Love

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; 

but the greatest of these is love."

1 Corinthians 13:13

faith abides (lives)
hope abides (lives)
love abides (lives)

I wrote about faith two days ago.

I wrote about hope yesterday.

Today should be about love.

Why is love greater than faith?

Why is love greater than hope?

Not one of the 475 entries on biblegateway.com (ESV) for faith or a derivative say "God has faith in man".

Not one of the 164 entries on biblegateway.com (ESV) for hope or a derivative say "God has hope in man."

Many of the 684 entries on biblegateway.com (ESV) 
record the love God has for man.
One of my favorites:

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, 

that God sent His only Son into the world, 

so that we might live through Him. 

In this is love, 

not that we have loved God 

but that He loved us 

and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 

1 John 4:10

I John 4:8-21

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. "

God is the source of love

"Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. "

God is love

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him."

God showed us His love when He sent His Son to provide us life  

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

God loved us before we loved Him and God paid our sin debt with the life and death of His Son

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 

God's love is our example and motivation to love others

"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us." 

We love when God abides in us. Or maybe you would rather say that when God abides in us, we love. Either way, loving one another puts flesh on God's character.

John reiterates:

"By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." 

God, abiding, love, it all comes together in the life of a believer.

"We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,”and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." 

God is the source, the prompter, the motivator of love.

Truth is born out by the way we love one another.

My faith lives and grows based on my understanding God's love.

My hope lives and grows based on my understanding of God's love.

Love lives and grows where God lives, it is not based on my understanding, it is natural outpouring of His Spirit at work.

I suspect that may be why "the greatest of these is love"...