Submit yourselves
therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and
he will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and
He will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands,
ye sinners; and purify your hearts,
ye double minded.
James 4: 7 -- 8
But earnestly desire
the best gifts.
And I will show you a
more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 13: 31
There are
two words that we must recognize and apply in our lives if we are to be truly
authentic Christians. Those two words
are: submit, earnestly. Yes, we have
other mandates and that is to resist, to draw, and to desire. The word submit in the Greek can be either
an imperative or in the present tense and is active from the root: ζηλόω,
carries the meaning to have warmth of feeling for or against something, but to
move with envy, to be zealous, to desire, to covet earnestly. In other words to be seeking as in a zealous
seeking and this can only occur if we are willing to submit. To resist and to draw nigh, to cleanse and
to purify, and earnestly, in the Greek is an imperative that is a directive,
and this directive is by means of a command.
Notice that the earnest desire, spoken by Paul, was to desire the best
gifts, and the word gifts is plural.
Now some would look backwards and say this plurality of the word gifts
speaks of the various gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. Is this what Paul is going to tell us? We will find the answer as we continue to
study Chapter 13 for there Paul will give us the answer. For those who fall into the camp where they
believe that God is doing a "new thing" and reveals something that
only they can hear and that hearing is not subjected scrutiny of Scripture, Paul
is going to explain why and how the use of the gifts in the Corinthian church
were wrongfully by used and believed. What is first and foremost
the excellent gift and the more excellent way?
It is love! It is this; God’s
love based upon God's principles and commands that is, the "more excellent
way." As discussed in the last
blog, Chapter 13 verse one and the Greek word for "if" simply as
telling as that Paul was saying that even if it was possible that he could
speak in some sort of "tongues of men and of angels" that it would be
utter nonsensical. It is clear by the
use of men and angels in regards to speaking in tongues was to address those
who believe that they can speak in some sort of angelic tongue as though God
would speak to them in this way.
It is true that if one says I have faith, even faith that can move
mountains, without love is nothing.
Therefore, we do need faith, but that faith must have as its foundation
the love of God’s commands and principles.
There are those who point to the good things that they do, such things
as, going to the Rescue Mission, which is very good and necessary, or taking
food to the park to feed the poor and hungry, and this is very good also: what
must be asked is; what is the true motive for doing such things? If it is only something that is
philanthropy, then that is doing nothing more than those who are non-Christians
also do. And even if we allow ourselves
to be killed by holding fast to our beliefs as a Christian, while this is very
good, then as Paul wrote: "And
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, but have not love, it profits in the nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:
3). If all that we do simply make
us feel religious, or worthy to God because of what we are doing, then we are
missing the basic point that Paul is addressing for us to acquire and to apply
in our life. This thing to be acquired
and applied, is not proud and boastful for having some sort of gift, whether
or not it is from God. That thing is
God's love! And how was this love to be
applied after acquiring it: "Love
sufferers 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" (1
Corinthians 13: 4 -- 7). The
question for each of us is: is this how God's love is being applied in our
lives? Or, are we easily offended, or
do we parade our godliness, maybe we are even envious of others who have more than
us. Many people who claim to be
Christians do things that would not be what we would bring Jesus to, yet we
will go there ourselves and give some sort of excuse that we are supposed to
believe is reasonable. I've used
this before; going to such things as Mixed Martial Arts that allow two people
to pound each other into a bloody mess as though this is supposed to be some
sort of excitement and a showing of their great sportsman ability, is wrong. Would Jesus attend such a thing? Or, are you seeking things for
yourself? True authentic God love is
one that rejoices in the truth and that truth is found in God's Word, and while
there are some very good books out there that we can use as the devotional to
give us some sort of aid in our study, the final answer for truth is only found
in God's Scripture. Also, true
authentic God love bears all things, and yet divorce among Christians ranks
equally with those who are non-Christians.
How can this be? Well, if you
have true authentic God love then you will bear all things even when it gets
tough in the marriage, for you have the truth that gives you hope and the ability to endure all things. It
is not some euphoric atmosphere that rages among people so that this group
euphoria is seeing is something of a moving of God. It is not! It is simply
group euphoria and we found this among such events as the famous concert called
Woodstock. As an Authentic Christian we
are euphoric, because God has chose you/us to be one of His children and
has by Himself as the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ who died to pay
yours and my debt that was owed to God and by doing so has giving us everlasting
life. Do you need anything more than that
to make you feel euphoric? Isn't this
great? Isn't it just wonderful? All you have to do is live the life that you
have and you do that living by the love you have which is the love of God instilled
in you.
Gracious is the
LORD, and righteous;
yes, our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves
the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
Return to your
rest, O my soul, for the LORD
has dealt bountifully with you.
Psalm 116: 5 -- 7
Praise God!
No comments:
Post a Comment