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Pro 3:3, Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

In Scripture, “steadfast love and faithfulness” are side by side. There can be no faithfulness without love, and love cannot flourish without faithfulness. The two are married to each other, Psa 85:10, “Love and faithfulness meet together...” Faithfulness implies duty; it is love committed.

1Cor 13:11-13, “11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things… 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Followed by the next chapter, 1Cor 14:1, “ Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, …”. In these verses, there is a change from childhood in faith to manhood in faith. From pursuit of spiritual gifts and desire of love, to pursuit of love and desire of spiritual gifts (reversed pursuits). Paul pursued that which was eternal (God is love) and desired that which was temporal, spiritual gifts.

The greatest of these is love, it glorifies both faith and hope. It is the very moving impulse of the gospel, and is the one quality that is divine. Eph 5:1-2, “1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Biblical manhood is motivated by love, for “God is love.”