Of Sounding Gongs and Clanging Cymbals

Teddy Roosevelt said this: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Christian ministry (all Christians have one) is tricky business. To be effective and productive, not only does one have to physically carry out the work of serving others but also to sincerely care about those being served. Jesus instructs us to go the extra mile, to do more than is required. If you are being paid to minister, you balance work and private life too. Tricky, I say.

Paul says if we do “all these things”, and he lists several, we are noisy gongs and clanging cymbals (I Corinthians 13). We are all noise when we serve without love, and unproductive too.

Peter also said something similar in II Peter 1:3-8 (NIV), “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness… For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Today ask yourself why you serve. Is it to be seen of men? Do you want people to admire you? Are you meeting your own needs? Or do you truly care about the good of others and what is best for them? (People can tell.) Do you do only what is required or give your best effort, going the extra mile if necessary? 

How do people you serve feel after being in your presence? Do they see themselves as a joy or a burden to you? Do they feel encouraged and refreshed after talking with you? Or inferior? Do you preserve their dignity by allowing them to teach you something? Do you listen to their ideas, thoughts, and feelings? 

It is not necessary to fix people’s problems. (What a relief, right?) Nobody likes to feel like a project.

Are you serving in love or sounding a gong? According to Paul, if you are not serving in love, you could offer your very body to be burned, and it would be for nothing. What a waste that would be! Some offer their whole lives in this way, and that is truly sad. I don’t want that to be my life, and I bet you don’t either. Spend a little time meditating on the Love Chapter in I Corinthians 13. It’s a good reminder for all of us.

joyce hague