1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
In September we launched a new memory verse for the church family, 2 Peter 1:5-8. Before that, two of our memory verses were the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-39) and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Look at parts of these verses and see if you can spot the theme:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart (Matt 22:36-39)
The fruit of the Spirit is love (Gal 5:22-23)
Make every effort to add to your faith…love (2 Peter 1:4-8)
See the trend? The greatest commandment that Jesus gives us begins with love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And the final (and probably greatest) quality we should add to our faith is love. Could God be saying something?!
As we focus on growing in maturity and character this year, a good measure of our growth is how we’re growing in love for God and for others. As followers of Jesus our lives are to be marked by love. Jesus teaches us that others will know that we’re his followers by the way we love one another (John 13:35).
Can others see the love of God growing in us? Can our friends and family see it in our lives? Can our coworkers see it in the way we treat others and go about our work? Can our neighbours see it in the way we live in our community? May the love of God and love for others be visible in us more and more in each step of our journey of maturity.