FAITH: Why is love the most important thing?

Across traditions, cultures, and centuries, one word keeps resurfacing at the center of faith’s deepest questions: love. Not doctrine. Not certainty. Not even belief in its most rigid forms—but love. If faith is meant to shape how we live with one another, then love is not a sentimental add-on; it is the essential core. 

The Scriptures make this claim boldly and without apology. The Apostle Paul writes, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal… Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:1,13). Paul does not dismiss faith or hope; he simply insists that love is what gives them meaning. Without love, faith becomes hollow and hope becomes abstract. 

This understanding is echoed by theologians across history. Augustine of Hippo famously summarized the moral life with striking simplicity: “Love, and do what you will.” Augustine did not mean reckless freedom; he meant that when love truly governs the heart, ethical living naturally follows. Love, rightly ordered, becomes a compass more reliable than fear or rule-keeping alone. 

Thomas Aquinas later described love—caritas—as willing the good of the other. For Aquinas, love is not merely affection but action. It asks: What does my neighbor need to flourish? This framing pushes love beyond private feeling into public responsibility. Love has social consequences. 

In the modern era, theologians have continued to widen love’s horizon. Howard Thurman, a civil rights thinker, wrote that love is the antidote to fear and hatred that distort human relationships. He believed love was not passive but deeply transformative, capable of reshaping both individuals and societies. Similarly, James Cone, a foundational voice in theology, argued that love cannot be separated from justice. Any love that ignores suffering, oppression, or inequality, he insisted, is not the love revealed in the gospel. 

Scripture consistently supports this expansive vision. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). Notably, this passage does not set boundaries around who qualifies. Love becomes the evidence of knowing God, not theological precision or moral perfection. 

This has profound implications in a world increasingly divided by ideology, identity, and fear. The prophet Micah offers a succinct summary of faithful living: “What does the Lord

require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). Justice, kindness, humility—these are not abstract virtues; they are practices rooted in love. 

Even Jesus, when asked to name the greatest commandment, does not point to ritual or rule but relationship: love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:37–40). And when pressed to define “neighbor,” Jesus tells a story that intentionally crosses religious, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. 

Many faith communities today often emphasize inclusion not as a trend but as a theological conviction. As Paul reminds the Galatians, “There is no longer Jew or Greek… slave or free… male and female; for all of you are one” (Galatians 3:28). Love resists hierarchy. It insists on dignity. 

Why, then, is love the most important thing? Perhaps because love keeps faith from becoming rigid, keeps justice from becoming cruel, and keeps hope from becoming naïve. Love does not resolve every question, nor does it eliminate disagreement. But it creates space where humanity can be honored even amid difference. 

In the end, love may not give us all the answers—but it shapes the way we ask the questions. And perhaps that is where faith is meant to live: not in certainty alone, but in love that remains open, courageous, and unfinished.

Adam Johnson is a strategy consultant and ordained minister with two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership nationwide, currently the CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Jackson TN. He holds advanced degrees in nonprofit organization from the University of Memphis. Adam lives in Jackson with his wife, Kayla, and their daughter Josephine.