Continuing from Last Week)
Again let us consider the marvelous statement of truth in I Cor. 13:1-3. Apostle Paul writes: “Though I speak, with tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am becoming as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal” Or again; “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could move mountains, and have not charity I am nothing”. The apostle is saying here 7 may preach like an angel, I may posses the most wonderful eloquence and produce the most wonderful oratory, I may be considered by people to be the greatest speaker the world has ever heard, and speak eloquently about the things of God, and yet may remain outside the kingdom. All is useless without these qualities that really make a man Christian’.
Paul had enumerated and defined the place of the gifts of the Spirit in the church in chapter 12. Now here he proceeds to show that the possession of these gifts and other additional qualities do not make one a Christian, if he does not possess the supreme gift of love (charity). This beautiful prose poem (vvl-3) has been called the “greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote” (Harnack). Here he shows that possession of the gifts mentioned in the passage, good thought they are, can be superseded by an endowment that is more valuable than anything previously described – the gift of love which is available to all. (cf Gal. 5:22)
Referring to the gift of speaking in tongues considered to be the gift of the power of utterance, Paul says, if such a speaker lacks love, which is the basic characteristic of God himself, the superior eloquence, of the man is as valueless for the promotion of the kingdom of God as the meaningless noise of any resonant piece of brass or vainly clanging cymbal, (see 1 John 4:8). He declared further that the highly spectacular manifestation of tongues or even the ability to speak with angelic tongue, does not confer any honour on the one who receives it, nor is it any real value to him, if it is not associated with love – a characteristic of God himself. Paul had emphasized the superiority of the gift of prophecy in the previous chapter (12) as an inspired God’s message passing instructions from heaven to the church, through a messenger who stands between God and men and revealing God’s will to men. Such must be dominated by love, otherwise his messages will have little effect upon the heroes having listed the possible possessions of the gift of prophecy, wisdom, knowledge and faith, understanding and greatly desired spiritual endowments, Paul makes a simple statement that all these things, admirable and important though they are, are ineffective and valueless without that prime character of God – love, which leads along the path of all that is righteous, holy and godly. And all such people who possess these spiritual gifts and lack the all important characteristic attribute of God – love, belong to the group that shall be told, “I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity”.
In Philippians 1:15, Apostle Paul speaks of certain people who “preach Christ even of envy and strife”. These were probably his antagonists within the church, who were envious of the apostles influence, stirred by a quarrelsome spirit, had desired to add to the annoyance of the imprisoned apostle. In reference to their activities Apostle Paul is saying in this passage that their motive like their thoughts are wrong, but they preached Christ and saying the right things about Him. Paul glories in their right preaching, but indicates that they themselves are wrong, because they were preaching in the wrong spirit moved by envy. Such abound in the church today, and in Luke 16:15 our Lord Jesus Christ said of such people: “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” This is a very terrifying thought. If given a serious consideration and understood in the right perspective, it means that there shall be great surprises on the judgment day as men who have been praised and applauded as great preachers and men of God will be among those who said and shouted the right things marvelously but kept out of the kingdom, because they never had the christlike life and truth within them. It was all carnal.
These people did not only prophesy, they even cast out devils and did engage in deliverance. Again, notice the repetition of “in thy name” – “and in thy name have cast out devils”. Notice that this passage is emphasizing that it is possible for a man to do all this and still be kept out of the kingdom of God. The NT proves this clearly in the story of the Lord sending out His disciples to preach and to cast out devils. In the story, it is not clear that even Judas had this power. At the end of the exercise, the disciples came back and said to Him in great elation on one occasion “Even the devils are subject unto us” It is quite clear that Judas was also one of them.
Thus our Lord may give power to a man, and yet the man himself may still be lost. There are other powers available to man (although inferior to that of God) even to a reprobate to do remarkable and astounding things. Remember (Matt. 12:24; Luke 1U15) when the Jews charged, even Jesus, with performing miracles by the power of Beelzebub (Better Beelezebul – the prince or chief of devils: Matt. 9:34; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). And Jesus retorted by saying “If I by Beelzbub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast out” (Matt. 12:27) In Acts 19:13-16 is also the story of the sons of Sceva who had the self-same power. From these and many others, it can be seen clearly that there are other powers and that some can cast out devils in the name of the Lord and yet remain out outside His kingdom.
The immediate foregoing paragraph calls for some commentary. Beelzebub is a heathen deity believed to be the chief or prince of devils or evil spirits. Some scholars prefer to call it Beezebul, others Beelzebul. The KJV rendering “Beelzebub” was a Philistine “god of flies” adopted by Jerome for the Latin vulgate, and apparently from there was taken over by the KJV translators. This Philistine rendition was, it appears changed to “Beelzebub” meaning “god of dung” and employed in an opprobrious way as name of the chief of devils. The Hebrew Beelzebul is thought to mean – “baal-zebul” “God of the great house (or temple), Lord of the heavenly house” (several Ras Shamrah tablets from about 1400.BC speak of “Zebal” ” – prince of the earth”. It has been suggested that the Jews may have changed “Beelzebul” to “Beelzebub” meaning “Lord of flies” out of contempt for this pagan deity – the patron god of Akron).
Apparently, the flickering hope of the people that Jesus might prove to be the Messiah of prophecy (see Matt. 12:23) angered the Pharisees. Mark speaks of these Pharisees as “as scribes which came down from Jerusalem” (Mark 3:22), probably spies sent out by the Sanhedrin to spy on Christ. These wray foes of Jesus could not deny that a genuine miracle has been performed, for the man healed saw and spoke ( Matt. 12:22). The greater the evidence of the divinity of Jesus, the greater became their anger, which led eventually to their commission of unpardonable sin.
In Christ’s healing of the blind and dumb possessed by demon, it was evident that more than human power was at work. The spies refused to concede that Jesus was divine and possessed power to effect the miracle. In their rage and disappointment they could find no convincing charge than that Christ cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub. This is instructive not in establishing any other fact than that, there are other inferior demonic powers which those who believe and serve them, even today in the church, do apply to deceive themselves and the unregenerate. These satanic powers are very transient and fade and fail no sooner than they are manifested. And the Bible says the end is worse than the beginning.
