Post Sunday February 8 2009

1 Corinthians 13:10-13 “But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

I’m really quiet today. Not much wants to come out of me. Two weeks of dissecting love can do that to you. Since the beginning of time we have searched out love, songs continue to be written about love, about the search for it, the pain of it and the joy of it. Solomon wrote a song of love to his love and you can read it in the Old Testament. Seeing that God is love it makes sense that love has been around since Day 1, well at least Day 1 according to our human records. Love is a very powerful thing. So why today so silent after hearing and learning so much? Shouldn’t I be the opposite?

I think in part the silence exists because each time you focus on love you see the sheer depth of it, the awesome unyielding power of it, the passionate strength of it and it can cause you to begin to wonder if God made a mistake entrusting me with it.
God doesn’t make mistakes so I was able to immediately rule that thought out. Read the verses above from the end of 1 Corinthians 13 again with me.

Have you ever had that moment in which at one moment you were so confident about what you were doing and then you hear somebody say something, or you watch them do something or teach something that is so totally superior to what you thought you knew that it felt like you were just told to go back over there and sit down little boy? So you kind of slink on over to the corner hoping you won’t be called on again?
God has never asked us to leave His presence…step out of the way and let Him lead, yes…but never to leave His presence. So that thought can be ruled out. Read the verses above from the end of 1 Corinthians 13 again with me.

I believe a better explanation of the potential silence is the fact that the love we defined over the past couple of weeks, that more excellent way, is so much beyond what we think of excellent (we use that word a lot, just like love), but the more excellent way we now know after defining love is what Paul wrote in verse 10. It is perfect. Now that word I do not overuse. Perfect is perfection and I know I’ve rarely ever experienced that, perfection. I was told even yesterday, “remember Eric, you can’t make things perfect.” That is true, I can’t, but when you encounter perfection as Paul is writing to us here in 1 Corinthians 13 then that which is in part will be done away. I guess that might be what I’m feeling in this silence. That which I knew in part is once again being done away with. How can it not after seeing love defined in its perfection?

When you encounter these moments and according to what awaits us in eternity that is exactly what they are, just moments in time, when you encounter these moments you suddenly realize that some of the things, some of the behaviors, some of your life is calling out to you to move on and grow up a bit. Hard for a 40 year old to say, I need to grow up. But if I fail to recognize that, I fail to allow God’s sanctification process to continue in my life. His sanctification of my life is a day by day occurrence in which He is making me like His Son. For as I said yesterday, I have died and the life I live is no longer mine, but it is Christ whose life I have taken on, it is Christ who lives within me.

We had a glimpse of perfection yesterday in the raw power of agape love. Each one of those facets of the definition of love can easily be found and lived out in the person of Christ. He was never embarrassed or ashamed to love with patience and kindness even if people where clearly taking advantage of Him (John 6:26 “Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”). His love did not envy or boast and it was certainly not arrogant (how can a love that places itself on a cursed cross be arrogant!) His love is not rude and it certainly did not seek its own! His love did not cause Him to erupt in violence and it did not keep a record of wrong (in fact it loved so deeply that it would erase all the records of wrong for those who in faith would turn them over to Him!) His love never rejoiced at wrongdoing but rather it rejoiced in the truth (He is the truth, John 14:6). Love never fails, because God is love and God is eternal.

As I come face to face with this perfect love and then I look in that mirror as Paul describes in the verses that started this rambling, I immediately see two things, I see the child who so badly desires to be a man of God and I can only see this in part. But through that reflection I can also see the person who I one day will be when the battles of this earth are done and I find myself in the very presence of God for all eternity.

In this silence, I desire the quiet of the time to speak to me about what it is that my God is asking of me to begin to embody a bit more maturely. Yet another piece of that child that is ready to give way in the continuation of maturing into the man of God. Does the love I now posses….Is it a more patient love? Is it a kinder, more gracious love, a love that is less self-seeking today than it was yesterday? Whatever it maybe it is something that God desires, for I have not been silenced to be moved off into a corner or because God is rethinking His plan for me, but because in His wisdom He is teaching me how He loves me so that I can in turn live that out more often in my life.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. What events of your life came rushing into your mind when love was defined and described on Sunday? Why do you think you focused on those events at this point of your life?

2. If you were to stand before God today do you think your current definition of what a child is and what an adult is would change? Now read 1 Corinthians 13:10-13 again. Did Paul’s writing about a child and an adult change for you a bit?

pastor e