Chaplain’s Corner – Greatest of These

Jul3

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge
of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:3-7).

We started this series on Godliness several weeks ago, looking at Peter’s instructions about growing in our godly life. We are instructed to make every effort to add certain character attributes to the foundation of our faith so as to participate in God’s divine nature.

If you have worked your way through these past few Chaplain’s Corner devotionals, you might feel fairly proud of yourself, and that is okay. (It is okay to take pride in what God is doing in your life, as long as you give God the credit.)

And then we top it all off with making “every effort to add…love.” Love is a tricky word. We overuse it, applying the feeling of love to things that are inanimate and fleeting, such as chocolate (guilty!). Love as a feeling can be so fickle—one day I “love” my neighbor, and another day not so much. The best way to sort this out is to realize that “love” is a verb. It is an action. Feelings can be fickle; but with the fruit of the spirit—self-control—I can take responsibility for my actions.

Back in 2019, I did a series of devotions on 1 Corinthians 13, sometimes called the “Love Chapter.” Below are links to those devotions which explain this marvelous teaching on what it means to love. I hope you will take some time to read them.

When Paul writes that the greatest of these is love, he is not saying that love is more monumental or more important than faith or hope. What he is trying to get across is that love is transcendent. Other attributes such as faith and hope will be answered and resolved by our death and subsequent entry into heaven. But love will transcend death into eternity. John Piper says, “…in this present life, every relationship of love, and faithfulness, and loyalty, and sacrifice, and care will be celebrated for all eternity in tribute to the grace of God and the faithfulness of his obedient child. The ‘well done, good and faithful servant’ that Jesus speaks to his faithful followers at the resurrection is a well done in every fruitful relationship. Well done for that beautiful love. Well done.”

Love is eternal: “Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless…. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10, 13 – NLT).

In Christ,

Judy

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