I was recently in a conversation with a friend who said there is a concerted movement in the United States to destroy Christianity. Immediately yellow “Caution” signs flashed in my brain, and I thought, “Oh boy, where is this coming from, and where is this going?” My friend went on describe, with authority, that all sorts of underhanded groups, motivated by Marxism, are attempted to eradicate our nation’s history of and connection with Christianity. The tone of voice he used was dark, foreboding, and carried absolute certainty. He communicated what he believed to be truths, making them sound like facts that everyone agreed upon.
Because our conversation was part of a group book study which I was leading, I was concerned that my friend’s comments were going derail the entire book study. So I interrupted him, said that we needed pause that line of thinking to keep the discussion on track. Later that week I emailed him, asking him to provide source material for his comments. I was fairly certain he had not come up with his ideas on his own. He wrote back with the name of a book that someone else gave him, as it was the book that informed his thinking. Now he has given me the book, and I am going to read it. Before I started reading, though, I did some searching online, seeking reviews of the book. What I found is telling. Those from one political ideology love the book. Those from the opposite ideology do not love the book. But I will read the book and evaluate for myself before I respond further to my friend.
Have you encountered what I encountered with my friend? Someone speaking with a tone of authority about their ideological viewpoint, and they are making claims, which they say are factual, but which you never heard of before? Maybe they speak with passion and intensity, and yet you get the feeling that their view of the world is very different from your own. My guess is that most of you have experienced this. I suspect you have experienced this because it is part and parcel of our contemporary culture in America. We are largely comprised of two very different opinions about the world.
The same goes for the church. A few years ago I blogged about how we need to be Purple Churches (here). Not red (conservative Republican) and not blue (progressive/liberal Democrat). We need to be church families where red and blue mix together, under the leadership of Jesus our King because we are citizens of his Kingdom.
But that mixing is difficult. It means we’ll have relationships with people who think very differently from us. How do we do that? How do we have conversations with people from the other viewpoint?
This coming week on the blog is the next in our quarterly Current Events blog series, and we are going to see what the Scriptures teach us about how Christians can talk with and relate to others with whom we disagree.
Finally the psalmist says in Psalm 96 that worship is when we come to God’s courts, which is participation in the gathered community of believers. That is worship services on Sundays, but it could also be participation in a smaller group. We need each other. We need vital relationships with other believers. Worship God by opening yourself up to meaningful, vital connections with others in the church family. Be vulnerable. Open up time for others. Choose to be available when someone else needs a friend.
This is a heart matter. You can come to a worship service and never come into God’s courts. You can walk into a house with other Christians and in your heart and mind you are coming into God’s courts, his presence. This psalm is not about location. This is about a gathering with others whose hearts are for God and a desire for the mission of Kingdom to be the center of our lives.
By doing this, we worship him in the splendor of his holiness, we tremble before him, all the earth. Or as the psalmist says in verse 10, we say among the nations “The Lord reigns.” Those words are on our minds. We talk about God.
Finally verses 10-13 remind us that all creation rejoices, and that is a big part of why I wanted to talk about this psalm when we worship outdoors. Look around. Take it in. Notice how the creation rejoices!!!
The psalmist also says, we worship the Lord because the Lord will judge. That might sound negative. God is judge. Yes, but notice what kind of judge. He judges with equity, with righteousness and with truth. HE is good! He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of our heart and mind focus even in difficult times. He deserves our sacrifice. He is love, he is good.
In Psalm 96, this psalm about perspective, the psalmist started with a repetitive phrase, “Sing to the Lord,” which we talked about here and here. And now later in his song, he returns to a repetition. Look at verses 7-8. “Ascribe…Ascribe…Ascribe to the Lord.” What does it mean to “ascribe”? “Ascribe is not a common word in English.” Ascribing is to give, but with urgency. Literally, this repetition could be translated “Come on! Come on! Give it to him!”
Who is to “Come on, come on, give it to the Lord”? The psalmist tells us: “O families of nations.” There’s that global perspective again, which the psalmist has drawn our eyes to throughout the psalm!
What are we all to “Come on, come on give to him”? Again, the psalmist tells us: “Glory and strength.” What? Wait just a moment there. How can we give God strength? Even if every single person across the whole globe could somehow give their strength to God, he already has way more than that.
