A QUESTION OUT OF THE BLUE

Ordination for the ministry is a time when older heads gather to see if they can put their stamp of approval on a younger head for the ministry. (Let's not debate the pros and cons of ordination itself, that can be for another day.)

There was an ordination exam during which the older heads asked the younger head about his views on the atonement, on creation ("Six days or eons of time?), the deity of Christ, the gospel message, etc., etc., etc. All those are good and standard areas to explore. After several hours, the chairman of the ordination committee felt enough was enough, that they had covered all the doctrinal bases, and asked, "Does anyone have a further question?"

One man said, "I do. I have two." He looked the young man straight in the eye and asked, "Son, do you love people?"

What kind of question is that? How else could he answer other than, "Yes, of course, I do"? That was the expected response and that's exactly what he said. OK. Can we go home now? But then came the second question and it was out of the blue: "How do you know?"

Those are two mighty good questions because, first of all, Paul says in I Corinthians 13 that unless you have love, your ministry, your service, whatever it is you do for the Lord, is nothing:

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."

That takes care of that, but what about the second question? "How do you know you love people?" Paul answers that question in I Corinthians 13 as well. He shows us what love does. We've read it; we've heard it at weddings. (Do we ever need to hear it before church meetings, committee meetings, business meetings, any Chtistian group meeting at all?) 

Let's do something with I Corinthians 13 and, once we do, I think it will make us say one sentence after we're through. Read it, replaceing "love" with your name in the blanks:

"_______ is patient, _____ is kind and ______ is not jealous; _____ does not brag and ____ is not arrogant, ________is not rude ; ________ does not seek his/her own, _____ is not easily angered; ________ does not take into account a wrong suffered, _______ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, ________ rejoices with the truth; ^_______ bears all things, _______believes all things, ____ hopes all things, _______ endures all things."

And all God's people said, "God, forgive me."