Tag: christian love

1 John 4:1-6

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            The Apostle John gave some spiritually sage advice to a group of his disciples who were being influenced by false believers:  “Dear friends, don’t believe everyone who claims to have the Spirit of God.  Test them all to find out if they really do come from God.”  Lots of people make claims, but the real muster of a Christian is in embracing an embodied spirituality that truly meets the holistic needs of others.
 
            For John, there was no room for the Platonic Greek dualism of body and spirit.  Jesus was a real man with a very real body.  To deny this was to deny the faith.  Ethereal musings about the insignificance of the body were flatly rejected by John.  The apostle was concerned that the supreme Christian ethic of love be practiced through attention to both body and soul.  This means words are not enough; actual demonstrations of love are needed in order to communicate Christ to others.
 
            I’ll be the first guy to insist on some deep theological reflection on the great spiritual, cultural, and social issues of our day.  But if it does not lead to the end of some very real tangible acts of love based on that reflection, then we have not yet been called God’s friend.  Correct doctrine will always lead to loving actions of faith.  We are to glorify God with both speech and service, and never just one without the other.
 

 

            Loving God, since you cared for us by sending your Son, the Lord Jesus, to this earth as a real human being, so let my very real body and soul glorify you with words and ways of love through the power of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

2 Corinthians 5:11-17

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            “We are ruled by Christ’s love for us.  We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died.  And Christ did die for all of us.  He died so we would no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and was raised to life for us.  We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in that way.  Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person.  The past is forgotten, and everything is new” (CEV).
 
            Simple observation:  The Christian’s rule of life is to be love.  Love is the distinguishing mark of the believer in Jesus Christ.  A person filled and ruled by Christ’s love for him/her sees all of life in a new and different way.  Positive confidence and optimism replace negative skepticism and pessimism; grace takes over and trumps the old judgmental spirit; living in the present state and being attentive and mindful of others negates living in the past and holding onto old hurts and animosities.
 
            The person who does not change, refuses transformation of heart, and eschews the renovation of the mind is not being ruled by Christ’s love.  But the person who allows the love of God in Christ through the cross to thaw his/her cold heart into a new white hot passionate life in the Spirit is experiencing the resurrected existence to which we have been called.
 
            Try this today:  monitor your words and actions.  At the end of the day, ask yourself:  Were my words and actions done in love?  What percentage of those words and actions were loving and unloving?  Was I compelled by Christ’s love, or by the love of self?  How can I bring the value of love to be more operative in my behavior and speech?  Who will I share my plan with?
 

 

            Loving God, you demonstrated your love for us through the cross of Jesus.  May my life be so filled with grace that what comes out of my mouth and what is done in my behavior is consistently characterized by love.  Amen.

What Do You Want?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
Let’s make a very important observation about how Christ’s church is designed to function:  The church is meant to operate on desire, not duty (2 Corinthians 9:7).  “Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  Paul was a cheerful giver.  What kept him going was the love of Christ:  “For Christ’s love compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).  We are to be motivated in the Christian life and in the Christian church by desiring Jesus, and not by sheer duty.  Desiring God is the only thing that will keep us going over the long haul.  Sustainable spiritual health can only be had through love and desire.  Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15).
 
            As Christians, we do not obey in order to be accepted and loved by God because we already have love and acceptance.  Rather, we obey because we love.  God would rather have us give a dime out of desire than give a thousand dollars out of duty.  Jesus is looking for love.  He doesn’t need our money because he already owns everything.  God wants our love.  Why do you do what you do?  Is it out of desire, or duty?
 
            You are what you love.  It is our desires that define us as Christians and as the church that Jesus is building.  What do you want?  That is the question which every Christian and church must ask ourselves.  It is the first, last, and most fundamental question of Christian discipleship. Jesus asked it.  It is the first question he ever asked of someone in the Gospels:  “What do you want?” (John 1:38) he asked the first two people who were following him early in his ministry.
 
            Jesus is still asking that question “What do you want?” because what you want determines where you will aim your love.  Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity.  We are to hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are to desire right relationships with God and others.  This is very different than being told that we have a duty to believe and do what is right.  Duty will not last forever, but desires will be diligently pursued and fulfilled.  Sheer duty will not get me very far as a husband.  But desire will cause me to cross land and sea, to scale mountains and walk through valleys, in order to be with my beloved wife.  So, the real question is:  “What do you want?”  Is your love aimed in the right direction, or is your love directed toward things which will never satiate your hunger and thirst?  Are you looking for love in all the wrong places?
 
