1. We have the great uncertainty about terrorism - when and how will they
strike again and what can we do about it? Will we have to go to war again
Iraq, Iran, and North Korea?
2. Then there continues to be so many other problems. The economy, the
growing unemployment, so many that are hungry and desperate across the world.
3. These issues appear to be so overwhelming as to make any personal attempt to
resolve them seem hopeless from the start.
4. One thing we may have overlooked, however, is that there is a personal
dimension to each of these problems, and that solutions depend in great
measure on how each individual acts.
5. The truth is this: no matter how great the plan that can be developed to
deal with the world’s many problems,
(1. they will not work unless we have the qualities of life and
character which enable us to live in peace with each another.
6. Most of the problems that face the world today are only extensions of a
basic personal problem; and that is of being fit to live with.
7. Whether we are fit to live with or not is the problem for the world as a
whole and cause of most of the world’s great problems.
8. Of course, being fit to live with is the secret of a good home and a good
church. There are many ways that people in a home and in the church
frustrate and aggravate one another.
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9. It is the major crises which unite the members of a family, and what we
call the "little things" that tear apart the personal bonds:
(1. Those little things of moodiness, irritability, hatefulness,
quarreling, jealousy; that is to say, those things that make people unfit to
live with.
(2. And when people are hurting or having problems that is not the
time add to their pain.
# (This illustration is from an Our Daily Bread Devotional) A Detroit
newspaper reported that a patient in a local hospital was shot and killed as he
lay in his bed recovering from a previous gunshot wound.
(1. The victim had been in fair condition prior to the shooting and
was looking forward to going home.
1. Hospital patients and employees were shocked.
(2. A spokesperson said that nothing like this had happened in the 50
years of the hospital’s existence.
(3. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could say the same for our homes
and churches?
1. That in 50 years of marriage or 50 years of worship, and
fellowship -
2. that we had not had a single instance of a wounded family
member or church member being cut down by the unkindness of a
fellow Christian?
10. Elton Trueblood, who was a Quaker, said about this type of conflict: "The
family can be the scene of wonderful affection, and it can
also be the scene of debasing friction... A successful marriage is not
one in which two people, beautifully matched, find each other and get
along happily ever after because of this initial matching. It is,
instead, a system by means of which persons who are contentious are so caught
by a dream bigger than themselves that they work through the years,
in spite of repeated disappointments, to make the dream come
true."
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11. This principle can be extended through all of the areas of our life
together.
(1. Just as being fit to live with is the secret of a good home, it
is the secret of good business or of having any kind of professional
or personal relationship with others.
12. As the whole world has changed with the speed of communication and travel.
The ability of nations to get along with each other has become
increasingly necessary for the world’s survival.
(1. Nation’s must be fit to live with just as individuals should
be.
13. This is the heart of the problem: facing all the limitations and
difficulties of being human, how are we going to be fit to live with?
I. The apostle Paul was dealing with this same problem in his letter to the
little group of Christians who lived in Corinth, one of the great
crossroads of the ancient world.
1. Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:14-20, Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot
should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason
cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong
to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an
eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the
sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as
he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there
are many parts, but one body.
2. Applied to our present situation, that picture of the body represents the
fact that tension between functions, impatience with differing
abilities,
(1. or finding any little irritating thing a person does as an
opportunity to throw a fit or cause problems, or complain, or say some hateful
cuting word keeps us from living peacefully with each other
1. and keeps us from experiencing the abundant life.
When we hurt each other we are just hurting ourselves.
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3. And Paul, who was facing just that kind of situation, moved directly to
his solution to the problem; that is, his great statement on love.
4. He was driven to it by the logic of the situation, because he saw that
only love can make people fit to live together.
"Love is patient, love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, or
conceited, or rude; never selfish, nor quick to take offense. Love
keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other’s sins, but delights
in the truth. There is nothing that love cannot face; there is no
limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance." (I Corinthians 13:4-7)
5. You see, being fit to live with is not an oversimplification. It goes to
the basics of how we live life.
