ListenDaily - 09 March 2009; The most excellent way
And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal...Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled...
From 1 Corinthians 12 & 13 (find this or any other passages at www.Biblegateway.org)
There are two points that I would like to focus on from this passage; remembering, of course, that this is part of a continual thought flowing through chapters 12 & 13, and remembering that there is always more to any passage than I have to say!
1 - "But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled..." There will come a day when all these gifts will no longer be needed. The debate is to whether this day has come already, or not. Some say that this day took place at the end of "New Testament times" and that all the Spiritual gifts departed with the Apostles. My feeling is that Paul is referring to the day when Christ returns, when love is perfected, and when discerning, prophesying, and special tongues are no longer needed for God will be dwelling with us.
2 - The thing that really jumps out to me about this passage is the importance of love. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." The passage goes on to express similar thought about other gifts...but listen to this! If I speak in plain English (or whatever my listeners speak), with a perfect testimony or sermon, with a flawless argument, and with a PhD. hanging on my wall, but without loving God and my neighbor, my message is utterly worthless.
If I 'speak in tongues', directly to God, but without loving God and my neighbor, my message and my prayers are worthless, completely worthless.
Speaking in tongues, preaching or teaching about tongues, seeking to speak in tongues, are all secondary to Christs Great Commandments: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
"...the most excellent way."
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Questions:
1. I think we are getting close to ending this discussion,,,what are your thoughts? Questions?
(I will not end it without a discussion on the Greek, and a few common teachings, thus far ignored.)
2. Chapter twelve and thirteen are part of the same writing...what is "the most excellent way"?
3. Many of you have mentioned divisions caused by this issue, how did that affect your 'church life', then and now?
AN INVITATION!
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INTERESTING THOUGHTS:
"One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church
any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always."
A.W. Tozer
"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other?
They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.
So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier.
The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life."
A.W. Tozer
"The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.
He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness,
in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day.
If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day."
E.M. Bounds
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