Morning Devotions: 1 Corinthians 13:1 Make a joyful noise

Make a Joyful noise. 1 Corinthians 13:1

I want to give credit to whoever took this picture,
but I do not know who it is.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1 nasu

The Apostle Paul, the former butcher of Jerusalem, was zealous for the Almighty, hating followers of The Way (Acts 22:4-5). He was there when the first Spirit filled believer in Y’shua (Jesus) was killed for his faith (Stephen in Acts 7:57 to 8:1) and was responsible for dragging believers and their families to prison. He was filled with hate for followers of The Way... until Y’shua met him on the road to Damascus (Acts 22:6-11). You may ask, is there any evidence that Paul actually killed people? No there is not, but neither is their evidence that Hitler actually took a life, though we know he is responsible for the death of millions. Having hate in your heart makes you a murderer in the eyes of the Almighty 

"But I (Y’shua) say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ' You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.  Matthew 5:22 nasu 

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.   1 John 3:15

  
Paul knew what it meant to have murderous hate for someone. Yet he was an expert in the Torah and Prophets. Yet the Almighty would one day use his testimony to bring understanding to an uncountable number of people through the ages. How can that be? It is because love redeems even the worst hater. 
  
Look at Paul’s example. Hypothetically, if a person (like Paul, the author of 1 Corinthians 13) uses the language of men to deliver the message of angels, but does it without love, he becomes like the clang of a gong making the noise of lament (sadness). 
  
Why did Paul use the "clanging cymbals-gong example? From the beginning of the temple era, singers were appointed to accompany the choir with the joyful noise of cymbals (1 Chronicles 15:19). Think of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The climax of the piece involves cymbals and is truly joyful! Now think of the sad wail of a huge gong, struck once, struck again, often hit at a funeral. A heartbreaking tome from what is nearly the same instrument. Paul has been both of these. One sound is a lament, a heartbreaking, empty wail. The other is exciting, joyful, lively. The difference is that one is the cry of death and the other is the sound of the joy of life in Y'shua!
  
You have been given the message of love, play it forward. Do so out of duty or the vanity of the educated and it might sound like a message of death. But clang those cymbals with joy in chorus with others from the love of a heart filled by Y'shua-Jesus, and it is life giving! You get to choose. 
February 11, 2016
Mrs. Hagerty