16 February, 2010
Pastor’s Pen
Rod Campbell, pastor of West Union and Mt Carmel Bapt. Ch.
The World’s Greatest Love Story!
The world’s greatest love story is the story of God loving His fallen creation and giving His Son to save the world. It is expressed in a well know verse, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus willing gave His life for our salvation. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” Jn. 15:13 Jesus has that greater love! The Apostle Paul would write about that love in his letters to the churches. Rm.5:7,8 “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
But there is even more to the story! Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we can not only be forgiven, be we can also have a new life! Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can have His love for others. Gal.5:22,23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” 1Jn.4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” You may ask; What does this love look like? The greatest description of this love is found in what many call the “love chapter” in 1Corinthians 13:1-13. May we know the love of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. May He produce His love in our hearts for others.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1Cor. 13:1-13 To God be all the glory. Amen.