“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
“Godliness” is a vastly misunderstood word, and godly people are vastly misunderstood by the world. People who hate the Christian faith like to sneer at those who are considered godly. They think that a godly person is a self-righteous person, a person who looks down his or her nose at the sinners of the world. A truly godly person will not be like this, because he or she knows that he or she is saved by grace like everyone else who has been saved for the last two thousand years. A godly person might appear to be self-righteous, but he or she is not. Some godly people might act self-righteous, but that is a fault and not a virtue of a godly person. I want to share my view of godly people that I have known. A truly godly person will love you. As I have pointed out in previous articles, Jesus commanded his followers to love people. He did not tell them which people to love, He just said love them. Jesus would certainly be considered a godly person, and He obviously loved people more than life itself. The godly people that I have known would love you regardless of what you did. They would be sorely disappointed in you, and they might even express their disagreement with you, but they would not stop loving you. Standing for Christian principles is not a bad thing as the world would have us believe. Just because the godly person stands for these principles does not mean that he or she hates you. What it means is that the godly person loves you enough to stand for what is in your best interest. The godly person is not being self-righteous. We who are believers would call it “obedience.” In fact, a godly person will be obedient enough, and love people enough, to tell them about Jesus. A truly godly person can be trusted. The godly person takes the commandment, “thou shalt not steal,” seriously. Sadly, we have had some examples over the last few years of famous religious leaders who could not be trusted. They do not represent the true Christian faith. A godly person would not cheat you, mistreat you, or harm you in any way. If a person is truly trying to live the Christian faith, he or she will not lie to you, but will be truthful with you. If the truth somehow hurts you, maybe you need to take note a make a few changes in your life. Don’t blame the godly person for it. If you were walking down a dark, lonely street late at night and you met a group of men walking toward you, would it make a difference to you if you knew that they were coming from a Bible study? Of course it would. This group of men would be more likely to help you than harm you. The worse thing that they might do would be to invite you to the next Bible study. Whether you considered that bad or good would be up to you. Truly godly people do not call themselves “godly.” If a person says “I am godly” they are probably not. As the old saying goes, if a person claims to be godly “hide the silverware.” Godly people are not Pharisees, who claim to have their own righteousness. A truly godly person will pray for you. Some people do not want to be prayed for, for some reason or other. But you can’t stop anyone from praying for you. I know that I have godly people praying for me, and I am glad that they are. These people make a difference in my life. James wrote, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16) “Availeth much” can mean some very good things. If you are a person who does not want godly people praying for you, you should be glad that they are. Because of their prayers. “availeth much” might take on new meaning in your life. Do I think that I am a godly person?” I would not call myself a “godly person,” because the moment that I did, I would cease being godly if I was. I do make an effort to love people. Frankly, not everyone makes it easy. I do think that I can be trusted. I know for certain that I pray for people. In fact, I probably pray for you if I know you. The best that any of us can do is to faithfully live the Christian faith and let our “lights shine before (people) that they might see (our) good works and glorify (our) Father in heaven.” Whether we are called “godly” or not is not up to us. It is up to the people who see us and notice how we live. Bro. Joe
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“But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend.” “In the multitude of my anxieties within
me, Your comfort delights my soul.” NKJV Like all of us, the psalmist had to deal with anxiety. But anxiety was not a way of life with him, because he had the comfort of the Lord to relieve his anxieties. When I read that, I began to think about my own anxieties and how I have been able to deal with them. I decided that the singular “comfort” could be plural “comforts” in my case. I want to share these comforts with you in the hope that they will help you with your own anxieties. The first comfort is faith. I do not mean faith in myself or in any man-made resource. I mean faith in Jesus Christ – period. