JUNE 5 – LOVE IS THE GREATEST!

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (I Corinthians 13:13).

If at all there is the sweetest word among all the words in the world, it is nothing but love. At the same time, you should also be able to understand what true love is. There is divine love and there is a false love too. There are so many kinds of love in the world such as the love of the parents, friends, brothers/sisters and husband/wife. True love remains great and Paul the Apostle points out that love is the greatest.

By nature, God has placed some love in the hearts of men. While some have the love of giving some others have the receiving love of receiving. A sweet love comes into a mother from somewhere, for her child. That love brings compassion in her through which she feeds the child. The love of some mothers looks astounding at times. Even when the child is an evil one or a murderer, the mother continues to love it.

Look at the mother cow! It searches for the younger one to feed. When it is unable to find the younger one, it makes a great noise that shakes the entire house. When the calf drinks milk shaking its tail, happiness prevails between both the mother cow and the calf. The mother cow will be licking the calf to express its love towards it. Even the dirt on the calf will not bring any hesitation to the cow in doing this. Love invites one to sacrifice.

Dear children of God, when He has placed so much love in a mother’s heart and a mother cow, imagine what great love He should be possessing in His heart. That is why the Scripture says that God is love. It is that divine love that came in search of you. It is the one which lifted you, washed you and cleansed you. It turned you into His children. It is because of that divine love, Jesus Christ descended to the earth as a slave. It is because of that love, He carried that heavy cross and presented Himself as the sacrifice.

When you go through the book of I Corinthians in the Scripture, you can find Paul the apostle placing the gifts of the Spirit in the 12th chapter and the ways of using them in the 14th chapter.  The love has been placed in full in the 13^th chapter which is in between.

Dear children of God, it is true that you need the gifts and powers. But it will be a blessing to you only when you put them to use with love.

To meditate: “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up” (I Corinthians 13:4).