The Greatest of These

1 Corinthians 13:13

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Alice in Wonderland is confused when Humpty Dumpty uses a word to make it mean many things. Alice remarked: "That's a great deal to make one word mean." Love in the English language is one of those overloaded words. It carries on its back the freight of a multitude of meanings. It is so ambiguous that it can mean anything from altruism to eroticism. Below I hope to show the distinctive nature of biblical love.

I. Definition of Love

In a biblical sense, the term love has a precise and profound meaning. Three words are used in the New Testament to convey the meaning of love: storge, philia, and agape. Eros — which had come to have sexual connotations in Jesus' day — is not used by New Testament writers. Generally philia has to do with affection between friends; storge relates to love in family relations; but agape has a unique meaning.

Jesus took this ancient, colorless term to the laundry, cleaned it up and filled it with new content. While Jesus nowhere defined love, it appears Godward to mean trust, worship, and obedience to God. On the human side it means to will the well-being of all of God's creatures and his creation. Agape is not merely liking someone. It is not a sentimental love; it is a matter of the will and therefore can be commanded.

Love is the central ethical motif in both Old and New Testaments. Love is the "higher way" or more excellent way (I Cor. 12:31). The Christian life is summed up in Paul's statement: "faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6). It is greater than faith and hope (I Cor. 13:13). In the consummation of The Kingdom of God love abides, for God is love.

Jesus, then, gave love a new and distinctive meaning. It means to will the well-being of the other. This involves, among other things, the other's health, and happiness; a recognition of the dignity and worth of the other; the granting of the basic rights of the other. Without this sort of content and conduct love is an abstraction. This is why love always needs defining from the Christian perspective. A. C. Craig puts it: "The word 'love' always needs a dictionary and for the Christian the dictionary is Christ. He took this chameleon of a word and gave it a fast colour, so that every since it has been lustred by his life and teaching, and dyed in the crimson of Calvary, and shot through with the sunlight of Easter morning." (The Sacramental Table, p. 50.)

II. Dimensions of Love

Agapeic love has dimensions that encompass all of the Christian's life and values. It is existential and concrete. One has only as much agape as one practices in relation to others. Paul tells us to "Practice the truth in love" (Eph. 4:15).