By Sister Irene Jones Ash
(Reprint August 2009)
“Love Cast out fear and anything else that would defeat us.” I John 3:16-24, Ephesians 5:2 Christ’s greatest gift to us of love in his letter to the church of Ephesus; Paul emphasized this love as a fundamental factor in building a church.
Sometimes churches forget this and operate as if building and organizations and public worship were the essence of all they represent. They forget that God is love and without it Christianity can only be as sounding brass, or tinkling symbol. This is in fact, is what we all become if we show no love. We cannot lean upon love’s everlasting arms if we have never known or shared it. Our churches should be centers of the kind of love Paul talked about, a love that will reach out forever, but sometimes we are as cold as the stones that hold up our building.
Paul’s writings, which challenged us with what their Christian character or personality, should look like, Jesus Christ has boiled down a Christian responsibility to two succinct commands: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the Second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (Matthew 22:37- 39) Like Paul the Apostle has captured the Christian personality in nine traits: The Fruits of The Spirit – love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance:(Galatians 5:22-23) against such things there is no law. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit.
“BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT” (Matthew 5-3 Lesson from the Crusader Guide 2009) I know this sounds crazy. Why would Jesus preach that we are blessed or happy when we have a poor spirit? What He is saying is that we will be blessed if we have a humble spirit and a spirit of meekness. A spirit which surrenders to God in Humility showing a willingness to learn and depend on Him for all our needs. This is not, however, a spirit of weakness, but a spirit of one who is wise. James 4:10 says “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
So what is the contrast to being poor in spirit? It is a spirit of one who thinks he knows it all. It is a spirit of one who can’t tell them anything. It is a spirit of one who is “full of himself or herself”. It is a spirit of one who is full of pride and arrogance.