Love One Another

In the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed, our Lord shockingly put on the form of a servant and washed His disciples' feet. Soon after, Judas Iscariot leaves the Passover Meal and makes his way to members of the Sanhedrin to receive payment in exchange for betraying Jesus.When Judas leaves, Jesus tells the remaining disciples God is about to glorify Him. Our Lord gently calls them "little children," telling them He is to be with them only a little while longer, and where He is going they cannot come.

"A new commandment I give you," Jesus proclaimed (John 13:34). Think about this. Jesus, Lord and Judge of the universe proclaims a command to His followers. Jesus, who is described in Revelation as having "eyes like a flame of fire" and a "voice like the roar of many waters" and "from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength" (Revelation 1:12-16). He is commanding you and me as Judge and Ruler with an expectation to obey.

"Love one another," the Lord ordered. How?

Jesus continued His mandate, "As I have loved you, you also are to love one another." How have You loved us, Lord, that we may love one another in the same way?

Love is patient and kind
Love does not envy or boast
Love is not arrogant or rude. 
Love does not insist on its own way
Love is not irritable or resentful
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  
Love bears all things
Love believes all things
Love hopes all things
Love endures all things.
                                (I Corinthians 13:4-7)

The church is the bride of Christ, and as our Lord took on the form of a servant and washed His disciples' feet, He washes His bride whom He died for with the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:25-26). When our Lord had finished washing His disciples' feet, He said, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you." Our Lord has given us an example of loving service He is commanding you and I to obey in His church.

This is what a church is to look like who is "bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-7). To disobey the love one another command in rebellion to the Head of the Church is to disrupt her Spirit-given unity and peace.

As described in I Corinthians 13, love in the church bought by Jesus Christ who loves His church is a patient, long-suffering love brimming with kindness towards one another. There is no air of arrogance or rudeness. No voice of boasting how much better we perform our Christian duties than others. Love does not demand from each other to accomplish our preferences and get our own way. Love dispels any and all tension of irritability or resentful desire to injure others. Love rejoices in the truth, not at wrongdoing.

Charles Spurgeon comments, "This love both covers and bears all things. It never proclaims the errors of others. It refuses to see faults unless it may kindly help in their removal. It stands in the presence of a fault with a finger on its lips. It does not attempt to make a catalog of provocations."

Spurgeon said in reference to "believing all things," 

To our fellow Christians, love always believes the best of them. I wish we had more of this faith abroad in all the churches, for a horrid blight falls upon some communities through suspicion and mistrust. Though everything may be pure and right, yet certain weak minds are suddenly fevered with anxiety through the notion that all is wrong and rotten. This unholy mis-trust is in the air, a blight upon all peace: it is a sort of fusty mildew of the soul by which all sweet perfume of confidence is killed. (Source)

 Instead, this love which believes all things

believes good of others as long as it can, and when it is forced to fear that wrong has been done, love will not readily yield to evidence but will give the accused brother or sister the benefit of many doubts. Some persons habitually believe everything that is bad about others; they are not the children of love.

The Apostle Paul concludes this thought in his letter to the local church in Corinth with this, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

In his book, Charity and its Fruits, the Great Awakening preacher Jonathan Edwards writes,

Do not make an excuse that you have not opportunities to do anything for the glory of God, for the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom, and for the spiritual benefit of your neighbors. If your heart is full of love, it will find vent; you will find or make ways enough to express your love in deeds. When a fountain abounds in water it will send forth streams.

Let God's love which is poured out into our hearts send forth streams of love for Christ's church. Brothers and sisters, let our love be genuine and love one another in obedience to Christ, our loving Bridegroom. For our Lord's love for us bears all things, is patient and kind with us. He is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Psalm 86:15). We love because He first loved us (I John 4:19). Praise be to God for His great love and amazing grace for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Redeemed Marriages

“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” -Colossians 3:18-19

Recently I ran an errand to the grocery store where I witnessed an older married couple make snappy comments to each other aisle after aisle. She would start with making a snappy comment about him over something trivial, and he would return a snappy comment about her. The expressions on their faces displayed for each other and for the world a relationship of joyless conflict. 

The wisdom of God in Colossians 3 commands we Christians to put on as God’s beloved people set apart from the world “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (3:12). Our Christian relationships, especially our marriages, are to be a place for “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (3:13). Husbands, love your wives by leading this bearing with your wives. Lead in forgiveness from a compassionate heart of kindness, humility, meekness, and patience with her. Wives, you are not to be in competition with your husbands, but in the fitting of God’s pleasure, submit to your husband with the same Spirit given character.

Our conflicts arise, not because of our disagreeable spouses, but sin in our own hearts. God told Eve after the Fall in Genesis 3 that the wife’s desire will be the competition to be like her husband, desiring to lead, and her husband’s response will be to lord it over her. The hope of the marriage of Adam and Eve which was broken by sin came in the previous verse: a Messiah will come and crush the head of the serpent. The Lord has forgiven us through Jesus whose heal was bruised to crush the serpent’s head, so wives peacefully submit to your husbands as fitting to the Lord and husbands love your wives without lording over them. 

