BLOG 12 - GOLD, SILVER AND PRECIOUS STONES

Dear Accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6)

In what ways did the early church brethren love one another fervently? What did being knit together look like? What was the evidence of their love? Acts 2:42-47 says "they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine (the Word) and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers... Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common... So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and in breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." There is such a spirit of togetherness in these verses. How would onlookers describe our fellowship? Perhaps they might say at times: "Because of our lawlessness (lack of love) the love of many has grown cold." Matt 24:12. I always thought this applied to the world around us, but then I realized that the world has pressed us into its mold. We have put up walls. We are guarded by formalities. We fear closeness. We don't allow people to know us. We keep people at a distance. Yet we crave intimacy and acceptance. We need to be needed. The Holy Spirit is not divided. Wherever the Spirit is there is love. This is what the world needs to see. This is the labor that will bring in the harvest.

When the Father gives us His Holy Spirit so abundantly, the evidence of it will be the fruit of that Spirit which is first of all love. These are our tools for building that we cannot acquire any other way than by spending time with the giver. The gold, silver and precious stones are the people whose lives are touched forever by these tools. They are loved into the living temple of God by Jesus in us.

Some of us find it easier to go to great lengths, time and expense to go to a faraway places and love complete strangers than the brother or sister struggling right next to us. We can more easily initiate conversation with a homeless drunk, a street kid high on glue or give a tract to a passerby we will never see again than those we rub shoulders with every day. It is often easier to talk to someone in a nursing home about Jesus than someone in our own home or church.

But how do we do what the scripture talks about so much: "love one another?" We need modern day examples of what love looks like. We need some present day footsteps to follow.

Never before has it been easier to love one another. Let us compare our day and Jesus day:

We can send a card; they couldn't.
We can call on the phone; they couldn't.
We can hop in a car and stop by; they couldn't.
We can take someone out to a quick lunch we didn't even make; they couldn't.
We can order pizza to be delivered to our own home within an hour for any amount of people; they couldn't.
We can send an e-mail; they couldn't.
We can send an electronic card; they couldn't.
We can send flowers, candy gifts of all sorts the same day or the next; they couldn't.
We could go bowling, golfing, batting, tennis, swimming, bicycling together... They couldn't.
We can instant message electronically; they couldn't.
We can pray together anywhere on the globe cell phones will receive; they couldn't.
I am sure that there are many more ways we can build with silver, gold and precious stones if we let His love have its perfect way in us.

Silver, gold and precious stones are the only works that the Bible says will not be burned up. Wood, hay and stubble will be burned up. It seems important to know what these are. These verses have to do specifically with the temple of God.

Let us look at the Word: 1 Cor. 3:11-17 "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, (stressing law without mercy, the empty works of the pharisee without compassion, whitewashing the outside while ignoring the deadness inside) God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are."

If I am a great speaker with great tongues of men and angels; if I have the gift of preaching or prophecy; if I have all wisdom and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and write great books; if I have all faith, bestow all my goods to feed the poor or even die a martyr's death, without love, it is nothing. Works without love will be burned up and come to nothing. The Pharisees were great at these kind of empty works. These were the works that were recognized and admired by men but Jesus did not recognize these works as anything.

Love, in word and deed, that the world can see, is what God says will never fail. It will bear fruit. Fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. All of these are the fruit of His everlasting love. This fruit contains the seeds that bear still more fruit. Some hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. The world will know us by this fruit of love. Father fill me with Your Holy Spirit, that I may build with gold, silver and precious stones and not wood, hay and stubble. Let it be with fellow believers built up and encouraged, loved into action for His kingdom by Jesus in me. Let it be with precious living stones in a temple not made by human hands, but by God's love in us. Agape.