Sometimes I wonder if the apostasy or falling away from Christianity
has been going on since very early times. Many Christians seem to be
concerned about “end times” apostasy. They seem to want to place blame
or scapegoat one group or another for not adhering to their particular
ideas of what “true” Christianity is.
But in my opinion, they skirt the real issue. In 1 Corinthians 13,
the Apostle Paul makes it very clear what true Christianity is all
about:
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not
have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
[Emphasis mine]
2. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and
all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but
do not have love, I am nothing. [Emphasis mine]
3. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I
deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits
me nothing. [Emphasis mine]
4. Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant, [Emphasis mine]
5. does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not
provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6. does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the
truth;
7. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
8. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy,
they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if
there is knowledge, it will be done away. [Emphasis mine]
9. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
10. but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a
child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with
childish things.
12. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I
know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been
fully known.
13. But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the
greatest of these is love. [Emphasis mine]
NASB
