Love and prophesy

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โ€œ๐‘ƒ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘ ๐‘ข๐‘’ ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’, ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ ๐‘๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘ข๐‘Ž๐‘™ ๐‘”๐‘–๐‘“๐‘ก๐‘ , ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘๐‘–๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ฆโ€ (1 ๐ถ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ. 14:1).

First Corinthians chapter thirteen focuses on love, even concluding that love is far superior to things like prophecy, tongues and knowledge, which will be โ€œrendered uselessโ€ and โ€œcease.โ€ Yet at the very beginning of chapter fourteen, Paul seemingly contradicts his words, commanding the Corinthians to โ€œ[p]ursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.โ€ Why does Paul put these two together, especially cautioning the saints about the โ€œactivityโ€ of prophecy? What is the relationship between โ€œpursuing loveโ€ and โ€œprophesyingโ€? To us, โ€œpursue loveโ€ is just a grand, broad statement, not readily challenged or debated, and prophesying seems like a straightforward activity. Yet Paul desires to uplift our understanding: what is the spiritual application of โ€œpursuing loveโ€ when it comes to the practical living of the local church? The fulfillment of chapter thirteenโ€”of pursuing loveโ€”is hiding in chapter fourteen.

๐‘ท๐’–๐’“๐’”๐’–๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’๐’๐’—๐’† ๐’Š๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’๐’“๐’ˆ๐’‚๐’๐’Š๐’„ ๐’‡๐’–๐’๐’„๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐’๐’‡ ๐’๐’Š๐’‡๐’†.
โ€œPursue loveโ€ is a word in the Bible that everyone likes to read; who doesnโ€™t want to talk about love? But do we know in what way this love can function? We often say that we have an โ€œorganicโ€ church life; โ€œpursuing loveโ€ is an organic function of this very life. The word โ€œorganic,โ€ which is Latin in origin, refers to any functionality that is produced from organismsโ€”from life. For example, when a seed is sown into the soil, a green sprout spontaneously comes out of the earth. By what power can a seed grow exponentially in size? That power comes from the life within the seedโ€”the tree is simply the sign and the expression of that life; it is the testimony of the function of the โ€œtree lifeโ€ that started within the seed. ๐‹๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐š๐ง๐ข๐œ ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ข๐ง๐  ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐ฎ๐ฌ. Life needs a way to be expressed; love is the organic functioning for that expression.

๐‘ท๐’“๐’๐’‘๐’‰๐’†๐’”๐’š๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’Š๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’Ž๐’‚๐’๐’Š๐’‡๐’†๐’”๐’•๐’‚๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐’๐’‡ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’‡๐’–๐’๐’„๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐’๐’‡ ๐’๐’๐’—๐’† ๐’Š๐’ ๐’๐’Š๐’‡๐’†.
What, then, is that expression? Many Christians overuse and misuse the phrase โ€œspiritual giftsโ€ mentioned in 14:1, interpreting it as natural talents or aptness for doing certain things. Simply speaking, however, the gifts are nothing but the expression of the functionality of this divine lifeโ€”the loveโ€”in which we have been rooted. This function of life isnโ€™t something abstract, but something manifested and expressed; ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐ . Without love as the foundation, prophecy โ€œwill be rendered uselessโ€ (13:8). In saying this, Paul cautions the saints in Corinth against prophesyingโ€”or doing anythingโ€”without first pursuing love; prophesying should be the spontaneous result of exercising that organic life in โ€œthe seed.โ€ As the seed sprouts, it automatically lives out the organic function of its life. Similarly, we function according to the organic life inside of us; that life is our spirit. That function is exercised when we use our spirit to prophesy in love. If we donโ€™t, the seed of life will never be fully expressed.

In order for seeds to progress to the stage of blooming and propagation, the seed has to be broken openโ€”to die. Through death and resurrection, the fruit of love is the propagation of life. Only in this way can it be resurrected and become fruitful, yielding a season of propagation and filling the air with the expression of love. At that time, all of the seeds spread for the reproduction of that life. Thus the fruit of one tree can yield a hundred, even a thousand trees of the same life. We can see who is truly โ€œpursuing loveโ€ from whether the saints are propagating and fruitful to build up the church. If they are, their words will be spontaneously filled with the richness and power of this propagating life. Prophesying that builds up requires much more experience than speaking out good words or a convincing sermon at a meeting. ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ž๐š๐ง๐ข๐ง๐  ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐ž๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐š ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ž๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ซ๐, ๐ž๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ฌ ๐๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ก ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ ๐จ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ž ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐œ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž, ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐š๐ ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง. ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐š๐ง๐ข๐œ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐ฎ๐ฌ.

๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐’‡๐’“๐’–๐’Š๐’• ๐’๐’‡ ๐’‘๐’“๐’๐’‘๐’‰๐’†๐’”๐’š๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’Š๐’” ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’๐’๐’„๐’‚๐’ ๐’„๐’‰๐’–๐’“๐’„๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’ƒ๐’–๐’Š๐’๐’…๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ.
โ€œ๐‘†๐‘œ ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘ ๐‘œ ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข, ๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘ง๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘ ๐‘๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘ , ๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘’๐‘˜ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘’๐‘ฅ๐‘๐‘’๐‘™ ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘–๐‘™๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘โ„Ž๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘โ„Ž.โ€ (1 ๐ถ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ. 14:12)

๐…๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ ๐š ๐ญ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ข๐›๐ฅ๐ž, ๐œ๐จ๐ซ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฌ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ž๐ฌ ๐†๐จ๐โ€™๐ฌ ๐ž๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ฆ๐ฒ; the prophesying out of love as the blooming of this life deposited into us also builds us up together and builds up the church: โ€œ…he who prophesies speaks building up and encouragement and consolation to men…he who prophesies builds up the churchโ€ (14:3-4). When we have this organic function, our relationships with one another will change. Spontaneously, we will prophesy to each other, rendering the true building and reality of the local church. We prophesy to each other to enter into the organic building in resurrection. No matter if we comfort or rebuke, speak gently or speak harshly, tell a member they are hopeful or hopelessโ€”no matter what we say or how we say itโ€”as long as it is from that seed of life and from the expression of love, it will result in the building.

It doesnโ€™t matter how much we exercise prophesying, prayer, pray-reading, singing, writing spiritual literature, going to see a brother, serving our household, reading the Bible, or any other โ€œspiritualโ€ activityโ€”the building will only happen when we exercise this organic faculty out of the expression of the pursuit of love. When we do this, the reality of the church is brought into being and expressed. Thatโ€™s our church life. When we say we are the body of Christ, our relationships have to be sourced from life, express that pursuit of love, and render the true building, manifested as the local church.

(๐ด๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘“๐‘’๐‘™๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘“๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘š ๐‘Ž ๐‘”๐‘Ž๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” 9/27/2020, ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘’๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘Ÿ.)

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