Add This To Get The Most From Life

For true life, add the kind of love the Bible teaches!

“The Greatest of These is Love.”

The above words from Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13 grow more meaningful as I grow in Christ.

Faith is awesome! It is electrifying! It helps me feel alive and keeps me rooted in God’s word. But love is greater.

Hope! What can we say about it? It has helped countless people walk through this life in the roughest of times. It has brought light to hearts that would otherwise be full of darkness. But love is still better.

How can we quantify faith, hope, and love and come to the conclusion that one is better than the other? It’s not a matter of quantifying but of essence and timeframes.

First of all, our hope for Heaven and our hope to see God one day will vanish when we meet Him. Why would we yearn and long for Heaven if we are already there? Hope will be fulfilled, but love will continue. 

The same is true about faith. We now live by faith, not sight. But one day we will SEE God. Our faith will be fulfilled, but we will always have love. So love is better because of how much longer it will exist.

There is another reason love is superior. Love is better than faith or hope because God’s very nature is love. John wrote by the Holy Spirit in 1 John 4:7-8, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

When we show love, we are showing the essence of God’s character and nature.

Do you want to find God? Love.

Do you want to be like God? Love.

Do you want to show that God is living within you? LOVE.

There is no such thing as loving too much!

For You Nay-Sayers:

Oh, sure, I know that some will say that if you love someone too much you will cause pain, and that is true in a sense. But I’m going to get into a discussion of semantics here. IF we love in the PROPER FASHION then there is no such thing as loving “too much.”

In Galatians 5:23, Paul said that against love (among other things) there is no law. That simply means that God has not restricted us from showing as much love as we are capable of showing! There are no limits to this.

So in what sense can love be unhealthy?

I’m glad you asked! Love must be accurately defined by the Word of God, the Bible. In fact it is a much more complicated idea than most people seem to think.

In Romans 10:13 Paul stated that “love is the fulfillment of the law”. It’s said in the context of talking about all the laws that God has given to us to follow. The gist of the text tells us that when we obey the requirements of God, that is actually the way we show love to God and/or others.

Love By Any Other Definition...

So allow me to try to explain my thoughts here. If I do not treat a person the way God tells me to treat him, then that is not God’s definition of love. And I suppose we ought to admit that GOD’s definition is the only one that really counts. So while I might love my wife, if I am putting her above God, that action/priority is NOT showing her love. It is certainly not showing love to God.

So if you lose your mind and start stalking a girl because you “love” her, don’t blame me for the misery and trouble you’ll find in that pursuit. I said that you could never love “too much” but you can certainly warp love into something that is harmful to you and others.

Is that all semantics? Maybe so, but think about it for a bit and you’ll see the importance of it.

If you follow God’s word in how to treat others, how to treat yourself, and especially how to treat God, you will never find a problem with loving too much!

This Is A Biblical Concept!

Just to clarify that this is a biblical idea: Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:5-7 that (among other things) we should add love to our faith. If you look in verse 5 it says that we should do this “giving all diligence”. Diligence simply means haste or earnestness. “All” is self-explanatory. Peter said that we should devote ourselves to adding these spiritual elements to our faith—and one of those elements (in fact, the greatest) is love.

So do you want to live like never before? Great adventures in life await you when you embark on this journey! With all your gusto and might, add love to your character. Don’t hold back. Jesus came to show us how to truly LIVE—and He has shown us the best that life can offer. It all begins with deciding to love.

What do you think? Start the conversation below!