I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12, Proverbs 16:25).  There is that which looks like labor and achievement, but, as a despondent King Solomon observed, it all the result of rivalry, envy, between a man and his neighbor.  It is vanity, meaningless, and a striving after the wind.

Consider the words of the apostle John.  He said that everyone who truly loves is born of God (1 John 4:7).  If love is the restoration God is looking to bring to the human heart (Matthew 22:40), then love is principally the one thing which fallen man cannot do (1 Peter 1:22, Galatians 5:6).  There is no true benevolence, as King Solomon pointed out, there is no real industry.  What appears to be love at the outset is really a misidentified attempting to gratify the flesh.

Only God, with the true heart of a Father,  can look at a world and, though it is sinful, still love it (John 3:16), and give all that He has absolutely selflessly.  Again, in the words of John’s letter,

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:10

This is how we have come to know love, because He loved us first.

Every Christian that has ever been saved is saved because they had an encounter with a man, Christ Jesus.  For many, this was through the preaching of His Word through the faithful men and women throughout history who have continued to speak forth the Word of His Kingdom and His Love, the gospel that has brought us salvation.  But, it is a real person, with real emotions, and real will and desires for His house.  He is able to have compassion and comfort for us because He has suffered like us as a man.

As we worship, come together, and gather, in a corporate setting, the one Spirit between us all lifts our hearts and minds a little higher in worship and adoration of our true Lord and King, the realms of praise, worship, and sometimes angels, miracles, and other dimensions of God’s realm begin to manifest in our midst.

Whenever we meet, the spirits of men made righteous have the chance to meet and join, in whatever degree they are willing, and to be the light of Christ, to be the declaration of the glory of God to the world, visible and invisible.

Any degree of communion with God is good, and simple belief is enough, but what of when none of that comes?

Any true belief in Jesus is enough for salvation, but what of when there is no sincerity, no real substance of worship at all towards a real God?

Obviously, when the pagans worship, they worship in vain, and what they worship are really demons.  They might attract more spirits (demons) of strife, anger, murder, and contention, but that is all they will ever do.  A new age or universalist, who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ might be able to attract spirits of divination or demonic agents of healing, but they can never provoke love.  They might bow their will out of servitude and hopes for empowerment by a demonic agent, but it is selfish, through and through.

But, love is as strong as death.  The one thing that we must all face, saving Jesus’ return, death itself, is rivaled in it’s ability and might to seize and bind by one thing, love.  You will never hear this kind of love sung about on the radio, or talked about in the news paper however, because, as was already said, the world does not know it.  Everything they can ever even speak out of from experience is self-love, and selfish gratification.

Surely, when God spoke to Adam that in eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he would surely die, the Lord was telling the truth.

But, when we worship in Spirit and in Truth, at the feet of our Master, a change comes about.  Wherein we fall in real love.  We are filled with His love, the love of the true Father, and we are able to love, because we are loved.  Because we are filled with His love, we are able to give it to others.  This is how John himself said we can set our hearts at rest in His presence, that we can love each other.  No hooks, no expectations, no conflict.  This is how we can set our hearts at rest in His presence, even when our own hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts.

When we enter into Christianity without encountering the man, we do nothing at all.  When we do extra things, other than relate to God and His son, other than as that facilitates the first in some way or another, we likewise do nothing at all.  Worse than that, we will appease the flesh, and consider what we have done pleasing to God, when, like all of man’s striving, it is merely selfish pride.

There are only two things in this entire life that matter.  Loving God and loving others.  The only reason a red ball in my hand has any significance in Eternity is only directly as it relates to one of those two.  Accounting and secretaries are important in church, because they take care of necessary business that keeps the rest of the work of the church functioning in the midst of the world in which we function.  Various other aspects of church that facilitate the real, relating to God and His Son (by means of teaching, worship, helping the poor, evangelism, and all the other ways of seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness, of sowing to the Spirit), have worth.  Some things, such as ball games, and church picnics can have value as long as they do not detract from the primary, but add a place for relations between members.

But, that which looks like a religious service, that which is merely duty, or servitude, or only doctrine without the man, is empty, dead, and, as we are instructed in Hebrews 6:1, we are told to repent of all such works.

Does it promote love, or does it merely puff up the mind and lead the heart astray from the man, the real Jesus living in our hearts?  Does it lead the eye of the heart more to the carnal, the material, and the profane (Jesus called worldly wealth “unrighteous mammon” Luke 16:11), than it does to the holy?  The problem comes in when we do something, supposing it to be a spiritual act, when it is really, as King Solomon said, merely a striving after the wind, and vanity.

It is the Spirit that gives life, not the flesh, and as Jesus said, it is not merely those who do lip service to Him that are entranced into His Kingdom, but those that do the will of His Father, to believe in who He is.  Inside you.  Right now, where you are.  This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.