If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3, NIV)
Every now and then golf raises the ugly head of futility.
This happened to me during a recent round. I played the first six holes in regular fashion, keeping the ball near enough to the fairways and greens to make several pars and set up a good round.
And then it was like someone hit a switch. (Read this only as a simile—I don’t believe in the golf gods!)
For the next six holes while nothing noticeable changed, I couldn’t buy a par. I was still near the fairways and greens, but the putts wouldn’t fall and a couple of nasty lies contributed to double bogeys. In a scoring sense, every swing thought, every well-planned angle, every usually effective attempt at extrication from trouble proved futile.
Great preachers, Paul wrote, and prophets and philanthropists and martyrs—all of these are working futilely if their works do not include love.According to the irony of the game, I finally made par again at the thirteenth hole—the course’s hardest. But by then it was too late. The round I wanted and had seemed to be headed toward was gone.
Futility in golf is one thing; futility in life is dreadful. When all our biggest plans and best efforts amount to nothing, it can be utterly depressing. Though we may think we have everything figured rightly, a missing element in our designs can bring failure. We gain nothing.
As men and women who think we know what God wants, we are in danger of futility when we leave out the key ingredient to all our righteousness. That ingredient is love.
When Jesus blitzed the Pharisees and teachers of the law, he credited them with fastidious attempts at righteousness but charged them with not going far enough: “You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). Justice, mercy and faithfulness, we can maintain, are functions of love. And the Pharisees did not have it.
The apostle Paul’s examples to the Corinthians were more eye-opening yet. Great preachers, he wrote, and prophets and philanthropists and martyrs—all of these are working futilely if their works do not include love.
And so you and I must ask the same question of all our religious activity. Is it only that—activity? Or is it marked with the hallmark of Jesus, infused with love? Quickly, eagerly, hourly, we must see to it that the love of Christ comes through in all we do.
—
Jeff Hopper
January 30, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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