Undying Love
Personal Matters
In prayer last Friday we were directed to this text; “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” (1 Cor 12:4-6). A gathered church life where everyone has a contribution from one of the Persons of the Trinity clearly contradicts how things are today. The surprising reason for this can be traced back to our lack of submission to one another in Christ. Submission is an essential part of the “great mystery” of what it means to be betrothed to Jesus and involves a deep spiritual dynamic we have largely lost (Eph 5:32). The Lord is calling us to become a single family formed through mutual submission; this will involve a new revelation of the love of Christ, not only in the cross, but as it comes to us through other ordinary men and women.
Knowledge versus Love
Paul’s words, ““knowledge” puffs us but love builds up””, are profoundly illustrated by events in the Garden of Eden (1 Cor 8:1). The satanic temptation, “you will be like God knowing good and evil” contains a subtle deception that has proved ruinous for humanity (Gen 3:5). In eating the fruit Adam and Eve certainly came to know “good and evil”, but not as God knows it, for there is “no truth” in Satan the “father of lies” (Gen 3:22; John 8:44). When the LORD prophesied to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’”, he revealed he knew from the beginning that good would triumph over evil through his Son (Gen 3:15). All the children of God would certainly defeat the children of the devil (1 John 5:4). This however was not the knowledge that Adam and Eve inherited from Satan in Eden. In losing God’s presence their condemned consciences felt as if evil concentrated in the sentence of death had permanently triumphed (Gen 3:19; Rom 3:23). Only a very different sort of knowledge can undo the power of evil. Only undying love can undo the dreaded situation where the devil has “the power of death” and “through fear of death” subjects humanity to “lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14-15). This is the love of Christ (Rom 8:38-39).
Undying Love
Jesus confidently pronounced his victory over evil; “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”” (John 12:31-32). The way in which Christ’s love would triumph must however be maximally loving. Such absolute love meant that when Jesus “became sin” in our place on the cross he did not knowthat his Father was triumphing over the devil (2 Cor 5:21). The cry of the derelict, ““why have you forsaken me?”” testifies that the Son has been handed over to “the power of darkness” devoid of all assurance that the goodness of God in him will triumph over evil (Mark 15:34; Luke 22:53). This is the terrible cost borne by the holy love of Jesus for us. It was impossible however that Jesus be held by “the pains of death” (Acts 2:24). The resurrection is the seal of Christ’s final defeat of sin, Satan and death. Jesus’ body may have died but his love was undying, “Love never ends.” (1 Cor 13:8). God’s love is greater than every fallen experience of “the knowledge of good and evil” (John 3:16). Divine love triumphs over all such knowledge, whether satanic or human, in the death and resurrection of the Son of God. A revelation of this all-powerful reality has profound applications for our gatherings to worship.
Deathless Ministries
The exhortation, “be filled with the Spirit”, flows into “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” as we “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph 5:18-21). Mutual submission in the Church is a fruit of a Body filled with the Spirit. In a Spirit-filled congregation we hear the Lord through the mouths of fellow sisters and brothers and submit to him through them. We think of worship as a personal action directed vertically heavenwards, but mutual submission is core to New Testament worship; “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…. When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation let all things be done for edification.” (Col 3:16; 1 Cor 14:26). This is a call for a corporate revival in Christ’s love which alone brings maturity (1 Cor 8:1). It is love not gifts that are foundational to our worship.
The 12 disciples were powerfully gifted to heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead but later “all fell away” from the cross (Matt 10:8; 26:31). Their abandoning of Jesus reveals they were thinking as “orphans” who were not indwelt by the Spirit; he was “with” them but not yet “in” them (John 14:16-18). In Eden an orphan spirit of fear was sown into the heart of sinners who now know their inevitable death will separate them from the things of this world. This spirit has been overcome by Christ, yet it is quenching the Spirit in the churches. Whenever a believer through fear of rejection fails to submit to the Spirit’s prompting to release gifts for the Body they show themselves to still be in the grip of the pains of death. The undying love of Christ revealed by the Spirit of resurrection life can quell this fear (Rom 8:11). “Through death” Jesus has “destroyed him who has the power of death” and liberated all believers from “the fear of death” (Heb 2:14-15). Any word from Christ inspired by the Spirit and manifested in his Body is an expression of his undying love. As we submit to the repeated promptings of the Spirit to testify to Jesus and by faith act against our fears of rejection we progressively move out of Satan’s sphere of influence and into the glorious freedom of the sons of God (John 1:12; 2 Cor 3:18). Christ is revealed through us. Hallelujah!
Conclusion
In theory, every Christian is submitted to Jesus as Lord (1 Cor 12:3). But in practice this involves submitting to the “varieties of gifts…varieties of service (and) varieties of activities” that come via men and women who are weak and broken (1 Cor 12:4-6). To receive the word of the Lord through sinners requires considerable humility in the way of the cross. It is just as difficult to submit to the Spirit’s promptings knowing that at times rejection and ridicule will follow. The paralysed state of the Church in the matter of submitting “to one another” is a sign that we are controlled by fear of pangs of death. This is a heavy word to receive.
Every time a believer is silenced, in church or beyond, from giving testimony to Jesus it is as if darkness still reigns and Jesus has not conquered (Rev 5:5). Yet every gift expressed in submissive faith to God’s Spirit is a testimony of the undying love of Christ which has birthed an immortal new creation (2 Tim 1:10). At the heart of the “varieties of gifts…varieties of service (and) varieties of activities” that is meant to fill the Church is Christ’s deathless love of perfect submission to the will of God (1 Cor 12:4-6). The ordinary Sunday church service is a participation in the mystery of the Bridegroom presenting himself as Lord to be obeyed through the ministry of believers to “one another”. This is great and wonderful beyond words. Whatever obedient submission to Christ may cost us, one thing can never be lost but only found, love.