Are You Living in the Most Excellent Way?
What is the most important thing you must do as a follower of Jesus? Can we identify one central act or attitude that is clearly superior to others? And, is it achievable?
And yet, I will show you the most excellent way. 1 Corinthians 12:31
Right in the middle of Paul’s discussion with the church in Corinth about spiritual gifts, he pulls them to an important reality: all the gifting in the world is completely useless and even distracting without love!
It’s Love!
Jesus called this the great commandment: love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
It is important to grasp the meaning and reality and application of the word love. It is, of course, the Greek word agape. What do we know about agape?
What is agape?
- We know that this kind of love – agape – comes only from God. It cannot be worked up by our own effort. We can only receive it from God.
- It is infinite in supply. There will never be a drought of agape!
- It is unconditional. You cannot earn it and it is not given in reciprocity. It is not diminished if it is not returned.
- It is action. Jesus command to love is clearly a call to action. We don’t wait to feel it or try to possess it; we simply give it!
Paul’s describes it in 1 Corinthians 13. Here are some of the things he says about it. Love:
- is patient and kind.
- does not envy or boast and is not proud.
- does not dishonor others and is not self-seeking.
- is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs.
- always: protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres.
- never fails!
Clearly this love is superior in every way!
Our Call to Love
Our lives are to be infused and saturated with agape. This is strong evidence in our lives as followers of Jesus. It must be obvious and tangible in our lives – something we should never be able to hide!
Whatever spiritual gift we have, then, is saturated with it: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle worker, healing, helping, guidance, tongues, interpretation of tongues. Every gift, then, becomes so infused with it that the gift is lost in the love.
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 14:1
Paul sandwiches the description of spiritual gifts with the exhortation about following the way of agape. The way is the lifestyle, the path of life we live on. What he is saying that we don’t add love to our quest for spiritual gifts, we add spiritual gifts to our lifestyle of love!
Love takes the primary position in the life of the Spirit filled follower of Jesus. As we desire spiritual gifts, we desire even more the love of God to fill us!
Paul was very clear that it was wrong to desire the most demonstrative gifts in order to establish some kind of spiritual hierarchy! When you examine the characteristics of love, you must realize that there is no spiritual hierarchy there! It is all about love and the one on whom we bestow it!
How We Express It
We give love to God in worship, in adoration, in praise, in song, in obedience, in glory! Our expressions of love to God are never about us and always about him.
We give our love to each other in word, service, encouragement, prayer, tenderness, compassion. Our expressions of love to each other are never about us and always about the one we are giving it to.
The Most Excellent Way
God’s perfect love is for us to experience and to pass on. In fact, we cannot simply experience it; it must be expressed! That is part of the fundamental nature of his love. It is expressive. When it is poured into our lives, it is truly poured through our lives.
Living in love makes us agents of transformation in the world. Whenever it is expressed, love is transformational. It transforms the one giving it. We cannot give love without a serendipitous effect upon ourselves. Giving it does something powerful to us – it becomes the very experience of God’s manifest presence in our lives. We cannot give love without a transformational effect on the one receiving it. They, too, experience God’s manifest presence in the simple sincere act of receiving that love.
Today, ask God to help you receive and express his love. Ask him to help you live in the most excellent way. Be overwhelmed, saturated and empowered by his love to help you live the abundant life and to change your world.
Recent Comments