Tension. Last year I went to Catalyst in Atlanta with the staff of the church I work with. Though choc full of good teaching, I am not a fan of some of the commercialism I feel is experienced there. However, I am a fan of the theme. It was called: “The Tension is Good.”
Most of the time, the tension isn’t good. Most of us want to resolve tension. We don’t like being in “limbo” or being in “the in-between.” I know I sure don’t for the most part. I don’t like living in the fog of understanding with no clearing in sight. I often seek understanding so much that I would forget virtues like faith, hope and love so that I might experience an illusion of control that comes with “understanding.”
However, God has really been working on my heart this month with “there is something greater than understanding, and that is love.” (Brennan Manning, Patched Together: A Story of My Story).
You would think, since I work with a church—and God’s greatest commandment is “Love God. Love people” (paraphrase)—that I would obviously practice this. However, for as simple as it is stated—it’s not always so easy in practice (aka--impossible without the Holy Spirit).
First Corinthians 13 is a passage that usually gets mistaken as the “marriage” passage in the Bible. I have been to countless weddings where “Love is patient, love is kind…” is read over and over again for a new husband and wife. However, as our pastor pointed out one Sunday, the passage was written by a single man. Paul wrote these words, which I believe describe the character and activity of God—describing the One who is love, and how we are to live in His love.
My favorite part of this passage, however, is the verse that comes after the description of love. In verse 12 it says: “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.” I might not understand everything right now—but that doesn’t stop me from being able to love.
Jesus sets the example for loving despite situations that may not make sense. Just before He is to be crucified, he has a meal with his disciples. Before they begin the meal, he washes their feet. Now, at this point, he knows that Judas—one of the disciples who walked with him throughout his ministry—is going to betray Him. Yet, that doesn’t stop him from washing Judas’ feet. This makes absolutely no sense. But, does love ever make sense?
I doubt he washed them with any form of resentment either. Just washed them with the same love that He showed His other disciples.
At the onset of the passage in 1 Corinthians 13, it says: “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. 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. 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.”
I can be close to the things of God without love. I can appear faithful and pious without love. I can talk the right talk without love. However, it doesn’t matter how many good deeds I can rack up if I do them without love. It doesn’t matter how many people I serve, how many books I read, how much faith I have, how many languages I spoke, how much knowledge I possessed—without love…without God—it was for nothing.
Sometimes, with love as the approach it seems like little gets done. It gets frustrating at times, and we don’t know always understand or see what’s going on. But understanding everything right now is not the point. It seems that the point looks more like this: trusting and being obedient that with God’s love—much always gets accomplished—and hopefully one day He’ll let me see it clearly—even as He sees me clearly now.
