God’s love builds unity

Even a brief study of church history sadly reveals conflicts resulting in divisions and new denominations — giving the body of Christ a bad reputation. I cannot make excuses because I know how easily our spiritual enemy can dupe us into false ideas about God and one another. Both accusations ruin unity.

When I read 1 Thessalonians, I’m blessed by Paul’s attitude toward the Christians at Thessalonica. If all of us throughout the ages had followed his example, our unity in Christ would be far more evident. Unity is there, but it certainly does not get the same press as our divisions and disagreements.

Today Paul describes his attitude . . .

“Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4–13)

Paul’s priority was to please God. He did not have a personal agenda nor was he side-tracked by ego-flattering goals like a fat salary or a huge congregation. He did not care about ratings or being exalted as pastor-of-the-year. All he wanted was to share the Gospel, not be a burden to anyone, remain a godly person and work in a loving way so that others became godly people. This is so straightforward that I can easily see how it applies to my own life.

“For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 3:4–8)

Paul was not worried about his own reputation either. If this church did not do well, he was concerned about them, not his success rating. Their steadfastness was a great comfort to him, not for his sake but theirs.

I can also easily see how this applies to me. I’ve led many Bible study groups and realize that there is a fine line regarding my motivation for the success of those in the groups. Do I want them to obey God and do well because it glorifies the Lord? Or because it makes me look good? Being selfishly motivated can be subtle but in the case of Paul, it just is not there. He was motivated by the love of God for the spiritual well-being of those he served . . .

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:12–13)

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, this has been a challenging week as the prayer group I’m leading has experienced spiritual attacks to confuse and thwart our efforts. I’m thankful that You can increase our love for You and for one another. I’m also glad that You establish holiness and hold us blameless because of Your sacrifice for us. We get confused, but You clarify. We stumble and fall, but Your hand reaches out to pull us up and enable us to keep going. We struggle with the burdens of today, but You encourage us with the promise of Your return and the hope of living forever with You. Thank You so much. Amen.

Oh, how He loves . . .

When Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, died, the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” (John 11:36) They may have misinterpreted the total reasons for His tears, for Jesus knew even then that He would raise Lazarus from the dead. Perhaps He cried because of the bigger picture — that sin entered the world and death through sin, or that He was surrounded by people who said they believed in God yet had no hope that anyone would be resurrected from the dead.

Nevertheless, Jesus did love this man and his sisters. They were His friends so His love for them was expressed in His tears and in what He did next.

This story is emotional, yet my emotions soar when it becomes an example of what happened at Calvary; Jesus looked out on a sea of humanity, realized that sin and death have power over all of us, and from His great heart of compassion He went beyond weeping for our sorry state. Because He loves us with an everlasting love, He shed His blood and died for our sins that we might live again.

‘Behold how he loved!’ can be said of every person, even me. The love of Jesus Christ is eternal, without beginning or end. He loves me from the foundation of all creation and His love endures forever.

Human love, as good as it can be, is not like that. At some point, it falters, even fails. Yet with the love of God as my source, I can convey to others this amazing love that Jesus gives to me . . .

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:7–12)

The key to loving others is knowing how much I am loved by God. Our first clue is in life itself. He created me. As a person who creates, when I make something I react to it. My creations are not as God’s yet I have great delight in them. I can imagine the heart of God when He spoke the world into existence and fashioned Adam from the dust of the ground. Saying “very good” may have been a God-sized understatement of how He felt.

The greater clue to His love is that Jesus came to die for our sin. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) God’s creation turned its back on Him, but His love never ceased. He responded to our folly by the most incredible act in all history; He came here to die in our place and give us the gift of eternal life. This is love.

This morning my heart is filled with this knowledge. Christian friends and life itself declare the love of God to me, also as does the Holy Spirit . . .

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:13–19)

God’s love perseveres. I often do not respond to Him and to others as love prompts, yet God never shakes His finger at me in anger. He patiently persists in longsuffering, lasting love that never grows cold.

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Jesus, the Bible says that Your love will accomplish what You desire. You will conquer the hearts of those You have redeemed and You will satisfy the need of our hearts by not withholding any good thing from us. Surely this includes a love that never ends, a love that at the end of time all creation will shout with awe, ‘Behold how he loved them!’

God’s word for 2015

Sometime early in this year, our pastor challenged us to select a focus word that would remind us all year of our relationship to Jesus Christ. I’ve done this before, usually picking a verse rather than a word, but a word popped to mind almost immediately. It was “kept.” Within a few days, the Holy Spirit led me to a verse that expressed the thoughts that would bless me all year . . .

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

I needed that prayer and promise as 2014 was a year of battle. Strong attacks from the liar attempted to un-glue me from God. Being kept was important. Being kept blameless was even more important.

For the coming year, I’ve been praying for an appropriate word, not knowing what lies ahead. The word that keeps coming to mind is “humility.” This word is often misunderstood. It is not about thinking less of myself, but about thinking of myself less. It is about having the mind of Christ rule my life so I give greater effort to better serving the needs of others.

How appropriate on this day before the New Year begins that my devotional booklet should take me to a passage that reveals the mind of Jesus Christ and His passion for others. He had no concern about His reputation or what anyone thought of Him. All He was interested in was doing the will of God. Herein lies the wonder and the freedom of humility . . .

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:1–11)

Jesus was God in human flesh, but He didn’t consider that a big deal. Instead, He thought about and served others, even to death on a cross. He trusted His Father to do right. He sweat blood yet said, “Not my will but Yours be done.” He also anticipated the joy set before Him so endured the cross and kept His mind on the goal. This was the greatest act ever, and this is also humility.

  

The Immense Love of Christ

Prayer requests are most often for physical and personal problems such as bodily ailments, relationship conflicts, and decisions about life. Paul’s prayers were most often about spiritual life, such as knowing Christ in a personal relationship, having strong faith in Him, and knowing how much He loves us.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19)

Yesterday’s worship service focused on two things, knowing the will of God and knowing how much He loves us. Over the years, my scattered mind has struggled with focusing on anything, but today I am thinking about His love, and singing songs that reflect it.

While it feels good to have someone say “I love you,” love is not mere words. It is action. Christ does things that demonstrate and prove His love. He came from the perfection of heaven to a place of sorrow and death. He was made flesh, the Creator made a creature. He who filled heaven was enveloped in a child, born in a manger rather than a palace. He, the God of strength, become hungry, thirsty, tired. This was His loving choice.

To show His love, the sinless Judge of all was condemned. The God of life was put to death and He who had the keys of hell and death was laid in the prison of another man’s grave; in life He had nowhere to lay his head and in death nowhere to lay his body.

He did this for us, while we were yet sinners, enemies of God, fallen, miserable humans. The continual suffering of Jesus Christ from the cradle to the cross, speaks louder than words of the transcendent love of Jesus Christ to sinners. He took upon Himself the wrath of God that sinners might be saved and that we might spend eternity where we otherwise would not belong.

Such love is a wonder. It includes affection but goes much farther. The love of Christ is submissive and willing to suffer for the sake of others. It is above all measure. Time did not begin it, and time will never end it. It cannot be bound to a place, not can sin overcome it. Understanding furrows its brow for this love is beyond any love we know or can imagine. How can love persist for those who hate it? How can love forgive those who kill it? How can love offer reconciliation when it is spurned, heap kindness on contempt, favor on ingratitude, mercy on sin?

The love of Christ moved Him to do all of that so I could spend all my days admiring and adoring Him, wholly  captivated by thoughts of His love for me.