This love is eternal. This is what William Penn (1644-1718) meant when he prayed: "Life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only an horizon, and an horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further, cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly, and draw us closer to yourself that we may know ourselves to be nearer to our loved ones who are with you."

Love never fails - it is a comfort and strength when we are threatened with the evils of life: despondency, terror, anxiety, and uncertainty. Love is the spring in the desert which never fails, which can be relied upon to sustain you. When this love is expressed it never fails the test, it never runs out, it can be relied upon. When mothers and grandmothers love, their love never fails.

To illustrate love's permanence Paul contrasts it with three gifts prized most highly by the Corinthians. Prophecy is a clear word from God uttered under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by prophets and preachers. It is extremely valuable. We all need to hear the Word of God. Yet prophecies will cease when we are ushered into the presence of God. Prophecy will no longer be necessary.

The same can be said of the gift of tongues. They will one day be stilled. There will be no need of a prayer or evangelistic language to communicate with God or about the wonders of God when you are in his immediate presence. The gift of tongues can be a private ecstatic experience. The gift of love is meant to help us relate to others. Love is the true and fullest manifestation of the Spirit's power. Jesus said, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35)

The gift of words of knowledge will pass away. In heaven our knowledge will be of no value. When we are with God and know him who is love, we will not need the gift of knowledge for we shall be experiencing reality. Love is greater than all other achievements. Love never fails when the value of other achievements fades. All accumulated knowledge will be unnecessary, out-of-date and redundant. No amount of talent which we may prize in this life, which the world values and rewards, can compare with love.

Love is superior to prophecies, tongues and knowledge. They are partial, and love is perfection. Even the most sophisticated knowledge we attain on earth is partial. The more we learn, the more we recognize how little we know. It is the same with prophecy. God reveals to us only those things we need to know. In this life we never have a complete understanding of his will. But one day we will enter into a fuller revelation - "when perfection comes." This is the goal and aim of all human experience. It is the end of all things, the fulfillment of God's purpose for us and the universe. When that happens and God's will is perfectly done, then all this world's partial achievements will fall away, inconsequential before God's final order.

The same point can be made in the contrast between childhood and adulthood. "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." The way a child thinks is contrasted with the way an adult thinks. When he matured he repudiated his childishness. The contrast is between this life and the next. Certain things valuable in this life have no place in the next. Some things remain permanently valuable.

To underline his reasoning he changes to the subject of vision. Our vision here and now is partial. It is very much like looking at things in a mirror. Mirrors in those days were normally made of polished metal. They gave only a poor reflection. In such a mirror you could only see obscurely, in a distorted fashion. At best we see a reflection. We do not see accurately. But when the Lord returns for us and ushers in the new creation, we will see clearly, as face to face. Our vision will be perfect.

In other words, in the present age our knowledge is partial. It is part of life that we struggle to attain more complete knowledge by the slow and laborious processes of learning. But we never attain complete knowledge in this life. In the age to come it will be different. We shall know as we have been fully known by God. God's knowledge of us is complete. There is nothing about us that God does not know.

The apostle John epitomized this never-failing love. He became known as the "apostle of love." When he wrote his Gospel he referred to himself in the third-person as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," (13:23; 19:26; 20:7,20) in the Upper Room, at the foot of the Cross, at the empty tomb, and in Galilee after the resurrection. When he wrote his first epistle he described love as the central feature of God and Christian believers: "Dear friends, let us love one another, love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:7,8) Like Paul, he contrasted such love with the passing attractions of this life: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him....The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." (1 John 2:15,17)

There is much in this world to love. It is so easy to be seduced by the spirit of the world into desiring those things which promise satisfaction, but in reality are ephemeral. Too many times we can choose to put our preoccupations before our relationships. We can become obsessed with the tasks, with the activities, that feed our egos. Our goals can control us. In life we make choices about what we value. We choose what is most important to us. We can choose to love the world and its desires, but it will pass away. Jesus came that we might receive God's love, and learn to love one another as he loved us. This love will never fail. It will never pass away. Choose love - the love of God - the love of others - the love of Christ. It alone is permanent.

Prayers:

O Love most powerful, strengthen me. O Love most sweet, let me taste of your goodness. O Love most dear, let me live for you alone. O Love most faithful, comfort and support me. O Love most companionable, accompany all my deeds. O Love most victorious, persevere with me to the end, for your own name's sake. (Gertrude of Helfta 1256-1302)

Let me walk in the way you love, O God. Let me love you for yourself. Let me love you in all things. Let me taste the sweetness of your love and let it work its beauty in me, until I love with that divine love with which you love me; through Christ our Lord. (Gertrude More 1606-33)

Lord, fill us with the joy of your great love; let our minds meditate on it, let our tongues speak of it, let our hearts love it, let our minds preach it, let our souls hunger for it, and let our whole being desire it, until we enter into your glory and see you face to face. (Anselm of Canterbury 1033-1109)

(I am indebted to Leon Morris, Testaments of Love: A Study of Love in the Bible, for material used in this presentation.)