Love

July 27th, 2026
by Gary Cheaney

The Greatest Thing We Cannot Produce on Our Own

SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 13:13 CSB - Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love -- but the greatest of these is love.

OBSERVATION:
As we conclude the month of “Love,” as the world and commercialism tell us, we realize that the love we are told to celebrate is a partial love… it is love, but not love in its fullest. We quickly realize that in the English language we have one word for love… Love!

I can love my dog, ice cream (I do love ice cream!), and my wife… Do I love them the same? I hope not! No, I love my dog, but not the way I love my wife. And don’t I love ice cream the way I love my dog (I won’t eat my dog, no matter how good she tastes)?

In Greek, there are four words used to describe love:
Eros - Erotic love, referring to sexual love.
Storge – Family love: love between parent and child, or among family members.
Philia – Brotherly friendship. A deep friendship and partnership. The highest love a person can attain without God’s help.
Agape – Love that loves without changing. Unconditional Love.

Agape is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting repayment. It is a love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given. It gives because it loves; it does not love in order to receive. According to Alan Redpath, we get our English word "agony" from "agape". ‘It means the actual absorption of our being in one great passion.’ (Redpath) Strictly speaking, agape can’t be defined as “God’s love,” because men are said to agape sin and the world (John 3:19 and 1 John 2:15). But it can be defined as a sacrificial, giving, absorbing kind of love. The word has little to do with emotion; it has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another.” – David Guzik.

Paul is telling us that Love is the most important thing… so pursue it… learn it… live it…

APPLICATION:

The three great pursuits of the Christian life are not “miracles, power, and gifts”; they are faith, hope, and love. Though the gifts are precious and given by the Holy Spirit today, they were never meant to be the focus or goal of our Christian lives. Instead, we pursue faith, hope, and love. – David Guzik.

Paul tells us that the greatest is love… it is one of the three that will “remain.” Faith and hope are needed for us today. We need to have faith in Jesus that His promises are true, and we have the hope that one day we will see Jesus face to face. When that day comes… we will no longer need faith and hope… we won’t need them in heaven, for we will have reached the very thing for which we had faith and hope. But love will always remain, because it is the very nature and character of God… For God so LOVED…

If love does not remain… There would be no heaven, no faith, and no hope. God is love!

Today, let us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, pursue faith, hope, and love… Let our love be the Love of God… Agape… It’s a love we CANNOT produce, yet its results are fruit we cannot live without. The blessing of Agape Love is that it completes the other three forms of love. Pursue love today!

PRAYER
Jesus, help me love the way You love. I am incapable of it without You. I can only love so far… and it’s not enough. Your love is what endures.

Faith and hope carry us through this life, but only agape love — God's self-giving, unconditional love — endures into eternity and is the one thing worth pursuing above all else.

Posted in 07 - 1 Corinthians