Yesterday morning was a bit of a time crunch for me, so it
felt like God gave me a seed from his word that held the promise of much more
than I had time to consider. The seed was, “So
now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[1]
The main thing I meditated on was why love is the greatest of
the three. It is fair to say that all three are absolute essentials of
relationship with God, and yet love stands supreme, even in the threesome
including faith and hope. Here is the short answer that ministered to me:
·
Faith is what we live by now, but will not be
needed in heaven, because, in heaven, we will live in constant sight of God and
our fellowship with him.
·
Hope is what we believe about the future now,
but it will not be needed in heaven because we will then be living what is now
our future hope
·
Love applies to everything, past, present,
future, since God’s love is eternal. He foreloved us, loves us now, loves us
forever, and paradise will be the enjoyment of perfect love after all fear has
been cast out.
My conclusion is that, whatever I am facing in my life, both
inwardly and outwardly, God is calling me back to the essentials. Everything
can be handled by faith, hope, and love, with love leading our faith and hope
to persevere until the end.
Today I came to this fascinating lesson on experiencing the
blessing of God, and sharing that with others. Even though there may be an
ongoing battle to have a pure heart in every expression of communication about
God, the solution to pride is not silence. It is learning to “let your light shine before others, so that
they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”[2]
The world, the flesh, and the devil, will constantly war against our purity of
heart, but we must strive to shine, and to shine purely,[3]
all at the same time, maturing “from one
degree of glory to another” every day of our lives.[4]
Here is a brief look at today’s lesson on how to abide in
Christ as a branch remaining in the vine, and so bearing fruit that gives glory
to God our Father:[5]
·
II Kings 6-7 speaks of the Syrians attacking
Samaria, leaving the people in a state of famine. Even “a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver”[6]
(mmmm, what donkey-head soup must have tasted like!), and “the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver.”[7]
People were starving; food was extremely expensive (pay attention to the
numbers). Application: God uses
the circumstances of life to expose areas of famine in our relationship with him
(“Blessed are the poor in spirit”[8]).
·
As always, God spoke to his people about what he
was going to do.[9]
Through Elisha the prophet he said, “Hear
the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD, Tomorrow about this time a seah of
fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at
the gate of Samaria” (7:1) Application: God is speaking to his
people just as precisely as he has always spoken before he acts. Note that the
economy, in one day, would go from an 80-shekels-for-a-donkey’s-head economy to
a 1-shekel-for-a-seah-of-fine-flour economy; and a tiny-bit-of-pigeon-poop-for-5-shekels
economy to a 2-seahs-of-barley-for-1-shekel economy.
·
The captain, who was the king of Israel’s trusted
leader, doubted that God could do this. He said, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing
be?” (7:2) Application: this addresses the times we secretly (or not
so secretly) tell God that he cannot do something he has promised because of
how impossible it looks to us.
·
God spoke to the captain through Elisha: “You shall see it with your own eyes, but
you shall not eat of it.” (7:2) Application: there are times when
people will see God doing what he said he would do, but miss out on it by their
lack of faith. This certainly was true all through Jesus’ ministry, and it is
just as true now.
·
The next day, it was four lepers outside the
city wall who discovered that God had driven the Syrian army away by creating
the sound of a large army attacking them.[10]
Application: God does what he says he will do. God uses lepers
(shepherds, fishermen, tax collectors, religious hypocrites, anyone poor in
spirit will do) to come and find what the huddling and fearful masses often
cannot see.
·
When the four lepers discovered the empty Syrian
camp, “they went into a tent and ate and
drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them.
Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and
went and hid them.”[11]
Application: I am a leper, someone outside the camp, who finds what I
need by God’s provision.
·
Suddenly, the lepers came to their senses and
realized they had an obligation to others: “Then
they said to one another, ‘We are not doing right. This day is a day of good
news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will
overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king's household’”[12]
Application: it is wrong to keep what we learn and experience of God to
ourselves, even from those who have treated us like outsiders.
