It is when we turn from serving Him on His day to doing that which pleases us and our desires of the flesh as I used to do with my desire/lust for Nascar racing, that mankind runs astray from Him.
A world where everyone does what they believe is right in their own eyes leads to a world of corruption. But a world whose heart is set on being one with the Father as the Son is one with the Father, will bring forth the incorruptible fruit of the Father just as the Son did. (Rm 6:8-23, 1Jn 3:1-12)
“You are looking through the glass darkly. God considers those in service of healing, teaching Scripture and preaching Scripture as service to Him, not as a service to mankind. The fruit of compassion as God is compassionate leads to healing, but it also leads to the other fruits that are also reproduced when His Word is taught or preached.”
You aren’t even looking at the glass! You are arguing only from the vertical aspects of the cross. We love God with all of our hearts but we are also to love our neighbor as we love ourselves(the horizontal aspects of the cross). On those two commandments hang all the laws of the prophets.
As we discover that God loves us, then we begin to love God back. As we love God and he loves us, we begin to develop a healthy love and pure respect for ourselves. As we grow, we begin to look beyond ourselves and see those who are suffering and don’t have the same inward hope that God has given to us. We begin to yearn for these unsaved and to share our Hope with others, experiencing in miniature the same yearning for the lost that God the Father felt for all of us when He sent his son to die.
As for looking at glass darkly....lets see what that scripture really says so that you don’t ever use that phrase like a cudgel again!
<< 1 Corinthians 13 >>
King James Bible
(Love...and pay attention to verse 11-13; Context is key when understanding Paul’s epistles)
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Note that 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the greatest chapters on love in the whole bible.
One final question...it is true that God considers that when we do service to men we do service to him...but when God does service to men, has he also not done service for himself?