I Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. NASB
People are such messed up creations. I guess you can say that life is difficult but some folks have a life that seems so blessed and others have life which seems so difficult. You know, the child who is born to a prosperous farming family in New Zealand versus the child born in war torn South Sudan who has nothing, is hungry and poor, lives in fear of militants and could be dead tomorrow. Yet both children struggle to live life without getting messed up by what it deals out to them. Both struggle not to be impacted by pride, envy, malice, jealousy, grief, abuse, addiction and a host of other powerful emotions and actual physical conditions that they encounter on their journey. These experiences shape their characters and the people that they become. It impacts the way that they view life and how they deal with those in their lives.
So we all grow up and develop issues. We can have a chip on our shoulder about our parents, our siblings, our social life, the family vehicle and any manner of things which are really not that important. Satan is a master at getting human beings twisted up inside about things that don’t matter but will steer them away from those who love them and God.
Every one of us has an angel that is tasked to help us and who loves us unfailingly but if we of our on volition decide to go toward the enemy they can’t stop us or help us if it is against our will. So the enemy elements tasked with disabling us and leading us into bondage to the devil can lead us to our literal destruction and that is their goal. If it is also inline with our will then the forces of Jehovah can only stand by and sadly watch. Unless you call on the name of the Lord in which case they can immediately move to assist us.
This brings us to the Lords word on the question of the greatest commandments. Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets. NASB
The simplest way to straighten out a human being is found in these two commandments. ‘Love the Lord with all of your heart’ and ‘Love your neighbor as you yourself.’ If you obey Jehovah and love him you will see that he loves you without limit. Nothing is beyond him and he can bring the stability, peace and love into your life that you need. This through Jesus Christ his only begotten Son and through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
If you obey the Lord and love your neighbor as you love yourself then you find that you are not the center of the universe. People are the most important thing to God and we have a task to show his love to them. To lead them to Jehovah through Jesus and to help them as much as we can. Like God without limit. A community filled with God’s love has peace, stability and love. Children are brought up in sanity to the realisation that others are as important as they are. Doors are unlocked and boundaries are respected in love. The law of God’s love is the most important thing.
As Christians this is of paramount importance. There are theological understandings that lead Christians to pull back from other Christians. The controversy over speaking in tongues and healing is a case in point. There is no doubt that there is occult sourced mediumistic tongues and healing that is very dangerous and should be avoided. But should not be feared and should not lead bible believing Christians to be timid in dealing with these groups. Obviously we need to be prayerful about any interactions where the enemy is at work in the Church. We also need to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and be prepared to move forward not hide away from them.
My point is that the Church is in decline in this time but there are still bible believing Christians out in the various denominations. Anyone who proclaims the gospel of salvation is our brother or sister in Jesus Christ.
Now the problem that we have which is the legacy of dividing into sects or denominations is that we mistrust each other. We might say to ourselves I’m a Baptist and I don’t trust people in the traditional churches. The Anglican, Methodist or Presbyterian Churches. Some are so extreme that they say that folk in those churches are not even saved.
There are those on either side of the Gifts and Speaking in Tongues issue. Some distrust the adherents to that doctrine and others distrust those who shun that doctrine. I’m not saying that there isn’t sound reason to question the doctrine.
As the apostle Peter said in II Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. NASB
I am saying that at this time the Church is beginning to become the Christian remnant. Bible believing true believers are to be found in all Churches but gone are the days when everyone who attends a Protestant Church is saved. So a true believer is the brother or sister who proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross for our sins. That the father raised him from the dead on the third day. The true believer has asked Jesus to forgive their sins and to come into their heart and is now reborn and walking in repentance indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. Such a person is our brother or sister in Christ Jesus.
We need to reach out to these people where ever they are and in fellowship as fellow believers in Jesus Christ We should offer our love and acceptance to them. If there are doctrinal issues we should commend them to Jehovah in Jesus name and allow God to correct them. If we can we should confront those errors but not in a destructive and hateful way. For together we are a chosen nation and a royal priesthood a people belonging to God. Wherever we are found.
I Peter2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light...”
So the most important thing to love one another as you would have them to love you.
I Corinthians 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Reference List
Scriptures from the New American Standard Bible and sourced from http://www.biblegateway.com 12/09/18
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