The greatest thing in the world III

(Continued from 25 November, 2014)

The analysis

After contrasting Love with these things, Paul, in three verses, very short, gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is. I ask you to look at it. It is a compound thing, he tells us. It is like light. As you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass it through a crystal prism, as you have seen it come out on the other side of the prism broken up into its component colours--red, and blue, and yellow, and violet, and orange, and all the colours of the rainbow--so Paul passes this thing, Love, through the magnificent prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes out on the other side broken up into its elements. And in these few words we have what one might call the Spectrum of Love, the analysis of Love. Will you observe what its elements are? Will you notice that they have common names; that they are virtues which we hear about every day; that they are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life; and how, by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues, the supreme thing, the summum bonum, is made up?

   
     The Spectrum of Love has nine ingredients:--
     Patience . . . . . . "Love suffereth long."
     Kindness . . . . . . "And is kind."
     Generosity . . . . "Love envieth not."
     Humility . . . . . . "Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."
     Courtesy . . . . . . "Doth not behave itself unseemly."
     Unselfishness . . "Seeketh not her own."
     Good Temper . . "Is not easily provoked."
     Guilelessness . . "Thinketh no evil."
     Sincerity . . . . . . "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth."

Anything is possible

Do not say something is impossible because anything is possible. Do not say it doesn't matter because it does. Unless you sat at the divine council, discussed the matter with God and reached a conclusion with Him; then you cannot say "it is not possible" or "it doesn't matter".

Do not say "it is impossible" because "anything is possible". It was Peter who told Christ that it was impossible for Him to be killed. "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee" Peter said but Christ told him to hold it, that that was a lie from the pit of hell. The antediluvian people thought Noah was crazy, going about making an ark for an imaginary rain and attendant flood that would never happen. But they were wrong. Esau thought it didn't matter and carelessly tossed his birthright to Jacob but learned the bitter truth too late. 

Anything is possible especially when believers play politics instead of praying, preaching and living practical Christian lives. Anything is possible when they engage in carnal disputations and discussions and surface-level reasoning instead of Spirit-inspired in depth analyses, factual dissection of issues and discerning the mind of God. Anything is possible when they begin to buy the old lie "it doesn't matter" instead of standing on "others may, I cannot". Anything is possible when believers have sight and know all the facts but have no vision and faith in God. 

We need to watch and pray, say no to all evil and act right because anything is possible.

(Written from the perspective of the threat of subjugation of Christians in Nigeria and some people claiming it is impossible)

Resisting temptation - wisdom nuggets for Christian wayfarers

"There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us"

"The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress"

"Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just. Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are"

"Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength"

SO LONG as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: "The life of man upon earth is a warfare."* Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. No one is so perfect or so holy but he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation. 

Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us -- in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness. 

Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return, more violent than before.