Tag: christian love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 – Will Our Ministry Have Love?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

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. (New International Version)

Love almost defies definition. It is so large and so deep that we can only try and describe it. That’s because love cannot be contained within puny human definitions. Every person in the world knows love exists. We have felt it, experienced it, longed for it, need it, and given it.

Throughout history, music has explored the dimensions of love. It seems that the 1970’s were especially smitten with singing about love. The ‘70’s give us a taste of how big love is in life and what it does in the human experience.

Just by looking at the song titles, we see there are all kinds of love: “Mighty Love,” “Lotta Love,” “Back in Love,” “Sweet Love,” “Radar Love,” “Hot Love,” “Puppy Love,” “Young Love,” “Sugar Baby Love,” “Easy Love,” “Burning Love,” “Our Love,” apparently “Chuck E’s in Love,” there’s even a thing called “Muskrat Love,” and, it seems, a person can have a “Love Hangover.”

Maybe the song titles give us an idea of what love is and does: “Love Will Keep Us Together,” “Love Takes Time,” “Fallin’ in Love,” “Love is the Answer,” “Love is Thicker Than Water,” “Love Will Find a Way,” “Turn Your Love Around,” “Love Grows,” “I Think I Love You,” “Don’t Pull Your Love,” “Give a Little Love,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “Don’t Knock My Love,” and “Walk Away From Love.” 

It could be that love has something to do with attaching the word “baby” to it: “Love to Love You, Baby,” “Baby I Love Your Way,” “Lay a Little Lovin’ on Me, Baby,” “My Baby Loves Lovin’,” and Barry White is “Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby.”

Or perhaps love happens in certain places, such as: “Love’s Train,” “Love Rollercoaster,” “Love on a Two Way Street,” or maybe we need to slip into the ‘80’s to the “Love Shack.” Could be we just have to be a “Love Machine” (ooo-yeah!).

Indeed, when we think of love within our culture, it is something that we hope just happens to us, like the song, “I Woke Up in Love This Morning.” But when we think of biblical love, a real genuine godly love, it’s something we both give and receive. Turns out that love really is a two-way street; we all need love, to receive it and to give it. 

Without love, we die. Fish need water to swim; and we need love to survive. However, love doesn’t simply fall into our laps. Rather:

Love is a deliberate and intentional decision to meet the need of another person without showing favoritism or discrimination.

Mit Tdrahrhe

Love begins with God. God is love. Love is not only something God does; love is God’s true self and identity.  This is why love dominates so much of the Bible, as well as why our culture is so enamored with love.

Since, biblically, people are made in the image and likeness of God, there is an innate power, permanence, and presence of love deep within our souls. Even if people fail to know exactly where love comes from, we all have the collective human experience of understanding that love is supremely important.

The Apostle Paul’s beautiful description of love was penned because within the Corinthian church, there was a profound lack of love. The church was characterized by all kinds of unloving attitudes and actions, which is why they were so deeply divided among themselves. 

The Corinthian believers abused their freedom in Christ, refused to share with everyone, scorned their neighbors’ spiritual gifts, boasted about their accomplishments, sought power and recognition for themselves, and jockeyed for position in the church. So, the Corinthians needed to learn how important love is, as well as how and why to do it. Today’s New Testament lesson lets us know that love is essential, effective, and eternal. 

Love Is Essential

Love is of primary importance. Without love we might do great and impactful things, yet they will mean nothing. 

Once I decided to make a homemade pizza for my family. I spent a lot of time making my own crust, creating my own sauce, and carefully selecting the toppings. After it finally came out of the oven, it was a masterpiece!  As the chef, of course, I eagerly watched the family as they took their first bites, anticipating the rave reviews I would receive over my work of culinary art. 

But what I saw was the looks of people who were trying to be nice enough not to gag. My wise wife simply said to me, “Go ahead and have a bite.” I took one bite and spit it out of my mouth. I immediately knew what had happened. I accidentally used powdered sugar instead of flour to make my pizza crust. Even though everything else in the pizza was perfect, the one missing ingredient of flour ruined the entire meal and its experience.

