1 Corinthians 13:13—The greatest of these is love. (R.V.)
What a light must have shone on the apostle’s face as he broke into this exquisite idyll, this perfect poem of love! The change in tone and rhythm must have caused his amanuensis to look suddenly up into his master’s face, and lo! it was as the face of an angel. Why is love greatest?
Because it is the crown of the other two, and includes them.—Faith is the root; hope is the stem; love the perfect flower. You may have faith without hope, and hope without love; but you cannot have love apart from faith and hope.
Because it is likest God.—God’s nature is not specially characterised by faith, because there is no uncertainty with his perfect knowledge; nor by hope, because there is no future to his eternal existence. But God is love; and to love is to resemble Him.
Because it will immeasurably outlast the other two.—Human knowledge, at best but the spellings of babes, will vanish in the perfect light of heaven. Eloquence will seem like the lispings of infancy. Prophecies will have no place, because all the landscape of the future will be revealed. Faith and hope will be lost in realization. Love only is for ever.
Because love brings the purest rapture.—"Where is heaven?" asked a wealthy Christian of his minister. "I will tell you where it is," was the quick reply "if you will go to the store, and buy £10 worth of provisions and necessaries, and take them to that poor widow on the hillside, who has three of her children sick. She is poor, and a member of the Church. Take a nurse, and some one to cook the food. When you get there, read the twenty-third Psalm, and kneel by her side and pray. Then you will find out where heaven is."