            Philosopher and theologian James K. A. Smith of Calvin College has said, “To be human is to be animated and oriented by some vision of the good life, some picture of what we think counts as ‘flourishing.’  And we want that.  We crave it.  We desire it.  This is why our most fundamental mode of orientation to the world is love.  We are oriented by our longings, and directed by our desires.”  Do we really love Jesus?  What do our actual desires and actions tell us?  In which direction are our hearts really aimed?  The church is meant to function in desiring God, and not dictated by religious duty.
 

 

            If what churches want is full auditoriums and sanctuaries so that they can meet large budgets to support growing building needs, then that says something about who/what they really love.  If what churches want are faithful followers of God who learn to live and love like Jesus, then that says something about who/what they really love.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting to take over the world; it’s the reasons why and the methods we employ that are the real issue.  Here’s the deal:  believing all the right things, having wonderful programs and ministries, and uplifting worship services doesn’t mean much if the basic orientation of it all is trying to fill-up our religious quotas and keep score.  If we have a scorecard at all, then we’ve gotten on the wrong ship.  The grace boat is still sitting in the harbor waiting for us to get on.  But we have to want it.  

Love, Not Hate

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            Jesus will build his church (Matthew 16:18).  The church has been designed from its inception to be the hope of the world.  God the Father sent God the Son to this earth to live a holy life, to teach us how to live, to die on a cruel cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, to rise from death, to ascend to heaven, to send God the Holy Spirit for us as we engage in the mission of proclaiming in words and actions that there is new life in Jesus. 
 
            So, the church is being the church when:  lives are changed; hatreds are overcome; failures are forgiven; grace overwhelms and melts hard hearts; selfishness is diminished; compassion grows into an immense hope that Christ is doing just as he said he would do – build his church.  When the church is working right it is the hope of the world because it is:  experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit to rejoice with those who rejoice and cry with those who cry; lifting holy hands in prayer and praise to the God who loves us; and, reaching-out with heartfelt mercy to those who desperately need this good news that Jesus has graciously forgiven all our sin through his once for all death on a cross.
 
The church is meant to love, not hate (1 John 3:14).
 
            “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers and sisters.  Anyone who does not love remains in death.”  I need to ask this question because the Word of God demands it:  Do you hate anyone?  The Scripture tells us that hate means we are still dead, not alive.  Love is the distinguishing mark of the believer in Jesus Christ.  The person with hate has so many barnacles built up on their underside that they cannot move at all through the water of life with any joy or fulfillment.  What is more, they are dragging down the rest of the fleet that seeks to move in concert together in the love of Jesus.
 
            Jesus Christ did not die on the cross so that we could hate someone, or a group of people.  Christ died so that you could love.  If love does not characterize your life, you are dead.  That means you are separated from God.  That sounds serious, and it is.  Hate has absolutely no place in the church whatsoever.  “Anyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him” (1 John 3:15).
 
            As followers of Jesus, we not only should love, but we should not put up with hate in the fellowship of believers.  You are under no obligation whatsoever to listen to hateful speech and allow hateful actions because the church is meant to be a reflection of God’s loving and healing acceptance of people.  It is not the loving thing to do to let others spew hate in front of you, no matter who they are.  Maybe you could respond to hateful words by saying, “Sounds to me like you need to let God pressure-wash some barnacles off your heart.”
 
            If you keep having the same conversation with someone over and over again; if every time you raise a new idea, the same person lists three reasons why it will never work; if fondness for the past exceeds passion for the future; if small things always become big things; if someone chronically complains to you; and, if there is never any love behind what someone says to you; then, there is hate behind it all and it just might be that such a person needs to hear the gospel of grace and be delivered from their life of sin.
 

 

            Every church on God’s good earth must have a zero-tolerance policy toward hate, and a 100% commitment to love.  God has not called us to hate anyone, but to love.  The church is only the hope of the world when it loves others.  The world will know that there is a God in heaven, and a Christ in the church, when people within local congregations love one another, when particular Christian denominations go out of their way to bless others, and when the love of Jesus compels us to drip grace on the most unlovely of people. Indeed, they will know we are Christians by our love.