What would you classify as the preeminent Christian virtue–the one that animates all others? Would it be faith, joy, courage, or patience? Each of these virtues are important to Christianity and help the Christian to practice Christian duties, such as Bible reading, prayer, and witnessing to the lost. But which of these is preeminent in importance to the Christian life?
Recently, it struck me that one virtue is not only important to Christianity, but it is preeminent in Christianity. As I have been reading through the New Testament, I have seen at the center of Christianity this virtue called love. So, let’s explore what love is in Christianity, and why it is preeminent in Christianity.
We cannot very well understand why love is preeminent if we do not even know what we mean by love. In contrast with the world’s definition of love, the Bible definition is not based on mercurial feelings or fleeting fashions. Biblical love is based on action and on the unchanging character of God. For instance, I John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” Later, verse 16 says, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” From these verses, we learn that love is something integral to the character of God. Love is something God is. If we continue in I John 4, we find that love is also something God does. I John 4:9 says, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” God sending His Son to die as the only satisfactory sacrifice for our sins was the ultimate act of love. This love was not a warm and fuzzy feeling for sinners like you and me. This love was an action, rooted in God’s just and loving character, to secure the best interest of others—namely the eternal salvation of our souls.
Since love is something that God is and God does, then only God has the right to define love for us. Throughout the Bible, God defines love as righteous action. During His last supper with them, Jesus told His disciples in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” The command is to love, but what does that look like? Well, Jesus gave the qualifier, “as I have loved you.” How had Jesus loved them? Earlier in the evening, Jesus had taken a towel with a basin of water, stooped down, and washed His disciples’ feet. Afterward, He had said, “ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15). Jesus reiterated His command to love in John 15:12-13, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And that is exactly what Jesus did for His disciples! Later that evening, Jesus was arrested and subjected to a series of unjust trials. Then He was crucified and died as the sinless sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. That is how Jesus had loved them. He had served them and sacrificed Himself for them. That is what biblical love looks like—self-denial and self-sacrifice for the best interest of others. Jesus showed us that love is righteous action.
Another illustration of love as righteous action is found in I Corinthians 13. This chapter is a list of things that love does and does not do. For example, love does suffer long but it does not envy (v. 4); love does rejoice in the truth, but it does not rejoice in iniquity (v. 6). The Bible does not say, “Love feels like.” The Bible says, “Love acts like.” This is furthermore demonstrated in I John 3:11 and 16, “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another . . . Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Once again, we see in the example of Christ Himself that love is self-denying, self-sacrificing, righteous action which seeks the best interest of its object. Just as Christ denied Himself and took up His cross for the best interest of others, so we must do the same.
Now that we have established what love is—righteous action—we can explore why love is the preeminent Christian virtue. Throughout Scripture, we find that love is the preeminent Christian virtue because it identifies us with Christ, it constrains us to live for Christ, it’s foundational to the other commandments of Christ, and it binds us together as the body of Christ.
The first reason for the preeminence of love is that it is the primary way we identify with Christ. As Christians, or “little Christs,” we have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us. When we let the Spirit control our lives, we bear fruit that demonstrates our faith in Christ. Most likely, you are familiar with Galatians 5:22 which lists the fruits of the Spirit. Guess which one tops the list? That’s right! Galatians 5:22 begins, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love . . .” Now, I’m not saying the fruits of the Spirit are necessarily listed in order of importance. However, the rest of the Scripture would indicate that love is preeminent in its role of identifying us with Christ.
For example, during His last supper with His disciples, Jesus gave His disciples a “new commandment,” or a reiteration of the Old Testament commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. In John 13:35, Jesus gave the reasoning behind this new commandment: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” This biblical love—a love that acts in the best interest of others regardless of feelings or fashions—shines in stark contrast with the world’s carnal love. This self-denying, self-sacrificing love reflects the Christ that we follow. I John 4:12 says, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” The people we meet in the world cannot see God, but they can see the love that we have for one another. When they see that love, they are seeing a reflection of the Christ we follow. Without love, we cannot identify with Christ as we ought. Without love, we cannot reflect God to the world around us as we ought. The primary way we can identify with the Christ who gave Himself for us is through our love one to another.
A second reason for the preeminence of love is that it constrains us to live for Christ. II Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” If Jesus died and rose again for us, it only makes sense that we should die to ourselves and be raised again to live in Him and for Him. It is Christ’s love for me and my love in return that drives me to surrender myself as a living sacrifice to God. As Ephesians 5:2 says, “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” Love is what compelled Christ to the cross! Just as Christ gave Himself a sacrifice for me, that same kind of love should compel me to sacrifice my life to Him. Loving Christ and keeping His commandments are intricately intertwined. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). We show our love for Christ when we live for Him, when we keep His commandments.
