Faithfulness:  To the Strength of Love  

Read: Colossians 3: 12-17. 

Focus: Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.   - Colossians 3: 14

Consider:  The little outfit that Hannah made was love. The recently celebrated Incarnation was love: God’s free love. How can it be that some would fashion love into a straightjacket?

Reading his book The Heart is a Little to the Left, I was particularly inspired by author William Sloan Coffin when he repeatedly referred to the closing Bible verse of what sentimentalists call “the love chapter” in First Corinthians: “faith, hope and love…and the greatest of these is love.”  What particularly moves me is that he points to the opening words of the next chapter and presents them as a mantra of Christian mission and integrity: “Make love your aim.”

God is love. Make God present. Put on God. Make God’s difference.

Pray:  Almighty God of love, enable us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, to which indeed we are called in the one body. And be thankful. 

All contents copyright 2006 by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. Permission is granted to United Methodist congregations, individuals and groups to reproduce and distribute this devotional without charge. All other use requires the advance permission of the editor.