As the Apostle Paul wrote about “spiritual gifts” to the believers in Corinth, the Spirit of God moved him to explain that while there are various spiritual gifts that God gives to His people to fulfill the work He has called us to do, the greatest gift of all is LOVE!! In I Corinthians 13 he writes that without love, “I am nothing,” and without love, “I gain nothing!” (I Corinthians 13:2-3). He then gives a brief definition of love by explaining what love does and what it doesn’t do. And finally, he declares, “So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love!” (I Corinthians 13:13).
It could be said that throughout the New Testament, including the Gospels, the Spirit speaks through the writers of the importance of love for God and love for one another. However, it is important to realize that these letters were written to believers, to the followers of Jesus Christ. The “love” God speaks of is more than a feeling, a mere emotion that comes and goes. “LOVE,” as a spiritual gift, is deeper, grander, more magnificent, more miraculous than most imagine. Truly, this love is an action, an ability given to those who are born again by the Spirit and who thus believe in Jesus Christ.
Throughout the months of summer, 2018, we will study God’s Word together in order to understand what the spiritual gift of LOVE is, and what it is not! The world around us has made a “god” out of some generic idea of “love,” much as the ancient Greeks did out of “wisdom.” In so doing, people have substituted a counterfeit “love” for the real thing.
What IS “love?” Join us this summer to hear what GOD says about the greatest spiritual gift anyone can ever receive!!