The Importance of Love. 1Corinthians 13:1-3 Love is more important than any or all spiritual gifts. Love comes from God because it is the nature of God. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, not a gift of the Spirit. By its nature, love unifies, controls and makes gifts able to be of genuine and useful service. The only way we can love as God intends is through the power of the indwelling holy Spirit. It is hard to love as God wants us to because it only happens when we are truly dependent on Him to do for us and through us that which we cannot do ourselves. The objects of our love are often quite unlovable and may even reject love when it is given. Even then, we are to come back with more love.
Faith is the basis on which the message of God's redeeming grace is built. Hope is the attitude that focuses our attention on the point of the message of salvation and the reason why we preach the Gospel. Love is how the basis of the message and the point of the message finds their way into the hearts and minds of those who hear. It is the action that produces the result God desires. Love is the selfless concern for others and their welfare. “God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
There was a misunderstanding of love in the morally corrupt Corinthian society that was still among the believers in that assembly. The saints at Corinth had the needed gifts but they weren't working because something essential was missing - love. This chapter is not a sentimental hymn or song of love to be only thought about and read at weddings. This is the lifeblood of the Body of Christ. Love is what makes the gifts work. It gives value and real meaning to what a person does with the gift he or she has been given. The use of every gift will not be effective without love in its true "agape" form is evident. Faith, dedication, sacrifice, and power produce very little that is lasting unless there is love as its motivation. Without it, irritation, anger, and even division may result from the use of one's gift in the energy of the flesh.
The love of God flowing through the gifted person who is in fellowship with God can reach into every area of assembly life and fill in all those empty spaces where there is needed grace. The enriching power of the love of God can strengthen and bind up the saints who are weak and bring into control those vigorous ones who are prone to push ahead by the power of their own personalities and act without divine guidance. That same love builds up the Lord's people in their faith when by its proper use it leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ and makes our labor a work of love rather than a duty. It will keep us from finding satisfaction in another person's discomfort but rather helps us to empathize with others in an appropriate manner. When every other effort fails or finally runs its course, love will remain and by means of the unity of God's people and the understanding of the value of diversity of gifts, maturity will come and be maintained by means of divine love working through the divine nature God gives to His people.
Love for others (Rom.5.7,8; 1Jn.4.9,10; 4.12), is expressed in a variety of words. Four words are used in the New Testament for love… Storge: Natural affection between mother and child. Philia: Affection between friends. Eros: Strong attraction; especially sexual love. Agape: Extreme love that gives unselfishly for the benefit of another person. The best possible love we can get is God's kind of love (agape). Most love is based on personal desirability: looks, approval, money, and the happiness we receive. The only kind of love that loves us "as is," is agape love. God is the only source of this kind of love. He demonstrates His love---- "...in that Christ died for us." For whom would you die? God has loved us in spite of everything. The main point is not how God feels but what God does. He treats us right even if we treat Him wrong.
The best possible love we can give is to love God supremely; love others the way God loves us and love them whether they want to be loved or not. People can't see God but they can see the love of God in us when we behave like God. It confirms our Christian faith in a tangible way. Loving one another is the greatest single evidence that a person is a Christian. (Jn.13.34-35) To get it: read about it in the Bible, meditate about it with God, quit trying to impress God, pray and thank God for His love, allow God to love you, and value the love of God in your life. "NOW ABIDE FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE; AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE."