In the beginning of Matthew 6, Jesus shares three lessons on how not to worship and serve God, followed by what God is really longing for in our worship and service for Him. The ways not to worship God are all devised by man, something like, “If I were God, this is how I would want to be worshiped. I would want flashy exhibitions as often as possible with some obvious self-depravation thrown in as needed.” 

Jesus reminds us that if we worship man’s way, we have the reward we are looking for: man’s praise and that’s all we will get. God’s love chapter takes it a step further and says we can give up everything and even become a martyr, but if we don’t have love, all that we have done in name only, for  applause only, is only for nothing!

Journal’s Malice

When that first journal was opened on that fateful night, I wanted to give my friend the benefit of the doubt. She really did mean this for my good; she just wasn’t going about it very well. But that benefit dwindled with each pious pause and every gloating tilt of the head until it disappeared into the black hole drilled into my soul as she closed the last journal and said…

“We’ve talked about this and…”

“Wait! Who’s talked about this?”

She named off several of my closest friends and nodded to her husband.

“You’ve shared this with everyone?” I asked. “They all know you’re doing this to me?”

She mumbled something about they didn’t know exactly what she was going to do, but they all agreed someone needed to point out all these flaws and sinful character traits. It was decided she was the best one to confront me. After all, she was a women’s leader.

By now, my husband had found his voice more than once and, ever the peacemaker, was desperately trying to smooth things over between all of us. But he knew with this new information, the night was not only not going to end well, it was about to explode. I literally jumped to my feet. He followed, grabbed my arm, and called for the kids to get their things. We were going home.

I knew my next words were not from God at all. Shame on me! Oh, desperate shame on me! I forgot who my real enemy was. I forgot any ounce of truth she had spoken. And I forgot what Love had done for everyone in that house. I didn’t care! But He did!  

To be continued…

Jesus’ first pupils had so much to learn and they were trying. It was a lot to comprehend, to say the least. Not only did they have all the lessons Jesus taught, they were also witnesses to all of Jesus’ miracles. And they were even privileged to do a few miracles and cast out demons themselves. Is it any wonder they got a little uppity when a few scrawny kids drew near their Master Teacher? Surely children were not worthy of the Messiah’s time. But Jesus. (I still love that little three letter word). But Jesus rebuked His disciples and gave of Himself to each child who was brought to Him. As a bonus, He added in a lesson on humility and the nature of heaven.

Interestingly, the next experience this band of followers would encounter was with a rich young ruler asking how to have eternal life. I wonder if the disciples were excited at the possibility of this rich influential guy joining their group. Jesus told him to obey the two most important commandments: love God and love others. Then Jesus told this ruler to sell all he had, give to the poor, and then come follow Him. This man wouldn’t do that and he left. 

The very one that appeared to be a great addition to their group wouldn’t come to Jesus, and the wee little ones the disciples tried to block from coming were embraced by the Savior.

We need to guard against having so much knowledge and understanding of mysteries we hinder the little ones (whoever that may be) from coming to Jesus while giving preference to those we think would be great to have on His team. We are not the screening producers for Jesus in a reality show. It is not our place to judge who will lay down all and come and follow. We are His disciples, His students.

Our job is to love the whosoevers and bring them to Jesus.

Journal’s Malice

My friend pulled out another journal. I’d lost count of what number. She turned to the page marked by a pink slip of paper. She started reading about a back yard club I helped start and participate in with another friend. She went on and on about my attitude and some quip remark I’d made to the other friend. Of course, she asked if I remembered the incident and of course I replied I didn’t.

I did ask her if this other friend had shared this information with her. She said she did and that is why she wrote it down. I asked if this other friend was offended. She said she didn’t really know, but wanted to bring it up to me because she would be offended if I’d said it to her. After all, my sarcasm was my worst feature.

Then I asked if she remembered me telling her about the little guy who came to the Lord during the week of our little back yard club. She did recall that, but it did not negate my attitude problem and isn’t it a good thing God worked in the boy’s life in spite of me?

A tear slipped down my cheek. I let go of my husband’s hand to wipe it away. No one would see weakness, not if I could help it.

To be continued…

Before we go deep into I Corinthians 13, we need to look at a few basic notions that need to be clarified or we might have some misleading ideas lingering around causing confusion.

One: I Corinthians 13 is not just for married couples. Think about it. When was the last time you heard a sermon on this chapter not connected to a wedding ceremony? You’d think married couples were the only ones capable of “true love.” Not that it should not be applied to marriage, but the context of the chapter is smack dab in the middle of Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts. This instruction is not just for a select few who are married, those who have special gifts as they are all uniquely given by God, or for those who have reached the elusive pinnacle of agapē love. I Corinthians 13 is for all one anothers!

Two: The word “love” in I Corinthians 13 is the Greek word agapē, a feminine noun that includes in its definition brotherly love. We covered this in depth previously so I will not belabor the point save only to remind us that all love is from God and when known, felt, and exhibited within His framework it is good, holy, and pure. 

The more important point regarding love’s definition is that biblical love is both a noun and a verb. As James makes clear in his epistle, if you look for love only as a noun (in word only) you really have no love at all. Love is not just theory. It is not just something we have. It is something we do and practice.

Three: Jesus said, “If you love (agapaō) me keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Multiple times throughout Scripture, God equates love with His commandments. Strip God’s commandments from I Corinthians 13 and we have only a partial lesson plan and we will without a doubt fail. 

Now that we have these clarifications in place, let’s dig into this amazing passage.

I don’t know of any better example of noisy gongs and clanging cymbals than the religious leaders of Jesus’s day. Jesus pronounced seven “woes” on them in Matthew 23. I think one should have been enough, but obviously seven didn’t even get through to them. They were so busy making religious noise they didn’t even recognize Love when He walked in their midst. 

But, we must also be careful when we share God’s truth with others. Can they see His love in our words, our tone, and our non-verbal communication…especially in our eyes? Or is our noise so loud and our clanging so annoying all they see is pious hypocrisy?

Journal’s Malice

Many years ago, I sat in a living room with a girlfriend and our husband while all the kids bounced on beds upstairs. This scene was not new. We fellowshipped with this couple for years and stood by them in a time of great difficulty within our church. We’d just finished a wonderful meal together. I assumed we were going to share some laughs. But that night the joke was on me…only I wasn’t laughing when this grueling evening was over.

I should’ve known something was amiss when my friend pulled out one of her many journals and opened up the conversation with, “Elaine, we need to talk…” Only she didn’t talk. She read. Years of journal entries about me was the topic and it wasn’t sunshine and roses. Every wrong I had ever committed within our circle of friends was meticulously written down. 

“For the record,” she said. 

“I’m sharing this with you for your own good,” she said.

Every once in a while she looked up from her reading and asked, “Do you remember three years ago…?” 

I was a mother of three kids under six years old. I could barely remember that morning’s breakfast let alone something I may or may not have said three years ago! I sat in stunned silence and if you know me at all, that does not happen often. I grabbed my husband’s hand and tried to make eye contact, but his eyes were as glazed over as mine. 

I glanced over at her husband. He had a pasted smile on his face, his hands were folded in his lap, and his legs were crossed. He tried to look relaxed, but his jaw twitched as he stared at nothing. Now I know he was torn between empathy for me and relief that she was reading about someone else instead of him for a change.

She kept reading, but all I heard were clanging cymbals and noisy gongs smashing inside my head and ripping at my heart.    

To be continued…

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!