Endure With One Another

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” – Ephesians 4:2

The Christian who is eager to maintain the bonds of peace in the unity of the Spirit by being humble, gentle, patient, bearing with others in love is living “a life worthy of the calling to which you have received” (Ephesians 4:1). A mark of church unity is carrying one another’s burdens in love.

The word here means to endure with one another. Only perfect people have no need to be forgiven and instructed with patience. Churches are not perfect people, and our discipleship into maturity in Christ does not take place overnight. A humble, gentle patience is required to endure with one another. Why? Because Allison Avenue has imperfect people in it. Sometimes, imperfect people get grumpy. Sometimes, the wounded sharpen tongues to wound another. We each carry a weight into our gathering. The answer is not found in each other, but in our humble, gentle, patience enduring with one another in love, we direct one another to Christ and “the immeasurable riches of His grace” (Ephesians 2:7). This encourages each other in the church to display God’s perfect patience with us as the worst of sinners by our enduring patiently with one another (I Timothy1:16).

My beloved flock, none of you is perfect. This means the church around you must have an enduring patience with you. This means you must have a gentle spirit to endure with them. If we are to be a church enjoying peace in unity, it must not come from us; rather, it must come from Christ who bought us and brought to together (John 14:27).

Pray. Pray for each other and pray that you may have a humble, gentle servant’s heart. Be an instrument of God’s grace to others at church. They may get heated, or grumpy, or bitter. That isn’t a time for avoidance, but rather actively patient, humble, gentle forbearance in your “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Also, be a good listener with humility, gentleness, and patient endurance of one another. Much of church unity is sacrificed when we lack care in our gentle listening.  Our flesh believes “I am always right and there is no amount of truth I need to hear.”

Let us be a humble, gentle, patient church who, in our love for one another, endures much with one another.

Heavenly Father, grant me grace to remember Your patient longsuffering with us in Your love for me. May You grant me mercy to display Your love in my humility, gentleness, patience in longsuffering with others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Fruit of the Spirit: Introduction

I have heard many responses to the simple reading of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5. Sometimes, the reaction from folks is, "Yea, that's how others should treat me!" Or, "It is how I am to be an example." What if the Holy Spirit is digging deeper here?

Galatians was a letter from the Apostle Paul to local churches in a region of modern day Turkey in which Paul planted and invested the gospel of Jesus in people. Paul had to remind them he was sent by God as an apostle, not by men (Galatians 1:1). Since the time Paul was there, missionaries of opposition to Paul and his teaching came telling the church members to get circumcised and follow the Old Testament Law to be right with God.

Galatians is a reminder of the importance of sound doctrine in our theology. Bad doctrine regarding the gospel is "eternally accursed" by those who proclaim it (Galatians 1:8-9) and leads to local churches abusing one another without any asking for forgiveness, repentance, or attempts at reconciling (Galatians 5:15). So, it is important to get the true gospel to view the fruits of the Spirit.

Galatians 5 reminds us of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were found under the command and control of sin and Jesus freed by promise to those who believe (3:22). Christ died to free us from the demands and punishment and burden of the Law. Under the command of sin, we could not say "no" to the desires of the flesh. We who believe in Jesus have crucified the flesh and all its passions and desires (5:24). We who have been freed by Christ now can say "no" to sin and "yes" to righteousness.

Let us treat Galatians 5 in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ together. Let us learn to walk by the Spirit together as those no longer under the law (5:16, 18). This is not about how to expect others to treat you, or simply how to be a moral person. This is about having been freed by Christ to be led by Christ to be Christ-like to the glory of God. We are no longer under the Law but have been freed by Jesus so we don't indulge ourselves in the pleasures of our old nature, but given a new nature by the Spirit of God. The grace of God transforms the believer to display the fruits of the Spirit. The new life Jesus has delivered us by His death and God's power is a life of love.

I will blog each fruit as a devotion and prayer. I invite you to join me in studying God's Word.

Maintaining Peace

"I urge you to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." –Ephesians 4:3

We live in a world of chaos. The trampling herd of people chasing pleasures apart from God plays out and takes unpredictable turns in moods and mindsets of the victims in its wake. But we followers of Jesus are gifted by the Holy Spirit a peace. We enjoy the gift God’s peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:7). Paul urges here in Ephesians 4 that the peace that you and I enjoy with God as a gift is to be maintained in unity as a bond of peace with one another.

