Where do you place your faith?

1 Corinthians 13: 8-10
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.


When perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. Yes we all hear this passage at weddings, and I was at one this weekend where it did get quoted, however verse 10 really stuck in my head. The word perfection is thrown around a lot today. It seems that perfection is now possibly an attainable goal. We know that this is the farthest thing from the truth; there is no perfection beyond the perfection of Christ. All to often we give people in our lives more faith than a human deserves. As a result we become disillusioned and feel betrayed when that person stumbles, and makes a mistake.

We tend to put some religious figures and some political figures up on a pedestal. We believe that due to their position in life they must be more righteous, or because of the piece of paper on the wall they now have some ability to withstand more than the "common" person. We should all remember that is not the case. The people standing behind the pulpits, and the podiums are all very much like us. They are human, and they are subject to the same temptations.

Now I will agree that we all would think, and hope that they are at a point in their spiritual journey where the normal temptations would not be as much of a challenge, but we should recognize that with much knowledge comes much responsibility, and for some reason, that always brings more temptation. As a result we see men and women fall from great heights. It is important to remember the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 7: 20 there is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins. We all are broken, some of us hide it better than others, but we all face temptations, and we all will stumble.

I do not make this point as an attempt to discredit people in high positions, but to re-emphasize the importance in where we place our faith. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that we live by faith, not by sight. That means that we must live for what we cannot see, not for what is right in front of us. Our true faith belongs in Christ, not in men, nor in anything that man creates. To place our Faith anywhere else only cheapens our relationship with Christ. As if to say that the sacrifice that he made for us is not deserving of our full commitment. It is in Christ that our faith must be placed, everything else is secondary.

Peace,
Rev. Thetford