Love's sake1 Corinthians 13:7
7 Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Control, competition, superiority, dominance, self-righteousness or just plain pride are all enemies to Christian love. Some would argue that they are necessary at times to create order from chaos. But in the perfect unity and harmony of the body of Christ, there is only one God, one Lord, one Jesus.

1 Corinthians 13:8-12
8 Love 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. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Sadly, we live in a broken world which only allows us to see in part what we need to see in order to be perfected in the body of Christ. The church, it’s institution and administration serves as an icon, a symbol of hope and righteousness to a sinful world. When it ceases to give life to the dead, bring light to the darkness, heal the wounded, free the captives, and bring hope to the hopeless, it takes on the distasteful, unattractive appearance of hypocrisy. We become the prophesied recipients of Jesus’s warning in Matthew 7:21-23: English Standard Version (ESV)

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

When we meet Christ face to face what shall He say to you? To be known by Him is to “give a cup of cold water to the least of these.” This revelation of Christ for us implies sacrifice, submission, trust, and love. A sacrifice to journey to a place where ‘cold’ water can be found. A submission to His will working in you to minister to people you believe to be less than yourself. To get underneath them! A trust that Christ is always with you from the beginning unto the end as you minister to the thirsty! To love them enough to go to a cross a die for them! We are not to do these acts of kindness as if they are for an earned payment or reward, but we enjoy laboring through our works of providence from a Christ-changed and renewed heart. The sacrifice of your life, your pride, your will, and your way are necessary to hear “Well Done! Good and faithful servant! Come and dine with your Master!”