Love takes no account of the evil done to it, pays no attention to a suffered wrong. 1 Cor 13:5 Amplified Bible.
The LORD’s Table is a vivid reminder of the fact that we are a community of people called to live, by and under the cross. The bread and wine portray and symbolize not just out togetherness in CHRIST, but that our lives are to be governed and regulated by the cross.
Some prefer to think of themselves as the community of the resurrection, rather than the community of the cross. And although the former is true, it should be recognised that The Table instituted by JESUS has upon it, not the symbols of the resurrection, but the symbols of the cross. The resurrection as we saw, is part of it – a glorious and integral part – but the main focus is on the cross.
Now we have to ask ourselves this sharp and personal question, are our relationships with one another governed and regulated by the cross? When we eat and drink together at our LORD’s Table, are we together physically but poles apart spiritually? Each Christian we relate to has within him or her, the possibility of giving us joy or pain. If we relate well together, then the result is joy; if we relate badly, then the result is pain.
It is at this point, however, that a cross becomes inevitable. For what is a cross? It is the point at which love crimsons into suffering. JESUS loved us so much that HE was willing to suffer for us. In a similar sense, that is what we must do for each other, for Calvary’s love is suffering love. It holds on to relationships, no matter how difficult they may be, and suffers when necessary, the pain that is sometimes inevitable when people of a different upbringing or a different background meet together.
O FATHER, YOU know that sometimes it is not easy to relate to some brothers and sisters in the Church, or even to relate with family and relatives, but when pain comes in my relationships, help me to demonstrate the quality of suffering love. In JESUS’ Name, we pray, Amen.
This particular article is taken from Dr Selwyn Hughes’s daily devotionals, Everyday with JESUS.
An excellent in depth devotionals which will make us only grow in our love for our precious LORD. It is a devotional that every Christian must read and study everyday.
