LOVE & LIGHT

Tuesday 17 September

But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all—love]. 1 Corinthians 12:31 (AMPC)

In this verse, we see Apostle Paul speaking to the church at Corinth predominantly about the gifts of the spirit and the unity of the body. He brings these two concepts together adding in the 4 ascension ministry gifts (pastor/teacher are the same gift).

He then goes on to explain that agape love excels all of these graces and gifts and this is what I want us to explore further. What is agape? A self giving, self sacrificing kind of love. It is unselfish. We see this love in the attitude of the Father when he so loved (agapeo) the world, that He gave His only son…(John 3:16a).

How was this love demonstrated? By the Father offering Jesus upon the cross. This tells us something about God’s love. It is sacrificial by its very nature. To live like God therefore is to deprive yourself of good things for the benefit of others.

Jesus exampled this love that is spoken about in 1 Corinthians 9:8 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Faith, hope and love are listed at the end of chapter 13 and it tells us the greatest of these 3 is (agape) love. So why is it called ‘a more excellent way’? Because this kind of ‘love never fails.’ It is superior to, and beyond all measure of any other kind of love. Most people only understand conditional love. ‘I’ll love you if you love me back.’ God’s love excels or goes ‘above and beyond’ this entirely.

‘While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ His excellent love rose above our sin, our animosity, our sickness, our ignorance etc and lifted us above the debilitating factors of sin and death. He brought us out of darkness and into His marvellous light. That is light which exceeds natural power. God is love. God is light; showing us that God’s love and light are one and the same.

Do you know, the spiritual significance of love and light is manifested chiefly in the work of salvation? Jesus even called Himself ‘the light of the world’ and 1 John 4:8b declares ‘God is love’ (agape).

So salvation is the ultimate expression of God’s love and that love was sacrificial. Jesus said ‘he that tries to hold onto his life will lose it but he who loses his life for my sake will find it’. That’s the power of living the more excellent way.

APPLICATION

Study the 4 kinds of love: Phileo, Storge, Eros and particularly Agape to understand the way we ought to love others without condition and go above and beyond for those who don’t reciprocate, to love like Jesus.