Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good evening, dear ones.
I may be losing it—thinking I had already sent this.
We had a good time last evening walking around the State Fair in Salem. Lots to see. We particularly enjoyed watching three teams of draft horses pulling big wagons and competing for precision. Beautiful big horses.
It’s about time for me to find the bed. I think I remember where it is.
Good night. Blessings.
Love, Dad/Ray.
I cannot imagine a more concise statement of Biblical priority and purpose than this. Paul cuts right through all the fat, froth, fraud, frivolity, futility, and formalism and drops on us a simple, yet profound, all-encompassing standard to live by. It’s another one of those high-impact statements that would be worth painting on our walls, hanging on our refrigerators, and etching across our bathroom mirrors. In spite of an epidemic trend in our culture, I would rather not recommend turning it into a tattoo. But we would be wise to use it as a measuring stick for everything we see, do, and desire. Use it in assessing the authenticity and value of ministries and “revivals” that emerge around us. Use it for judging church programs that can consume so much time and energy. And use it in determining the value of your own pursuits and ambitions. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Wow!
It helps me to lace together some vital Biblical concepts this way: LOVE is a COMMAND, but the Gospel is a CONDITION—it’s a conditional OPPORTUNITY that allows and equips one to fulfill the COMMAND. You can’t fulfill the COMMAND without embracing the CONDITION. So the Gospel is not a COMMAND to do right (to LOVE), but offers the CONDITION or FREEDOM to do right—to fulfill the COMMAND to LOVE. Look again at the last 3 verses of our reading. “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
Repeat it again: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Say it again. Again. Again. Again. What would we do without this positive form of brain washing (Ephesians 5:26)? We would probably make a bunch of other stuff count—stuff that is really not worth counting.