GENUINE LOVE DISPLAYED
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Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
The mercies of God put genuine love on full display.
Paul's writings in Romans 12 paint for us a clear portrait of Christian living. His work leaves us feeling overwhelmed, for we see what we are to be, Christ.
Predestined to Christ-likeness are all sons and daughters of God; he will accept nothing less. If we find Paul's portrait repulsive, it's because we have yet to be redeemed. The redeem has within them a desire to reflect no matter the cost. Redemption is free; it's beyond human achievement, yet its outworking sanctification requires everything.
In sanctification, our Heavenly Father, with surgical skill, begins to remove those sins which so easily beset us. Though our dead bodies have experienced new life by the Holy Spirit and our heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh, there is much that requires His attention. Our journey towards Christ-likeness, which is our journey to Heaven, don't forget John's words in
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
"when you see him (heaven), you will be like him (completed sanctification)."
C.S. Lewis helps us to understand the Father's work with a construction illustration.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
Salvation is "Christ in you the hope of glory." Alfred Henry Ackley set this truth to medley in his classic hymn . . .
I serve a risen Savior
He is in the world today
I know that he is living
whatever men may say
I see his hand of mercy
I hear his voice of cheer
and just the time I need him
he is always near
He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
along life's narrow way
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart
You ask me how I know he lives?
He lives within my heart.
Christ is committed to your Christ-likeness. He lives to replicate himself. Jesus ascended so The Spirit could descend into our lives. Jesus in human form could not be omnipresent (everywhere at one time). However, his ascending and descending of The Spirit allows representations of Christ to be everywhere.
Christ gives us The Holy Spirit at redemption so we can be His representative on earth. Paul's portrait shows us what a redeemed representative should reflect.
Today's text finds a fitting connection to verses 4,5 and 9.
IT’S AN ACT OF UNIFICATION.
In verses four and five, rejoicing and weeping are unifying acts.
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,
so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Though we are individuals, true Christianity cannot be lived in isolation.
True Christianity cannot be lived in isolation.
Christianity requires community for Christ to be reflected. Isolation does not produce Christ-likeness. How will you stay downwind of yourself? How will you know if you are right or wrong? How can you forgive? Who will you love?
True Christianity is intertwined.
True Christianity is intertwined. Christians live E Pluribus Unum "out of many one." We are people who feel each other's pain as though it were our own. We celebrate each other's successes and victories as though they were ours. The experience of others becomes our experience. It's more than intermingling, more than mixing; it's intertwining, many becoming one.
Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
There is within salvation a full supply of resources to enter into this calling. Our Father has declared our being and provided all required enablements for that being to manifest itself. Jesus, in His final hours, prayed that it would be so
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
We stand amazed at athletes who take their bodies to extraordinary heights. Their achievements are a by-product of taking what already exists and bringing it forward through training.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
At salvation, The Father gave us everything needful to grow up into Christ-likeness. Parents don't buy young children clothes that fit precisely. They buy a size or two up. Why? They know their children are going to grow. Staring into Paul's closet of spiritual clothing, we may conclude that our clothes are too big, yet our Lord says you will grow up into the fullness and stature of Christ Jesus.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Weeping and rejoicing is an act of unification and one of sanctification.
IT’S AN ACT OF SANCTIFICATION.
I believe there is a connection between verses 15 and 9. Verse 9 says, "let love be genuine," while verse 15 shows us love in genuine action. Much of what passes for love is anything but real.
In season 3, episode 10 of Outlander entitled "Heaven and Earth," Fergus asks Jamie for his daughter's hand in marriage. Jamie is unsure of Fergus's worthiness to wed his daughter and, after a series of events, is assured that he doesn't understand what love is.
Jamie: I see I was right to withhold my blessing from you. Proves ye dinna ken what love is.
Fergus: You do not mean that, Milord. How could you say that?
Jamie: Because if you did, ye would move Heaven and earth. You would risk arrest and death. Even hell. You would do it as easily as...the prick of a pin. Until ye risk all, ye canna speak of love.
At the cross, we see real love. Christ came from Heaven to earth to endure hell, thereby showing us real love.
He dies for our salvation, and we die in sanctification; something must die for something else to live. Genuine (love) rejoicing cannot manifest itself if we refuse to crucify our envy. We must crucify our envy.
We must crucify our envy.
Envy comes from our failure to obey verse 3, "do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think." Highly means to hyper-think. When we think about ourselves too much or too long, we hyper-think.
C.S. Lewis said that "humility is not thinking less of yourself (humiliation); it is thinking of yourself less."
Envy cannot genuinely celebrate because it is asking why them and not me. Humility can enter into rejoicing because it counts others more significant than themselves—the word for significant means "better than" (hyperecho). Humility is not a demeaning but a redeeming act.
Jesus humbled himself by becoming a slave - one who obeyed His master's commands without reservation because He knows His master to be wise and loving no matter His ask. Christ did not say why me and not them. It was His expression of humility that brought us into His kingdom.
Our rejoicing and weeping cannot be superficial; it must be real. We must enter into other's rejoicing and weeping.
We must enter into their rejoicing.
Paul is not asking for our consideration. He knows without a full commitment to such a way of life, Christianity will be nothing more than a religion amongst many others. The Bible a book with many great teachings and yet void power to enable its readers to live out such teachings.
Jesus says in Matthew 22:38, "Love your neighbor as yourself." However, He tells His disciples in John 13:34, 15:12, 17, "love one another as I have loved you." Jesus' most significant expression of love was entering into our humanity to experience what was rightly ours (punishment for sin) so that we can share what was rightly His (righteousness). Christ is calling us to more than imitation. He is calling us to participation. Imitation has within it all kinds of superficial actions, yet participation is void of any such contamination.
Weeping and rejoicing are acts of unification, sanctification, and lastly, glorification.
IT’S AN ACT OF GLORIFICATION.
Nothing is more glorifying to the Father than to do His will, for this reflects His heart.
It reflects our Fathers heart.
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
Prayer: I want to glorify you on earth by accomplishing the work (working out what He has worked in) that you gave me to do.
Today's text shows unity's depth within our Christian experience. Jesus descended into humilities deepest depths to unite with us. He went as low as any has ever gone so that the Father could exalt Him high above all else. Jesus went low and then lifted high so that he might draw men to himself. We go low as participation in and exaltation of His life.
Christ humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8) to create a body called the church. We humble ourselves by taking up our cross daily to preserve the church's unity (Ephesian 4:1-4).
We will never rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep without humility. We will continue to gravitate toward isolation, for that is prides direction. We must declare war on all that seeks to keep us from our calling.
Our pursuit and subsequent experience of this calling reveal to the world and remind us His people of Heaven's reality.
It reveals and reminds us of Heaven’s reality.
When we begin to work out what God has worked in, our world sees a glimpse of Heaven's reality. They won't need a book called Heaven's is for Real to know that is true. Furthermore, this working out reminds us, the people of God, that all those promises concerning our impending glorification are yes and amen!