The Most Excellent Way

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:42:00 +0000

By Pastor Sion

I know that we talk a lot about excellence here at Gateway. Excellence is important. We are representing Christ in everything we do whether it is singing or playing, whether it is in the way we dress or the way we communicate with the congregation. We all know that we must lead with excellence because we are representing the One who is most excellent.

I want to throw you a curveball today. I don’t want to talk about excellence in the context of our performance or our gifting, I want to talk about excellence of the heart. What is excellence in God’s eyes?

The answer can be found in 1 Corinthians 12…

1 Corinthians 12:31 …And now I will show you the most excellent way. (NIV)

Lately God has had me digging into the verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. In my study this morning, several words in the verse preceding the 13^th chapter jumped out at me: the most excellent way.

The word “excellent” in the Greek literally means “without measure.” In other words, the Holy Spirit is saying (allow me to paraphrase), “I know you have great gifts and talents, but let me show you something more excellent, let me show you something that can’t be measured by applause, by goose bumps or by iTunes sales.” He wants to show us that LOVE is the most excellent thing we can exhibit or produce. Look at the very next verse…

1 Corinthians 13:1 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. (NIV)

Here’s the “Sionized” paraphrase of that verse…

“If I sing like Michael Bolton and play my guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughan but I don’t love people when I get off the platform, the music I sing and play will sound like a plane full of Zildjian cymbals crashing into a dairy farm: utter chaos.”

In other words, without love, nothing we do that we call ministry is pleasing to the ears of God. We could sell all we have and give it to the poor, move to Tibet and give our bodies to die for the sake of Christ but if we don’t have love it will all be a waste.

What would happen if we passed every thought, every emotion, and every motive through the “love filter” of 1 Corinthians 13? As I have done this myself over the last month, it has revealed my desperate need for more of Jesus’ love skills. I am a terribly selfish creature in need of a heart like Jesus. When I love I am showing that there is something more important than self….and that is a miracle!

Here’s the rest of the “love filter” in the Message version…

1 Corinthians 13:4–8

⁴ Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, ⁵ Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, ⁶ Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, ⁷ Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. ⁸ Love never dies...(The Message)

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The Most Excellent Way