Jul 21 2009
And the Greatest of These is Love…
I Corinthians 13 is called the love chapter and for good reason. It’s the proving ground for true Christ-likeness. In fact Jesus loved His enemies as an example for us.
How did He do that? Well, believe it or not even Jesus had to submit to the will of His Father, in order to have supernatural love. This is exactly what it takes for us to love the unlovable including those who hate us.
Have you noticed? It’s just as Scripture says–I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But without Him I can do nothing.
The point I’m trying to make is this. We Christians major on everything but what is important, don’t we? We’ve settled for a second-rate fraud that only faintly resembles real Christianity, with most of us merely doing our carnal best, which is meaningless and worthless, because we’re doing it in our flesh. Why do we settle for less? Because the real thing demands submission of our wills to God’s will. And that’s not easy to do, is it?
Even Jesus had to submit to God in order to be a useful vessel. Do you realize that if He hadn’t chosen to submit, He would never have gone to the cross in the first place? And if He hadn’t, you and I would have no hope of salvation. Just think of it. That’s how vital it is to submit to God. Our ability to submit can change the course of history, even change the world or hinder the plan of God.
So, who’s going to come out on top in this struggle between self and submission? God or us?
In the days ahead I believe it will be hard to be a believer. And when that day comes, it will be obvious which way we’ve gone–whether we’ve chosen to submit to God or to elevate ourselves over His will for us.
It won’t be pretty, but it will be clear, not only to us but to the world. So we dare not let ourselves be deceived believing we are good enough to call ourselves believers without submitting to God. It doesn’t work, and it never will.
We absolutely must get get this right if we want to win the world for Christ. I pray that God will replace our hearts of stone with hearts of compassion. I’m asking Him to help me see past what’s so apparent, to see the pain and circumstances behind the behaviors so I can feel compassion and grief over the pain of others. And when I can love like that, it will draw men to Christ as nothing else can. Let’s submit to God so they will know us by our love.
Help us, Lord, to love like Jesus loves, submitting to You so You can pour love and compassion through us to those You want to win. In Jesus’ wonderful name, amen.
Because of His great love,
Nancy
