Have you ever bought a product with a label boasting a 100 percent money-back lifetime guarantee? If so, you know you can flip the packaging over, and in the world’s smallest font, you discover the many limits on the warranty. In most cases, it does not truly have a lifetime guarantee. Gratefully, God's love is not packaged that way.
God’s love is like no other, a fact we find spelled out for us in glorious detail by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. I wrote about 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 and how Jesus displays the perfect picture of love in a blog post that you can read here. Today, though, I want us to look at the second half of this chapter, where we find guarantees that reveal why we can count on the love of God.
Let’s read the passage before diving in:
“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.” 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
The first thing we notice in this section of Scripture is that God’s love is eternally permanent. God promises through Paul that His love never ends. We know this to be true because John tells us in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. And since God lasts forever, His attributes last forever. Human institutions will fail us. Leaders and loved ones will let us down. Our own abilities and capacities will wane as we grow older. This is why our confidence must be in the unfailing, unending, eternal love of God.
Paul also teaches us that God's love is eternally preeminent. It is interesting that as Paul speaks of how long love lasts, he does not contrast it with evil. Because we know there will be no more death, disease, or devastation in heaven, Paul could have highlighted that while God's love will last forever, wickedness and sin will not. Instead, he brings up spiritual gifts. Why gifts?
Paul was writing to a group of believers who struggled with being spiritually arrogant. Here, he gives them another reason not to get puffed up over these spiritual gifts–they have an expiration date. While spiritual gifts are wonderful and useful now, the Lord will return one day, set up His eternal kingdom, and all will be perfect. Our spiritual gifts will no longer be needed. Love is preeminent over spiritual gifts because love is permanent. Therefore, all that we do with our gifts must be rooted in and motivated by love.
Paul closes this portion of Scripture with a deeply encouraging truth using the analogy of a mirror. He teaches us that love is eternally personal. Mirrors in the first century were not made of glass like they are today. They were made of polished metal, most likely silver, making them dim and blurry. Thinking of this kind of mirror, Paul says he sees God's plan and His love, but he cannot yet see them clearly. But on the day he sees God face to face, he will know God and His eternal love.
Why is this truth life-changing? Notice how Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "I have been fully known." When we stand before the Lord one day, we will not have to worry if we are good enough. We will not have to fret over if we have accomplished enough to be loved by Him. We also will not have to impress Him with our spiritual gifts. Remember, Paul says these gifts are not even needed in eternity. God knew us before we could fully know Him. He loved us before we chose to love Him. And when we stand before Him one day, we will finally fully grasp just how amazing His love is.
You may or may not be a Southern gospel fan, but many years ago, a quartet of gospel singers called the Florida Boys made a song famous. The chorus of the song went like this:
He knew me, yet He loved me,
He whose glory makes the heaven shine.
So unworthy of such mercy,
Yet when He was on the cross, I was on his mind.
The truth in this chorus shapes my view of the love of God. Loving God does not start with me loving Him. It started with God loving me, and His love lasts forever.
Paul ends this passage with the declaration, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Why is love greater than faith and hope? Stop and consider when we get to heaven. On that day, our faith will become sight. On that day, our hope will be our reality. But God’s love for us will never change or end. Our faith gets us there, and our hope keeps us going until we get there. But love rules both today and forever, and His love never ends.
We can count on the love of God. It is eternally permanent, eternally preeminent, and eternally personal. May we accept His love, depend on His love, and pour out His love on others.