The Greatest part 1
On of my motto's is "Go Big or Go Home." Because I'm of the opinion that if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. So when I think about things like 1 Corinthians 13:13, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity," I see something very important. Because while faith and hope are vitally important, the greatest of these--the greatest of ALL--is love. Let me say it another way, the way I've been saying it for years now, and the way I think I'm going to say it in my next "Jesus book." It's all about love. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, right? The beginning and the end? And God is love. So that means LOVE is the beginning and the end. And everything in between. So that's my focus. That's where my heart is. It's all about love. To live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other, and you can't do one without the other. It's the same thing. Carrie Underwood sings it like this, "What you got if you ain't got love? The kind that you just want to give away..." And I think that's what makes love the greatest. Because faith and hope are kind of building blocks to build yourself up with. (There's nothing wrong with that, at all. You need to find your strength in the thing, in the ONE, that faith and hope point to. Which is love.) But love isn't about what you get. It's about what you give. Look at what Jesus said in John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay his life down for his friends." And, listen, I get it. He was talking about physically dying both for us and as us. He was talking about the cross. Talking about what He was shortly going to do. And there have been martyrs that have physically done that. I would lay my actual physical life down for my son in a instant. Without a second thought. Because I have that kind of love for him. If it came down to, say, a car hitting me or a car hitting him...? You KNOW how that scenario is going to play out. He's not getting hit. But I also thing there is another level to what Jesus was saying. I think it's a little bit like when He told us to deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and follow Him. I don't think Jesus necessarily meant for us to stop being who we are. I think He was instructing us to take up our (HIS!) cross, and deny the old man that we had for so long believed we were. To stop dragging around that corpse and to start walking in newness of life. So when we're talking about the greatest love you can have for someone... laying your "life" down for them... I think maybe we're talking about Philippians 2:3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." The first is last and the last is first, right? The greatest is becoming the least. Not stepping on someone else so you can seem bigger, but laying down and lifting others up. Putting the needs and wants of someone else ahead of your own. Esteeming someone else better than yourself. And by "better" I don't think we mean, "I'm horrible and she's awesome." Right? Being humble doesn't mean thinking less of yourself. It simply means thinking of yourself less. "Better" in the sense of how it's better (or more blessed) to give than to receive. Taking care of others instead of that selfish attitude of taking care of yourself. Love is the greatest. Because it's not about getting, it's about giving. And giving yourself (laying down your life) for someone else, is the greatest love you can have. Sacrificial love is the greatest of the greatest!