The Greatest of These…
Love is the greatest because without it faith and hope have no place to anchor themselves—like a helium balloon caught in a gust of wind, blown away before it can be tied to the arm of a little child. It’s hard to have faith in something without the sustaining power of love as the foundation on which it rests. It’s hard to hope without the safety of love to tenderly hold and protect its delicate flower. And it is the greatest because love is at the heart of the most profound act of mercy ever offered to humankind.
Very few people would disagree with the premise that there is no greater sacrifice to offer for another human than life itself. When we honour our fallen and standing heroes and give special recognition to firefighters and police officers, we are honouring people who have chosen a profession that by its very nature puts their lives at risk for the sake of another. We also recognize “everyday heroes”—people who find themselves unintentionally faced with a choice to risk their lives to help someone else, or not. We only get one life, and to be willing to put that stranger and that life ahead of one’s own in the moment of crisis is remarkable. They deserve recognition.
You hear about the bond that gets created between rescuers and those rescued—this inexplicable connection that results from that life-saving experience. Both parties ending up forever changed, with a greater appreciation for the life they’ve been given and the inherent value that exists therein. Like I said, very few people would argue with any of this. It’s an accepted fact in society today.
Now let’s spiritualize this concept. What the Bible says about love is truth, so it’s the foundation for this discussion. You will likely need to remind yourself of the truth periodically as we move forward from here, because it’s in the spiritual application of things that the enemy of our souls tries to rob us of what God means for us to experience about His love.
The verses in the Bible about God’s love for us are both numerous and powerful. However, there are a few that really spell out the spiritual application for us (see appendix A for additional verses). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16, ESV, emphasis added). “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, NASB). “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:9–10, NLT).
God did for you and me what we call heroic today. Jesus’ life (the rescuer) was given for us (the rescued). Because He loves us.
I have a friend who has lived through more in her lifetime than most people would think humanly possible to endure. Her trauma experiences are many and go beyond imagination (think ritualistic abuse and all that entails). There has been so much pain and woundedness in her life, it has not been easy for her to understand that she has value because God loves her.
In fact, I would say that until this past year, she did not fully grasp it. She believed in the story of salvation and told many others about it. She memorized Bible verses and immersed herself in the Bible, care groups and serving in the church. She did everything she thought was pleasing to God, but it didn’t translate into anything meaningful to her. She thought she was worthless, unlovable. Jesus’ love and sacrifice for her had remained trapped in her head—it had not seeped into the fibres of her being. Over the years of her torture, Satan had done a really good job of convincing her that her abuse defined her and was a reflection of her lack of worth. So that’s what she felt. Not love. Even though the love was there for her. She had taken a shower to get clean, but she had never soaked in the warm bath of His love.
I know this woman well. And I know why the enemy worked so hard to keep her feeling worthless and unlovable. She will not keep quiet about something she believes in, and he knew if she felt the magnitude of God’s love, her testimony would be unstoppable. So he tried to silence her by making her feel worthless to the point of death. Literally. She miraculously survived many suicide attempts.
The problem was a lack of connection between her head and her heart. She knew in her head that it meant her salvation, and she was grateful for it. But as for what that sacrifice meant about her worth and God’s love—she just couldn’t feel it in those deep, soulful places. As a result, with the enemy’s lies about her deep wounds clawing at her, her life was precarious. She never knew when she would be spiralling down into the depths of despair again, ultimately ending in an attempt to take her own life.
One day (it still brings tears to my eyes), I got the most amazing email from her. She wrote to tell me this:
I feel prompted to tell you what I have just settled with the Lord. I am chosen and dearly loved. I was bought at a high price. Value and worth are determined by the price paid for them. Therefore I have great value. I am worthy because Jesus bought me for the value He sees in me. This is a message I am to bring to the people of God. A message I am to spread to the world. We are chosen and dearly loved.
Those deep, soulful parts were finally filled. The scales were finally off her eyes, and she could see. She has great value. Why? Because Jesus loves her, so much that He died for her. And if He was willing to give His life for her, then she has value. It’s that simple and yet that powerful. So she no longer tries to end her own life, because she realizes she is worth something. Nothing else changed in her life except for her understanding of what it means to be loved. Loved so much she was worth dying for. God’s love for her had moved from the place it held in her head, as a theological concept and truth, down into her soul to become something that was personally hers.
It’s like when you decorate a bedroom, and you have every item you need to make it complete—except for the lamp to go on your nightstand. You have found one, but it costs way more than you can afford. So you put it on layaway, pay your down payment and establish your payment plan. The lamp is technically yours once you have paid it off in full. But it isn’t in your home yet, so it doesn’t really feel like you own it. When you walk into the bedroom and scan the room, you try to picture the light on the nightstand, but because it’s just a picture in your head, it’s not the same. All you see is the empty spot where the light belongs, and it makes you long for it all the more.
And then comes the day when you make your final payment. It changes everything to see the light sitting in that once empty space, completing the room. It’s been yours since payment began, but now it feels like you own it because it’s where it belongs…where it was intended to be all along.
What’s so amazing about love? It is life-changing—life-saving. Remember 1 Corinthians 13:13? “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (NLT). My friend had faith. She kept hoping things would feel better. But things got better because of love, the greatest of the three. Ultimately, love is the greatest because God is love (1 John 4:16). It is a description of Him.
Reflect for a moment on your own life experiences or those of someone you know well. Can you think of a personal application that points to why faith and hope are important and valuable but love trumps them both? Maybe your experience isn’t as drastic as my friend’s. Maybe you haven’t been brought back from the brink of suicide because Jesus loves you. Or maybe you have. It’s far more common than most people believe. Because so many of us, even strong, seasoned believers, don’t truly grasp why love is the greatest…what it really means for our lives.
A Children’s Song Sums It Up
Lately I’ve been thinking that what is most important about the Christian faith is perfectly summed up in the first line of a popular children’s Sunday school song: “Jesus loves me, this
