If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13: 1)
Jonathan Swift, who wrote Gulliver’s Travels, once made this observation: “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” He lived from 1667-1745, yet his times are little different from ours. In spite of centuries of so-called development, we still suffer from the same malaise of the soul: lovelessness. If that were not enough, then certainly, Paul’s stellar letter on love should convince. Written 2000 years ago, Paul began his treatise on love with a negative: “but have not love”. Apparently, lovelessness is a human and moral endemic that spans the centuries.
As it applies to the Body of Christ, there is no greater tragedy than the farce our quarrelling and divisiveness reveal of our community life. We are laughably divided and disunited. But is there a place for disagreement, even sharp words of contention among Christians? Naturally. Paul and Barnabas fell out so badly that they parted company (Acts 15: 36-41). But it is noteworthy that Paul acknowledged the later contribution of Mark (bone of contention) to the gospel years down the road (2 Timothy 4: 11; Colossians 4: 10-11). Needless to say, Paul observed the same principle and heart’s motive that he and the other apostles preached about, which was that love covered a multitude of sins and weaknesses (see 1 Peter 4: 7-8).
He enjoyed a measure of reconciliation with Barnabas eventually. He was compelled to give John Mark a second chance at ministry, knowing full well the extent of his own culpabilities and sins. In fact Mark, in time, became a trusted co-worker of Paul’s. The message his behaviour sent out was that there was nothing that love could not bridge. No level of dissension, no difference of opinion, no controversy, no issue was too great for the peace of Christ, that surpasses all understanding, to cross. Indeed He is our peace that has broken down every wall (Ephesians 2: 14). If we do not grasp this early, then in truth we must confess that our lives are not lived according to kingdom values … there is no further need for comment or justification. We live or die by this rule. We must stand or fall by it.
Giving way to one another, preferring the other to oneself … these are hallmarks of the Christian life: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13: 34-35). Deference is not humiliation. Neither is it defeat. It is in fact the true humility that Jesus exhorts us to exhibit. If my brother has an issue with me, I am obliged to make peace with him, to give an account of myself to him … in order that he be not injured in spirit or in mind. I cannot remain silent, if my silence will hurt him. If I disagree with my brother, I am obliged to give him the benefit of the doubt, while expressing my concern and discomfort to him. I must do all I can to gently bring him to a point of conviction. But I cannot raise my hand against him to his hurt.
Suffice it to say that few of us follow Christ in any of this, which is why we have written many books and articles and preached many sermons to justify the odious things we do in His Name … Anything, rather than the obvious thing. Therefore, Paul’s chapter on love must not convict us from the peripheries of our conscience, but strike us hard in our heart of hearts: “ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” In other words, I have nothing by which to commend myself, either to man or to God. I stand weightless in the scale of justice as well as the scale of love. I am much to be pitied, for in spite of loudly proclaiming that I have found the Christ, I have neither seen the truth of His forgiveness nor have I plumbed the depths of His unmeasured love.