But why? Why must we strive to enjoy peace in the local church? What purpose is there of God to urge me to maintain peace with other sinners saved by grace, even and especially when it’s hard? Why be humble, gentle, patient, and bear with others in love (vs 2)? 

Paul says it is in keeping with a life worthy of the salvation I received (vs 1). To use my Holy Spirit giftedness to the gospel mission of the local church, being an actively loving and serving member of the church to equip saints for gospel service and build one another up to maturity in Christ-likeness (12-13). This maturing process, which is found in the increasing knowledge of the Son of God, means that the church has immature followers of Jesus in our midst. 

How well do we know one another? Do you patiently listen to or voice confessions of weaknesses in your faith? How do you give good counsel to trouble in other’s lives? How well do you receive biblical challenges from others to be closer to Christ?

Oftentimes, we gather for worship together all spiritually limping in wounded from our world of chaos. So, maintain our bond of peace, my beloved, by being a safe place, a refuge, a healing place. How? By increasing one another’s knowledge of the Son of God, Paul says. Be humble toward one another. Patient toward one another. Gentle toward one another. And bear with one another in love. Let us be the safe place for one another by being in Christ in the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Sunday morning may be the only peaceful moment a struggling young mother has this week. Or someone wrestling with drama at work. Or a teen pressured by friends at school. Or someone with a private internal wound. Let us be a safe place of God’s peace to one another. We are commanded to love as Christ loves us (John 15:12), and by His Spirit our Lord gifts to us all that He requires. If you lack peace and love, ask in His name.

Heavenly Father, grant us peace to rest in Your sovereign might through our Lord Jesus Christ. May the peace we enjoy with You be enjoyed together in unity. Teach us Your Word, equip us for Your mission, and fill us with Your love that our church may be a safe and healing place of Your peace. Amen.

Sent to Make Christ Known

“How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?” –Romans 10:14

I heard a haunting statistic recently: worldwide, 81% of non-believers do not personally know a Christian. In the U.S., it hovers around 60%. Think of the sea of faces your eyes pass by each day. They have souls; God knows them by name and has numbered their hairs. They are humans with fears and dreams and families. The overwhelming majority of them do not have a personal relationship with someone with the message of the only hope of rescue for sinners. 

In Acts 8, Philip was asked to join an Ethiopian eunuch in a chariot heading home from Jerusalem. The man was reading Isaiah. Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” Which the man replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?

Your neighborhood is filled with sinners on a trajectory toward eternity to suffer God’s wrath, and they do not know you or any gospel proclaimer personally. This world is filled with sinners with no hope, and we have a message. Your neighborhood is not unreached, because by God’s grace He sent you there.

For what purpose did God rescue you? The Apostle Paul called himself the chief of sinners rescued to display Jesus Christ’s perfect patience (I Timothy 1:16) and that in the church God displays “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). We cannot display without intentionality. We are commanded by our Lord to make disciples of all people. Every background, every kind of sinner, every type of folks who may be uncomfortable to be around. Yes, they are blinded by Satan (II Corinthians4:4), but we do not proclaim ourselves but Christ Jesus who has the power to bring light from darkness! 

Do not be intimidated and let not your heart be troubled, dear disciple of Jesus. You weren’t given a spirit of fear, but of boldness to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ to such sinners. That is Jesus’ mission; that is your mission! Do not hesitate to gain relationships with those who are not following Jesus. Do not hesitate to tell them the glorious truth of Jesus Christ from His Word. With urgency and grace-gifted boldness, share the love of Jesus with those in darkness that they may see a great Light.

Heavenly Father, give us urgent and compassionate hearts to weep over sinners like Jesus wept over Jerusalem as a people without a shepherd. May we trust in Your Word and Your Holy Spirit to give us words to say as we faithfully fulfill the Great Commission of our Lord. Grant us Your mercy, O Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Wisdom to Age and to Die Well

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.” –Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

We get excited when a baby is born. There is fresh celebration when we’re newly wed, entering a new job, or buying a first home to raise our children in. When something is new, our imaginations run wild with future memories made and the hope of life getting better. But babies grow old and die. Newlyweds endure a lifetime of two sinners living together. Jobs turn into careers that we work until our bodies fail, and we retire. Houses age and children move out. Hopes and dreams excite us, but living out life drags us. We aren’t prepared for the fight. The world does not prepare us to age and to die.

