Paul’s solution to the church’s unity is love. That love is not something sentimental; it is substantive. It is not cosmetic; it is core to relating to others and to the church’s growth and mission.

The greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13, ESV)

Reformation Heritage Books recently published The Works of William Perkins, an extraordinarily influential theologian of the 16^th century. The publication covers ten volumes, amounting to 6,608 pages. As daunting as that it is, it pales in comparison to what could be and has been written about the subject of love. All the books and treatises and written references to love could occupy a sprawling wing of their own in the library, and that not counting the music library.

That is just to say that we cannot here do justice to the Bible’s teaching on love. That shouldn’t surprise us. Love is featured in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he says that God predestined us in love (1:4-5), points us to the great love with which God loved us (2:4), beckons us to explore the incalculable depths of God’s love (3:17-19), calls us to bear with one another in love (4:2) and speak the truth in love (4:15), emulate the love of Christ in the conduct of our lives (5:2), and closes by appealing to us as lovers of Christ (6:23-24). Each of these areas could occupy volumes that examine the meaning and outworking of such love.

To grasp something of the wonder of love in the life of the Christian as a fruit of the Spirit, we are going to touch on one passage. It’s a familiar one. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:4–8).

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