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are “saved by grace through faith.” This saving faith, however, is not meant to just take us to heaven when we die; it is also a resource for living on this earth. One of the sure things of living on this earth is anxiety. Who could read or hear the news today and not be anxious. Every day we are bombarded with negative things about our world. These things are real and not imaginary. Muslims really do cut off people’s heads. China does have a powerful army. Russia is not the friend that we hoped she would be after the fall of communism. People are really being killed in Syria for the sake of a corrupt regime. Children are really abducted and killed by Islamic extremists. (Have I made you anxious enough?) These are just a few examples of what awaits us each day in the news. On top of all of that are the many things that we have to deal with in our own lives. I can’t explain how faith in Jesus comforts me in the midst of all of this; I just know that it does. I take Jesus at His promise that if I come to Him, He will give me rest. He promises me that if I trust Him, He will comfort me. E. Stanley Jones wrote: “Worries and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil.” How true. Believe today that you can trust Jesus in all of life. The second comfort is forgiveness. A lot of our anxiety is caused by guilt, because we know that we have done wrong from time to time. We have not loved people as we should. We have not treated people as fairly as we should. We have given in to corrupt thoughts that we knew could not have come from God. etc. etc. etc. In order to overcome this guilt, we just need to know that our God is a forgiving God. He has promised in 1 John 1:9 that if “we will confess our sins, He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” You don’t have to “feel” forgiven; you can know that you are forgiven because you can take God at His word. If He has promised to forgive you, He will forgive you! You might say: “But you don’t know what I’ve done.” But I do know what David did when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and he was forgiven. I do know that Simon Peter denied Him, but Jesus forgave him. I ask you today to embrace the freedom from anxiety that comes with being forgiven by a forgiving and loving God. You will find that He has waited lovingly for you to seek His forgiveness. Give faith and forgiveness a try in your own life. They are as available to you as they are to me. Jesus will forgive you and save you if you will come to Him by faith. Jesus will forgive you and sustain you in your faith when you have done wrong in spite of it. Jesus wants to deliver you from the anxieties of this life. Let Him do it through faith in Him and forgiveness by Him. Do it! Bro. Joe “All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”
Before I quote the following, I will have to admit that I used to sometimes watch “Hee Haw.” There, I have confessed. The first part of Proverbs 15:15 reminds me of a song that they sang on Hee Haw: “Gloom, despair and agony on me, deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom despair and agony on me.” Be honest, have you ever felt like this. The Message interpreted the verse like this: “A miserable heart means a miserable life; a cheerful heart fills the day with a song.” I think that we can choose whether we will be among the afflicted, the miserable, or among those with merry hearts, having a continual feast. I know that there is such a thing as clinical depression that needs treatment, but a lot of our depression is because of our own negativity. There are just days, however, that we can’t seem to dig out of the pit of misery. I don’t know what really causes those days, but they come. I think Martin Luther’s wife had the right idea. One day Luther, the sixteenth century reformer, was miserable, his faith lagging, and his wife said to him, “Martin, when did God die?” To which the great reformer responded with something like, “Who said God is dead?” His wife said, “He must be dead, because of the way you are acting.” It is on those miserable days that we forget that God is alive and well, and acting on our behalf. We can give Satan credit for this, because he wants us down and defeated. He knows that when we are miserable, we are not effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. He wants to keep us down by accusing us and making us feel guilty. He wants to keep us down by making us look at God through the wrong end of the binoculars. When we look into the wrong end of binoculars, things seem farther away than they are. During these days of misery, we need to remember that God is always close by. After all, Jesus promised us that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He has even given us His Holy Spirit in order for us to have His presence all of the time. Do we not believe this promise or do we just sometimes forget it? We can also give some credit for our misery to the events in the world around us. It looks like the forces of evil are winning the day. “The rich get richer and poor get poorer.” The “ne’er do wells” seem to prosper and have no trouble at all. Those who are living sinful lives seem to have no bother at all. To begin with, all of this is not necessarily true. They do not always prosper and they are not always happy. But even if they did, it should not make us miserable. The question is often asked in the Bible: “Why do the wicked prosper?” The answer is always that they do not really prosper. It is only when we are right with the God of the Bible that we prosper. By that I mean true prosperity – the joy and fulfillment that only Jesus can give. We need to remember that when we are having one of those miserable days; it does not have to be. We have a choice as to whether we will be miserable or “have a party.” That is why we pray. This brings to mind a scripture that I have quoted many times, Philippians 4:6-7: “Be careful for nothing (do not be anxious) but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.” It can’t hurt you to try Paul’s method of overcoming misery and anxiety. Bro. Joe “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
When Paul wrote 2 Timothy he knew that his days were coming to an end, and he was ready to die and go to heaven. 2 Timothy 4:7 reveals that Paul was satisfied now that his life had been worthwhile. It also gives us some insight into Paul’s character, i.e., what made Paul the outstanding person that he was. What we have in this text is what I call "A Study of Paul's Character. “This "study" can also help us build character in our own lives. Paul wrote that he had “fought a good fight.” What did he mean by that? His life, like ours, was a daily battle to do the right thing. Like us, he had to fight with Satan every day, because Satan wanted to pull the great apostle down and ruin his witness. It is no different in our lives. Every Christian has a target on his back, and Satan takes aim at that target every day. We are never free from his temptations. Also, Paul’s fight was with false witnesses who wanted to call people’s attention away from the centrality of Christ. It was a constant fight. It is still a fight today. There are always people who want to get us sidetracked on religion and ritual instead of focusing on Christ. Christian character is obviously built on devotion to Christ. We cannot be Christ like in our character if we don’t give our complete devotion to Him. There were other things that Paul had to fight, but what I have shared should suffice to help us build our character. Like Paul we need to fight a “good” fight. That means that we hang in there and keep on fighting, even when things are difficult. Paul wrote that he had “finished the course.” Another translation of this is, “I have finished the race.” Paul saw his ministry through to its conclusion, i.e., he did not quit. You know the old saying: “A winner never quits and a quitter never wins.” What was this race that Paul was running? He was primarily called to be the missionary to the Gentiles.(Isn't it interesting that when God wanted to call a missionary to the Gentiles, He chose the meanest, and most feared Jew of that day to do it?) This would have been difficult for Paul in the beginning, because until his Damascus Road experience, he had been a devout Jew. This meant that he could have nothing to do with Gentiles. After that experience his ministry was mostly about and among Gentiles. Think of all that Paul had to do to overcome his lifelong prejudice. The fact is, though, that he did it. He went all over Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, and eventually to Rome, carrying the gospel to the Gentiles. Now that he was about to die, Paul could look back on his life and see that he had finished what God had given him to do. If you want to build Christian character in your life, you need to find out what it is that God wants you to do. If you don’t already know what it is, find out, and do it to the best of your ability, following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. When we get away from God’s will, God’s purpose for us, we are wasting His time and ours. What is the “race” that God has given you to run? Will you see it through to the end? Paul wrote that he had “kept the faith.” I interpret this to mean that through it all Paul stayed true to his faith in Christ, and to the doctrines that His faith led him to. Paul did not stray from preaching Christ, and from living for Christ. If we would build Christian character, we would stay true to Christ and to His plain teachings in scripture. We cannot let ourselves get sidetracked with minor arguments over faith and practice. Are you “keeping the faith”? Do you quit when the going gets rough? Are you keeping the faith in spite of what others might say about you? Bro. Joe “And in the morning, rising up a good while before day, He went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”
Let’s look at the context of this verse first. In Mark 1:32-34, Jesus had healed a multitude of people and had cast demons out of others. Jesus’ ministry had reached a point where multitudes of people were following Him everywhere He went. It would, no doubt, be the same today. Jesus already knew of human need, because He is God, but viewing it firsthand, the responsibility laid on Him was formidable. Remember that along with being all of God, Jesus was also all of man. He felt the suffering of humanity deeply. At this point, He went to a solitary place and prayed. I Want to make an observation on this text, and ask you a question about your “solitary place.” The observation is that if Jesus needed to seek the Father in the midst of His heavy responsibilities, so do we. I don’t know what your responsibilities are. You might be weighted down at work with responsibilities. The weight of your burden might be that of parenting. These are certainly challenging times to be a parent. Your burden might be dealing with troubles in your marriage. Your burden might be depression that just closes in on you and suffocates your spirit. It might just be that the animosity in the world between different groups of people weighs heavily on your mind. Could it be that you are having all kinds of doubts about the Bible. I don’t know what you are weighted down with today, but I do know that you need to “take it to the Lord in prayer.” You probably remember the hymn: “Are you weak and heavy-laden, burdened with a load of care? Precious Savior still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.” Another hymn that you might be familiar with is “Near to the Heart of God.” The first stanza and chorus reminds us of the need for