Now in the early days of the
New Testament church, before the scriptures were complete,
the Old Testament was written. But before the Lord used the
apostles to write the New Testament, the Lord gave to his disciples
and some of the early Christians, chosen special men. God gave
them great and unusual gifts. The ability to work miracles. They spoke the gospel in other
languages. They laid hands on the sick and
they recovered. Paul raised the dead. And God gave them these special
gifts that people might know that they were sent by God. It's like Nicodemus said about
the Lord Jesus. You know, there are several witnesses.
The Father bore witness to who Christ is. John the Baptist,
the last of the Old Testament prophets, the forerunner, bore
witness to who Christ is. The scriptures bear witness to
who Christ is and the works that he did. As Nicodemus said, no
man could do these miracles except God be with him. And when John
the Baptist from prison sent two of his disciples to the Lord
and said, are you the Christ? Are you the one for whom we look?
He told the disciples to go back and tell John how the blind see,
and the lame walk, and the deaf hear, and the poor have the gospel
preached to them. Believe these signs. And so God
gave to these early disciples, before the scriptures were complete,
He gave them these gifts. Now, you read about them in Mark
chapter 16. And these were credentials. These
men went forth with Old Testament Scriptures only. You and I go
forth to preach the Gospel with the completed Scriptures, Old
and New Testament, the Gospels, the Epistles. And here in Mark
16, our Lord said to His disciples in verse 15, Mark 16, 15, He
said to them, Go ye into all the world. Even when men don't
have the Old Testament scriptures, the world, Philippi, Macedonia,
Archaea, these other nations, where they don't even have Moses
in the prophet. You go to all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall
be damned. And these signs, signs, miracles, works, evidences. She'll follow them that believe
in my name, they'll cast out devils, they'll speak with new
tongues, take up serpents. Like Paul, when he put the wood
on the fire and that snake latched onto his hand, he just shook
it off in the fire and they stood there and waited on him to die.
And he didn't die. They said, this man's from God.
It's a sign. Paul couldn't whip out a New
Testament and say, thus saith the Lord. Wouldn't have done
him any good to whip out Isaiah either because he didn't even
know who Isaiah was. But God gave him signs. You see
that? Take up serpents and drink any
deadly thing and not hurt them. Don't you try it. Now don't you
try it, and don't you listen to anybody who does try it. They
lay hands on the sick and they'll recover. And one other passage,
Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Let's look at verses 1 through 4. Hebrews 2. Now listen carefully. Therefore
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word
spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation to hear the word, believe the
word which at first began to be spoken by our Lord and was
confirmed unto us by them that heard him, by Peter, James, John,
Nathanael, Philip, Luke, Look at verse 4 now, God also bearing
them witness. What does that mean? God says
these men are for me. I'm sending these men. Here are
these men. Christ, God spoke to the prophets,
that's in these last days spoken to us by His Son, and confirmed
what His Son said by the witness of them that heard Him. Now God
bears witness to them. Listen, how? God bearing these
men witness, these apostles, both with signs and wonders and
with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to
his own will. Now these gifts are not necessary
today. They're not needed today. I have only one way to prove
to you that God sent me, and that's tell the truth from this
scripture, the truth about God. That's all. You're sitting there
holding a Bible, checking to see if what I'm saying
is according to the Word. That's all the evidence you need.
That's all the evidence you need. Gifts are not necessary. And
that's the truest evidence and the only evidence that we need
that God is with us and that we seek the good of our heroes.
Open your Bibles now to 1 Corinthians. I want you to look first at chapter
14. One scripture in chapter 14.
I've been using the word sign. God bearing them witness with
signs and miracles. Our Lord said His disciples that
these signs shall follow them. Who needs a sign? Who needs a sign? Unbelievers. Unbelievers need signs. They
said, show us a sign. He said, no sign will be given
but that of the Word. But now watch this. In 1 Corinthians
14, verse 22. Wherefore tongues are for a sign,
not to them that believe. The believer doesn't need a sign.
All he needs is a scripture. But tongues are a sign to them
that believe not. You see, that's the Lord gave
his disciples. the gifts, the miracles, because
they didn't have the completed scripture. And these gifts and
miracles and wonders and signs bore witness to the fact that
they spoke for God. John the Baptist, though, did
no miracle. He did no miracle. He never spoke
in tongue, and he did no miracle. See, God does this as he will.