6. So how do we become fit to live with? We need to follow Paul’s logic.
7. Paul’s discussion of the relationship of the parts of the body poured out
like a river into his words about love.
8. The argument goes like this: If we are members of one body, then the
relationship which we have to one another is of vital importance.
9. # During the thirteenth century, Emperor Frederick ruled the Holy Roman
Empire. He was a man with great curiosity, and the tales of his raging quests
for knowledge are well known in literature.
10. One of the books which records some of these experiments bears the
title: "The Follies of the Emperor," which gives a pretty good indication
of what people thought of his scholarship.
11. There is one story which will shed some light on the importance of love
and communication of that love.
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(1. Frederick wondered what language had been spoken in the Garden of
Eden. Had it been Hebrew? Greek? Latin? How was he to find out?
(2. He reasoned that since Adam and Eve had been left to figure out
things for themselves,
1. he need only recreate the conditions in which they had
begun to speak, and he would have his answer.
(Probably never occurred to Frederick that God may have created Adam and Eve
as adults and blessed them with speech from the moment of their creation.)
(3. He decided to take a few babies at the moment of their birth and
isolate them so that they would never hear human speech until they
heard their own.
(4. To accomplish this, he arranged for several babies to be raised
by nurses who were told to maintain absolute silence.
(5. As difficult as it was for these women to keep quiet with the
children, nevertheless, they succeeded.
(6. According to the record, not one of them uttered a single word to
any of the children.
(7. And the story ends by saying: "the experimental conditions were a
success, but unfortunately the children died."
12. What was true for those children is true for us all. We need other people
in order to live; without them we perish.
II. But before we can achieve any needed relationship with others, we must be
able to communicate with them.
1. If we are members of one body, then hate will not work; vengeance,
selfishness, or slander can never solve problems caused by
interdependence. Only love can solve them.
2. This was what Paul was saying, and we need to seriously consider the
implications.
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3. In order to do so, we must understand that the love about which Paul
speaks is not just a sentimental or romantic emotion, as we often think of it.
(1. And Valentine’s Day has served to perpetuate and increase this
false concept of what love is all about.
(Not that there is anything wrong with Valentine's Day.)
4. The concept of love contained in the New Testament is based upon the fact
that we are all in a relationship with each other
(1. and we must exercise understanding and creative good will, acting
in love if we are going to get along with each other.
5. For example the New Testament commands us to love, but no one can command
us to feel intimate affection for another person.
(1. That is not within the power of our will.
6. What is possible, however, is to continually practice everywhere, with
everyone
(1. whether friend or enemy, stranger or loved one, an understanding
and creative good will. We can act in love toward them.
7. Part of our misunderstanding of "love" is that it hasn’t been taken
seriously as a verb.
(1. It is simply not enough to say: "My love for you will never die!"
(2. Our love must be demonstrated as we say, "I love you." So that
the word takes on the active meaning of other related verbs; such
as: "I respect you." "I protect you." "I care about you." "I honor you." "I
forgive you."
8. Many of the descriptions of love found in the Bible reveal its active
qualities. We read: "Whatever you would like for people to do to you, do
that to them."
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(1. Or, "Love your neighbor as yourself." -- "Love your enemies" is
part of the same idea.
9. The command to love our enemies does not mean that we are to feel a great
affection for them.
(1. It does, however, mean extending even to them an understanding
and creative good will acting in love toward them so that
enemies may be turned into friends.
10. It is little wonder that non-believers think that agape/Christian love is
crazy when they see it interpreted to mean emotional affection.
(1. But to extend to others understanding and creative good will—
that’s not crazy; that is the very essence of demonstrating being fit to
live with, demonstrating the reality of living in love.
11. Herman Melville, after reading the Sermon on the Mount, defined what he
read as
(1. "a volume bound in rose leaves, clasped with violets and by the
beaks of hummingbirds, printed with peach juice on the leaves of
lilies."
