The Last Best Hope

 

Sir Winston Churchill, who led Britian through its darkest hours, was a man of many notable accomplishments. He is recognized as one of the great leaders in world history. But of his life’s work, he said, “My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.” He and his beloved Clementine were married in 1908 and remained married until his death 56 years later. Of course, many couples have been married longer than the esteemed prime minister. According to Guinness World Records, the record is 86 years, 9 months, and 16 days, and it belongs to Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher. They were married in 1924, 18 and 16 years old at the time. Their marriage held up through the Great Depression, World War II, the Koreon War, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and fifteen presidential administrations.

Both Herbert and Zelmyra are gone now, each dying at the age of 105. Before they died, they talked about their marriage and some keys to its longevity. They felt it was important for them to respect, support, and communicate with each other. Being faithful, honest, and true to each other was critical. And, of course, loving each other with all their hearts. They always remembered that marriage I not a contest and it did no good to keep score.

[1 Corinthians 13] is often called the “love” chapter of the Bible. What these passages say about love are certainly pertinent to a marriage. No question. But the apostle Paul is primarily writing about what it takes for any relationship to work, whether it is an intimate connection like a spousal or family relationship, a church or neighborly connection, or the person who lives in the room or apartment next to you.

“Love is patient,” Paul writes. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (v’s 4-8a). Put this advice to work and any relationship will work!

In 1997 Western Christian Foundation published a book by Nelson M. Smith, entitled Agape Study Manual. Smith identified all the places the word love and its related terms appeared in the KJV Bible. Then he wrote comments on every single verse where love was mentioned. The book has 475 pages. Smith said he was no scholar, but one thing he understood well: Love is at the center of God’s plan of salvation. How would our lives be changed if we read the Bible through while focused on love, especially the love of God? How would we change the lives of others if we moved throughout each day while focused on love, especially God’s love for the lost? How would our families change if we spent every moment with them charged with love, especially God’s familial love? How would our congregations be changed if a handful of saints decided to love as Jesus loved? Just reading about love in the Bible won’t change anything. But reading with open hearts, with prayers to be transformed by the Word, with effort to become like the Lord Jesus Christ, God will make love radiate from our lives outward to touch and bless everyone around us.

One month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Congress in which he addressed freeing the country’s slaves. Lincoln stressed the importance of doing the right thing to “save our country,” which he described as “the last best hope of earth.” God says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it…” (Psalm 127:1). When it comes to modeling for the world what the home should look like, the church of Jesus Christ is “the last best hope of earth.”