Recent posts here and other things outside the forum have inspired this topic. The passage and scripture below pretty much sums up the point of this topic.
1 Corinthians 13
[sup]1[/sup] If I speak in the tongues[sup][a][/sup] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [sup]2[/sup] If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. [sup]3[/sup] If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[sup][b][/sup] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
[sup]4[/sup] Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [sup]5[/sup] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. [sup]6[/sup] Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. [sup]7[/sup] It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
[sup]8[/sup] Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. [sup]9[/sup] For we know in part and we prophesy in part,[sup]10[/sup] but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. [sup]11[/sup] When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. [sup]12[/sup] For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
[sup]13[/sup] And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
I feel that verse 1-3 sends the most powerful message. In the absence of love, every work is vain and worthless. This isn't to say knowledge and wisdom aren't important, because they are, but they should be dwarfed in comparison to the love we possess.
1 John 4:8
[sup]8[/sup] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
The above verse cuts to the chase. You can't claim to know God without demonstrating love, because he's the source of it. God's love is also unconditional and unchanging, so if he is with you, yours should be too.
We would all be on our way to hell if God's love wasn't so great that he stepped in time and saved us from ourselves. Likewise, our acceptance of Christ was based on what some witnessed, but what we learned he did in love. With his unfathomably supreme intelligence, he could have easily built an impenetrable wall of words to stump and separate us, yet he lovingly built a bridge instead to draw and save us.
A big part of an earthly father's role is to lead by example and I believe God, being our heavenly Father, is no different. He has all wisdom, power, knowledge, but his unconditional love is what he uses to draw us. Many atheists would put the majority of Christians to shame with their knowledge of the bible, but that knowledge alone doesn't draw them to belief in God. What separates us, as children of God, from the rest of the world is our unearthly love for one another and God.
There are many examples in the bible of men boasting in their understanding, meanwhile missing the point completely. The pharisees being a prime example. Unfortunately, I have been seeing Pharisaical speech and actions rampant lately. I feel an important thing to remember is that God is more righteous than all and made that clear in the use of the term "filthy rags" to give us a mirror image of ourselves. Instead of being dismissive and allowing us to remain worthless though, he desired to make us clean again in Christ. So, we should never become too "righteous" to deal with newcomers or people steeped in sin, because these are the people that Jesus (the most righteous) went to first, and you were them at some point in your life.
Instead of viewing Christianity as a members only club with a v.i.p area for scholars, we should view it as a free hospital with a revolving door. If we are sick then we should seek recovery. If we are healthy, then we should desire to help the sick recover. If we were once sick, but don't seek to help another once we are "well", then we probably never fully recovered in the first place.
I admit, It's all too easy to point a judgmental finger at someone when, really, we should be looking through a discerning eye, free from a blinding plank. While no one is perfect, I think an important question to ask ourselves is "Am I transparent enough for God's love to be visible? "
1 Corinthians 13
[sup]1[/sup] If I speak in the tongues[sup][a][/sup] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [sup]2[/sup] If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. [sup]3[/sup] If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[sup][b][/sup] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
[sup]4[/sup] Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [sup]5[/sup] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. [sup]6[/sup] Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. [sup]7[/sup] It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
[sup]8[/sup] Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. [sup]9[/sup] For we know in part and we prophesy in part,[sup]10[/sup] but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. [sup]11[/sup] When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. [sup]12[/sup] For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
[sup]13[/sup] And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
I feel that verse 1-3 sends the most powerful message. In the absence of love, every work is vain and worthless. This isn't to say knowledge and wisdom aren't important, because they are, but they should be dwarfed in comparison to the love we possess.
1 John 4:8
[sup]8[/sup] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
The above verse cuts to the chase. You can't claim to know God without demonstrating love, because he's the source of it. God's love is also unconditional and unchanging, so if he is with you, yours should be too.
We would all be on our way to hell if God's love wasn't so great that he stepped in time and saved us from ourselves. Likewise, our acceptance of Christ was based on what some witnessed, but what we learned he did in love. With his unfathomably supreme intelligence, he could have easily built an impenetrable wall of words to stump and separate us, yet he lovingly built a bridge instead to draw and save us.
A big part of an earthly father's role is to lead by example and I believe God, being our heavenly Father, is no different. He has all wisdom, power, knowledge, but his unconditional love is what he uses to draw us. Many atheists would put the majority of Christians to shame with their knowledge of the bible, but that knowledge alone doesn't draw them to belief in God. What separates us, as children of God, from the rest of the world is our unearthly love for one another and God.
There are many examples in the bible of men boasting in their understanding, meanwhile missing the point completely. The pharisees being a prime example. Unfortunately, I have been seeing Pharisaical speech and actions rampant lately. I feel an important thing to remember is that God is more righteous than all and made that clear in the use of the term "filthy rags" to give us a mirror image of ourselves. Instead of being dismissive and allowing us to remain worthless though, he desired to make us clean again in Christ. So, we should never become too "righteous" to deal with newcomers or people steeped in sin, because these are the people that Jesus (the most righteous) went to first, and you were them at some point in your life.
Instead of viewing Christianity as a members only club with a v.i.p area for scholars, we should view it as a free hospital with a revolving door. If we are sick then we should seek recovery. If we are healthy, then we should desire to help the sick recover. If we were once sick, but don't seek to help another once we are "well", then we probably never fully recovered in the first place.
I admit, It's all too easy to point a judgmental finger at someone when, really, we should be looking through a discerning eye, free from a blinding plank. While no one is perfect, I think an important question to ask ourselves is "Am I transparent enough for God's love to be visible? "
