Love Never Fails

I Cor.13: “Love Never Fails"

What is the greatest virtue? The Bible claims that love is the preeminent virtue, far outdistancing the competition. I Cor.13 contains some of the most familiar verses in the Bible. These words should be engraved into every crevice of our lives. In a hierarchy of goals, the goal of becoming a skilled lover should tower above the rest.

Paul’s words are wedged between lengthy sections of a discussion about gifts. As important as our gifting is, the practice of those gifts is meaningless without love. If I became the world’s greatest orator or someone who could raise the dead or a Christian martyr, such deeds ring up as a big fat zero in God’s account books if I don’t have love. There is nothing that can replace a lack of love.

Paul’s definition of love is enlightening -- and discouraging! We must remember that the Christian life is about progress, not perfection. The danger is that we become people who “merely listen to the Word.” James tells us that the person who “listens to the Word but does not do what is says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and ... immediately forgets what he looks like.” Instead, we must be people who look “intently” into God’s word and “continue to do this.” (Ja.1:22-25). As we go through these characteristics of love, pick out one or two areas you want to work on throughout the week. Ask God to alert you to opportunities before you have responded in unloving ways.

This Week's Assignment: Continued study of I Cor.13.

Gifts of the Spirit

I Cor.12

The Holy Spirit has placed each believer into the body of Christ. (v.13) And like our physical bodies, each body part is deeply dependent on other body parts. Thus, I have a vested interest in your performance. If you don’t perform your God-designed function, I will suffer -- a broken foot makes life miserable for the whole body!

When the Spirit placed us into the body of Christ, he gave each of us special abilities (wow!) to serve “the common good.” One of the primary tasks is to discover the unique ways that the Spirit has gifted us so that we can serve others.

How do we determine how we have been gifted? When I was in seminary one of my professors recommended that we join a different ministry every year for the first ten years after graduation. Though he was partially jesting, his point was that we discover our gifts by having a variety of experience. (His words were more prophecy than advice for me. During that ten year span I received experience as an evangelist, a pastor, a gardener, a teacher, a personnel director, a mentor, and more. Part of the diversity was forced -- I was fired three times!)

These opportunities don’t have to be formal ministries. All of us are surrounded by people in need -- an elderly parent, a single neighbor, a troubled co-worker, a fatherless child, an unsaved neighbor. As we reach out to these people, we will find unique ways -- “different kinds of service . . . different kinds of workings” -- that we fruitfully minister to others. I began to see that I had the gift of teaching by teaching a small group Bible study during my college days. That gift was confirmed and refined as I continued to get further teaching experience. I now know that my gift is most effective in small to medium-sized groups, in an interactive format, with adults, etc. God will give you the same kind of direction as you seek to serve the needs of those around you.

The Lord's Supper

The Christians in Corinth had turned the celebration of the Lord’s Supper into a drunken feast -- accentuating their divisions in the process. This was no trifling matter in God’s eyes. Paul claimed that many were “weak and sick” and some had “fallen asleep” because of their shameful actions.

How do we avoid practicing the Lord’s supper in “an unworthy manner?” We must never let this familiar celebration slip from reality into a mere ritual. It must not become simply a part of the familiar church landscape, something we do as thoughtlessly as brushing our teeth.

But it isn’t just in the Lord’s Supper where we can carelessly go through the motions. Unfortunately, our churches are filled with people who have little reality in their walk with God. Mark Buchanan explained his own experience after his conversion and a flurry of Christian service:

But something, somewhere, went awry. The zeal fizzled. The fire in my bones became only an ache in the joints. My running became plodding. My lightness became heaviness. My joyfulness became jadedness. I joined the ranks of the murmurers and faultfinders -- those who didn’t like the music or the sermon or the color of the azaleas behind the church -- and I found their number legion.

God has given us the Lord’s Supper as an encouragement to connect in a real way with God. It is a simple rite which we do “in remembrance” of Christ’s death. It is a time we open our hearts to Jesus, thanking him for taking our place on the cross, for leaving the safety of heaven, for forgiving all of our sins, for making heaven a sure hope, for bringing life to our dead souls, for making fellowship with our Eternal Creator possible. And in the intimacy of that praise we are also opening our hearts, letting him examine us:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps.139)