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The Collect for Sunday (Proper 14) is a prayer which says, “Almighty God, give us the increase of faith, hope, and love; and, that we may obtain what you have promised, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

This prayer is a beautiful synthesis of Paul’s discussion of the utter importance of love in the church in 1 Corinthians 13 which ends with, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13). I really like the emphasis that the New Living Translation (NLT) puts on this verse and draws out some of the meaning, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

This is combined by the collect with Jesus’ words in John, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

We also remember the words that Jesus said in response to the Pharisees who asked which law was the greatest which say, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40).

To love is so vitally important. It is foundational to our life and Christians, and it is essential to obeying our Lord. A sure sign that we are following Christ as his true disciples is that we show a love for one another within the church. Not only does this make the household of God function smoothly and produce great fruit, but it casts a beautiful image to the world of what real wholeness looks like.

However, our sinful flesh often gets in the way of us living into this love fully. We harbor anger and distrust of others as biproducts of our fallen nature—though for the household of God a redeemed nature. This is why we must ask God to give us this increase in faith, hope and love. It is not something that we naturally produce, but must be nurtured and given as a gift from him who loves to give good gifts to his children.

For us to increase in this, to even want to increase in this, God must act on our hearts first. The collect concludes, “make us love what you command.” In essence, this prayer inside the prayer is asking, “God…make me fall in love with loving you, and make me fall in love with loving others as I love my neighbors as myself.” We are powerless in our own strength to do this and need the help of Christ’s intervention to the Father through the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us!