The Many the One

      Many different kinds of power exert their force upon our universe: Electricity, wind, water, gravity, atomic fusion and fission, all move nature to their whims.

    Sin also is a power exerting its force upon the universe. Now maybe you have never thought of sin like that before. Maybe you  are among the millions who consider it to be weakness, but the Bible doesn’t describe sin that way. The Word of God declares sin to be a slave master under which the whole creation groans in hopes of liberation (Romans 6-8). Sin is a power!

      Love also is a power. But of all the powers in the universe it is the one which will survive and never fade away.

      “Love never fails.” I Cor. 13:8 NIV

      “ἡ ἀγάπη οὐδέποτε πίπτει”

      “agapē oudepote piptō”

      ” Agape” is the Greek word we have been using for love.

       “Oudepote” is the Greek word meaning never.

      “Pipto” is this little word just chuck full of meaning. Are you ready?

1) to descend from a higher place to a lower

a) to fall (either from or upon)

1) to be thrust down

b) metaph. to fall under judgment, came under condemnation

2) to descend from an erect to a prostrate position

a) to fall down

“1) to be prostrated, fall prostrate

2) of those overcome by terror or astonishment or grief or under the attack of an evil spirit or of falling dead suddenly

3) the dismemberment of a corpse by decay

4) to prostrate one’s self

5) used of suppliants and persons rendering homage or worship to one

6) to fall out, fall from i.e. shall perish or be lost

7) to fall down, fall into ruin: of buildings, walls etc.

b) to be cast down from a state of prosperity

1) to fall from a state of uprightness

2) to perish, i.e come to an end, disappear, cease

a) of virtues

3) to lose authority, no longer have force

a) of sayings, precepts, etc.

4) to be removed from power by death

5) to fail of participating in, miss a share in” (Blueletterbible Lexicon)

    As we finish this study on love I want you to grasp just how powerful this thing called love is. The Bible teaches us that all other powers will be undone. Electricity will become a thing of the past. Water power? Undone at the end of time when the universe is unmade. Wind can’t exist where there is no atmosphere. Nuclear fusion and fission will be completely subdued when the elements are melted with a “fervent heat” according to 2 Peter chapter 3. Even sin will be done away with when God breaks its power, as He undoes the works of his hands at the end of the thousand-year reign (Rev. 18-22). Yet through it all love will remain supreme exerting its force upon everything that God does.

    According to I Corinthians 13:8 Love will never fall down from its high place of strength. It will never be diminished by anything in this world or the next. Love will never perish, come to an end, disappear or cease. It will never lose its authority or lose even one iota of its reconstructive force.

    Why will love never cease? Because according to I John 4:8 “God is love”. God and love…love and God. They are unexplainably intertwined. You can no more do away with love than you can do away with God. 

     One last time, I am not talking about the poor imitations of love the world system we live in has offered up. I am talking about the I Corinthians 13 love we have been discussing all these long weeks. I am speaking about the love that looks to us like a ferocious lion waiting to gobble up all our selfishness and pettiness. I am talking about the love we have looked at in the Bible and declared before God “I cannot love like that!”.

    This love is the one power among the many powers in the universe that will never fade! It is the greatest power, and Christian it is the power that lives inside of you if you have given your life to Jesus.

     Let us stop saying “I cannot love like Jesus did.”

     Let us realize that if Jesus is in our hearts then that love of His is already there. We have only to believe, receive, and act on that which we already possess!

     “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I Cor. 13:13 NKJV

A-men!!