a solitary place: “There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. O Jesus blest redeemer, Sent from the heart of God, Hold us who wait before you, near to the heart of God.” The question for you is: Where is your solitary place? I know that this can be difficult for some people because it is difficult to find a solitary place in the midst of the activities of life. I know that we can pray any time at any place twenty-four hours a day. But I think that we need a special place to get “near to the heart of God.” Again, I know the difficulty of this. Anywhere that you can be alone with God will be fine. I have read of people who get alone with God in the woods. Their altar might be a tree stump, which would serve well as an altar. It might be that you are a person who can get alone in your own mind. What I mean by this is that you can isolate yourself mentally and silently reach out to God. I don’t know where your solitary place could be in your situation, but you need to find one. You need such a place to read the Bible and pray. I can only give you my experience. My solitary place is in our den in my easy chair at 5:30 a.m. That’s right; you might have to get up early in order to find your solitary place. Think about how important it is for you to get alone with God in any way that you can. It is in this solitary place that you can get in touch with the heart of God. It is in this place that you can unload your burdens on the Lord in the quietness of the hour. It is in this place that you discover what the will of God is for your life. Perhaps, it is in this place that you can discover a way to forgive those who have “trespassed against you.” I’m not suggesting that you are less of a Christian if you haven’t discovered your solitary place, but I am suggesting that such a time and such a place can make a difference in your life. Bro, Joe "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
This is a theme that I have written about before, but it needs reiteration. We are in a never-ending war with Satan and the forces of evil. As the generals would say, “We are on a war footing.” In fact, we must stay on a war footing. I want to share what this does not mean and what it means. It does not mean that we are to hate the people who are in the kingdom of darkness. Throughout the gospels, Jesus called His followers to love people. Our war is not really against people, but against, “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Satan declared war on God’s people, beginning in Genesis one and continuing into today. If we hate the people to whom we are called to witness and minister, then we are joining Satan in his desires for us. There are certainly people we should be wary of, but we are still called to pray for them and witness and minister to them as best we can. It does not mean that Satan is so powerful that we cannot overcome him. When Jesus died on the cross, He ultimately defeated Satan; therefore, Satan is a defeated enemy. It is because of this that he continues his spiritual warfare against the people of God, and why he continues to blind the world to salvation in Jesus Christ. It means that we are not in this battle alone. Jesus is with us, as He promised before He ascended. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus promised: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world – of the ages.” Also, before He ascended, Jesus gave His followers, which includes us, the Holy Spirit to live in them/us in order to, among other things, empower us to witness. He gave us this power to enable us to fight Satan as he dabbles in our lives, and as he endeavors to deceive the world. Jesus is present with us on good and bad days. Jesus is with us, even when we are downhearted and feel alone. We are never alone in this spiritual war. It means that God has not left us without weapons with which to fight Satan. In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us about some defensive weapons that we have. It is called the “armor of God.” It is a spiritual armor, but that does not mean that it is not real armor. We have: “the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness; …the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation.” God has given us each of the pieces of armor to protect us in the battle. Satan knows when we have the armor on and when we do not. Each piece of armor is a gift from God to help us live victorious lives. Look back over these defensive weapons and ask God to clothe you with them as you meet Satan in battle. It means that God has left us with offensive weapons with which to fight Satan. In Ephesians 6:17b Paul shared an offensive weapon that we must use if we are to fight effectively: “and (take) the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” God has given us His written word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, with which we can fight Satan. Jesus illustrated the importance of this in His temptation experience in Matthew 4. With each temptation, Jesus quoted a scripture verse from Deuteronomy to combat Satan. (Read about it in Matthew 4:1-11.) This doesn’t mean that we are to just throw scripture at Satan in times of great temptation. It means that we need to read and study the scriptures daily in order to know how to fight our spiritual foe. There is no substitute for the word of God in this battle. Another offensive weapon that we have to fight Satan, and that is prayer. Satan trembles when God’s people pray. There is no substitute for the power of prayer in our lives. We are in a war. The good news is that we are on the winning side, but we need to continue the fight daily for ourselves and for the lost world. Bro. Joe Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