The psalmist is suggesting not that God needs our strength, but that we declare that God is the one who has omnipotent, all-powerful strength.
Finally, we ascribe, or say “Come on, come on! Give him the glory due his name.” Don’t hold back! Remember who he is. Think about him. Praise him.
Can you feel the energy coursing through this psalm? We are to praise God vigorously. I remember the first time I was blown away by singing. It was during my freshman year of college on a spring break mission trip to Guyana, South America. At the time, it was an extremely poor area of the world there on the Guyanese coast. The people there mostly lived in small shacks built above dirt plots. It’s super hot, crazy buggy, lots of malaria, and very little opportunity except to work at harvesting sugar cane, back-breaking work with a machete. It’s the kind of life that those of use living in wealthy nations and cultures would call very depressing and hopeless.
Because of that, in their tiny church building with bare wooden benches, the Guyanese Christians’ exuberant singing of praise to God shook me. I rarely would sing like that in my church in the USA. Maybe I never did. I would say that hardly anyone in the church I grew up in would sing like that. But those Guyanese Christians were right. God is worthy to be praised with the energy of “Come on, Come on, Give it to him!!!”
Come on, come on! When you sing, give him the glory due his name.
But this energy is not reserved for singing alone. God doesn’t really need our four songs once a week on Sundays (at least my congregation sings four songs each week…maybe yours sings a few more or less). Those four songs are great, and we need them! We should belt them out with all our hearts just like those amazing Guyanese Christians. But the psalmist in Psalm 96, verses 8 and 9, reminds us that worship of the Lord must go beyond singing.
“Bring an offering,” the psalmist writes. Sacrifice. Give generously. What sacrifice? What giving?
Most obviously, an offering can be financial. When we give an offering, we need to view the money what it truly is, God’s money, not ours. Like John Wesley said, “Earn all you can, save all you can, so you can give all you can.” Here’s what Wesley meant: Earn money. Money is not bad. Earn all you can, remembering that it is all God’s money. Then save it. Not in bank accounts or retirement accounts so that you can retire wealthy and enjoy the easy life. When Wesley said, “Save all you can,” he meant “Don’t spend it.”
This is the hard part for most of us, no matter how much money we have. Whether we have a little or a lot. Whether earn a little or a lot, our culture is a spending culture. I urge you to avoid a mindset where you think you deserve or desire luxury. If you have a lot of money, you might feel you deserve a big purchase that you always wanted, but do not need. Or if you have a little money, you might feel you deserve a purchase at the convenience store, but you do not need it. Save all you can, so you can give all you can. Be radical, sacrificial, crazy good givers.
But offering is not just financial. What else can we give as an offering? Our time! Are we giving our time to the mission of God’s Kingdom? Or are we believing that we already gave our time over the years, and now it is our time, MY time, time to retire and relax? Offering means we are sacrificing something, which goes beyond giving. We sacrifice for the mission of God’s Kingdom. No matter how young or old, no matter what our station in live, we offer ourselves.
In Psalm 96, verses 2 and 3 instruct us to proclaim God’s salvation day after day. This is the same idea that is encapsulated in the word “evangelism,” which is about proclaiming Good News. The psalmist reminds us that we have Good News story to share, and in verse 3 he describes it as declaring two things: (1) God’s glory among the nations, and (2) His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Notice the perspective again? (We’ve been talking all week about how this psalm gives us perspective, starting here.) The psalmist says Good News proclamation is global. “Among the nations, among all peoples!”
God has a global mindset. We, therefore, follow God’s heart to also have a global mindset. This is why I love that Faith Church has always been globally minded through supporting missionaries and our sister churches. This is why I love that we have people from our own church who are missionaries. This is why I love that we support CV SEEDS by hosting ESL classes here. By helping SEEDS we participate in doing what this psalmist suggests, by sharing the love of God with the nations, with people from all over the globe who now live in our community. On ESL nights, it is like a United Nations in our fellowship hall.
This is also why I am excited that our Outreach and Mission serve teams are pursuing us becoming a Church World Service Welcoming Church. There are refugees from all over the world who had to flee their homes because of ethnic, political and religious persecution. Eventually they find temporary dwelling in a refugee camp, as they work through the super long process of getting their permanent resettlement. Some are being resettled in Lancaster. We declare God’s glory and marvelous deeds by welcoming them, loving them, helping them get acclimated to life in Lancaster. And most of all, learning from them and their perspective.
As we move to verse 4, we learn why we sing and proclaim. Three reasons: (1) For great is the Lord, (2) most worthy of praise, and (3) thus he is to be feared above all gods. This, too, gives us perspective. We can get focused on the difficult situations of our lives. We all have difficulty. Some of us are going through severe difficulty. Some less severe. But we all have broken relationships or health problems or rough jobs.
The psalmist reminds us of the greatness of God. In the middle of our difficulty, let’s turn our attention to who God is, the great God who is worthy to be praised.
The psalmist isn’t saying that life isn’t hard. Instead when we praise God at all times, we shift our heart and mind perspective. In other words, we don’t just pretend all is well and sing lies. When we praise God at all times, we find comfort, strength and perspective in him.
A word about that last phrase, fearing God. That fear is not to be scared of God because he might harm or abuse us. Instead it is to have reverence and respect because of how amazing God is. God is perfect love, and he always responds and relates in love. So no matter what you’re going through, you can know that God loves you. God calls you his child, and he is a good, good father. This fearing him is a reverent, deep reflective awe for his love and power and sacrifice for you.
In the culture of the ancient Jews, there were actually many competing gods. In Psalm 96 verses 5 and 6 the psalmist says those other gods are idols, but the Lord is creator. He has splendor and majesty before him. Strength and glory in his sanctuary. There is no competition between God and other gods.
That fact causes the psalmist to repeat himself again, as we saw in the first two verses of the psalm, in this post. In the next post we’ll talk about the importance of his new repetition.
Psalm 96 begins with the repeated words: “Sing to the Lord.” Three times we read that in verses 1 & 2. This is a reminder that there is just something about singing that is special. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a good singer, and even if you kinda just grunt the words out, my guess is that you probably have some favorite songs. I recently made a Spotify playlist of songs that I like. When I’m washing the dishes or driving in the car or even sometimes in the church office, if you catch me at the right moment, I just might be singing those songs out loud.
What is it about music? It taps into our emotions. It gets to our hearts, minds, souls, and moves us. The psalmist begins this psalm saying, “Let’s sing to the Lord!” This dynamic is why we include music in our worship services, and why biblical teaching so frequently encourages us to sing to the Lord. In fact, the book of Psalms is a literal song book. This collection of 150 songs was like a hymnal for ancient Israel, and plenty of churches have actual Psalters in their pews. Psalters are simply the book of Psalms put to music.
Interestingly, the very first line of this psalm encourages us to do the exact opposite. While the Book of Psalms is 150 ancient songs, Psalm 96 verse 1 says, “Sing a new song!” So if you ever find yourself in a worship service thinking, “This is a new song. I don’t know this one,” then please go up to your worship leader after the service and thank them for following Scripture and teaching you new songs!
We need new songs because there is no end to the amount of praise that we could give to God. We could constantly write new songs every day and we would never exhaust the amount of material there is for praising God. There is also a dynamic about new songs that requires us to use our minds. New lyrics urge us to think about the words more, precisely because we are wondering what we are singing. Do you know what that is a called, the act of thinking about the words and ideas we are singing about God? That’s called doing theology. Psalm 96, verse 1, is a great reminder to us to be people who do theology by writing and singing new songs.
The next phrase is “All the earth.” The whole earth should sing to God. Does that start to give you a sense of perspective? You and I living in the 21st century have a beautiful vantage point, a perspective that the psalmist doesn’t have. We live in a time where we can literally see the whole earth. Maybe you’ve followed the new space race over the past few years, and what is different about the new space race as compared to the space race between the USA and the USSR in the 1960s is that private space companies are trying to corner a brand new market: space tourism. Just like you pay for a ticket to fly on a plane, we are getting closer and closer to the point where space travel will be accessible to more and more people. Already people can pay exorbitant amounts of money to fly into space, even to the International Space Station. Those who have taken short flights into space get to see something amazing. The circle of the earth. They all say that it gives them a new perspective on our planet.