Without love, it does not matter how many good works we do, how many people we help, or how much we understand the Bible and Christianity. Without love, life is just a schedule of activity with no heart to it. Apart from love, no one will ever be able to savor the good news of Jesus Christ. Religious activity in and of itself means nothing unless it is thoroughly infused with love.

Love is so large that it most certainly cannot be limited to a blog post. So we’ll pick it up in another post!….

1 Corinthians 14:1-12 – Pursue Love and Service

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Pursue love and use your ambition to try to get spiritual gifts but especially so that you might prophesy. This is because those who speak in a tongue don’t speak to people but to God; no one understands it—they speak mysteries by the Spirit. Those who prophesy speak to people, building them up, and giving them encouragement and comfort. People who speak in a tongue build up themselves; those who prophesy build up the church.I wish that all of you spoke in tongues, but I’d rather you could prophesy. Those who prophesy are more important than those who speak in tongues unless they are able to interpret them so that the church might be built up. 

After all, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I help you unless I speak to you with a revelation, some knowledge, a prophecy, or a teaching? Likewise, things that aren’t alive like a harp or a lyre can make a sound, but if there aren’t different notes in the sounds they make, how will the tune from the harp or the lyre be recognized? And if a trumpet call is unrecognizable, then who will prepare for battle? 

It’s the same way with you: If you don’t use language that is easy to understand when you speak in a tongue, then how will anyone understand what is said?It will be as if you are speaking into the air! There are probably many language families in the world, and none of them are without meaning. So, if I don’t know the meaning of the language, then I will be like a foreigner to those who speak it, and they will be like foreigners to me. The same holds true for you: since you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, use your ambition to try to work toward being the best at building up the church. (Common English Bible)

Sometimes we need to look at a section of Scripture and see its big picture message, not losing sight of the forest for the trees. At first glance, it might be tempting to question or delve into whether tongues (a private language of communicating with God) and prophecy (divinely inspired speech for a person or group based in Holy Scripture) are for today, or not. 

Please keep in mind that spiritual gifts of tongues and prophecy were not the Apostle Paul’s driving concern when he wrote to the Corinthians. Paul wanted the Corinthian believers – who were puffing themselves up like peacocks so that others would admire their gifts and abilities – to grasp a basic important message: pursue love by striving to excel in building up people.

If we miss love, we have lost sight of God’s Word to us. A preoccupation with tongues and prophecy only makes us lose the forest for a few tress. Rather, we are to keep thinking about how we show love for all our brothers and sisters in Christ and put some significant effort into doing our part to encourage them. 

Spiritual gifts are given by God to Christians as a means of loving and encouraging the Church. They are not given in a vacuum, as if those gifts are only for an individual’s help. They’re meant to be directed toward helping and serving others.

For example, I am a teacher of God’s Word. It would be really weird if I jumped out of bed on a Sunday morning, got dressed, looked in the mirror and taught at myself. Then, went back to bed dreaming about what a great teacher I am. Spiritual gifts are meant to be unpacked and used for the community, not self.

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

Winston Churchill

One of the great temptations of humanity is to finagle our efforts so that other people will notice and give props to our wonderful work. Indeed, we can write Facebook messages to garner as many “likes” as we can get, or post things on Twitter and our favorite blogs hoping to look smart and funny in the eyes of a community of people we may not even know personally. All the while we may be withholding love to actual people right in front our faces because they may not give to us the attention we crave.

Perhaps with Lent coming in another month, you might want to consider a fast from social media in order to better connect with people within your direct sphere of human touch and influence. Or maybe ask someone close to you what they believe your primary spiritual gifts are, with the expressed intention of using the information to explore fresh avenues of love and service to others. 

Whatever you do, pursue love and excel in building up the church.

