The Obligation to Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Illustration
by Cecil G. Osborne

We can not, and should not, escape the obligation to love, because when we cease loving, we cease being human.

Ralph W. Sockman once noted that Toyohiko Kagawa, the Japanese Christian leader, distinguished three levels of love. The first of which is physical love, which holds people together in families.

"Above this level is a plane which Kagawa calls psychic love. Psychic love includes our association in friendships, in professional and social groups, and in all those relationships which rest on community of mental tastes."

Kagawa then designates a still higher level of love based upon conscience. "If one is walking along the road with an enemy on his right hand, and as inner on his left, and if he can walk with them without accusing them, or if he can halt his progress to help them, then he has risen to the plane of conscientious love. Such was the love which Jesus manifested, and to which He summoned his followers, bidding them to do good to those who hated them..."

ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., ChristianGlobe Illustrations, by Cecil G. Osborne