The psalmist didn’t have that view of the globe, but he does suggest that the whole earth should praise God. This is interesting because ancient Israel could be accused of naval gazing, meaning that they were very self-focused. God, from his ancient covenant with Abraham, the grandfather of the nation, said that through Abraham’s family the whole world would be blessed. For the most part, though, Israel did a terrible job embracing that wider perspective. Instead they believed they were special in God’s eyes. After all, they were his chosen people. But they became self-focused, and they lost a global perspective. They neglected God’s heart of love for all people in the world. The psalmist seeks to restore that correct global perspective. You and I need a global perspective.
Also notice, when we sing new songs to God, all nations praise his name. It is right and good to worship God, using songs with lyrics that remind us that God is holy love, righteous and just, merciful and gracious. But we need to see that those songs are often written from our cultural perspective. People from all nations also have a story to tell about God. Not just European or North American people, but African, Asian and South American people.
We should eagerly hear from all nations because their unique perspective will help inform our own perspective. We can believe that we have God figured out, or that our own perspective is complete. But if we are humble and teachable, which all disciples of Jesus want to be, we will want to learn from Christians all over the world. Christians in Africa for example, because of their unique cultural situation, have a perspective on God that we North Americans need to hear from. That goes for all peoples around the world.
One of my favorite movies is Notting Hill from 1999, in which actor Hugh Grant plays a travel bookstore owner, William Thacker, whose store and apartment are located in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London. He has a chance encounter with American film superstar Anna Scott, played by Julia Roberts. Their chance encounter leads to a romantic relationship between William and Anna. The film is what has been called a romantic comedy because of so many hilarious lines and mishaps. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when William and Anna have a falling out, and William desperately tries to get Anna to see that she is overreacting.
He says to her, “Seriously. In the huge sweep of things, this stuff doesn’t matter.”
Just then, William’s hilarious roommate, Spike, pokes his head around the corner. He has clearly been listening to the conversation, and he says to William and Anna, “What he’s gonna say next is there’s people starving in the Sudan.”
William responds, “Well, there are, and we don’t have to go anywhere near that far. My best friend slipped down stairs, cracked her back… and she’s in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. All I’m asking for is a normal amount of perspective.”
A normal amount of perspective.
It’s hard to come by a normal amount of perspective these days.
The passage from the Bible we’re studying this week, Psalm 96, helps us have perspective. Pretty much all Bible passages help us have perspective. God’s perspective. But I am particularly taken by the perspective in this psalm. It’s a lot like the perspective that William was trying to give Anna in Notting Hill.
Here’s Psalm 96. Read it and notice the perspective it gives us.
Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD, all you families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Did you see the perspective this psalm provides us? Did you see how it is like what William wanted to Anna to remember? Yes, no, maybe? In the next post we’ll begin to take a closer look at Psalm 96 and the perspective it brings.
As you may have noticed, the month of September has been a transitional month between blog series. We completed the Gospel of John series in August, and in October we’ll be starting a series studying the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), which will take us to Advent.
During the month of September, then, we’ve had the opportunity for a variety of themes. David Hundert started the month guest blogging on how we can reflect the image of God. If you haven’t read his posts, you can do so starting here. This past week was Silent Sunday at Faith Church, so we didn’t have a sermon. Instead, we did a silent review of some main themes in the Gospel of John: Believe, Life, Love, and Spirit. On September 23rd I’ll start the next quarterly Current Events week of blog posts about how we can talk with people when we have significant ideological differences of opinion with them.
But what about this week? Because this coming Sunday Faith Church is having worship in a local park, I thought it would be good for our Worship in the Park sermon to connect with the fact that we will be worshiping outdoors. Let me explain.
Each week I write a mid-week devotional for Faith Church. You can read those on my Substack here. In recent months, I’ve worked through the compelling book When Church Stops Working by Root & Bertrand (first post here), and I currently studying the book Surprise the World by Michael Frost (first post here). Those mid-week devotionals are part of a Prayer Guide which includes readings in the book of Psalms. If you follow the guides, you’ll slowly pray through the entire Psalter. Since I started writing the prayer guides during the Covid shutdown of 2020, we’re in our second run through the Psalms. Recently we’ve been in the 90s, and Psalm 96, in particular, caught my attention as one that might work well for Worship in the Park.
