"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
"So what?"
This life is meaningless without Christ and yet many parade their "faith" or attend every service, but never figure out its all about Him and not us.
If you aren't dead, I think these three phrases are accurate descriptions of loud, worthless and useless counterfeits. Not saying God cannot change them, but love comes from Him, therefore they are missing something!
What's missing?
"I have been crucified with Christ..." Galatians 2:20
The concept of death with Christ is sometimes over looked. Eternity in heaven and deliverance from hell seems to be bonus features of our faith (obviously great things), but God wants you and I to live a certain way now. He wants us to obey is words and commands.
"...It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me..." Galatians 2:20
So what? If our death is so important, how does it look daily?
Daily we submit our countenance, attitude, mood, reactions, thoughts, self indulgences and allow Christ to rule these area of our lives. When He is doing the living, it is He who shines and receives the glory.
If others don't see Christ, than it begs the question, so what? Are you a loud, worthless and useless Christian counterfeit?
If you don't see a difference, than we need to ask the Spirit to reveal imperfections; areas of our life we have not surrendered to Him. A friend of mine calls this process identifying red flags and another calls it identifying bad seeds.
Surrender these things to Christ and begin to live in the grace and freedom that come through dying to self.
So what?
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