A More Excellent Way
Have you ever had the feeling that there is more; something that is better than you have experienced so far? You may be content, but yet not satisfied. You may see the good, but yet knowing there is still the best to achieve. An Olympic athlete does not train and compete for the bronze. He goes for the gold. If he wins the bronze or even the silver, he may smile while on the podium, but there is still that disappointment for not achieving the best. Second best never really satisfies.
In chapter 12 of First Corinthians, Paul shares some really exciting things about spiritual gifts and the five-fold ministry. He gives some guidelines as to how they should operate in the church and encourages all to desire such giftings and service. Yet, in the last verse of this chapter he says there is still a more excellent way. He reveals this “gold” we are to go after in chapter 13. It is LOVE.
Love is a relationship. We can be kind, serving, friendly, and caring, without being in a relationship. We can minister in the anointing, be used in the gifts of the Spirit and lead multitudes without being in a relationship. Love requires involvement with someone. It is the sharing and receiving, teaching and being taught, correcting and being corrected, speaking and listening, and forgiving and being forgiven. It is being vulnerable and transparent with the person you are in relationship with. Jesus, the embodiment of love, emptied Himself of his divinity to become a man. He made Himself weak, took on the form of a servant, so He could relate to us.
Love is not virtual, artificial, external or distant. Love is connection; face to face relating. Jesus left heaven to come to earth. He didn’t text us a message or call us on skype. He physically connected to us in the worst of our humanity. Jesus took on Himself our sin and its consequence, thus resolving the barrier to a relationship. He did this because He loves us and wants to share with us life eternal.
Love is in the DNA of the Spirit of God. God is LOVE. When we place our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, His Love, (DNA), is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Paul told the Corinthian church that it was this love that controlled him, (II Cor. 5.14). It was love had him walk hundreds of miles to bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to the gentile world. It was love that had him correct the disciples when they erred. It was love that kept him giving and giving and giving. Love rules! There are no vicarious relationships in love; no movie spectators, just first hand, personal, one-on-one relating.
The good is often the enemy of the best. The good keeps us content with mediocrity. The good keeps us stagnant in our growing into the full stature of Christ. The good turns our hearts inward to where we feel safe. The good limits us to the few. Love opens our heart to the world. It is the fruit of the Tree of Life.
Faith and Hope are the bronze and silver of eternity, but the greatest, the gold, is Love.
Scriptures to meditate on: