Through the Bible - Proverbs 2-4, 1 Corinthians 14
Good morning,
18th Century pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards is probably best know for his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". Many have categorized him as focusing on sin and not love. I've read much of his printed materials, mostly transcripts from sermons. One book "Charity and It's Fruits" is a compilation of sermons from 1 Corinthians 13. It is basically 16 sermons, 368 pages about love as found in 1 Corinthians 13.
Edwards begins the first sermon by saying that "charity", which was the word used for love in the King James Version, as used in the New Testament ," is of much more extensive signification than as it is used generally in common discourse. What persons very often mean by "charity", in their ordinary conversation, is a disposition to hope and think the best of others, and to put a good construction on their words and behavior; and sometimes the word is use for a disposition to give to the poor. But these things are only certain particular branches, or fruits of that great virtue of charity which is so much insisted on throughout the New Testament. The word properly signifies love, or that disposition or affection whereby one is dear to another."
Yesterday's New Testament reading was in 1 Corinthians 13, the "love" chapter where we'll go for today's verse.
1 Cor 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; KJV
or from the NLT
or from the NLT
1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
Think about the word disposition, our tendency to act in a certain way. Looking at these verses, at this chapter, would it describe your disposition?
Edwards goes on to tell his hearers that "He that diligently guards his own spirit will not be very frequently or easily angry. He wisely keeps his mind in a calm, clear frame, and does not suffer it to be stirred with anger, except on extraordiinary occasions, and those that especially call for it."
Guarding your heart, your spirit is something that Solomon advises us to do in Proverbs 4 (which is in today's O.T. reading.. This keeping our minds in a calm clear frame is not easy to do, but it is possible if we live according to the Spirit.
Prov 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life. NIV
for it is the wellspring of life. NIV
As you go about your day today, why not ask the Lord to guard your heart, your spirit, not to be easily angered, irritable and have the disposition to "hope and think the best of others."
In closing out his final sermon on the passage Edwards writes, " Be willing, then, to undergo the labor, and meet the toil, and overcome the difficulty. What is it all in comparison with the sweet rest that is at your journey's end? Be willing to cross the natural inclination of flesh and blood, which is downward, and press onward and upward to the prize."
Phil 3:12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. NKJV
Read the chapter, how will you let is speak to you today?
Love Is the Greatest
13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. NLT
No comments:
Post a Comment