“... if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
~1 Corinthians 13:2b (NRSV)
Fruit of
the Spirit unpeels Divine Love,
Joy and
peace and goodness from above,
Willingness
to obey every good thing,
Joy to God
with which to bring.
Father of
Lights redeems us to bestow,
Power to
envelop—insight to know,
These
Spiritual gifts given from above,
Are undersigned and ignited in a
thing called ‘Love’.
***
This is the thing. Such a great fuss
is made about ‘the gifts’—the Corinthian mistake—which is outplayed in myriad
order in every generation—and the point is missed. The point will always be
missed when we mistake skill for love.
God’s First And Final Test
The test of God is, God saying this,
‘Can you be like Me?’
This means, are we able to, in the
discharge of our gifts—faith, prophecy, wisdom, tongues, sacrifice, preaching,
pastoring, teaching, etc—master the portion of love required to the correct
agree. Is the gift indwelt with love? Truth, alone, is not enough.
It’s a test because it’s the most
difficult thing to do. To be able to exercise our skill in a way that honours
the Giver of our spiritual gifts is the requirement of this Divine order. But
we are more apt to forget Divine attribution—even, sometimes, in the midst of
church.
And then there are times when we
do get it right. God shows us. We feel blessed. It is confirmed in the way we
think and feel, both in authentic alignment, and the touch of God has been
felt. We achieved love within the expression of our gift.
Remembering To Never Forget
If the aforementioned was the test
of God, the test from our persons is our memory. Can we remember love is the
way? Can we recall, in the moment’s need, that love is to sprinkle its
anointing over the gifts of our works? Better, still, to be indebted to love;
to study and to fall in love with it through compassion, patience, kindness,
and its delighting in the truth.
Remembering to never forget is a
poisoned chalice. We will forget. We’ll issue our spiritual gifts without the
perfection of love and they won’t feel right—yet, God will allow them to rest
in love—for we ‘speak’ our gifts in Divine name; the Lord will sponsor it in
love making up for our deficiency. Ours is the opportunity to become reminded.
We are simply reminded when we
forget, God is love, and, whilst we might pretend, we so often aren’t. This
calls forth our need of God all the more.
***
The praise for every gift falls
silent without love.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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