This brings us to the next and related point: Love is preeminent because it is foundational to all of Christ’s other commandments. Love is the Great Commandment of the Old Testament and the New Commandment of the New Testament. In Deuteronomy 6:5, we find the Great Commandment: “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” God also commanded His people in Leviticus 19:18, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.” When Jesus reiterated this Old Testament commandment in John 13:34, this meant that the love commandment is not just for the Jewish people under the old covenant; it is for all God’s people under the new covenant. When asked what was the greatest commandment of the Old Testament law, Jesus replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). In other words, if we can get a handle on the Great Commandment to love God with all our being and the New Commandment to love one another, then we will be able to get a handle on Christ’s other directives in Scripture.
We can keep the whole of Christ’s commandments if we will endeavor to keep one. According to Galatians 5:14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Romans 13:8-10 puts it this way: “Owe no many any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” God requires us to keep and observe many commandments. When looking at them all, we may become overwhelmed! But the Bible says that this great body of commandments is “briefly comprehended” in the foundational commandment to love. If I love my neighbor, am I likely to kill my neighbor, or steal from him, or commit adultery with his spouse, or lie to him? Each of these acts would be contradictory to love, which is defined as righteous action. Therefore, the Bible says, love is the fulfilling of the law. If we love God and love people, we will obey God and do right by people.
In case we need more support for this teaching in Scripture, let’s look back I Corinthians 13. Why did the apostle Paul say that all his spiritual gifts were useless without love? The reason is that love is the very foundation for everything we do in the Christian life. Without the foundation of love, our spiritual gifts and good works fall flat and float away in the storms of life. This is the reason Paul says that of three great Christian virtues—faith, hope, love—love is the greatest. Our faith, without works (of love!) is dead. This means they are useless to others and displeasing to God (James 2:8-17). See how closely tied good works are to love? What makes our works good is our love for God and others. And our love is demonstrated in our good works toward God and others. As I John 3:17-18 says, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us love not in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” So, true love is love that is in deed. In I Corinthians 13, we are warned against doing good works without love for God and man. And in I John 3, we are warned against saying we love God and man while failing to act in love. Love and good works go together. Love without deed is not true love (I John 3) and deed without love is not a truly good deed (I Corinthians 13). Love, as God defines it, is the foundation for all of Christ’s other commandments.
Finally, love is the preeminent Christian virtue because it binds us together as the body of Christ. When we consider God’s design for the New Testament Church, it is clearly to reflect the image of Christ to a lost and dying world. This is the reason that God uses the imagery of a body with various parts or members. The Church represents Christ’s body, with each individual member of the Church functioning as a part that composes the whole. Obviously, in order for a body to be whole and healthy it must be unified. The theme of unity in the Church is expressed throughout the epistles. However, the virtue that sustains such unity is…you guessed it …love. Love, as the primary way we identify with Christ, is also the primary virtue of the Church.
For example, I Peter 3:8 says, “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” In order for members of the body to be unified in mind, to be showing compassion, pity, and courtesy to each other, they must love each other. Later in I Peter 4:8, the apostle writes, “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” The context of I Peter is a Church suffering persecution for Christ’s sake. In such dire times, the unity of the Church is paramount. In order for this unity to be a reality, love must be “above all” the things mentioned previously in the chapter. Those things would include being sober, watchful, and prayerful. As one commentator put it, this is not to say “that ‘charity’ or love is placed above ‘prayer,’ but because love is the animating spirit, without which all other duties are dead” (Jamison, Fausset, & Brown). We have already established that love is the foundation for all of Christ’s other commands—including prayer. Prayer is Christian duty. Love is the Christian virtue that supports it and animates the Christian to perform that duty. Love is what animates the body to use its members in ways that please God and accurately reflect Christ. Colossians 3:14 similarly says, “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Love is the virtue that binds the body of Christ together in perfectness, or wholeness—unity. Love animates the body of Christ to complete its evangelistic mission. The love of Christ and for Christ is the common thread that runs through all believers, binding them together as one body.
Truly, the greatest of these is love. Love is what identifies us with Christ. Love is what constrains us to live for Christ. Love is the foundation for all other commands of Christ. And love is what binds us together as the body of Christ. The virtue that animates all other Christian virtues is love. So, how are you doing? Are you keeping the Great Commandment and the New Commandment? Perhaps you can join me in praying for growth in the area of Christian love for God and others.
This is a prayer the apostle Paul made for the Ephesian church. Ephesians 3:14-19 says, “For this cause I bow my knees unto he Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” The “cause” or reason for Paul’s prayer is that these Christians will persevere through trials. He wanted them to remain steadfast and unified as a body of believers. He wanted them to be strengthened and to experience the fullness of God. All this would come if they would be “rooted and grounded in love” and would “know the love of Christ.” As the Ephesian Christians were exhorted to do, we must be rooted and grounded in Christ’s love for us and our love for Christ. If we do that, we will grow in other areas as well. When you don’t know where to start in Christianity, start with developing the preeminent Christian virtue—love.