the essence of the way we live out all of what we hope for. But even faith and hope are not enough for us to be known by. Faith and hope may be the reason that we are joyful, but Love that is, is the reason for our faith and hope.
Love lives because God lives and He gives us the part of His essence that lives. Our love will never fail to exist. If you want to live long and if you want to live in love toward others, become love that is.
You may want to compare Love that is, to love that describes how we feel and are made to feel for others and for our children and for the things we cherish. Love that is cannot be compared to our love for things and by things. It does not need to redefine what love is; it defines clearly what love should be.
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