The Bible is filled with things that are not “world friendly.” The Sermon on the Mount, from which our text is taken is filled with texts that fit this description. Here is an example: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, etc.” (Matthew 5:43) Another of these “outlandish” texts is: "Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” There are, unfortunately, not many people who take these seriously – including a lot of church members. The text for this article is another one of those texts that are definitely not “world friendly.” Why? First, we misunderstand what the word “meek” means. According to the Analytical Greek Lexicon, it means: “mild, gentle, kind, forgiving, benevolent, etc.” A person who has all of these qualities is a strong person, because one does not have these qualities without great faith and great discipline. A person who is meek is under God’s control. Meekness has been compared to the breaking of a horse. An unbroken horse is not fit for anything until it has been broken. When he is broken, the horse is under the rider’s control. That massive, and magnificent, animal could run, buck, or do whatever it wants, but he has been broken and does what the master wants. In other words, the person who is meek is under the master’s control and lives to do the master's will instead of his, or her, own will. These are the people that God can use to do His work in the world. For example, Psalm 25:9 tells us, “The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His way.” Those who are meek are teachable and able to discern God’s will, because they have surrendered their lives to God’s will. Second, we mistakenly interpret the word meek to mean “weak.” When we say that a person is meek, we say that they are weak and malleable. Nothing could be further from the truth. We should interpret the word as “strength” instead of “weakness.” Look at Numbers 12:3 for example, “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which are upon the face of the earth.” If you know anything about Moses, you know that he was not a weak person. He was the man who guided the Jews through forty years of a trek through the desert from Egypt to Canaan. A weak man would not have been able to endure all of the hardships of the desert, a nomadic existence, not to mention all of the complaints of the people he was leading through the desert. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls.” No matter what you think of the word “meek,” you will have to admit that if Moses and Jesus were meek, then we would do well to consider meekness for our own lives. The world might call us weak, but God/Jesus calls us strong. Third, the text says that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” This is a gigantic and momentous promise. The promise is not just given here, for it is given in Psalm 37:11, “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” This is aptly described in Psalm 147:6, “The Lord lifts up the meek: He casts the wicked down to the ground.” History is littered with examples of this truth. Men have raised themselves up and thought that they could conquer the world. Alexander the Great was one of these men, and he died at the age of thirty-three without realizing his dream. The emperors of the Roman Empire almost accomplished this, but finally fell to the “unwashed” hordes. Adolf Hitler, comes to mind. His Third Reich was to last a thousand years, but it only lasted from the early twenties until nineteen forty five. Lenin, Joseph Stalin and all of the Russian leaders tried to take over the world, but they are all dead, and the world is not in their hands. But what this means is far more than a worldly kingdom. The meek will inherit the “New Heavens and the New Earth.” I want to be one of those – don’t you? We need to simply surrender our lives to Jesus Christ by faith, and let Him be our Master and guide. Do it! Bro. Joe “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” NKJV
This text is from one of my favorite psalms, and the printed verse one of my favorite verses. In a former pastorate, the children’s choir used to sing a chorus based on the text verse. (The tune is going through my head as I write.) When I read it this morning, some thoughts came to mind that I want to share with you. Do we really believe that “This is the day the Lord has made"? And will we "rejoice and be glad in it"? As we go through the day and meet its frustrations, do we believe that God made the day and do we still rejoice in it? This is an important question. Do we experience, or feel, His presence in the frustrations? Frankly, there are times when I have to stop and remember this verse. I find that the small frustrations that I meet in a day challenge me more than the bigger issues. I have a feeling that I am not alone in this. Seriously, if we really believe that “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” we will make an effort to rejoice anyway. It does give us something to think about --- doesn’t it???? That brings me to the next thought that I had on this subject this morning: Does the fact that “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” make a difference in our lives? You can see from what I wrote above, that I need to work on it. (Don’t scoff. I imagine that you need to work on it too.) After I thought about it for a moment, I realized that it is according to what the frustration