Making Love Our Great Quest
1 Corinthians 14:1 (AMPC) Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest] ….
When the Word of God says that love is the greatest of these and to make love your great quest, I think that is a big deal. Therefore, I need to know a lot about this subject. In I Corinthians 14:1, the Amplified Classic says, “Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest] …” We also see in 1 Corinthians 12:31, again in the Amplified Classic, that it says “…And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all – love].” This is a high standard that God has set for us to know and walk in His love.
People often misuse the portion of scripture I want to talk to you about to say that tongues, miracles, and laying down your life are passed away. But the Spirit of God has put something in place that tells us the importance of love compared to other spiritual things. If you understand the New Testament, you understand that speaking in tongues is very important; but if you don’t have love and you speak in tongues, the Bible says you are a clanging symbol. Imagine someone banging a symbol over and over again, to the point you want to stop your ears up so you can’t hear it anymore. That is what a person is like who doesn’t have God’s love. In I Corinthians 13:2, the focus shifts to spiritual gifts, and it is pointing out that if you can prophesy, understand all mysteries, have all spiritual knowledge, and faith to move mountains, but you don’t have the God kind of love, you and I are useless nobodies. The last part in Verse 3 talks about giving everything to the poor and even becoming a martyr; although we do those things, which are right and good and important, if we don’t have love, we gain absolutely nothing.
How do we make this love our aim or great quest in life? There are four simple keys to begin to make love your aim or quest in life. They are affection, revelation, activation, and imitation. First, we must set all our affection on Him. God is love and if we get to know Him as that, we will want to know more. So, we must spend our time with love. Second, He is love, so we need revelation. Pray that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened with the love of God, that you would have revelation of His love in you. Third is activation. We must do it. We must let the love of God that is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost in our heart come out, first to ourselves and then, to others. God’s love is an action: walk in that love to yourself and then to others. Last is imitation. We are to imitate the Father. If He wouldn’t do it, then we shouldn’t do it. We are to imitate the Father, like dear children.
Let’s make God’s love our great aim in life. Let’s be passionate about Him and His love. Let that love overtake you, so you can give His love to others. According to God, it is more important than tongues, than the manifestation of spiritual gifts, or even laying down your life for Him. Wow! God’s love is the greatest of these.