THE REAL HUMAN
1Corinthians 13:1-13
Love is a fire. It burns out the impurities, puts warmth in the heart and a gentle glow in the life, and tempers all to the best. God is love. Man is love, too, when true to the image in which he was made.
Jesus is love in human garb. To let Jesus in as a passion, the burning passion, is to have selfishness, with all its brood, burned out, and the true ideal made real. Then we live the life that blesses other lives.
UNCONSCIOUS GREATNESS
Luke 22:24-30
True greatness never finds out that it is great. It is too much taken up thinking of others. When it finds out that it is great it ceases to be great. If you have discovered that you’re humble, then you may know that you’re not humble. For humility is so absorbed with the dear God, and with others, that it never knows it is humble. But we’ll never understand this till we’ve seen the face of Jesus.
LOVE IN THE FIRE
Matthew 20:20-28
Human love needs seasoning and tempering, refining and broadening, by the higher, deeper original love, the love of the heart of God. The stronger the human love, like a mother’s, the truer this is. So it gets the clearer vision, the stronger purpose, the finer sacrificial traits of the God-love. And so whatever selfishness may have crept in, sometimes unconsciously, is burned out, and the love is sweeter yet when it gives instead of asking.
THE ONLY CURE FOR SELFISHNESS
Mark 9:43-50
Selfishness is so ingrained in the human fiber that its cure takes fourfold treatment: a knife, a fluid, a fire, and salt. The knife of a strong purpose to cut it out; the blood of Jesus to wash it out; the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn it out; and the salt of the Book brooded over, and of the Spirit’s indwelling, to spoil the soil so it has a hard time sprouting again.
A ROUGH SPELLING-LESSON
Mark 9:30-42
Selfishness is the smoother way of spelling Satan. That sounds a bit rough; but it’s true. The inner core of Satan is preferring himself to yes, even to God; wanting everything for himself. Selfishness may be cultured and scholarly and polished (it’s surprising how a coarse thing takes a high polish). Or, it may be coarse and brazen and open. But scratch it; and you always find underneath the hooked Satan fingers reaching and holding.
