Oh Friends, it’s Sunday morning! Are you smiling, are you happy, is their joy in your heart? Well you should be in a positive frame of mind, for in spite of all your problems, you’re alive and kicking, living under the kind, generous, forgiving and LOVING auspices of the Most High God Jehovah. Now that’s something to be surely joyous about eh mih people! If you’re a true believer then that should have you riding mighty clouds of joy! (smile) And if it isn’t, then something’s seriously wrong; our virtue system has not been seriously developed, hasn’t matured. This brings us back to our favourite topic of the week, virtue. And I hear some of us moaning; ‘Oh, not that again! Thought we were all done with that now.’ No Friends, for today we’ll deal with the most important one, the one that holds them all together, the glue, so to speak, and that’s Charity, or in our parlance, LOVE. As Bruh Paul so wisely states: ‘And above all these things put on charity (LOVE), which is the bond of perfectness.’ And the scholars describe it thus: ‘LOVE is the crowning grace completing the list of virtues required for perfectness or spiritual maturity. As a ‘bond’ it binds all other virtues together in harmony and unity.’ Wow! True words of wisdom Friends! They perfectly describe what LOVE is and what it does. Note in 1 Corinthians 13, The way of LOVE, Bruh Paul’s famous treatise on the subject, he ends by saying: ‘And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity (LOVE).’ (1 Cor.13:13) And that’s the gospel truth my people! But have you ever noticed the irony of the situation; that one of the most often quoted, appealing and foundational tenets of Christ’s gospel is found in chapter 13, verse 13? Thirteen being a number we associate with bad luck and won’t even number it thus on the floors of our buildings, such is the widespread apprehension. Hn! Just goes to show that our God’s intelligence and thoughts are truly higher than ours. Oh Friends, the Spirit just placed a wonderful suggestion in my mind; that 1 Corinthians 13 should be an essential, required piece of scripture reading every day, individually, as well as whenever believers get together and also whenever a new believer is born again in Christ. Why? Because it’s the elementary building block, the very foundation of Christianity; who we are, or ought to be in Christ, and unfortunately many of us need to be constantly reminded since we stray from it a lot. And from here on in, I’ll try to keep myself out of the message, just bombard us with passages of scripture which promote that godly feeling of LOVE. And we’ll begin with the rock of Christ’s church, Peter. ‘But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity (LOVE) among yourselves: for charity (LOVE) shall cover the multitude of sins.’ (1 Pet.4:7-8) And there Peter’s quoting words from the wisest man ever, Cousin Sol. ‘Hatred stirreth up strifes: but LOVE covereth all sins.’ (Prov.10:12) Yes my brethren, LOVE is the greatest emotion that exists in our world, and when it lives, or is present amongst a group of people…oh, there’s such harmony and unity that it makes us wonder how we could live any other way. That’s because it brings such joy, kindness, forgiveness, long-suffering etc to our sinful, rebellious, disobedient souls, lightens our spirits, has us floating on cloud nine, and most important of all, brings us in line with our Creator, fills us with the very essence of God. Sorry Friends, I forgot I wasn’t going to say much, (smile) but I just can’t help myself when the topic is LOVE. That’s just the Spirit of LOVE from the LOVE of our God, flowing through me, because our God IS LOVE! Now hear John tell it: ‘Beloved, let us LOVE one another: for LOVE is of God; and every one that LOVETH is born of God, and knoweth God. He that LOVETH not knoweth not God; for God is LOVE. ‘(1 John 4:7-8) Then he explains why; primarily of course because the Lord designed a plan where His only Son Jesus died for our sins. Consequently ‘Beloved, if God so LOVED us, we ought also to LOVE one another.’ (1 John 4:11) Perfect logic mih breddren! You can’t beat it any which way you try! And exactly because it unites everything, Bruh Paul calls LOVE ‘the bond of perfectness.’ ‘I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in LOVE. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’ (Eph.4:1-3) Ah my Friends, it’s the same basic advice Bruh Paul gave to the Ephesians, and the same advice I’m imploring us all to accept many centuries later because those words still hold true. For it’s only with and through LOVE, that our angry, resentful, violent, war-mongering world will ever attain a modicum of peace. That’s right my people; peace will only exist in direct proportion to LOVE. So let’s seriously work on that LOVE Revolution we’ve been talking about nuh. Our world is tearfully yearning, desperately crying out for it. Till tomorrow then, God willing, when we’ll talk some more on this very important topic. Much LOVE!…the believer’s number one priority…LOVE…
SCRIP-BITS 