or problem is that I have to face in a day. It is interesting that the small things, like a temperamental computer, causes a negative reaction, but bigger things are taken in stride. We need to work on letting this text make a difference in our lives in the large and small things, and we will be happier, more content, people. If we see God’s presence in everything that happens in our lives, we will look at life’s problems differently. This brings me to the next thought that I had on this subject this morning: Does the fact that “we will rejoice and be glad in it” mean that we will smile and be happy about everything that happens? You know that there are things that happen in our lives that will make us unhappy. If we get bad news about the death of a loved one, we do not laugh. If we have an accident that injures us, we do not laugh. What we do is rejoice in the fact that God is with us in the bad and the good things that happen in our lives. God is present at all times in our lives. Jesus promised to be with us until the end of the ages. He promised to give us the Holy Spirit to live in us and go through all of life’s experiences with us. We rejoice in the fact that all that Jesus promised is true. He never promised us that every thing that happens in our lives will be good, and that we will win at everything in life. His presence is the important ingredient that causes rejoicing, not that everything is good and goes our way. Rejoicing is not always jumping up and down and chanting, “We are number one.” Rejoicing can also be thanking God for His presence and for His work in our lives regardless. It is true that “This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” There is no joy like the joy of knowing Christ and knowing that He is with us in all of life – the good and the bad. Rejoice! Bro. Joe “Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you. 12. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another, and to all, just as we do to you. 13. So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”
These verses are loaded with truth. As many times as I have read them, I have never really meditated on these verses. You know how we read and think we are really concentrating and miss the great truths in a text. What I see in this text is that Paul wanted to visit Thessalonica again. Before his visit, Paul wanted them to work on loving one another. If there was ever a need that we should deal with in churches today, this is it! Paul pointed out to the Thessalonian Christians the importance of agape (ahgahpay) love in their church. It is a lesson for us too and we need to heed it. He wanted the Thessalonians to “increase and abound in love.” I don’t know if Paul had heard that they had a problem loving one another, or if this was just general advice that he gave them. No matter why Paul advised it, it is important advice. We need to occasionally check our own love quotient. We also need to check the love quotient in our churches. Do we genuinely love each other with agape love, which is the sacrificial love with which Christ loved us enough to die on the cross to save us from sin? This is old advice and has been written about and preached on for two-thousand years, but it is advice that is largely ignored. Like the Thessalonians we need to increase in love. Paul wanted the Thessalonians to “increase and abound in love to one another.” This Christ like kind of love was to be directed to “one another.” I like the NIV translation of this, which is, “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow.” This means that as the Thessalonians increase in Christ like love in their hearts it should overflow onto other people. The advice is that we are to have such love in our hearts that it can’t help but overflow to other people. Man oh man, how we need this in our lives and in our churches. I’m going to call it “overflowing love.” If one thing is clear in the teachings of the New Testament, it is that we need to love one another. Do I really need to quote John 13:14-15 again? Yes!!! Here it is: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 15. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” It is important that we love one another in order to be witnesses to the world. Which brings us to the next point: Paul wanted the Thessalonians to “abound in love to one another, and to all.” This overflowing love could not be held captive in the church, it had to overflow into the pagan society in Thessalonica. I think sometimes that we think when we love one another in church, and have such a great time together, that we forget about the lost world beyond our church doors. It is important that we love another, but if it does not flow out of our churches it is not doing what it is supposed to do. The NIV translates it: “May Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else,” This is really inclusive isn’t it? It means that we are to love that mean person at work who needs Jesus. This means that we can’t dismiss people because they don’t agree with us about Jesus. We need to remember that Jesus loves them and died for them as well. So we need to love them before we can witness to them. This advice is two-thousand years old, but it is just as relevant now as it was then. We need to teach it, preach it, share it and practice it in our daily lives. It is important that we have a dynamic love in our own hearts that reaches out to fellow Christians and the lost world. Let’s not just give it some thought. Let’s practice it. Bro. Joe |
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