At the turn of this century, there were multiple buzz phrases tossed about in the business world. If you wanted to appear intelligent and in the know, you made sure these phrases were part of your daily vocabulary. Clichés like, “think outside the box,” “maximize resources,” and “bottom line results” have been overused to the point that if spoken today, you will appear as a has-been rather than an up-and-comer. Please excuse the use of more overused clichés.
Eventually these phrases found their way into Christian-speak and were embraced by congregations desperate to prove themselves to their communities, their denominations, and the world at large. The words may seem innocent enough, but the philosophies behind them are anything but harmless. No longer is the church’s measuring stick God’s standards, Jesus’ life example, and the New Testament church. Rather, a church is measured by quantifiable numbers and outcomes.
Program A is heralded as successful and given an increased budget because hundreds or even thousands of people attend each week. Program B is on the chopping block because only three little old ladies attend. And Program C has been cancelled because the budget far exceeded the minimal quantifiable impact it produced. In the human business world, these conclusions would be reasonable. However, in God’s business of going and making disciples in a lost world, they are far from reasonable; they are disastrous.
As a body of believers, we better be sure the measuring stick we are basing our decisions on is God’s and not the latest fad embraced by a fallen world. Would today’s evangelical church mimic Jeremiah’s or Daniel’s method of ministry? How about Paul? Or Peter? Sometimes I wonder if we would even “come and follow” Jesus if He walked through our streets today. Probably not! For one thing, we would assume He wasn’t very successful since He would walk everywhere instead of riding in the latest and greatest SUV.
The propensity for the people of God to imitate the world’s methods is nothing new. Israel just had to have a king. They were tired of the minimal results from the judges and prophets system. Then, of course, these kings just had to have more than one wife. After all, that’s how all the other kings secured heirs. And everybody else worshipped many gods, why not the Israelites?
So as not to be too hard on Old Testament Israel, how about James and John wanting the most prestigious seats in Jesus’ new kingdom? Even the earliest believers stayed huddled up in Jerusalem until the stoning of Stephen forced them to go into all the world. And we dare not forget Jesus’ charge to the seven churches in Revelation. In their quest to do things like the world, the majority of these churches did not receive very good commendations from the King of Kings. Will we never learn?
In this chapter, I want us to learn well God’s measuring stick for loving one another. We will do that by investigating a passage of Scripture often called “the love chapter”: I Corinthians 13. We will compare the instructions in this chapter to Jesus’ life while here on earth.
One of the most intriguing things to me about Jesus’ time here on earth was that He was always teaching or giving a lesson. He was always leading even though the whole time, He was on His way to the cross. He wanted these early followers to learn and to follow. Let’s do that, too!
One Another Living 