I have grown through most of my Christian life in a group of believers where Christian manliness and spirituality was measured by toughness, militancy, and contention. “Fighting” has been a key word for much of my experience. Every so often the topic of “love” came up, but generally we left that the liberals and the softies. A real man is marked by his ability to fight.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that we are told to earnestly contend for the faith. I know that we are called to expose false teachers, and I know that we are not to allow sin to go unchecked in the body. Yet, the question is what motivates us to do those things?
I may be rare, or possibly even unique, but far too often I did the things expected of me, well, because they were expected of me. I wanted the acclaim of being a contender and a fighter. I liked being known as “militant” in my faith. I never wanted to be seen as soft, because softness meant I was a liberal, and in my mind there was nothing worse than being a liberal.
How then do we deal with 1 Corinthians 12? If I speak with eloquence, have the gift of preaching, understand all the deep mysteries of the Christianity, have the faith to move mountains, give all I have to feed the poor, and sacrifice by life for the Lord without the motivation of love what is it worth.?
Paul makes is clear – I am only making noise, I am nothing, and there is no profit to my life and ministry. In this light I have to ask myself, “How much of my life and ministry has been profitless?”
I would not presume to judge any man’s heart, perhaps many of the fighters, contenders, and militants truly are motivated by love and love alone. As we saw a couple of days ago, I need to examine my own heart to see what motivates me. If I don’t have love, I am only spinning my wheels.
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