(\u2026it’s for every season, really.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were kicking around this quick and fun little thought experiment on the radio show the other day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What if you get to the proverbial \u201cpearly gates\u201d and you find out that you\u2019ve been right about everything all along! Your entire life! All of your opinions and all of your ideas; every position you\u2019ve ever taken in an argument; every political opinion; every moral judgment\u2014they were all correct!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Every. Single. Thing. You nailed it! Congrats!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut,\u201d says the great scorekeeper, \u201cThere is this one other thing: You didn\u2019t love your enemies.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, maybe this thought experiment isn\u2019t THAT fun, but still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the question: If that happened to me, would God be pleased with this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or did I actually miss the point?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biblically, it\u2019s possible to be very \u201cright\u201d and to be very, very wrong<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul says it straight up: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don\u2019t love, I\u2019m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/sup>If I speak God\u2019s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, \u201cJump,\u201d and it jumps, but I don\u2019t love, I\u2019m nothing. So go ahead and be right about everything. (I certainly am, LOL.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n But there\u2019s a certain danger about being right: We can pat ourselves on the back for it, blinded to the greater reality that transcends earthly politics, kingdoms, or mere transitory \u201crightness\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don\u2019t love, I\u2019ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I\u2019m bankrupt without love.<\/em>”
(I Cor 13:3-7<\/a> MSG)<\/p>\n\n\n\n