The Centrality of Christian Love to True Christian Spirituality

Consider a number of verses that speak of the importance of love for the Christian life:

Our love for God and for others flows from God’s own love…
1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us.

Love is more important than whether you are a Jew or a Gentile…
Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Love is the aim of the best Christian instruction…
1 Timothy 1:5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Love is a noticeable testimony to the world…
John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

It is at the end of a list that the Apostle Peter says is worth our every effort…
2 Peter 1:5-7 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

And finally, the verse that started this consideration of the life before us, Love is the greatest…
1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love is so great, that we should seek it from God at all times.

Though joy helps fuel Christian love, this does not mean that joy and love cannot coexist with grief and pain.

How is God glorified through Christian love in even the worst trials of life?

Tomorrow...