For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33, NIV)
When I was young and in many ways growing up on the golf course, every so often we’d gather up some players and engage in a bit of cross country golf. The normal routing of the course was tossed aside, and we’d just pick where we’d go next, without reference to distances or obstacles.
It was great fun, of course, offering a creative change from the usual holes. But it required two things.
First, we had to be playing the part of the golf course where the holes were adjacent. We might have been tempted to soar shots over houses and streets from one separated fairway to the next, but suffice it to say that such a game would not have lasted long!
Second, the course needed to be basically empty. We could not just go where we wanted, all other golfers be spited. We wove our way in and out of trees and bunkering and water, but not in and out of other groups enjoying the course.
From here, these restrictions should seem fairly obvious. They are akin to traffic laws, which somehow bring a high degree of order to an otherwise self-contained act. A few flout the rules, but they often pay the price—and sometimes that price is very, very high.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul made some observations and gave some instructions about the gathering practices of the church. One thing he saw that concerned him was a disregard among the leaders for one another. Prophets would speak over the top of each other, tongues drowned out tongues, and it was unclear where the people’s attention should be pointed. Into the midst of this, Paul reminded his readers that God is not pleased with disorder; rather, he is a God known for the peace he brings.
What is significant is that while Paul was referring to the practices of the Corinthian church in this context, his statement is not hemmed in by that context. Everywhere, for all time, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” In the opening chapter of the Old Testament book of Esther, for instance, we read that King Xerxes was conducting a party. Look at how he directed his servants: “By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished” (Esther 1:8). What ensued from this godless king’s command was a drunken rage and the estrangement of the queen—the fruits of disorder.
In our own time and place, we still see that the choices of each one going their own way—in the church and outside of it—are an abandonment of the ways of God, which are ways of order and peace. Why did God give his people commands, both in the Old Testament and the New? Because he is a God of peace. And when God’s people commit to common ground in the way they behave, they stand out among the chaos of the self-serving world and they honor the peaceful character of their King.
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Jeff Hopper
February 11, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.