Superlatively gifted–and grumpy! | Dreaming Beneath the Spires
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,
but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries
and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor
and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
(I Corinthians 13).
This is a passage I frequently remind myself of, and if I fail to do so, Roy very kindly reminds me of it!!
The other day, I realized that 1 Corinthians 13 is not just brilliant rhetoric.
The I Paul refers to is a real person. Himself!
Paul was the man who spoke in tongues of men and of angels, who had the gift of prophecy, and could fathom mysteries (he talked of being snatched up to heaven) and had spiritual knowledge. His faith sowed the seeds of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. He owned little, and tells us of his shipwrecks, beatings, floggings, hunger, thirst, illnesses and sleeplessness.
His faith and spiritual insights, his lofty conceptions and brilliant and poetic expression of them all shine through his letters. As does his irascibility.
Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. Phil, 3:2. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! Galatians 5:12. He falls out with Mark, and splits up with his beloved Barnabas rather than give Mark a second chance. He laments later that everyone has deserted him.
He does, however, realize what was really important.
4 Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
5 It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil .
What’s beautiful is that these traits–being patient, kind, not indulging in envy or boasting, not being proud, or rude, or self-seeking, or easily angered–are all behavioural traits.
So the gifts which God gives you, which you can do nothing about either way–eloquence in speech, spiritual gifts like tongues, prophecy, spiritual wisdom, understanding and discernment, faith, the ability to endure heroic self-sacrifice– have nothing to do with character, with the kind of person you really are.
What matters is the behaviour that the wise man of the age, as well as the simplest and least privileged of God’s children can adopt–being patient and kind, not arrogant or boastful or rude or easily angered, not keeping a record of wrongs.
Easy, isn’t it?
Except when someone takes it upon themselves to be just the opposite to us. To be impatient and unkind, to be jealous of us, to boast, to show off, be rude, self-seeking and irascible.
Our reactions reveal to what extent we are really controlled by the spirit of God.
And if, we fail?
We repent, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again.
And that is the true beauty of the Christian life.
