Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

Bottom Line Spirituality: Worldly and Godly Thinking

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Godly Abiding Spiritually in Jesus Changes the Meaning of What we See Worldly When Not Abiding in Jesus.

Spirituality is our innate ability to feel the difference worldly or godly thinking makes to the way scripture translates to our daily life and relationships.

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 “Faith, Hope, Love: The greatest of these is Love.”

“The greatest of these is Love.” This does not mean Love is the best. Legalism is interested in which is better: Faith, Hope or Love? If we think Love is the best, then we will spend more time learning about Love. Faith and Hope can almost be ignored because Love is the best.

However, that is not what Paul said. He did say it was the greatest, but that does not mean it is the best. It means that these three are part of the whole.

Think of yourself. You are made up of three parts. There is your physical body itself. You have a rational mind (thought) which sees the physical seen and a conscious heart which senses the spiritually unseen. Without the body, the conscious heart will not exist. Without the rational mind, you will be in a coma. Without the conscious heart, the body and mind will depend on its life journey for its spirituality. When things go well the rational mind will find peace, love and happiness. When things do not go well, the rational mind will be the victim of depression, anger and unhappiness.

The conscious heart offers us the opportunity for our spirituality to determine our life journey! We can be in the Presence of God’s Peace, Love and Joy in all circumstances. Hallelujah!

We need all three (Faith, Love and Hope) for our spiritual life. We need Faith. Faith is the conscious godly experience of the Spirit of Jesus that God has poured into our hearts. It is the difference between being in the godly Peace Presence of God or being out of His Presence: worldly and feeling stressed, upset and frustrated about what happens to us. 

Hope is what we rationally seek in life. It is what keeps us going. There may be no worse words to hear than. “There is no hope”.  St. Paul tells us we, as Christians, never lose hope. II Timothy 4:16  This is because we never know what God is going to do next, no matter what might happen. When we start with our rational hope, it determines our worldly faith of how we feel about our circumstances. When we start with our godly Faith, our experience of being in His Presence creates our thoughts in the events of our life.

Then there is Love which is the greatest. It is the Presence of the Spirit of Jesus that God has poured into our hearts. Galatians 4:5  God’s New Commandment is to “Love others as I have Loved you”. John 13:34  Loving others as Jesus loved us means being in His Presence as Jesus was in His Fathers Presence. We cannot love others out of His Presence. Apart from the presence of Faith, Hope and Love, we cannot do the Will of God.

What difference does it make when you try to love a certain person in a worldly way without faith and hope and in a godly way with Faith and Hope?