Wonderful Words:
"Have"

How can "have" be a wonderful word? Well I suppose it depends on what you have. Victor Hugo, the Frenchman who wrote Les Miserables, said, "The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved." Thus, according to Hugo, to be loved is the supreme happiness; but is to be loved the same as to have love? The Bible makes it clear that to have love is the greatest gift of all. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 we read:

• If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
• If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
• If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

It is easy to misunderstand this and think, like Victor Hugo, that what Paul is writing about is having someone love us. However, nothing could be further from Paul's mind. He is, in fact, talking about the exact opposite. He is talking about "the most excellent way"; about having love for others, not others loving us.

As sinful human beings we may think that greater happiness is gained from receiving, rather than giving. However, Christ taught the opposite (Acts 20:35) and mature believers have, by experience, learned this to be the case.

Similarly, as fallen human beings, we may think greater happiness is gained by being loved, rather than loving. Again, the Scriptures teach otherwise and mature believers have learned this is so. Sadly Victor Hugo did not. However, it seems that another novelist did. In Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, the hero switches places with the husband of the woman he loves to free the husband from the guillotine. Why? Because he had love for her and his greatest happiness was loving her and making her happy, even at the expense of his own life.

However, let us be glad that Someone did have love for us, and still has love for us. The love He had led Him to switch places with us, to die in our place, to die for our sins.

As we know what it is to receive His love, and as we know what to have love means, let us have love one for another.