Since the Fall in the Garden, every marriage is the fitting of two sinners in need of grace. You enter sin in your marriage as does your spouse. Worldly marriages display joyless competition and conflict, making comments of each other where they can do nothing right. No encouragement. No peace. Bitterness and preference rule the hearts in conflict. Confess your sin of competition and pride of heart to your spouse and seek Christ to bear with each other in His peace to rule in your hearts (3:15). Put on Christ’s love “which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (3:14). Anything in contrary to this command of God upon our Christian relationships, especially our marriages, is sin to be repented of.

Heavenly Father, forgive us of hearts ruled by pride, competition, and preference. May our hearts be ruled by Christ’s peace, our relationships a display of Your love, and our marriages point to Christ’s relationship to His bride, the church. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Made Useful by the Master

“If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” -II Timothy 2:21

As I sit beside this rushing mountain creek near Pine Mountain in Kentucky, my mind is filled with the wonder that every raindrop, every bead of dew has been gathered by God’s hands to form this mighty brook. Droplets united in a rushing creek has great force with it, and its loud surge makes beautiful music.

To be a worker approved by God, the Christian is to rightly handle the Bible which leads to godliness, not to use the Bible to promote ungodliness like godless chatter (II Timothy 2:15-16). Such ungodly misuse of the Bible winds up in conversations in the church which upsets their faith (17-18). The community of God’s people is encouraged and built up by the Christian who is useful to the Master.

We tend to think of our usefulness as being needed. This seems to be a real temptation for a pastor like me. Yet, here I am on vacation, away from the flock I love and am called to lead. The church family gathered and was fed His Word rightly handled (thank you Pastor Stephen!). God does not need me, but He still uses me. God does not need you, but He still uses you. Much like former slave Onesimus’ return to his master Philemon, we have become useful by God’s hands and gathered into His church as family much like His gathering of droplets to form a mighty brook.

I want to be a useful pastor to you all in the service of my Savior. I pray you would like to be a vessel for honorable use and useful to the Master, as well. Our usefulness is not in our perceived neededness, but in our obedience to God. God sovereignly called us together, gathering us droplets and making us useful. Our usefulness is our readiness to serve Him in His church, and our readiness is found in His Holy Spirit’s fruitfulness in our holy character of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Let us be made useful to our Lord by our love and service to one another.

Spurgeon once said, “The most useful members of a church are usually those who would be doing harm if they were not doing good.” Whatever holds us back from His good service is to be repented of. Let me not grow weary doing good, Lord. By the might of Your hand, let us all not grow weary. I pray He blesses us with rich mercies to continue our obedience in His “one another” commands. Such a force of gathered saints has a loud surge making beautiful music to the glory of God.

Heavenly Father, You have called us to be holy as You are holy. Fit us for heaven by fitting us for useful service here, Lord. Thank You for Your precious Word where You feed our souls hungry for righteousness. Bless us, O Lord, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Turning from Dead Idols to the Living Christ

“Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.” -Jeremiah 10:5

The sights and sounds are familiar to me. Joyful singing with shouts of “amen” and “hallelujah” fills the air. A pastor prays and opens the Bible, explains the text and helps his people understand and apply what is read. There is baptism and taking the Lord’s Supper together. Yet, as I sit here in the front row of Nepali Revival Church, I am overwhelmed with the thought that the multitude around me rejoicing in Christ’s gospel together were not long ago devout Buddhists and Hindus. For a few of them, just hours ago.

We sinners have become master idol makers in our running from God. We either craft and carry ornate statutes like Hindus or craft a god with our opinions and emotions. Either way, such idols must be informed of identity and cannot walk or speak. Idols have no quality to be feared; however, idols are dangerous.

The Apostle Paul commands the church in Colossae to put to death the earthly desires in you “which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). What makes idolatry dangerous isn’t simply the moral failure, but that idolatry is the reason the wrath of God is coming (vs 6). Our covenant making God has a holy, pure jealousy demanding our singular devotion and joy (Exodus 20). And Christ’s gospel welcomes those who are far off, no matter their nation or language or tribe, into the Lord’s salvation that the nations would be glad (Psalm 67:4). 

Whether I sit in this room filled with Nepali Christians, or I am back at Allison Avenue, I am surrounded by former idol crafters, carriers, and worshipers. As Paul says “you too once walked” (Colossians 3:7). When our Nepali brothers and sisters call for Hindus and Buddhists to smash their idols and turn to the living God, calling for repentance, they are speaking of the Way in which they have found: Jesus is alive. He does not need to be crafted and carried. He is to be feared. He can do harm or good. Turn to Him and have everlasting life enjoying our gracious God forever.

When we tell the world and each other to smash the idols of “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” we speak as those who once worshiped and carried those idols. Allow me to encourage you, my beloved church family, with the boldness and joy of our Nepali church family. Much like the church in Thessalonica, be encouraged of seeing how they have turned from idols to the living and true God (I Thessalonians 1:9-10). Be bold and joyful as you speak Christ’s gospel to idol worshipers around you. Jesus saves. His gospel is the power of God to save.

Heavenly Father, how we rejoice in Your salvation we enjoy through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! How You have called us to turn from our idols and worship You, the living and true God. Grant us boldness and joy as we proclaim this good news in Christ to the idol worshipers around us that they may turn from their idols and escape Your holy wrath and be invited in to enjoy You forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.