The Fifth Voice
THE pastor was gone today, and our local high-school music teacher preached. He spoke about “the fifth voice,” an idea I had never heard of. He drew the concept from the singing of barbershop quartets. “The fifth voice” refers to the one harmony created by the four voices as they join together in song. The unified sound becomes like a fifth voice.
Just as a group of singers can be more than each of them is alone, Christians living in love create something more than they could on their own. The day before Jesus was crucified, he told his disciples that the world would know that they were his followers by the way they related to one another, that they were to cherish and care for one another.
First Corinthians 13 describes the characteristics of this Christian love. Paul exhorted the Corinthians to be patient and kind, to turn aside from jealousy, boastfulness, pride, rudeness, selfishness, and irritability. Love forgives and lets go of hurts and offenses of the past. When Christians live together in love, the world hears a voice it needs to hear: the fifth voice that reveals the presence of the Savior.