·
After it was affirmed that the leper’s story was
true, “Then the people went out and
plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a
shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD”
(7:16). Application: God does what he says he will do.
·
So, what about the doubting captain? Well, the
king put him in charge at the gate where all the people were going back and
forth hauling plunder up from the Syrian camp. This is what happened: “And the people trampled him in the gate, so
that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him”
(7:17). Application: not only does God keep his word to his people about
what he will do for those who trust him, he also keeps his word to his people
about what he will do for those who refuse to trust him (think 7 letters to the
7 churches of Revelation 2-3).[13]
·
How did the watering of God’s word cause the
seed of faith, hope, and love to germinate in my heart? It showed me the
necessity of the righteous living by faith while in circumstances that look
exceptionally impossible; it showed me the necessity of hope looking ahead in
certainty that God will do all that he promised; and it showed me a kind of
love for God and his people that caused lepers to think first of God’s will,
and then how this applied to others, no matter who they were. Application:
Faith leads us to trust God for what he is doing in our lives now; hope leads
us to trust God for what he has promised to do in the future; and love so
covers a multitude of sins[14]
that we can love our neighbors as ourselves, love our enemies, pray for
persecutors, bless abusers, and do good to those who seek our harm (anyone
coming to mind?).[15]
Conclusion: There will be times in our lives when we will
feel like a leper confronted with the plunder of the Lord. We will find
ourselves alone, but with treasures of wisdom and knowledge freely offered to us
by God’s gracious provision. The gifts are for us, no doubt about it, but they
are never only for us. While the sap that flows from the vine into the branch
is clearly for the branch, it is also intended to flow through the branch for
the bearing of much fruit.
Even though we may feel like a leper to family members, or to
church groups we once associated with, we can be like the leper who has found
things outside the camp. We must humbly receive, spending time with God in
personal enjoyment of him and his blessings, and then go and tell others (even
those inside their self-protective fortresses) about what is freely given to
lepers.
In fact, I consider the possibility that some people who have
treated us like lepers might be able to receive our good news and testimonies if
they saw us humbling ourselves like lepers instead of trying to impress them
with our own goodness.
If you think there is something in here that God is speaking
to you, please share it with me, or in a comment to this post, or with other
believers you fellowship with.
Also, consider what God is giving you here along with
whatever he is giving you through his word as you meet with him on your own. We
can be sure that God’s work in the body of Christ will connect whatever he is
doing in each part of his body.
While seeing ourselves as spiritual lepers might seem
extreme, I hope we can all meet at the cross where we agree that, “blessed are the poor in spirit.”[16]
Let us feast on what God has given us, and then share it with each other for
everyone’s good. As Paul presented,
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.[17]
Live by faith? Yes! Look forward in hope? Yes! But, the
greatest of these is love.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
I Corinthians 13:13
[2]
Matthew 5:16
[3]
Matthew 5:8
[4]
II Corinthians 3:18
[5]
John 15:5-8 (John 15:1-11 as context)
[6]
II Kings 6:25
[7]
II Kings 6:25
[8]
Matthew 5:3
[9]
Cf Amos 3:7, and the way that God always told someone what he was doing before
he did it. Even the arrival of Jesus Christ into our world was prepared by God
telling people what he was doing. Jesus repeatedly told his disciples what he
was going to do in Jerusalem, about his death and resurrection. God’s word is
now full of him speaking to us about what he is doing to fulfill his will and
purpose in our world.
[10]
II Kings 7:3-7
[11]
II Kings 7:8
[12]
II Kings 7:9
[13]
John 3:16 is that beautiful invitation to the world to believe in Jesus and
experience eternal life. John 3:17-18, and John 3:36, show that there are dire
consequences to those who refuse the gift. Since all is of faith, the lesson of
the unbelieving captain is very applicable.
[14]
I Peter 4:8
[15]
Luke 10:27; Galatians 5:14; Romans 12:14; Matthew 5:43-44; Luke 6:27-28
[16]
Matthew 5:3, along with the rest of the Beatitudes from Matthew 5:3-12
[17]
Ephesians 4:15-16
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