Now, 1 Corinthians, I've got to read chapter 12, just a little
bit of it. You be patient and look at chapter
12. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth concerning these miracles
and these signs and these wonders. Now you can be sure that what
God gives, Satan is going to try to imitate and counterfeit. And what God gives, the true,
the precious, men are going to abuse. They did. They abused
these gifts. They just abused them something
terrible. And so Paul is writing to this
church about these gifts, the use of them, the abuse of them,
the proper use of them, the glory of them, and so forth. In 1 Corinthians
12, 4, listen. Now there are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administration,
but the same Lord. They're diversities of operation,
but the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation
of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. To one
is given the word of wisdom. All men did not have the same
gifts even back then. To one, the word of wisdom. To
another, the gift, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.
To another, unusual faith. To another, the gift of healing
by the same Spirit. To another, the working of miracles.
To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of spirits.
To another, diverse kinds of languages of tongues. To another,
the interpretation of tongues. See, these gifts were distributed
among God's people for His glory and the good of the Church. But
all these worketh that one and selfsame Spirit dividing to every
man severally as He will. Turn to the last two or three
verses of chapter 12 before I get into my text. Verse 27 says this. Now, in closing
this chapter, Paul says this, in verse 27, chapter 12, Now
you are the body of Christ, and members in particular, one of
another. And God hath sent some in the
church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, Thirdly, teachers. After that, miracles. Then gifts
of healing and health and governments and diversities of tongues. Are
all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Are all
workers of miracles? No. Do all have the gift of healing? No. Do all speak with tongues?
No. Do all interpret? No. But, he
says, covet earnestly the best gifts. Why? For the glory of
God, for the good of the church, for the good of God's people.
And yet, now watch this, and yet, I'm going to show you something
even better. I'm going to show you a more
excellent way, something better than gifts, tongues, healing,
miracles, I'm going to show you something better, a more excellent
way. And that is love. And this love
we're talking about is the love of Christ. For us, it's our love
for Him, it's our love for one another. Now this I noticed when
I was studying this twelfth chapter. These gifts, and there's so much
said about them today and so many people interested in them
today, but these gifts were distributed among godly men. One had one
gift, one had another, one had another gift. But what I'm going
to talk about this morning, what Paul says is a more excellent
way, is a grace and a gift that belongs to everybody. In other words, here's a man
in the early church that may speak with other tongues. Most
of the rest of us couldn't. But this grace that is better
than tongues, we all have. Secondly, these gifts were temporary. He said over there, remember
in verse 8, he said, whether there be prophecies, they'll
fail. Whether there be tongues, they'll cease. where there's
unusual knowledge, it's going to be revealed someday to be
child's play. But this gift, love, this gift
is the very presence of Christ and endures forever. Tongues
will cease, prophecies vanish, knowledge superseded, but love
never changes. I want this gift. It never changes.
Alright, thirdly, no matter how poor I might be in other gifts, no matter how poor I might be
in other gifts, and I wouldn't be too poor because John didn't
have any. John the Baptist. Christ, he's
the greatest man that's ever come from a woman's womb. And
he didn't speak in tongues. And he didn't heal any sick people.
