A Fearless Society

This weekend my pastor used 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 to explain the importance of serving in love.  He pointed out that Paul’s message to the Corinthians in effect was this: great abilities and accomplishments are worthless if they aren’t administered in love.   We all know the type; the NBA all-star who scores 50 points by refusing to pass the ball, and causes his team to lose the game.   How about the movie star who has a million dollars, but no friends, or the successful dad who misses all the big events in his child’s life?  Paul wants us to remember that God values love over success and abilities.  It was a straightforward message until our pastor started looking at the cultural setting of the passage.

 1 Corinthians 13 starts like this:

If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but don’t have love, I’m a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

I always thought that Paul was merely using a metaphor for an annoying preacher, but our pastor explained that Paul was making a comparison to the cult religions in the city of Corinth.

Just like today, Corinth had a lot of different churches and religions, but these church services were a lot different than the ones we have today.  They were full of fear and death, instead of peace and love.  The priests of the Cybele and Dionysus cults would walk the streets banging gongs and cymbals in order to call their people to worship.  The service involved drugs, spirit possession, orgies, self mutilation and animal/human sacrifice.   They practiced self-gratification and survival of the fittest.  It sounds like Paul is saying that a church without love is like a self-gratifying cult. 

The sermon prompted Ashley and I to discuss the idea of distinguishing ourselves from the culture and wondered how to do that in the 21^st century.  In an age where the culture has been shaped by virtue and justice, what makes our churches different than the philanthropists of the world? 

As we started to ponder that question, we realized it was the lack of fear that Christians should exhibit.  I think there should be at least two ways that we live fearlessly:

1.         We don’t fear death
2.         We don’t fear failure

In Philippians 1:27-30, Paul says that we should stand firm without being frightened of those that oppose us.  He said that this was a sign that we would be saved but they would be destroyed. 

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.  For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

The most obvious difference is that Christians shouldn’t fear death.  In fact, we tell the world that there is a God who loves them and created them for a purpose.  We believe that people are separated from God because of our individual sinful choices, but thankfully, God came to earth as a man named Jesus and removed the separation.  Jesus demonstrated His love by dying in our place and demonstrated His divinity by coming back from the dead to offer us eternal life with Him.  Life is not perfect on earth, but thankfully there is something better waiting for Christians after death.  

The second difference is that Christians shouldn’t fear failure. 

There is difference between freedom from failure, and freedom from the fear of failure.  Jesus said there would be set-backs and failures, but He also said that He made us conquerors (look at Romans 8). 

Christians shouldn’t fear failure when they have a proper understanding of what’s expected of them.  They don’t have to worry about failure, because God promised to be their unfailing leader.  Christians believe that only God can change people, and our responsibility is to remain available and act in humility.  

I’m not encouraging laziness and irresponsibility; instead, I’m encouraging Christians to throw off the fear that prevents courageous and humble service.  Maybe we will see success in this life, but maybe we will have to wait.  In either case, our highest definition of success is acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God.  Humility is a proper view of ourselves which leads to a willingness to submit to God.  A perfect example of humility is found in King Jesus.