“Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.” (1 Corinthians 13:8 GNT)
One day everything we value will cease to exist--family, friends, health, beauty, cognitive ability, balance, agility, strength, material comforts. Even spiritual gifts such as inspiration, charisma, and the ability to understand, interpret, and articulate Divine communication is temporary. Yet, one thing shall remain: Agape.
The ancient Greek word Agape refers to the highest form of love and charity between God and humanity.
“If we could imagine the love of one who loves men purely for their own sake, and not because of any need or desire of his own, purely desires their good, and yet loves them wholly, not for what at this moment they are, but for what he knows he can make of them because he made them, then we should have in our minds some true image of the love of the Father and Creator of mankind.” (Doctrines of the Creed, O.C. Quick)
Our natural tendency is to love conditionally with expectations of reciprocity. It’s difficult to imagine a love that desires only our goodness and wholeness. Agape is supernatural love that transcends our human instinct for self-preservation. It is God’s love--eternal, unconditional, and limitless.
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