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Value, Virtues and Victory of Love

Overcoming the giants in your lives

2 Aug 2009  The Greatest is Love- Value, Virtues and Victory of Love

THE GREATEST IS LOVE

Love is important in the child of God.

Let us look at:

·      Value of love

·      Virtue of Love

·      Victory of Love

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Value of love

We need to have a correct perspective of what love entails. It is more than words. It is quality and not quantity. Making sound is a manifestation of our tongues- but if it is not coupled with the agape love of God- it does not benefit others.

The Holy Spirit endows us with special gifts – sometimes to explain and expound and at other times revelation knowledge- but if there is no love- it is nothing.

At other times, we see charities and charitable organizations move in times of crisis, tragedies, earthquakes, tsunamis. There is such an outpouring of sympathy, donations and contributions of assistance, country to country, people to people..etc. They do it for different reasons be it political, fame, financial, religious or other ulterior motives ( sometimes for the wrong reasons). If it is not motivated by agape love that transcends all boundaries and divides, it is nothing.

1 Cor 13:1-3

¹If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

Virtue of Love

We learn about the good qualities of love- for love is of God. . Start with faith and end with love.

Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Without faith you can not please God. Faith, Hope and Love- the greatest is love.

Unbelief may invade and blind the minds of many- as the god of the world( Satan) take hold of their lives. They never come to the knowledge of the truth- they hear but allow unbelief and doubts to take hold. For us in Christ, we must walk by faith look forward to the glorious hope that Jesus will return to earth to set up His Kingdom of peace and righteousness. Faith is the source of true joy.

Nothing is more important than responding to the cry for love  from those who are near  and precious to us. We may be relatively successfully in giving and receiving love, but love also calls for more- endurance in trying times- loss of faith in our Christian walk, failure as parents or head of the household- we need extraordinary strength of endurance. We need to let the heart prevails over the head – and true love will endure wherein lies the true beauty of God’s love .

1 Cor 13:4-7

 ⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Victory of Love

We are to pursue and go after Love. Start by loving one another- for love comes from God and God is love. He first loves us. The love of God is demonstrated through Jesus’s laying down of his life on the cross- the atoning sacrifice that takes away our sins. Come to the Father through Jesus. Allow space and give room in your heart for God’s love to mature and be make complete in your life.

1 Cor 13:8-13

 ⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 ¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Matt 9:29

 ²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you";

1 John 4:7

 ⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son^[b] into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for^[c] our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.