Love is greater than faith

You know how the banner of the Reformation was "saved by grace through faith" ? Sola Fide... faith alone. Not by works but by faith. Yada, yada, yada. (Hehe I saw the Seinfeld "yada" episode last night. That's a good one.)

Anyway, I've just been thinking a lot about love lately.

But now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(1 Cor. 13:13)

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
(Galatians 5:6)

And it's just funny to me that we put so much stock in faith... so much faith in faith, really. When God has said pretty clearly, over and over, in story and even directly, that what really matters more than anything is love.

The greatest commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
(Deuteronomy 6:5)

Not to have soul-saving faith, not to have correct theology (we'll be lucky if 2% of our theology is right, in my estimation), not to pray the right prayer... but the greatest commandment is to love the Great God of the Universe, the Maker of all things both seen and unseen, that Great Artist and Amazing Lover

And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.
(Mark 12:31)

You could say faith is a necessary first step to loving. You might call me crazy but I would say love makes faith almost irrelevant. It's no longer even a question of faith. Love overshadows the whole faith issue.

I get along very well with people who understand faith as something that is only real when it is felt or expressed as love. I think Jesus liked those people, too -

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."

"Tell me, teacher," he said.

"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."

"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

(Luke 7)

Okay so he used the word faith at the end... hehe maybe my grand point isn't adding up. Hmmm I wonder if I could pull out some Greek and prove he used a special faith word that means love. Phil, can ya help me out? lol

Well let me just leave you with this one...

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 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.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.