Not any. John, the scripture says, did
no miracle. No matter how poor I am in all
these gifts, I can be rich in this grace, the more excellent one. And I'll
tell you this, and we're going to read verse 1 through 3 now
in a moment, but I want to practice it with this. This grace, when
Paul says he takes all these gifts and knowledge and so forth,
and he said, that's fine. That's fine. If you can covet
it for the proper reason, if you can covet the gift of knowledge
and prophecy and preaching and whatever for the glory of God,
that's fine. But I'm going to show you something
better. And it's so essential, it's so much better, listen,
it's so much better that without this, All that's useless. Without this love, all of that,
gifts and powers and miracles and healing and all of these
things is useless. That's strong language. But now
you watch how chapter 13 begins. He's just been talking in chapter
12 about these gifts, tongues and so forth. Then he says, Though
I speak. And he did. He spoke with tongues
more than all of them. Though I speak with the tongues
of men. If I could preach in every language
known to me, if I could go to Russia, or go to Mexico, or go
to Africa, and I could speak in French, Spanish, or Russian,
and even speak in the language of angels, But if I do not love Christ,
if I do not have love, love for Christ, love for Him, His love
for me, and love for His people, all of that heavenly language, and they call
it heavenly language, is nothing but a sounding gong and a tinkling
cymbal, and those two things are irritating to the ears. a
noisy gong, and a tinkling cymbal. That's irritating. And that's
what he's saying. I may do all of this. Look at
the next verse, how strongly he puts it. And though I have
the gift of prophecy, and everybody's interested in this today. Prophecy. The millennium, the Armageddon. And have the gift of prophecy,
and understand these mysteries. And I have all knowledge or intellect,
and there's a lot of emphasis placed on that today. There's a lot of places that
they won't let you be the pastor unless you've got a doctorate
from some seminary. Knowledge, intellect. And though
I have all faith, whatever faith it is, not saving faith, I know
that, this is that positive mental attitude. Mind over matter. that can accomplish, it can accomplish
some things. Because this brain, this mind
of man has never, we haven't touched the hem of the garment
yet, this computer room up here. And once in a while there's a
little of the majesty of it and the power of it that leaks out. Like that little boy that the
woman felt sorry for and adopted her. Like Reader's Digest was
talking, they brought him into the home. He couldn't speak. They thought he didn't. He said
he had real problems. And she played a concerto on
the stereo. And they went to bed, and that
night she heard piano music. She got up, he's down there playing
that thing. What he had heard on that, he
was playing. Of course, that's awesome. And
they put him on demonstration, and somebody says he's memorizing
these things. And so they gave him a sheet
of music he had never heard. They played a tune for him that
he'd never heard, didn't ever know before. They played this
tune for him, and they put a wrong note in it. He played it just
like he heard it, even with the wrong notes. He could hear it. And these people may have some
kind of faith, mind over matter, or ability to do things that
are unusual, move mountains, but it doesn't matter. If I have
not love, I'm nothing. Isn't that strong? I'm nothing. Look at verse 3. And though I
bestow my goods to feed the poor. You say, why would a fellow do
that? Well, I don't know why Dan and I do it. God killed him. A man may do that for recognition. He may do it to establish a righteousness. He may do it to gain credit in
heaven. It's like somebody said one time,
they're building a mansion for you up there on the materials
you send up. Maybe he thinks that. I don't know, but give
my goods to feed the poor, and do I give my body to be burned
as a martyr? Like during the 60s when those
fellas would cover themselves with gasoline and set themselves
on fire. Give my body to be burned for a cause, a religious cause.
And I do not have love. The love of Christ, love for
Christ, and the love of God, it profits me nothing. It profits me nothing. If I have,
and I realize these are strong statements, but they're the Word
of God. It's what God gave the Apostle Paul, and he's saying
these gifts and knowledge and intellect and miracles and all
that, they serve their day, they're all right in their place, but
more excellent way is love. Love. If I have Christ and His
love, I have everything. If I don't have Christ, no matter
what I have, I have nothing. No matter who I am, I am nothing.
No matter what I do, it's worth nothing. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. Now, I have four questions, and
let me give you this. The first is, what's the definition
of love? This love we're talking about,
what's its definition? Secondly, what's its source?
Thirdly, what are its signs? And fourthly, why is it so important?
Now, I'll try to be brief. Let's look at it together. Here's
the definition, and there's no better definition than the one
given in the Word. Love, suffereth long, verse 4. You see it there? And we're not
talking about infatuation. We're not talking about romantic
love. We're not talking about self-love. We're talking about
this love that's shed upon in the heart by the Spirit of God.
The love of Christ. The miracle of God's grace in
the heart. Love suffers long. What does
that mean? It's patient and long-suffering. It endures. And the second word,
it's kind. It's considerate. It's gentle. Love is courteous. Considerate of other people.
It's just kind. Be kind to one another. And you will if you love someone.
You're kind to them. And love envieth not. Love's
not jealous. Love's not envious. You don't
envy one whom you love. You don't envy their happiness.
