June 15 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 13:9–13

Devotional

Faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love. Hope without love is a false hope. Even if hope points to Christ, our anchor of hope, if it is done without love, it is nothing more than a selfish desiring, a hope to gain something. Everything that takes place out of desire for gain has no value. Even if someone gives his body to be burned, and has not love, he has no value before God.

Love is the greatest. We can have much and still be nothing if we do not have love. If we let people hear our sweet tones and we speak of the hope of eternal life, but do not do it in love, then it is worthless before God. After all, the Lord asks for just one thing: love.

As soon as God’s Spirit starts to work in our lives, we start to love God, because love causes sin to grieve us, and in turn we submit to the God who can save us. Maybe someone says: “I wish I had faith,” or “I wish I had some hope.” Would it not be better to say: “I wish that I would have love”? Love believes all things. Love says, “Lord, it is true that I am worthy of hell before Thee.” By love a sinner is united to Christ. Love hopes all things. Even if we do not know how things will ever work out for us, and even if we are completely powerless as Jacob was at Peniel, we will still hope. We can say, “I will not let Thee go unless Thou dost bless me.” Without love we will be led to despair just as Judas was. But love stayed with Peter even in his fall. Peter was able to hope in the midst of his hopeless tears. Love allows us to hope.

The uncovered sinner will now say, “Then I am lacking love.” The nominal Christian is not so quickly alarmed when the necessity of love is pointed out. He presumes that he has love. He thinks it is normal that love exists and he can find lots of love in himself. But we must see ourselves in the mirror of God’s law. God’s law shows us that we indeed do lack love.

Even if we do not deny that this love is familiar to us, we still have to accuse ourselves daily because of our own lack of love. It is precisely love that teaches us to ask for love. For that love is a gift. It is a gift we all need badly.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.