Some of us have that friend that is close to us, a course mate, a neighbour, a roommate that after all these days we have been trying to evangelise to. All roads that Jesus might seem to pass through to the heart with His word have been blocked. We with no doubt shake heads in pity at the person’s spiritual state and once or twice we remember them in our prayers. We then ask what might be the solution to this, why is God not getting through to their hearts from us, and why does it seem like every word we say is met with sarcasm and mockery, they seem to point those words back to us.
TINKLING CYMBAL!
Yes, a tinkling cymbal, let the words echo in your thoughts. Cymbals in Old Testament times were musical instruments; Psalm 150:5, Ezra 3:10, 1 Chronicles 25:1, 2 Chronicles 5:12, and 2 Samuel 6:5. They were used to administer worship in the temple for prayer. When a cymbal is used in the temple with regards to the worship of God, it is melodic and sweet to the ear but if we have a single cymbal hanged in the wind against each other maybe from the arsenal of an idle singer, or from one that is not fit to be used in the worship and it is hanged in the wind close to each other. What do we have? We have two instruments free to move and various clinking sounds will come out of it. The dis-orderliness and the lack of pattern to the beat not only annoy professional singers but even the layman is annoyed by the constant clinking of cymbals. So is a man who keeps on speaking without love.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians where this analogy was made that even if I speak in the tongues of angels, that is with such eloquence that men will testify that this cannot come out of man but from angels, and of man and I have not love I am like a tinkling cymbal, a monotonously, boring, sounding brass that no one wants to listen to, that everyone seeks to move away from.
So is every one that speaks to men without the love of God burning in him and fuelling that action; he will resist those he seeks to witness to. In fact, the bible says that the proof that we love God is that we love others, think about that!
Love is not the plush warm feeling that jumps in your stomach or that thing that makes you smile when you think about someone all day long (well… sometimes it is love) But Paul goes ahead in the succeeding verses that love is patient, it is kind, it is not rude it does not insist on its own way, it rejoices with the truth, it is grieved at wrongdoing. And on top of it all, love never ends. When every man in the room is powered by love, fuelled by the motivation of love, evangelism though difficult will not be burdensome, it will not be an endless bore of another religious guy, and it will be healing unto flesh and refreshments unto ailing bodies.
I challenge you to a more excellent way brethren, TRY LOVE!
1 John 1:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
MARANATHA.