You don't envy their prosperity. You don't envy any glory God
gives. You cannot envy someone whom
you love. Love wishes to bestow the best
that it can on the object of its affection. It's never envious. It can't be. And love is not, it bondeth not
itself. That's just one word, conceited. Love is never conceited, never
arrogant. Love's not proud. You know the
people of God don't have an ego problem. No, they don't. They do not have a problem with
arrogancy. You know the chief problem of
God's true children? Unworthiness. That's where they
undersell themselves. That's right. Because they know
what they are. They know what they are. They're not arrogant.
Love born is not. It's not hooked up. It's not
filled with arrogance and ego. And haughty spirit goes before
the foul. That's just so. And listen to
this. Verse 5, love does not behave
itself unseemly. Love's not rude. I heard somebody, I was in a
foreign country, I'm not going to say where, but the people
are just, they're just rude. And they excuse it. This way
they say, well that's just the custom over here. That's just
the custom. Well, the drunkard's custom was
to drink before God saved him. But when God saved him, he quit
drinking. And the blasphemer's custom was to cuss before God
saved him, but he quit taking God's name in vain. Oh, that's
just my custom. I was brought up that way. No. And the harlot, her custom was
to sell her body, but she quit when God saved her. And I might
have been A person who's rude and unfriendly? I tell you, when
God, the friend of sinners, comes in, the friend of friends, the
friend taking closer than a brother, how can you be rude? No, it's
not national custom. It's lack of grace that's the
problem. It's the absence of grace. Where
grace is, there's kindness and friendliness. God's people are
friendly. I tell you, he that would have
friends must show himself friendly. That's what it says. That's the
word. And watch this. Love, here's that definition,
seeketh not her own. Love does not seek its own things. Real love seeks the glory of
God first. Let's put that first. And then,
true love seeks the comfort and well-being and happiness of others. You can see this now, and I can
too, in our relationship with our children. There's not one
of you here who loves your children that doesn't seek their happiness
more than yours. Now, you do too. I know you do. You seek their comfort. Before you ever lie down at night,
you make sure they're comfortable. Before you ever serve your plate,
you make sure they have something to eat, don't you? But love seeketh
love, not self-centered. It seeketh not its own. It looks
not on its own well-being and welfare. It looks on the well-being
and welfare of those it loves. Well, are you comfortable? Well,
are you warm? Well, are you all right? What
are you doing that for? You may not be very comfortable
with yourself, but you care about it. You see, that's love. I'm
saying that's love. Love seeketh not her own. Love
is not easily provoked. What's that mean? Touchy. Touchy. Easily offended. Gets your feelings
hurt over the least little thing. Treads softly. If you're not,
you'll make him mad. Not easily provoked. Love thinketh
no evil. What does that mean? You know,
it's been said of a mother and father, and the reason I use
the mother and father's illustration, because all of us understand,
my Lord used that. He said, if you, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
shall your father give good things to his children? So that's the
reason I brought it up. Mother and a father, I've heard
this often said of either. Well, he loves that boy so much
he's blind to all his faults. or she loves that daughter or
son so much, they're just blind to their faults. That's not too
bad, is it? Is that bad? Is it bad to be
blind to someone's faults? The book of Proverbs says that
is a sign of friendship, of friend. Love covereth a multitude of
sins. You know what it says? Love covereth
a matter. It doesn't reveal it. That's
right. Love them so much that they think
no evil. See, thinketh no evil. I just
don't believe that. Love, it doesn't have suspicion
and doubts and reading between the lines. Love loves and covers
faults, makes allowances for infirmities. It just doesn't
think evil. And love doesn't rejoice in iniquity,
verse 6. Love doesn't rejoice when a person
falls. That's a sad commentary on human
nature that you can't sell newspapers without bad news, bad reports. That's right, they won't sell.
You just can't sell a newspaper and tell good things that people
are doing. You can't do it. People won't
buy them. They'd rather read the bad. Human
nature, somebody says, that a bad report will go around the world
before a good report puts his shoes on. And love has four sides. Verse
7. Love has four sides. It beareth
all things, it believeth all things, it hopeth all things,
it endureth all things. Now, let's use those four sides
and talk about love for Christ. Peter said, Lord, you know I
love you. He said, do you love me? You know I love you. You're my Savior, my Redeemer,
my Lord, my King. I love you. Now it says, love
beareth all things. Love, first of all, in regard
to our Lord, love bears all trials as being from Him. What takes
place, what happens, it bears up unto these, whatever they
are, because it's my Father. My Father. Our Lord said, nevertheless,
Father, so it seemed good in thy sight. It bears all trials
and troubles and tribulations as being from Him. We're not
going to leave Him. We're going to love Him. Second,
it believes all things. Love believes every word, every
promise. That's what Abraham, that's the
basis of his faith. He believed that God was able
to do what he promised. He believed God. He believes
God. Hopeth all things. We hope in Christ for eternal
life, eternal glory, eternal inheritance. We have a good hope. We're not going to forsake it.
Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
and endures to the end. Endureth all things. It continues
in the faith. Now, let's see that in love for
one another. Love, first of all, it's hedged
in with four sides. Love beareth all things, all
duties, responsibilities to the beloved, even disappointments. It will beareth. Love will beareth
all these things. Love makes duties enjoyments. Love makes responsibilities happy
privileges. and even disappointments will
bind them. Second, it bleeds on, it bleeds
the best. Love bleeds the best. It just does not rejoice in iniquity.
It bleeds the best about folks. And hopeth all things. Well,
what love doesn't see, it hopes for. It never gives up. It never gives up. And then love
endureth. It never ceases to love. It never ceases. Well, verse
8 says that, love never faileth, it never ceases. You know, love,
people talk about loving somebody and then stopping loving them,
not loving them anymore. I don't believe that. I do not. Love never faileth. Never faileth. Love that has turned to hate
was never the love of God. It's not like God. These earthly gifts fail, but
not love. We may not approve the course
of action of different people, but we have to say this, what
Richard Baxter said, there but for the grace of God goes Richard
Baxter. That's when you can't stop loving.
You may not approve of a person's actions, you may not approve
of their way of doing things, But you can't stop loving them.
You just can't stop loving them because if it wasn't for the
grace of God, you'd be doing the same thing. You'd be acting
the same way, wouldn't you? We know that. Who made a difference? And I've got to tell myself that.
Now whether there be prophecies, they're going to pass away. And
whether there be tongues, it shall cease. Whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away. But love never fails. Now let
me give you this. What's the source of this kind
of love? Turn to Matthew 19. While you're finding that, let
me quote a scripture. Turn to Matthew 19. This scripture
in Romans, while you turn to Matthew 19, the Lord said in
Romans 5, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. God gives this kind of
love. Now here in Matthew 19, let's
look at verse 23. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the
kingdom of heaven. That rich young ruler just walked
away. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom of God. And when his disciples heard
that, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
And Jesus beheld them and said to them, With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. And some of us may say, This
love we've been reading about in our text, this love, this is supernatural. Can this love, this love for
Christ and for one another actually be experienced by human beings? And I answer with my Lord. With
me it's impossible, but with God all things are possible. You know, when these disciples,
our Lord said, this greedy, covetous, rich man, he's not going to be
king. It's as hard for a rich man to enter God's kingdom as
it would be for a huge camel to go through the eye of a needle.
And that's not talking about the walls of Jerusalem either.
That's talking about the eye of a needle. You say, that's
impossible. It is with men, but not with
God. You see, sincere love for Christ
and for one another is received and learned and experienced in
no other school but in the school of grace. God gives it. Just like He does faith, God
gives it. Just like He does salvation,
God gives it. Just like He does confidence
in Christ, God gives it. You see, to the world, the preaching
of the cross is foolishness. To you, the preaching of the
cross is the wisdom of God. Well, who made you different?
God revealed it to you. God gave you that faith. We have
people in our church that go through great trials and they're
strengthened by the trials. Somebody else goes through a
trial and he's destroyed by the same trial. What's the difference?
With men it's impossible, but with God all things are possible.
And this love, what makes a person love? Love inside. What makes a person believe?
Faith. God-given faith. What makes a person love? God-given
love. What makes a person forgive?
A caring, forgiving nature. What makes a person reach out
to the others? Because God's reached out to
him. What makes a person merciful? He's received mercy. To whom
much is forgiven, he'll love much. You see, that's where it
is. What makes a person love? Love
inside. You don't read a book and learn
this. It's God-given. What makes a person care? A caring
nature. What makes a person forgive?
To be forgiven. That's the source of it. I say what Christ said, with
men it's impossible, with God all things are possible. It's
the gift of God. Thirdly, what are the signs of
love? One of the signs of love, I read something yesterday that
was interesting. An experienced waiter in a large
city said this, us old time waiters
know people better than anyone because we don't pay a whole
lot of attention to what people say, we pay more attention to
what they do. Love acts. Love just doesn't
talk. Love acts. One of the old writers
says, show me a fire without heat. It can't be. If you've got a fire, you've
got to eat to some degree. And the same thing is true of
love. Show me a love that doesn't have
any deeds. It can't be. It just can't be. And I'm not just talking about
materially, because listen to this. I found this somewhere.
And this is what that waiter is saying in his own natural
way. Love is revealed in the eyes
more than in the words. Intangible. Immaterial. Love
is revealed in the eyes more than the words. Secondly, love
is sweeter in deed than in doctrine. A lot sweeter. I want to say to my preacher
brethren, the young ones coming along,
you can be exact in your doctrine and dead as a hammer. Isn't that
right? You can be so, like Barnard said
one time, straight as a gun barrel, just as empty. And that's, it's this preaching
business, It's got to come from the heart to the heart. And dealing
with matters of the heart. For people are not robots. They're
people. And love is much sweeter in deed
than it is in doctrine. But you can't have the deed without
the doctrine, I know that. But you can't have the doctrine
without the deed, can't you? Dead as a hammer. Love, listen, brings more happiness
when it comes bearing grace than when it comes bearing guilt. Love brings more happiness when
it comes bearing tenderness than it is when it comes bearing treasures. Oh, the treasure with the tenderness
is great, and the gift with the grace is great, but the gift
without the grace and the treasures without the tenderness, keep
them. Isn't that right? Am I not telling the truth? Keep
them. If I've got to choose between the two, I'll take the grace.
You keep the gift. I'll take the tenderness. Keep
the treasure. That's right. That's true love.
Love is more comforting. Listen to this. Oh, it's a blessing. Love is more comforting when
it's there for certain. It doesn't have to continually
be proven. Continually re-won. Continually
merited. You follow what I'm saying? It's
there and you know it. You don't have any doubts about
it. You know, Paul said that, let
me read you a scripture. over here in 2 Corinthians. You don't need to turn to chapter
12, verse 14. He says, I seek not yours, I
seek you. I'm not seeking yours, I'm seeking
you. And that love is a lot more comforting
when it's just there. You can count on it. I know He's
my friend. I know He doesn't have to prove
it. He doesn't have to keep saying so. He doesn't have to be worried
about my friendship. He has it. If I never hear from
him for a year, he's still my friend. I still love him. Don't
have to keep proving it. That's why you get tired of trying
to prove it. That's why you get real weary
with that, don't you? You know what I'm talking about.
You can count on it. That's the way this love for
Christ... Lord, you got me on your hands. I'm going to stay.
I'm going to stay and love for one another. I'm yours. Now, why is this love
the greatest? Let me give you this and I'll
quit. Why is it? Our Lord says in chapter 13,
verse 13, 1 Corinthians 13, And now abideth faith, hope, and
love, these three, but the greatest, the greatest of these, is love. Why? I'll give you four reasons. It's the greatest because it's
God-like. God is love. That's why it's
so great. If you and I can love, we're
God-like. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. He that loveth is born of God.
This is a miracle. I know it with me and it's impossible.
With God all things are possible and I pray for it. I pray for
this which is greatest because it's God-like. It's greatest because out of
it, from it, flows all other graces. It's impossible to have
any other grace without love. Just name the graces that spring
out of love. They're there because of love.
All other graces come from love. Faith, hope, joy, kindness, gentleness,
meekness, that all comes from love. That's where it starts.
Thirdly, it's the greatest because it contains the whole law. They
said, what's the greatest law? He said, to love God with all
your heart and your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang
all the law. And Galatians says it's the fulfillment
of the law. To love. What do you people believe
about the law around here? Love, that's what we believe
back to love.