The Pilgrim Path---First Corinthians 13: 1 – 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

THE GREATEST OF THESE…

Just a while ago, Ed Welch (Christian Counselors Education Foundation) rang my bell with something he had written. It went about like this: “Theology is about answers. But you will need to remember that our calling as followers of Jesus involves guiding people with discernment---shepherding them with wisdom.” Well, we try to help people “heal” by the grace of God. We ask the Savior to “bathe” our efforts in love---as we work with them. Only the Living Savior “is” the ultimate answer in every situation. We cannot always “tell” people everything they want to hear in the chaos of life---we may be used by the Spirit to show them the Christ of God. You have no doubt found out that your neatly packaged---prearranged---“spiritual replies”---are not always as road-worthy as you had hoped they would be in every crisis of life. That is alright---because the LORD Himself, has His ways of demonstrating that He is more than sufficient for every “case” at hand! We are beginning to “see” on Sunday Evening’s---in the Old Testament Book of Habakkuk---that the prophet himself, probably thought he had everything about God already figured out. The LORD of Glory revealed to Habakkuk---that was far from the case. What Habakkuk was going to need to learn was, “the just shall live by faith.” The LORD knows exactly what HE is doing. Man is responsible. God Almighty is sovereign. All I / We can do in the face of such grand biblical realities is “worship” and “trust” Jehovah-Jesus!

If anyone “knew” a great deal about theological formulation---doctrinal data---the application of redemption---It was the Apostle Paul. We could not unlatch his sandals. Yet, he says---do not spend your time beating on pots and pans like a toddler. Ask the Holy Spirit to assist you---so you can “catch up” in your expressions of affection. Verses 4—7, of Chapter Thirteen, are used by the Spirit of God---to take my spiritual temperature---like almost “no” other passage in the New Testament. I may seem to have a whole lot going for me. In many ways, I may “look” the part of a disciple of Jesus---But how do I square up under this microscope? Especially under the pressures and adversities of day-to-day life? As Ole Lloyd-Jones used to say, “here is a bit of the acid test of the Christian life…” Love forgets itself—it does not continue to act childishly. Eugene Peterson gave us, THE MESSAGE paraphrase. I would not use it to replace a standard Bible translation---But it will certainly “knock down” my pride and arrogance from time to time. Here is such a passage:

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut.

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

HYMN

Though I may give all I possess,

And striving so my love profess,

But not be given by love within,

The profit soon turns strangely thin.

Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,

Our spirits long to be made whole,

Let inward love guide every deed;

By this we worship and are freed.

Hal Hopson, 1972

PRAYER From Robert Hawker:

You, LORD, are too rich to need anything from your creatures and you have yourself already bought the most costly things with a price no less dear than your own most precious blood.

So, my wise, gracious, kind, and compassionate LORD, I pray for grace to accept your counsel, and to buy from you gold tried in the fire, the white clothes of your righteousness, and the anointing of your blessed Spirit. Without money and without price.

I need them all, Amen.

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason

*** Please ask the LORD’S special care for Marious A. (Rose’s dear husband). This is his departure day to South Sudan. Many are the perils and problems ahead. May he know the presence and peace of Jesus Christ in the most awesome ways---and may the LORD keep His precious family in his absence…