So consider reading Psalm 96 ahead of time. See if you can figure out why I think it relates to Worship in the Park. Psalm 96 has a lot to say that also relates to life in 2023. Then check back on Monday, as we begin studying this wonderful psalm!
Yesterday (September 10, 2023) was another Silent Sunday…partially. We still sang worship to God, had prayer and announcements out loud, but the sermon was silent, guided on screen.
Why do we do Silent Sunday? Over the last ten years we’ve emphasized silence almost one Sunday worship service each year. Our inspiration comes from multiple sources, first and foremost Scripture. All passages below are from the NIV, except where noted. Consider the following:
We start with the wisdom of the Teacher: “There is…a time to be silent and a time to speak.” Ecclesiastes 3:7
But is a worship service a proper time to be silent? It seems many Hebrew writers thought so. Take a look:
“The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” Habakkuk 2:20
“Be silent before me, you islands!” Isaiah 41:1
“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.” Psalm 37:7
“Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near.” Zephaniah 1:7
“Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.” Zechariah 2:13
“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.” Psalm 62:1 (NRSV)
“There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God.” Psalm 65:1 (NASB)
There’s even one passage with a caution for those who are not silent: “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.’” Isaiah 30:15
Then consider this passage that explains the incredible value of silence: “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14 That one sounds a lot like the theme of a waiting church as discussed in the book When Church Stops Working. See my Substack posts about that starting here.
But those are all Old Testament passages, so are there any New Testament passages? Certainly! Of utmost importance, we look to the example of Jesus.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.” Luke 4:1-2
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Mark 1:35
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16
“After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23
“Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives.” Luke 21:37
Jesus also taught this kind of prayer:
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” Matthew 6:6
“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’” Mark 6:31
Did Jesus’ followers do what he did, and what he taught? Take a look at these passages.
“About noon the following day…Peter went up on the roof to pray.” Acts 10:9
“But when God…called me by his grace…my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia.” Galatians 1:15-17
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” James 1:19
I hope those passages give us solid biblical foundation for the value of the spiritual practice of silence, including silence in worship. Throughout Christian history, there are also traditions that emphasized silenced. The practice of Lectio Divina is a Bible study method emphasizing listening prayer. The Examen is an ancient practice of reflecting on the day, asking God to speak. Monasteries for centuries have included regular silence and solitude for prayer and biblical meditation. The Quakers include silence in their worship services. Taizé Prayer also features silence.
We do not enter into silence, however, for silence’s sake. We are silent so we can listen better. In the silence we listen how God might speak to us through Scripture and through his Spirit who lives in us. Especially given our noisy culture, it is rare that we invite silence into our lives. We need it.
You might ask, “Why would you have a silent sermon? Can’t I just do this at home?” Yes, and I think you should on a regular basis. But there is also the reality that you might not. So bringing yourself to worship for a silent Sunday is a way that you will be choosing to spend that time with God. Additionally, you will be silent together with the rest of the church family! That shared experience has the great possibility of amplifying its impact.
Note: In this post we welcome guest blogger, David Hundert. David is studying in Kairos University – Evangelical Seminary’s Master of Divinity program.
I started out this series of blog posts here with two simple questions. When you look in a mirror, what do you see? When you look in a mirror, what should you see?
I’m going to answer those questions in reverse. The answer to the second question is simple. If we are created in the image of God, and God is Love, then our reflection should be that of Love.
We should be patient and kind. We should never live lives that reflect envy, pride, or be boastful. We shouldn’t live our lives in a way that indicates that all we are out for is ourselves or dishonoring of others. We shouldn’t be easily angered or keep a track record of when we are wronged. We shouldn’t be happy when evil triumphs and we should be happy when the truth prevails. We should always protect, we should always trust, we should always hope, and we should definitely always persevere.
If God is Love, and Paul is describing Love, then brothers and sisters, this is the nature and characteristics of God! This is what we should see when we look in the mirror.
As to the first question, I can’t answer that one for you. Each one of us, will see something different. So I want to leave you with hope. In his letter to the Philippians, chapter 1, verses 3-6, Paul writes:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
This is our encouragement and our hope. God’s not done yet! If He remains in us and we in Him, If His love remains in us, we will continue to become more like Him. You cannot spend time in the presence of a Holy God, and walk away unchanged.
