Love!
" Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." -I Corinthians 13:13 [KJV] It is a pity it was not rendered love, instead of charity, all through this chapter: it certainly would have been a means of preventing much error. Consider, (1st.) The abiding of love. It springs from faith and hope, and has no existence in the heart without them. We have no more love to God, than a beast, yea, than a devil has, till we believe His love to us, and hope in His promises made to us in Christ Jesus. We love Him. Why? Because, merely of the glories and perfections of His nature, is He the object of our supreme love? No, but rather “because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19.) How has God manifested His love to us? In this: Because that "God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (vs. 9.) But our hearts are strangers to this love, till we believe in Jesus, and hope in His salvation. Then the effec...