Tag: love

Welcome as Christ has Welcomed Us

In Welcome Starts in the Heart  we looked at what Paul said about how we are to welcome another…with strong, surrendered, servant and scripture-filled hearts. In this post we will look at how Christ has welcomed us.Abstract defocussed cross silhouette in church interior against

STRONG HEART

Remember the question in the previous post about the OBLIGATION we have to bear the failings of the weak? And how I promised to deal with it later? Now is later…

Good, because I want to know about this OBLIGATION you say I have…

Christ is strong in faith…He healed with the power of the Lord (Luke 5:17), He had authority over unclean spirits (Luke 4:36), and He upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Compared to His faith, we are weak. How does He bear our failings?

For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6

Apart from Christ bearing our failings and His welcoming action toward us…we have no hope and are without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). He is our High Priest and can sympathize with our weaknesses, because He was tempted as we are yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

Because Christ bears our failings we have an “obligation” to bear the failings of the weak in our lives, not out of a legalistic requirement but out of gratitude of God’s grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7).

Ok, I get it. Because Christ bears my failings…I “owe” Him a debt to treat others as I have been treated.

SURRENDERED HEART

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Romans 15:3

Christ surrendered Himself. First to God, by taking on the reproaches of those who reproach God and always doing the things that were pleasing to Him (John 8:29). Even though that meant humbling Himself to the point of death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). Also, for our sake He became poor, that by His poverty we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

So…not pleasing myself means that I should be kind and encouraging when I want to point out another’s faults. Not pleasing myself is to put up with the inconveniences that come in a relationship with someone weak in the fatih. Whereas, when Christ took actions that were not pleasing, He sumitted to the pain and shame of dying on the cross… Wow!

SERVANT HEART

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.  Romans 15:8-9

Christ became a servant to both, the Jews and to the Gentiles. He acted for our good, that we would be built up in our faith. Earlier in Romans, we find that out of a servant’s heart Christ brought us justification by His blood, provided a way that we could be saved from the wrath of God, and reconciled to God through His death (Romans 5:8-10) when we receive Him by faith.

 Christ welcoming is so much more than I thought. It isn’t about Him being good or nice but that He serves us, in  life changing ways, as we live out our lives of faith.

SCRIPTURE-FILLED HEART

A heart full of God’s word gives the power to welcome. We know Christ as the Word,  that was in the  beginning, that was with God, that was God (John 1:1). Yet Christ spoke just as the Father taught Him (John  8:29).

UNITED HEART

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6

Only when we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us can we live in harmony with one another. With united hearts, we come together with one voice glorify God. In fact, Jesus prayed that we would be one as He was one with the Father. Not just one, but perfectly one so that the world may know that God loves us even as He loved Jesus (John 17:20-23).

WELCOME

We do not deserve Christ’s welcome. We are weak…ungodly…sinners…and enemies of God (Romans 5:6, 8-10). He bore our weaknesses on the cross…he acted for our good…to build us up spiritually. Our welcoming as Christ has welcomed us is key to living out our life of faith.

This challenges me. I have always thought that being welcoming and showing hospitality is optional, only for the gifted. Now, I see it is key to obeying the commands to love my neighbor as myself and to love the Lord God with all my heart, mind and soul. If I am not willing to be welcoming, then I am not being loving.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40

Blueprint for a Perfect Relationship

Reposting of my most read post of 2016…

“Relationships are messy”, a catch phrase in our generation.eng_gods_blueprint Must we be resigned to difficult relationships…without hope? Sin makes relationships hard. Sinfulness makes them messy. Following God’s blueprint for relationships can help us endure the hard, reduce the messy, and ultimately bring Him glory. Two critical elements of a perfect relationship are love and honor.

  1. LOVE 

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things He is doing. John 5:19-20a

The Father is transparent and the Son watchful. Because of the love the Father has for the Son, He shows Him all things that He is doing. The Son in return does only what He sees His Father doing. The works the Son does testifies that the Father sent Him. The Son glorified the Father by accomplishing the work the Father gave Him to do (John 17:4).

…but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. John 14:31a

The Son’s love is seen in His exact obedience to His Father’s commands. Not only by doing the works of the Father, but speaking the words the Father taught Him (John 8:28, 12:49, 50). The Son obeyed the Father’s command even to the point of laying down His life (John 10:17-18). Even though Jesus was willing to do exactly as His Father commanded Him, we should not think that what He committed to do was easy. As the writer of Hebrews tells us:

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Hebrews 5:7-8

Jesus showed love for His Father in His exact obedience even though it came with suffering and death on a cross.

2. HONOR

“For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:22-23

The Father honored the Son by giving Him the power of judgment. “The judge of all the earth” (Genesis 18:25), gave up His right to judge, because He wanted the Son to be honored. Jesus understood that He came into the world for judgment for all do not believe His word nor the One who sent Him (John 5:24).

…I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. John 8:49b

Jesus honored the Father by seeking to do His Father’s will.

I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 5:30

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 6:38

Again, just because Jesus was the Son of God, we should not assume that His commitment to do God’s will was easy. After sharing the Passover meal with His disciples, Jesus, along with Peter, James and John went to the garden of Gethsemane. There He became distressed and troubled, telling them “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death” and asking them to remain there and keep watch. He moved away from them and began to pray…

And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” Mark 14:36

As much as Jesus didn’t want to experience death on the cross, He knew that was the purpose for which He came (John 12:27). The end result was the Son honoring the Father and the Father exalting the Son.

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:8-11

The Father loved the Son by showing and giving Him all things. The Son loved the Father by obeying His commands. The Father in turn brought honor to the Son by giving Him the power of judgment. The Son also honored the Father by doing only the Father’s will not His own. Their relationship resulted with each bringing glory to the other.

 This perfect relationship show that the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30). We may think that a perfect relationship of love and honor that leads to oneness is not possible for us, but that is exactly what Jesus prays for us to have.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. John 17:20-24