Love part 8
Eternity Online: John Edmiston (Editor)
Eternity-Inspiration for Wednesday 15th October 1997
Love Part Eight
(1 Corinthians 13:11-13 NRSV) When I was a child, I spoke like a
child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became
an adult, I put an end to childish ways. {12} For now we see in a
mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in
part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. {13}
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of
these is love.
Love is the final mature outcome. It is not a "childish thing". It is
not childish preoccupation with self. It is the ability to think of
others, to put yourself in their shoes, to give to them and to
conside their best interests. A child is provided for and recieves. A
person mature in love gives and gives yet more. Spiritual gifts are,
in a way, "childish things". They are not "toys", they are wonderful,
but they belong to this life and not to eternity.
Love is based on your ability to know the beloved. You cannot love
what you do not know and intimacy in knowledge and intimacy in love
are close companions. "Adam knew Eve and she conceived and bore a
son..". Love will be mature when we know fully as we are fully known.
In eternity we will have no need of masks. It will be safe to be
fully known for no rapacious or dishoneat person will be there . We
shall finally be fully understood.
Three things abide, faith, hope and love. How does faith abide when
we can see God? Because we will still have to trust Him as He moves
to complete His plans and purposes throughout all eternity. The
martyrs under the altar have to trust God as they cry out to Hm
still. (Rev 6:9-11) God will still have plans that we can hope in and
be a God that we can love. Love will be the melody of heaven, the
tune to which faith and hope sing. In that way it is the greatest of
the three.
Prayer:
Father in Heaven, You are gracious to us who once were far from you
and far from love of any sort. All we knew were love's reflections
and pale distortions. Bring into our hearts the eternal reality of
true love that we may be restored into the truth of God and grow
into beloved images of Your Son Jesus. Amen.
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