How Shall Wisdom Be Vindicated For The Next Generation?
Good Morning Friends,
Each new crop of children must learn and cope with the frictions of a changing culture pressing against the love of an unchanged God. We always seem a bit behind the curve. Each generation takes responsibility for the work of society with the awkwardness of the reality that they have not crafted its laws but must work through them when they no longer work to create a desired end. There are always surprises. For example, I never thought I would spend as much time as I do in recycling stuff and trying to find uses for things and worrying about the weather. It is sad that often the sins of the father fall on the son and the environment is right up there near the top of the list. There is need for much forgiveness but an even greater need for love. And so, we ask in anticipation and in hope of what might be, knowing that some events will be of joy and others of deep sadness. How Shall Wisdom Be Vindicated For The Next Generation?
Scripture: But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 (NRSV)
“To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
Luke 7:31-35 (NRSV)
Message: There are some things in life worth the effort and love is the top of the list. Paul writes about this divine gift in a letter to the Corinthians. Unfortunately, they were more interested in personal fulfillment. They were not interested in building up their brothers and sisters in Christ. In the thirteenth chapter, Paul gave them a new orientation toward life that focused on putting other people first. He taught them to love, knowing that if they loved one another rightly, they would use their spiritual gifts properly. If there is any similarity between ancient Corinth and our modern-day church, it lies in our failure to love one another well. And indeed, this spills over into the problems of society. In fact, by many accounts we are often worse than the Corinthians. They had at least managed to stay united, despite the many abuses that were taking place in their fellowship. Today, most Christians are so self-centered that if we do not get our way, we simply go to the church down the street. We typically do not place others first, and we certainly do not commit ourselves to loving others in the way that Paul teaches. So, the problem for each new generation is to learn that love is the most important of all the gifts from God for in heaven faith and hope will have little purpose. So, we are called to pursue love, without which all our spiritual gifts amount to nothing. This is the wisdom to be claimed as children of God and heirs of a relationship crafted before time. Love is the greatest of these not only because it is eternal, but because it is of supreme importance as a covenant promise of God. It is the great truth and the only good we will ever possess. It will outlast the other virtues, for only love gives us a habitual and firm disposition to do good and is inherently greater by being the most God-like. God does not have faith or hope, but God is love and out of love does amazing things. So, when the supernatural sign gifts have already ceased. Other spiritual gifts, ministries, faith, hope, and patience will all one day cease to exist because they will cease to have purpose or meaning. But in that perfect day, when we see our Lord face to face, love will be for us just a beginning. Showing love, practicing love, living love now are of utmost importance, and more important than having any of the other virtues or gifts wonderful though they may be. And that is because love is the link God gives us with the divine and the connection the next generation needs to embrace to be held blameless for their actions.
Pray we appreciate the preeminence of love. Pray we acknowledge the necessity of love. Pray we recognize the futility of our actions if we do not love. Pray we learn the characteristics of love and practice them. Pray we discover the wisdom and permanence of a love that connects us to God. Pray that in all we pass on to the next generation we give them a reason to love. Pray we realize that the future is coming with the rising of the Sun and love awaits us all if we seek it with wisdom.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 