The world only knows how to celebrate what is fresh. That’s why fads are so quick to come and go. We are pressured to discover a “new you,” to find what makes our hearts flutter afresh each day. Youth culture is celebrated far more than wisdom from a life well lived and a life prepared to die well. But the freshness of new things is not better than the end. Ecclesiastes 7:8 reads, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Arrogance keeps us impatient. A humble faith in God gives us patient endurance to age well and die well to the glory of God.

I learned something from lying in a hospital bed for 3 days last week: our existence is a fragile mortality. Wisdom comes from aging well; that is growing in Christ-likeness. Wisdom is found in dying well; that is trusting that the celebration of things in the end is better than the beginning. God is sovereign, and I know I gained more wisdom in 3 days than I could in 3 weeks at a Bible conference. My folly is more than an information problem; deeper still, it is a relationship problem. The course of our lives has phases, but then we die. Has eternity with Jesus been displayed as my highest joy while aging and walking toward my death on earth?

Wisdom to age well and die well must be Spirit gifted wisdom in the Word received with humility and a dependence upon God’s sovereignty even when I am left confused and my “why” questions are left unanswered. O for grace to trust Him more!

Grant us grace, O Lord, to trust You and depend upon You even if it means temporary pain in this temporary life. Give grace to our eyes of faith to see eternity with You as far greater, far more satisfying than even our wildest dreams on earth. Teach us to age well and to die well, displaying Your glory through us to a world that is dying. Amen.

Pray for Me, for Us

“I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” –Romans 15:30

Paul was a giant in the faith. Thoughtful, intelligent, willing to work and to suffer for Christ. He planted churches around the Mediterranean Sea, fought off wolves endangering young Christians, and was a bold preacher in front of Herod, Mars Hill, and angry mobs. Yet, Paul still needed the prayers of the church gathered. “Join in my struggle through prayer,” he pleads to the church. 

Why does Paul ask the church to join in his struggle? For “our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit.” Paul’s prayer for the local church is that our “love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians1:9). Love increases in the church that gathers to know God more and discern His truth. 

My ministry, just like Paul’s, is utterly dependent on God to do the things only God can do. Making disciples of all people to the glory of God requires God’s power. Paul knew his personal growth and labor in ministry was by God’s grace alone (I Corinthians15:10). Who I have become and how I minister is dependent upon God’s grace alone. Therefore, my beloved Allison Avenue saints, struggle with me by praying to God for me.

Also, Paul pleads for the saints in Rome to join him in his struggle by praying “by the love of the Spirit.” There is a sweetness found in a church who prays such Kingdom prayers together! Join the struggle together by praying to God together! Paul already commanded the Roman saints to “rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). Be constant in prayer…together. Struggle together. Paul wrote to the Colossian church how he heard of their faithfulness to God and of their love in the Spirit (Colossians1:8). This is the same Holy Spirit in whom we the church enjoy unity and a bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3), a perfect unity held together by God’s perfect love (Colossians3:14).

I plead with you: pray for me, for my teaching ministry, for my leadership of our church. Pray that I speak the mystery of the gospel in the way I should (Colossians 4:3-4) with boldness (Ephesians 6:19). Pray for one another. Pray together. Pray constantly. Pray that you love one another more (Philippians 1:9). Pray that you encourage one another to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and to bear fruit for His glory (Colossians 1:9-10). 

Let us be a praying church, faithful to God and depending on God and going to God on behalf of one another. Join in the struggle of the global gospel mission of Christ in prayer for laborers to enter the field for the harvest (Luke 10:2) and then go to the field ourselves (Luke 10:3).

Heavenly Father, my love for Your people whom You have sovereignly placed under my leadership compels me to ask You for Your favor to them. Bless them by Your rich mercies, deliver them from temptation, and may our love for one another increase. To Your glory and in Jesus’ name. Amen.