One Another: Love One Another: Relationships @ Church
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Relationships in the Body of Christ
Relationships in the Body of Christ
Ministry is messy… Life is messy enough within a family, put a whole bunch of messy people together and it can be a wild ride :)
Our one another last week explored the idea of the new commandment that Jesus gave, To love one another “as I have loved you.”
This begged the question, how does the Love of Christ manifest itself within the gathering of his believers?
The Corinthian Church was a beautiful mess.. this always give me hope personally
They dealt with everything from pagan practices
Celebration of sinful behaviors
Looking down on others who “appear” less spiritual
Had wealth and possessions
Paul’s ministry to the Corinthian church was called into question.
2 Cor is Paul’s 3rd letter to the Corinthian Church
There’s an almost painful pouring out in this letter of Paul’s ministry
This is where we find a list of the beatings and suffering Paul experienced on his missionary journeys
They called Paul’s ministry into question for a few reasons.
His great suffering in ministry (obviously he’s done something wrong)
His meekness when he visited them.
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!—
His actions among the Corinthians didn’t line up with their perspective on power
They are so bold as to ask for proof of Paul’s ministry
since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.
Paul flips the script on them.
It’s so important to keep things in context.
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Paul is not asking them to examine their positional justification
Paul shows two things.
You doubt my ministry, but is Christ among you? This is a direct result of Christ working through Paul. If you want proof of my ministry look in the mirror.
This a “sanctification” self examination.
They were so concerned about the spiritual credentials of Paul, they were assuming their own. Paul says, “How’s your walk with Christ? Is their any fruit or maturity?”
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Thirsting for God: “Know Thyself”
“Spiritual sickness sets in when we fail to recognize that the source of many of our problems is our pride. We thus try to treat the symptoms rather than the disease, but that’s like using moisturizer to treat leprosy. The thing to notice here is how painfully unaware pride makes us. Pride hides itself, behind itself”
Personal Story time:
In my personal life, I used to be a news media junkie. I could not get enough content… The problem was, all the content I consumed affirmed what I already felt to be truth.
This went on for years and it was easy to dismiss the other side of the discussion by giving them labels and demeaning them.
It wasn’t until, I believe by God’s Grace, I started making friends with people whom I loved, but held very different views. These were people I respected and valued their insights on spiritual matters.
This caused me to pause… but I didn’t start with an outward examination of the other person… I started to investigate,
“Why do I think this way?”
“Why do I assume I’m right and the other person is wrong?”
Did I have some Biblical principle to hold up?
Was my understanding of the Scripture accurate?
I did some serious soul searching and it has changed me, but not to a political ideology..
I found that I could not compare myself to a party, or even other believers.
I started assuming could be wrong and Jesus wanted to change a few things.
“To be ignorant of sinful tendencies is to give sin freedom to work its destruction under cover of darkness. “Distrust yourself is so necessary in spiritual combat, without it, you may be assured that you will neither gain the desired victory, nor be able to overcome the weakest of your passions.”
“We should assume pride is operating in all our actions, our words, our emotions, our motivation, and even often in our prayers. Not to distrust myself is to cast aspersion of Scripture, which says that the heart is deceitful above all things, and grant pride the chance to advance in stealth.”
Paul gives us a road map of 5 commands to guide our relationships within the body of Christ.
Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Rejoice:
The beginning of his salutation
They have been given the chance to examine themselves before God passes judgement or discipline.
Be happy you got a heads up :)
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
More importantly, we should rejoice in the Lord.
Aim for restoration / maturity v.9
For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.
1 -Break with idolatry 2 Cor 6 - 2 Cor 7
not receiving Grace in vain (root is pride)
2 -Fulfilling their commitments
your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.
3 -Affirming Paul as an Apostle, changing their attitudes towards each other.
Comfort One Another
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Embrace the idea that Paul’s suffering was ordained and intended to bring others comfort as Paul also recieved comfort from God.
Agree with one another
Put first things first.
For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
We cannot allow division to spring up within the Church because of secondary issues or worse, man made ideology.
Live in Peace
With each other and Paul.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
The new commandment that Jesus gave, To love one another “as I have loved you.” is going to produce the fruits within the gathering of believers that will reflect these 5 commands.
These things are to be a regular expression of following Jesus and doing life with his people.
This is one of our goals here at Harvest, to honor Christ in our relationships with one another, building a strong witness to the world around us.
I pray that you will experience the Love of Christ here at Harvest.
If you do feel loved and found today’s message helpful… don’t keep it all to yourself.
Pray about inviting someone to attend a service here at Harvest
And then… Invite them.
Go in Grace and Peace that God our Father provides in Christ Jesus.