#9. March 2, 2015
2015 Devotional. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.
I Corinthians 13: 13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
This well-known chapter on love begins in Chapter 12, “Spiritual Gifts” and goes on to Chapter 14, “Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues.” The major issue in these three chapters is unity; unity of the Spirit and unity of the body of Christ, the church. This is what Jesus prayed about in his High Priestly Prayer in John 17. Verse 21 stands out: “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” In a practical way Paul picks up on the divisions in the Corinthian church over the gifts of the Spirit. He points out in Ch. 12:11 “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them (gifts) to each one, just as he determines.” Also, verse 7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” When are we going to learn that truth and practice it? So many Christians and congregations are doing their own thing. Paul goes on with an example of the unity of the Body, verse 25,26 “so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” When, we ask, will there be concern for each other, when will there be concern for those outside of the body? (Jesus’ prayer Jn. 17:20-25).
I believe that the lack of unity in the church and among Christians is the crucial issue of today. There is a lack of unity in our own denomination. “Ministry shares” unifying our recourses for ministry continues to decline, there is no sense of unity in the denominational agencies. It is becoming difficult to work together and the leadership lacks a spiritual vision for outreach. The Mission that the Holy Spirit calls us to do together (Act 13:1-3) is almost non-existent. Individuals and congregations, claiming they have all the gifts, are doing their own thing. There is no longer a unified vision for “making disciples of all nations” using all the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given the Church. It is the way of society today, we are divided socially, economically, politically, religiously, educationally and instead of the church setting direction for society, society sets direction for the church.
This all sounds rather negative, and it may be more comfortable to pretend we are living in “la la land” but it is a reality we must not ignore. Paul tells us there is a “most excellent way”, it is the way of love, chapter 13. Whatever gifts we (the church) have, whatever we have accomplished, whatever we have planned for the future is meaningless without love. “Love is” v.4-7 and it “never fails”! All things will pass away but faith, hope, and love, the greatest of the three remain.
Faith: we believe what we do not see,
Hope: we always expect the best for us and for others,
Love: the Greek uses a superlative, is much greater because it is God’s love (I Jn. 4:19), the kind of love with which we love God, love ourselves, love our fellow believers, and love those who God loves but have not yet turned to Jesus. This love is the definition and the foundation of the church of Jesus Christ, and is the motivation for missions! Amen!
Heavenhigh 