Note: In this post we welcome guest blogger, David Hundert. David is studying in Kairos University – Evangelical Seminary’s Master of Divinity program.
As we learned in the previous post, love is at the heart of what Jesus called the Old Testament’s two greatest commandments. How can we practice that kind of love? What does it look like in today’s world, for us to love unconditionally?
In 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 4 through 7 teach us what love is. However the chapter is meant to be read as a whole. The chapter tells us not only what love is, but what we aren’t if we don’t have it, so starting in verse 1, we read,
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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. 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. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The chapter begins with a description of eloquence, which in and of itself, is an amazing gift. Yet when used without love, it’s only as good as a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Imagine all of the effort that it takes to get to the point of eloquence in your speech. All of the studying and hard work. You get to the point where you can stand before kings and speak in a way that would be articulate and well-expressed. You are finally called to address an important audience, but all that they hear is noise!
The difference is love.
In verse 2, Paul mentions prophecy. This is the very gift that in verse 1 of the very next chapter, he mentions as the one gift he values most. This is the one gift that he says we should desire among all others, and yet he states in verse 2, that if he has the faith to move mountains or the ability to prophesy and have all knowledge, that without love, he is nothing.
He drives his point home in verse 3. He talks about the selfless, the one who gives up all that they own for the poor and less fortunate. He talks about the one who willingly lives a life of suffering, and yet without love, they’ve gained nothing. There are those that have given up everything, because they have adopted a lifestyle of poverty, because they feel that they will have possessions in heaven. Is it possible to live that kind of lifestyle, and even preach the gospel, and not have love? I don’t want to find out, do you?
In 1986, an artist by the name of Billy Crockett, released a song called “Portrait of Love,”
A traveling artist known as Paul, Painted truth with words, The truth that he saw was burning love, That comforts and disturbs.
Each year he grew until he knew, The portrait couldn’t wait, Without a sound, The man sat down, And he began to paint.
Love is patient, love is kind, Never jealous, free of pride, Love will never be confined, Love will abide, Love is hopeful, love’s not blind, Love is faithful, every time, Love is Someone, and When you open your eyes, you’ll find That love is alive.
I love the idea in the song, that Paul was an artist, whose medium in his art was words. The idea that the subject of his artwork was the Lord, and the medium he chose, Love, is inspirational.
Verses 1 through 3 described what it’s like to not have it, verses 4 through 7, probably the most famous and most quoted passage of Scripture, is the description of what love is. With a series of fifteen verbs (some with objects) Paul proceeds to describe the love that he has just insisted is the absolute necessity within Christian behavior.
The passage is basically broken down to three parts. It begins with two positive expressions of love (patience and kindness); followed by eight verbs expressing what love is not like or doesn’t do, the last of which is balanced by its positive counterpart. Finally, there is a list of four verbs, describing what love always is, the last of which ties back into the first item, patience, by means of its alternative expression, “endurance” or “perseverance.”
The next set of verses are an interesting contrast. Paul starts out with “Love never fails. On the one hand, this could be a continuation of the previous verses, but Paul intends it as a contrast.
I would like to make one observation here aside from the discussion at hand; take a bit of a rabbit trail here, but you will understand why in the end. There are those within the body of Christ, that use the last two-thirds of this verse as an excuse to refute Pentecostalism. They are referred to as “cessationist,” and they state that Paul mentions, in the English Standard Version, “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease…”
They use this to say that in modern day Christianity, those gifts no longer exist. Now, I’m not going to get into whether or not those gifts do or don’t exist today. However, keep in mind, they also tend to cut off the end of the verse where it says that knowledge will pass away. As believers that want to rightly read the Word of God, you have to be very careful picking and choosing what parts of what verses you want to use and how you use it.
In the case of this verse, Paul is using those as a contrast to his initial statement of “Love never fails.” Love doesn’t fail… These things do, but Love doesn’t. Paul continues this thought with contrasting the way things were, the way things are, and the way they will be. “When” he was a child, but when he “became” a man. “Now” we see in part, but we “will” see face to face. Now I know in part, but eventually I will know fully. This highlights the transitory nature of all things, however, Paul finishes out the passage with the three things that don’t. He states “…these three remain: faith, hope, and love.” He finishes with the greatest being love.
Engaging Scripture 