Our Scripture Of The Week Is:
1 Corinthians 13:1 KJVS
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
1 Corinthians, Chapter 12 revealed another problem in the Corinthian church.
They misunderstood the nature and purpose of spiritual gifts.
The fact that some spoke in tongues and exercised more obvious gifts, while others did not, seems to have been yet another source of division among them.
At the least, it led to the wrong idea that some were more spiritual than others.
Paul carefully corrected their thinking, showing that every gift is needed in the church, especially those gifts that were exercised out of the view of others.
Paul ended those thoughts by encouraging his readers to desire that the higher gifts of apostles, prophets, and teachers be given by God to their church, lowering the importance placed on the perhaps more impressive-seeming gift of tongues.
Then he promised to show them "a still more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31).
Now Paul launches into one of the most loved and meaningful chapters in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13.
It is brief, but it powerfully describes the very heart of what it means to live together as believers in Jesus.
He begins by showing just how pointless even the most impressive spiritual gifts are without love.
Even the God-given, supernatural ability to speak in a language one doesn't know, even the language of angels, becomes as the sound of a noisy gong and clanging cymbal if it is not exercised with love.
The specific word used here is agape, meaning a self-sacrificing and godly love.
The "tongues of men" are understood to be proper human languages.
This is a gift given so that those who do not know the speaker's language can understand the message given by God.
The language of angels may very well refer to the actual language spoken among heavenly beings, who apparently participated in some way in the worship gatherings of the early church (1 Corinthians 11:10).
Or, this might simply be a figure of speech Paul uses to make his larger point about the primacy of love.
No matter how impressive such a display would be, it becomes nothing but repulsive noise when practiced without love for other believers.
We will now get into today’s discussion:
We have seen the construction of the universe in verse 1 of Genesis, the convulsion of the earth in verse 2, and now we come to the construction of the earth in six days (vv. 3–31).
What have you learned so far about the construction of the earth according to the Holy Bible?
There are several things here that I would like to call to your attention. In Exodus 20:11, it reads “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. . . .”
There is nothing in that verse about creating.
What can we learn here, since we now realize creatiing the earth is not spoken in the Word before us?
It says “made”; God is taking that which is already formed and in these six days He is not “creating” but He is recreating. He is working with matter which already exists, out of the matter which He had called into existence probably billions of years before.
So when was the earth actually created?
God created life and put it on the earth, and for the earth He created man. That is the creature we are interested in because you and I happen to be one of those creatures.
What does "for the earth GOD created man" mean to you?
This makes the Genesis record intensely important for us today.