12. Now that sounds nice but it reduces the gospel to a sentimentalism.
13. Thomas Carlyle spoke in a similar way when he said that the gospel is
composed of "morality tinged with emotion."
14. Unfortunately, both Melville and Carlyle failed to understand the nature
of Christian/agape love.
(1. Christ on the cross is not exactly an image of "rose leaves
clasped with violets,"
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(2. and the story of the martyrs of history never could have been
written if the gospel were no more than "morality tinged with emotion."
III. There is something stubborn and hard, determined and steadfast about
love. Bruno Bettelheim, an educator, wrote a book about his experiences with
hard to manage children called Truants from Life.
1. He pointed out that the first necessity in winning a difficult child to a
better response to life is to convince the child that there is love in
the world.
2. He went on to say that "the root of a child’s emotional illness is the
absence of love."
3. One boy talked about in the book, after recovering through the
experiencing of love in action said, "It was just a matter of time and little
things."
4. It is a matter of time for love, and a consideration of little things that
makes the difference.
5. If we truly believe that love redeems and restores, while hate destroys,
then we should respond to the unlovable and the difficult with
compassion and with tenderness.
6. If we take a look at the great issues of life from this perspective—that
love can redeem and hate destroy—it is difficult to relegate love to
the realm of sentimentalism or romantic emotion.
(1. Love instead shouldbe the driving force and the creative power of
our lives. Love in action
7. Dr. Albert W. Palmer was the pastor who was involved in the building
program which resulted in the Central Union Church of Honolulu, Hawaii.
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8. Just before its completion the architect asked the pastor to provide him
with an inscription to be placed high above the pulpit and the Lord’s
Supper table.
(1. "I want you to give me a text or motto of no more than sixteen
letters or spaces to fit that particular space," he said.
9. The pastor thought and thought about what words to use which would have
just the right number of letters and spaces and yet would be
appropriate for all occasions in the sanctuary.
10. It would have to be appropriate for weddings and funerals, for Christmas
and Easter and other seasons and events. What text would fit
best for all the changing events of the church year?
11. Then, too, Hawaii is a place where many races meet. What text would serve
for Hawaiian, Korean, Portuguese, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, and
American birth and ancestry?
(1. Would it be appropriate to the ordinances of baptism and
observance of the Lord's Supper?
12. And so, with all these different needs in mind, Dr. Palmer chose the
text: "Love Never Fails."
13. If we want to be fit to live with, I submit that we need this basic
ingredient which was pointed out to us so long ago by the Apostle Paul.
14. There is nothing that love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and its endurance.
15. Love is the motivating power of that basic quality of life that makes us
fit to live with one another.
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IV. So how do we become fit to live with each other?
# (Illustration from an Our Daily Bread Devotional )There was a young woman
who lived in a home where she was very unhappy.
1. She often complained to her friends and told them how difficult it was for
her to stay there.
2. She blamed her parents and the other members of her family for her
discontent and threatened to move out as soon as she could afford to be on her
own.
3. One day, though, her face was graced with a happy smile.
(1. Gone was her usual glum expression. Her eyes were sparkling.
There was a spring in her step.
4. When a friend noticed the difference, she exclaimed, “Things must have
improved at home. I’m so glad for you!”
5. “No,” the young woman responded, “I’m the one who’s different!”
6. Her outlook was brighter and her relationships with others were
transformed.
(1. It wasn’t because her circumstances had improved, but because she
had experienced a change in her heart.
7. When we are confronted with irritating situations and we begin to feel
sorry for ourselves, we should ask these questions:
(1. Is the trouble really with others? Or could it be me?
8. As we ask the Lord to fill us with his perfect love, it’s amazing how life
begins to look better.
(1. Letting God change us is the best way to change our world. It’s
the best way to change your world!!
9. And it's the only way to live in love and to be fit to live with.
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