{"id":8216,"date":"2012-02-22T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T18:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mintools.com\/blog\/?p=8216"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T20:50:19","slug":"faith-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mintools.com\/blog\/faith-and-love.htm","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest of These is Love Yet Faith Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1
\nAnd now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
\nBut the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:13)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).\u00a0 Yet, love, not faith, is the greatest commandment<\/a> (Matt. 22:37-40).\u00a0 Faith is the starting point with love as the ultimate.\u00a0 Between there we have a lot of growing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. (2 Pet. 1:5-7)<\/span><\/p>\n

Implications of the Importance of Faith, Along With Love, to\u00a0 Ministry<\/h2>\n

For Those in Ministry:<\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t assume you will automatically love people as Christ loves.\u00a0 2 Peter 1 clearly delineates a growth process in getting there.\u00a0 Have you ever experienced hardships in ministry, times when things didn’t go as expected or people didn’t cooperate as they should?\u00a0 Embrace those experiences as opportunities to learn goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, and brotherly kindness.\u00a0 As you do, you will learn more and more to truly love.\u00a0 If you choose instead to grumble, complain, get embittered, or similar negative reactions, don’t expect love to become the greatest characteristic within you.<\/p>\n

About Those You Serve:<\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t expect everyone to automatically love one another as they should just because they have put their faith in Jesus.\u00a0 Be patient as they too must go through the process of growing from faith to love.\u00a0 When conflicts come<\/a>, as they will, challenge people to work through them so they learn from these experiences and grow together.\u00a0 If you try to “fix” all the problems, how will people learn?\u00a0 Rather, be there with encouragement and counsel as they walk through the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Yet, love, not faith, is the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:37-40). Faith is the starting point with love as the . . . Continue reading The Greatest of These is Love Yet Faith Matters<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traits-ministry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\t\t