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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection ix
Empty or Full? ...
Tuesday, June 20, 2017. The bible talks about gifts which the holy spirit gives to Christians. They are some kind of talent - something which can be used to serve others and to take part in the community and organization of the Christian church, the Christian community. But the apostle Paul also puts a warning into the middle of his passages about these spiritual gifts. His warning is a fantastic piece of text …
Empty? …
I can have a lot of talents, yet be empty on my inside. I can be very gifted, very intelligent, even very skilled with my hands, or with my tongue - yet it can be that I do not touch others on an emotional level, or that I have features in my character which cause a lot of trouble.
Paul writes a song about the role of love at this point in his argumentation. He writes about tonges of men and angels - the ability to speak far reaching things. Who would not want to be very relevant to others? So often we hear of the dream to be important. Politicians dream of this, scientists do, even businessmen have this type of dream. In the Christian church, many of us have their own dream of importance and significance. It is a human need to be important to others. Yet, if we try to achieve it with our talents, we can go onto a completely wrong track. Let us listen to what Paul writes:
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (from 1 Kor 13)
Full of Love …
If I am not doing my things filled with love to the other person next to me, in front of me, around me, I have a problem. I am like a clanging cymbal. I give a sound, but it is not filled from the inside. I am a noisy gong, but not music. I am not reaching what I should reach, I am not what I should be.
Can we accept that humans are made to love each other? Can we accept that they are made to love God? The Christian teaching is telling us that the ultimate goal of our life is to enter the community of love, which is the community of father, son and holy spirit. Love is all that counts here, love, truth, dedication, … and the joy which comes from truth and love and full solidarity.
What an invitation! What a fantastic path is described here in this song of love, the whole chapter of 1 Kor 13. Read more of it … and then be filled with the love of the eternal God! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts