MORNING MANNA 8-1-23
THE NEED FOR LOVEThe first thing I read this morning was the following article by Paul Chappell:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”– 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
It’s easy to look around and see that churches today are not making the same kind of impact on society that the early churches did in the first century. We have tools and techniques they could not even have imagined. We have programs and plans that have been market tested and promoted. We have buildings with comfortable chairs and air conditioning and state-of-the-art sound and light systems. But first-century churches shook the world without any of those things. What they had was an overwhelming love. They loved God wholeheartedly. They loved each other sacrificially. They loved the lost with a passion that made them brave every danger and overcome every obstacle to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
More than anything else, we need a revival and renewal of that kind of love if we want to have an impact on the world. The English Puritan Nathaniel Vincent wrote, “O love! How much want is there of you in the Church of Christ! And how much does the Church feel for this want! It groans, it languishes, it dies daily because of your absence. Return, O love, return! Repair breaches, restore paths to dwell in, edify the old ways and places, and raise up the foundations of many generations.”
Nothing done without love as its foundation and motivation will create lasting positive results. As the old hymn put it:
Let us love our God supremely,
Let us love each other too.
Let us love and pray for sinners
‘Til our God makes all things new.
More than anything else, we need a revival of love to set the church on fire.
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
Humble, Tx.