Loving God, you have graciously gifted us all for love and service. May we continually see your love expressed to us through Jesus Christ so that we will be always inspired to pass on that same love to others for whom you also love. Amen.

Why Is Our Ministry Important?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment

Welcome, friends! Luke 4:14-30 is the account of Jesus reading the words of Isaiah the prophet to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and release for prisoners. How Christ used those words caused a huge commotion, and still does. Let’s find out together what happened. Click the videos below and let us consider Jesus….

Pastor Tim Ehrhardt, Luke 4:14-30

Gracious God, you bring glad tidings to the poor, heal the brokenhearted and free prisoners from jails. Please come to us and send us out, as forgiven people, to the poor, the brokenhearted, and the imprisoned. Amen.

2 Peter 1:2-15 – We Have Everything We Need

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus, he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

Therefore, I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. (New Revised Standard Version)

One of the greatest deceptions which befall humanity is the lie that we aren’t enough – that somehow we lack something in our core personhood. Another great deception is that God is holding out on us – that we’ve gotten the short end of things.

It is my hope and prayer that today’s New Testament lesson puts a stake through the heart of those twin deceiving vampires. Erroneous beliefs only suck the life out of us. Instead, we must imbibe deeply of sound theology which enables us to live robustly in this old fallen world.

The Lord is my shepherd;
   I have all that I need.

Psalm 23:1, NLT

We have everything we need to grow in grace. God’s provision for us is total and complete. By grace, we can discern between truth and error; endure hostility, hardship, even persecution; live with patience as we await the new heaven and new earth; and face anything in this present life with confidence and hope because we’ve been equipped for it all.

Core to all this provision is the very life of Christ. Jesus is the source of the power and grace needed to live this incredible life. The same resurrection power which raised Christ from the grave is available and provided to us.

Believers are not in some weird holding pattern, like a plane circling the airport waiting to land, twiddling our thumbs until Christ returns. No! This present life is to be fully engaged with the tools given us of faith, hope, and love. And those spiritual implements are sufficient to walk with boldness through the valley of the shadow of death.

It continually must be borne in mind that we are to take up the gifts given us and use them in our present sojourn on this earth. Let us put significant energy into our faith development through knowing our call to holiness; and knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, his power and suffering.

Carefully and confidently using our faith, we are to fully participate in God’s divine power through the qualities of:

  • Goodness. Cultivation of moral excellence is both helpful and needed in all our relationships. Goodness is like a seed planted. We need to give it proper amounts of water and sun and keep the weeds away.
  • Knowledge. There are two words in the ancient Greek for knowledge: one is a reference to acquiring information; and the other refers to actively using the information provided. The Apostle Peter uses the latter – an experiential knowledge which is wise, discerning, and discreet.
  • Self-Control. This is the ability to get a grip on yourself, to avoid controlling others and focus on all things within your own control. Ultimate control belongs to God; and we are called to self-control.
  • Endurance. To see the big picture, to look ahead and keep your eye on the goal, is the lived practice of endurance or perseverance. Everyone has patience. It’s rather a matter of whether we will tap into it, or not.
  • Godliness. The heart of godliness is awareness of self, others, and God – rightly relating to them all with wholeness and integrity.
  • Mutual Affection. Basic human kindness is imperative between two people, especially with fellow believers.
  • Love. This is the Christian’s consummate virtue. Whereas affection is to be mutual, love can always be done whether someone loves us back, or not. Genuine love can be directed at the unlovely, even enemies.

We are to be effective and productive in adding divine virtues to our lives. It’s not a matter of more but better.

Even a smidge of faith can move a mountain.

A kernel of goodness can produce a harvest of righteousness.

A little bit of knowledge can be turned into love.

Small self-control can develop into immense self-control.

Keeping our head up for a few seconds can help us see the goal and endure to the end.

One insight can create a cascade of godliness.

A single act of kindness can change a life forever.

Love, no matter how big or small, can change the world.

We possess all these qualities and are in want of nothing. We are enough because Christ is enough.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. – A Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi