God Is Love

*Edited July 11, 2015*

Here is 1 John 4:16b-21 as I've translated it from the Greek:  "God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God and God remains in him.  By this, love has been perfected with us, in order that we may have confidence in the day of the judgement, because as that one is, we are also in this world.  Fear is not in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment, and the one who fears has not been perfected in love.  We love because He first loved us.  If someone says, 'I love God,' and he hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, he is not able to love God whom he has not seen.  And we have this commandment from Him:  that the one who loves God also loves his brother."

Love isn't something that God does; it is who He is.  The Greek word for "remain" is μένω (MEH-no), which can also be translated as "abide," or "to stay in."  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "abide" as "accepting or acting in accordance with."  So, to remain or abide in God is to accept and act accordingly to whom He is and what He demands.  We know who God is because it's revealed to us here that He is love.  Everything He does and commands is in direct relation to His love.  Sometimes it's tough love through His wrath or chastisement, and sometimes it's that nurturing love that we all adore in His mercy.  If we abide in Him and His love by acting in accordance with what He commands, He remains in us.  By remaining in God and His love, His love is perfected with us, meaning that we experience His perfect love by the gift of salvation when we declare Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, which is enabled through faith that is given to us when we read or hear God's Word.  That love (His promise of salvation) is not perfected when you refuse Jesus and His means of grace because when you reject Him, you don't have His salvation.  Because God's love is perfected with us by salvation, we will have confidence in the day of judgement because we know we have the promise of salvation because as "that one" (the referent being God) is in the world as its Creator, so also are we.  So He is never not with us.  There is no fear in love.  Perfect love, which is God's love for us when we abide in Him, casts out fear.  The fear of what?  The fear of condemnation — the fear of punishment as we justly deserve.  When God gives us the promise of salvation, we no longer have this fear.  The one who refuses this gift forces him or herself to continue living in the fear of condemnation and punishment, therefore God's love is not perfected with them.  However, just because they don't believe and therefore claim they don't fear it does not mean that the fear isn't real.  They'll experience that fear once Jesus returns (Revelation 6:15-17, "Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?").

God loved us first by creating us (He didn't need to) and then saving us from damnation by our own doing (which He also didn't need to do), thus enabling us to love Him and to love others since His love remains with us.  If we say we love God but have hate for someone else, we're lying about loving God.  It is impossible to love the God of love yet have hate in your heart for someone.  You can dislike someone, but hate?  Hate is unacceptable in the Lord's eyes.  Likewise, if we say we love God but don't abide in Him (ac in accordance with what He says), then He is not in us and we are not in Him.  Just look at the Westboro Baptist Church cult members.  They claim to love God, yet they preach such immense hatred and self-righteously condemn others.  God's love remaining with people such as these is impossible.  However, it is also the same for those who condone sinful practises  such as homosexuality.  God's Word unmistakably speaks against it, yet out of ignorance people condone the sin.  That doesn't mean that such people are unlovable, however, especially by God.  But it does mean that people who condone sins such as this do not abide in God since they refuse to act in accordance with His commands.

It is impossible to love God whom we have not seen when we fail to love someone else whom we have seen.  God commands that those who love God also love his brother.

Trust In God [Updated]

Having trust in God is not always easy.  Perhaps it’s because you don’t have a very good relationship with God.  Perhaps it’s because you have a hard time putting your trust into something intangible.  Or perhaps it’s simply because you’re new to the whole idea of putting your complete trust in our omnipresent God.  No matter the scenario, we all fail to trust God from time to time.  Trusting God can be described in the term saving faith, or trusting faith.  When we sin, we’re telling God, “I don’t wanna do it Your way, God; I wanna do it my way,” and we fail to trust Him.  Do not fret, however.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Faith is defined perfectly in Hebrews 11:1, 3:  “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen…  By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible.”  Most of us do not know what we can trust God with or even how.  Anything can apply — finances, health, relationships; but the two major aspects, I believe, are trusting Him with your safety & preservation and salvation, and the rest will follow.

I have a few more words to say about faith.  Everybody has faith.  It may not be in the same thing, but we all put our faith in something.  The question is not, “Will we have faith?”  Instead, the question is, “Where will we put our faith?”  What, or whom, is your idol?  Whatever we put above God, that thing becomes our idol — it becomes our god.  It can be your boyfriend or girlfriend, wife or husband, video games, food (gluttony), the existence of aliens, science, your rationality, some personal sins like homosexuality, other sexual immoralities, greed, gossip, and the list goes on almost infinitely.  Faith in God is putting your trust in His promises, because that faith is attached to  His promises.  God’s Word promises to protect us, to deliver us from evil, to give us all our needs (if we seek His kingdom first [Matthew 6:33]), and He even promises to discipline and chastise us when necessary, and His wrath against the wicked.  By faith, we put our trust and hope in the reality of Jesus’s second coming.  By faith, we trust that God created the universe out of nothing.  By faith, we trust God with the entirety of our lives.

First Timothy 6:17, “Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.”  Put your trust in God and nothing else, and He will provide everything for your heart.  We cannot put our trust in our wealth and materialistic things because of their uncertainty — they are temporary and unreliable.  God, however, is certain.  He is eternal and has proven His care for us since the beginning of creation.  Trust in Him and you can be sure that He will guide your heart in all your ways.  Trust and rely on Him and He will make your paths straight.  Do not allow Satan to belittle your ambitions and make your path crooked, for God is always faithful during troublesome times.  God always loves you, so remember His love for you and His protection over you as our Father.  He provides all healing, so trust and rely on Him and talk to Him through prayer and He will smile upon your face and you shall be healed.  Putting your whole trust and reliance on your riches and talents can only do so much for you.  Putting your hope and trust in God is limitless; He will keep you from all harms.  Putting your hope and trust in the impure, imperfect materialistic things of this world exposes a great susceptibility to the wiles of Satan.

The prophet Daniel is a perfect example of having trust in God.  Daniel 6:23, “The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den.  So Daniel was taken out of the den, uninjured, for he trust in his God.”  Daniel trusted that God would not allow him to die.  This is absolutely remarkable because God saved Daniel from hungry, untamed lions, all because Daniel trusted in God!  This is evidence that trusting God with your safety can and will keep you safe and even save your life some day.  When I was on a mission trip for flood recovery work in August of 2008, my team and I were helping rebuild a church in Iowa City, called the Christian Rock Church.  Our music minister, Pastor John Martineau (who was also the leader of the team), asked me to go up in a ceiling area and pull some wires.  I looked at the ceiling and became sceptical about my safety and afraid for my life because it was literally falling apart.  (Just as a side note, I was one year into my faith at this point.)  The safety precautions had me realise that I could possibly get severely injured or even die in the worst case scenario if the ceiling ever collapsed while I was up there.

However, I thought to myself, “Wait, God isn’t going to allow me to die.  My work here on this earth isn’t done.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”  After that quick thought and putting my trust in God, my fear immediately vanished and I willingly climbed up the ladder into the ceiling.  About thirty minutes while I was up there, Pastor John asked me to come down and help him and our other leader, Jim Walcholz, with some wires on that level.  On my way over to the ladder, a part of the ceiling collapsed from underneath me.  As I fell, my leg got caught on something and it twisted my left knee.  I hung for about five seconds.  As I was hanging, I swung myself up and grabbed onto the edge of something and just as I got a grip, my foot was immediately released.  When I was ready, I let go and landed on my right  foot, which was my one good leg.  In spite of my injury, my leg getting caught and my knee getting twisted simultaneously actually saved my life.  If my leg had not gotten caught, one of three life threatening possibilities could have occurred:  A) I could have landed head first on the cement floor; B) I could have landed head first on a large, sharp blade from a metal fan; or C) I could have landed head first on a sharp metal corner of a furnace that we had just installed the day before.  Pastor John mentioned that while I was hanging, my head was at least one inch above the sharp corner of the furnace, if that.  I ended up with a strain MCL (one of three major ligaments in the knee) as well as my knee being sprained simultaneously.

That night, we talked about the incident.  I can tell you right now that it was not luck.  I’ve said this before in previous blogs, but it needs repeating:  Luck is the most quintessential human delusion.  I cannot say that enough.  Back where we were staying, we discussed how miraculous my survival was and how it was actually a glorious event.  Pastor John was convinced that there was an angel holding me.  I thought to myself that this was very possible, but being new to the faith at the time I didn’t think much of it.  The next morning, we went  back to the site we were working at and to the area where I fell.  We examined the ceiling and there was absolutely nothing that could have grabbed on to my leg — no wires, no pipes, just absolutely nothing.  Then we looked at the ground to see if there was anything that could have fallen after my leg was released underneath all the insulation, but there was still nothing.  Another amazing thing during this supposed atrocity is that while I was hanging, all the witnesses there said that there was insulation literally everywhere in the air and on the ground (at least 5 inches thick) as I was hanging from the ceiling, and miraculously none of it got in my eyes.  And if you get insulation in your eyes, you either suffer permanent blindness or serious damage to the eyes.

This is where it gets even more amazing.  A fellow team member, Brian Birchmeier (who is mentally handicapped but nonetheless has great integrity, more than the average mentally healthy and stable human being), he mentioned that he saw a bright white light in the shape of a vine — an angel — fly through the nearest door to me at extreme speed, and when it reached me I immediately stop falling.  The amazing thing about Brian is that in spite of his mental condition, everything he tells you, he tells you exactly as he sees it; he literally does not lie.  He pretty much has that blunt honesty of a child (hence Jesus’s exhortation to have childlike faith).  He could not describe the angel’s identity entirely other than its shape as a vine because he looked away from the immensity of its brightness.  Sceptics will say that because of Brian’s mental condition, his information is unreliable.  One, if you knew Brian, you would not say that; and two, that is an incredibly mean spirited thing to say.  There is no other “rational” explanation for my miraculous survival.  The angel’s presence would certainly explain the lack of pipes or wood or anything else in the ceiling or on the ground that could have caught my leg.  Also, after saying all that, when I leaned up to catch myself, there was nothing that I could have grabbed — nothing but air.  Every time I think of that moment, it leaves me in awe.  Maybe I unknowingly grabbed on to the angel’s hand.  So, needless to say, God sent an angel to save my life.  Praise the Lord!  Or, since Jesus is the vine (John 15:5), maybe He saved me Himself.  Who knows?  Either way, because I trusted in my God, He went out of His way to save my life.

After the accident — no, incident — the Lord really laid on my heart Psalm 91:11-12:  “For He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways.  They will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”  Those who say that God does not give each believer a guardian angel because “this verse doesn’t mean that,” that is a lie.  I was once unsure of this because others had told me that interpretation of this passage, but after my experience, I have to believe it’s true.  Again, maybe it was Jesus, but in the Old Testament He was always called “The Angel of the LORD” (emphasis on “the” added).  God also lay on my heart Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”  The moral of my testimony is that if you trust God in anything, like your safety, He will keep you under His protection, and perhaps depending on the situation sending one of His angels to keep you safe if the predicament calls its necessity.  I trusted in God to keep me safe and away from death because I had faith that He was not finished with me, and indeed He wasn’t and still is not, for He sent an angel (or Jesus Himself) to prevent me from falling head first on either the cement floor; a large, sharp metal blade from a fan, or a sharp corner of the metal furnace, all of which offered instantaneous death.  Or if I were fortunate, I would suffer permanent paralysis or severe brain damage, but still alive.  I always wonder what would have happened if I chose not to trust in God and had gone up there anyway, especially since I was new to the faith at the time…  As Daniel trusted in God to save his life from death, I also trusted in the same God to save my life from death, and He followed through in both situations, thousands of years apart.

The verse I would use to define this message is Psalm 62:8, “Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him:  God is a refuge for us.  Selah.”  So, my brethren, trust in God, seek His comfort (the Comforter — the Holy Spirit), and fear not, for God is our refuge.  A refuge is protection from danger or trouble, and if you trust God to protect you from such things, you shall be protected.  As Psalm 9:9 confesses, “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.”  If you’re in fear for your life or any other dangers, whether physical or moral or emotional or spiritual or financial, pray and trust in God.  If you’re in fear for your personal troubles, pray and trust in God; never fear.  God is our stronghold — He stands firm for each of us in our safety, happiness, and protection, and no one, not even the Devil, can move Him from protecting you and delivering you.  You can always trust in God in anything.  He will never let you down; I guarantee it.

The Metamorphosis of Christianity, Part 1

Picture the slow, gradual, and beautiful process of metamorphosis.  A caterpillar crawls around the surface of the earth eating as much food as it possibly can until it is perfectly ready to enter the next stage of its life — the cocoon.  While it remains in its cocoon, it is slowly being formed into its final stage — a beautiful butterfly.  As it breaks out from its cocoon, the former caterpillar spreads its beautifully patterned wings and flies off into its new life.  This is the Christian lifestyle.  We are all undergoing the slow, gradual process of Christian metamorphosis in order to ascend into the goal of our faith, which is salvation.

We are currently in the longest stage of life.  We are all caterpillars.  Christians are these small, cute, fuzzy little creatures who keep on feeding and getting fatter.  As Christians, we must continually feed on the Word of God all day, every day.  I don’t know about you, but I am constantly hungry for God’s Word, and I keep feeding on it every day.  As a result, I get fatter in my faith.  As we feed on God’s Word, our faith gets fatter and fatter, never bursting, never satisfied, until the completion of its metamorphosis.  Christians are never satisfied with their present knowledge of God’s Word or relationship with Christ (unless you’re one of those lukewarm Christians, or as Craig Groeschel labels it, “Christian atheists”).  Christians continually seek knowledge in the Word and seek a deeper personal relationship with Christ, and so they are always growing.  This is because God is infinite, and so we infinitely grow closer to Him.

We’re not normal caterpillars, however.  We are a new breed of caterpillars.  Caterpillars eat, then they form into a cocoon, and then they are butterflies.  We, however, feed on God’s Word and remain in the cocoon stage simultaneously, and then we become butterflies.  Allow me to explain this.  In describing the caterpillar’s condition in the cocoon, I said that it is slowly being formed into its final stage.  While we are feeding on God’s Word while crawling around on the earth, we are also slowly being transformed into our final stage — to ascend into the goal of our faith, which is salvation — beautiful butterflies in Heaven.

What do we feed on specifically?  We feed on the fruits of the Spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control…”  Everything Christ did was not as our Master, but as a servant.  Even though He is our Master, He served everyone during His time on earth and He continues to serve all of us today.  Matthew 20:28, “...just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  Christ performed the ultimate service for paying the ransom once and for all (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27; 10:10; I Peter 3:18).  Now, we are to serve Christ and to serve others, and the way to do this is by continually feeding on the fruits of the Spirit.  While you feed on the fruits of the Spirit, you begin to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2) because “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).  While we are feeding on the fruits of God’s Spirit and His Word, God works in us, enabling us to do His will and work for His purposes and simultaneously transforming us by renewing our minds so that we may discern God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.  The best way to do this is by serving others.

There are nine fruits of the Spirit, and I will be breaking down each one, discussing the vitality and use of each fruit and how its consumption simultaneously works in transforming us into our final stage.

Love

The first fruit is love, which the word itself appears over 530 times in the entire Bible.  Love is a very wide topic, and I will try to keep it as concise as I possibly can.  In its application here, a concise discussion may not be possible, but bear with me.  Typically, on a topic like this, teachers will begin with asking, “What is love?” and they would then quote 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.  It is true that that’s what love is, but what some of these teachers don’t realise is that only God can perfectly perform every single one of these actions (and prohibit Himself from doing for the negative actions listed), because God is love (I John 4:8).  Still, though, this passage serves as a terrific guideline for us.  It is good to use it as a guideline while remaining cognisant that we cannot be perfect in practising this list because Jesus gave us the command to “love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

The Greek word that is used for love in the Galatians passage is ἀγάπη (agape), which is not used to refer to an emotional affection, physical attraction, or a familial bond.  Rather, it is the love of choice, referring to respect, devotion, and affection that leads to a willing, self-sacrificial love (John 15:13; Romans 5:8; I John 3:16-17).  The same word in the Greek is used in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, which is why I believe it is poor usage to use that passage at wedding ceremonies and the like because it’s not about emotional affection.  Again, it’s good to use as a guideline in a marriage or non-marital relationship, but it’s important to know that that’s not what the passage is about.

Now that we’ve eliminated the romantic emotional connection that love has, just what is love, really?  The best way to examine Christ’s love towards others is by examining examples of His selfless service.  Christ exemplified this in numerous ways, but for the sake of time I will only be highlighting selfless service and humility because I believe that is the core of the Christian lifestyle.  Because Christian means “follower of Christ,” as we examine Christ’s behaviour and selfless lifestyle, we must imitate that behaviour to the best of our ability.  Jesus gives us what I believe to be the perfect example of humility in that what we should do for each other He has done unto us, as He says Himself (John 13:15).  Just prior to this, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet.  We all know this “story” very well, but let’s examine it closely.  Before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus had begun to wash His disciples’ feet.  He began to wash Peter’s feet as Peter said, “Never shall you wash my feet!” (John 13:8a).  Peter is often ridiculed for being quick to profess his faith, but Peter’s reaction here is very understandable.  If Jesus Christ Himself were to wash my feet before the Passover, I, too, would be reluctant for Him to do so.  Jesus is our Master, and I imagine Peter having recognised this thought it impertinent and dishonourable for his Master, whom he serves, to humble Himself and wash his feet.  If Jesus were to offer to wash my feet, I would have the same reaction, saying, “Lord, let me wash Yours!  I’m not worthy of Your service.”  But Jesus humbles Himself before us not because we’re worthy, but because He loves us in His grace.  Jesus responded to Peter, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me” (v. 8b), to which Peter replied, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head” (v. 9), finally realising that Jesus was modeling Christian humility and service and that unless the Son of God cleanses a person’s sin, no one can have a part with Him.  Jesus then replied, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean” (v. 10).  What Jesus means here is that His cleansing for salvation never needs to be repeated, for His sacrifice has bathed our original sin, which is now covered.  We are completely clean but still only need to wash our feet, for we still live in and walk through the struggle of sin.

That’s the love that Christ has done for us.  So what example did Jesus portray to the disciples that we must do unto one another?  He was modeling loving humility.  After washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus said, “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.  If then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.  Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him” (vv. 13-16).  Although Jesus is our Lord and Teacher, He came not to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28).  Although Jesus is our Lord and Teacher, He humbled Himself before His disciples — His servants and students — and washed their feet, serving them selflessly.  This loving humility is what we must do towards one another.  Not literally washing each other’s feet, but selflessly and lovingly serving others in humility, no matter our position.  This is the great mark of leadership — having the authority to command and discipline, but humbling oneself to serving and loving others in complete humility.  The disciples were not greater than Jesus, and Jesus not greater than the one who sent Him, God (for He is God).  Yet in spite of His authority and ranking above His disciples, Jesus humbled Himself and made Himself equal with His disciples and washed their feet in loving humility.  That is what we must do — that is what love is.  If you’re in a position of leadership, humble yourself and serve others in humility.  You don’t need to be in a position of authority to do this.  As sinful human beings, we sometimes think we’re better than someone else, but that is never true.  Humble yourself before everyone, and serve them in humility as the Lord has done.

Joy

Misery is a dangerous condition to be in as a Christian.  This is Satan’s greatest weapon against the Christian.  When you become Christian, you catch Satan’s attention.  He paints a bull’s eye on your back and colours it in and will do whatever it takes to hit the target.  Jesus, however, calls us to joy, “through whom we have received reconciliation” (Romans 5:11).  It’s good to experience and be in touch with our emotions of joy, anger, sadness, and fear, but neither one should be a perpetual condition.  If all you are is angry, you’ll create nothing but animosity and hatred in your relationships with other people.  If all you are is sad, then you’ll prevent yourself from creating meaningful relationships with other people as well as prohibiting yourself from experiencing true happiness.  If all you are is timid and afraid, you’ll never stand up for yourself and what you believe in and ultimately Christ, unable to be steadfast for the Lord.  If all you are is joyful and disallow yourself to come to terms with other emotions, you’ll be completely incapable of sympathising with peoples’ dark emotions and will fail to comfort them in the Spirit

Again, experiencing each emotion is good, but we must come to terms with each and not let it control us or come into its perpetual condition.  Jesus expressed righteous anger when the people of Jerusalem were using the House of God as a house of trade (John 2:13-25).  (Righteous anger is far different than full blown anger.  The former is a strong reaction against something that opposes God’s will, and the latter is a strong reaction against something that opposes your will.)  Jesus expressed sadness when He heard that John the Baptiser was beheaded and was so sad that He isolated Himself in a desolate place (Matthew 14:3-13a) and when He wept at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:35).  Jesus expressed fear at Gethsemane when He prayed to God to remove the cup of His wrath from Him if it be possible, but not as He wills it, but as God wills (Matthew 26:36-45); and He was also so stressed that He suffered a medical condition called hematidrosis, causing Him to sweat blood (Luke 22:44).

The basis of Jesus’ joy is John 15:1-11:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified in this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.  Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made in full.”

Jesus says that there are two types of vines:  those that bear fruit and those that do not.  The question is, which are you?  You cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit unless you abide in Christ, which, as He says later on, is to keep His commandments.  If you abide in Him and bear the fruit of the Spirit, God removes (prunes) all things in your life that would hinder your fruit-bearing; He cuts away sin.  If you do not abide in Him and don’t bear the fruit of the Spirit, Jesus depicts Hell in that you will be gathered up and cast into the fire to burn.  When you abide in Christ and bear the fruit of the Spirit and He therefore abides in you, this glorifies God, which is the joy of Christ that He speaks of, which He desires each of us to possess.

Peace

Peace is probably the simplest, and biggest, goal that all of mankind shares.  We all have the same goal in mind:  world peace.  But I have some unfortunate news:  world peace is impossible.  By just simply examining the history of the human race, we can see that the more we strive for peace, the further we’re driven away from it.  Whether you choose to look at it from a Christian perspective (from creation till now) or a non-Christian perspective, we’ll see the truth in this.  Before the Fall of Man, everything was literally at peace.  All of creation was in peace and mankind was in perfect relationship with God.  Then once sin was introduced by Satan the serpent through Adam and Eve, all of creation became corrupt, and horrid things we are now familiar with has come into the world — death, illness, disease, rape, malnutrition, murder, etc.  When we examine simple historical events, we see that from war to war, we become farther and farther away from peace.  We are no closer to peace now than we were when the first murder was committed (Cain and Abel).

John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  We have a false idea of peace in which it involves world peace — that we are all in agreement with one another on morals where there is no war and nothing ever goes wrong.  That is not the kind of peace Scripture speaks of, and that kind of peace is not something that can be accomplished through our means alone because Jesus does not give us peace as the world gives.  He gives us His peace, which comes from our greatest source, God the Father.  We Christians are very familiar with this verse, and perhaps quote it often.  But how many of us have actually considered what this means?  Do you know what it means to have the peace of Jesus Christ?  I’ll be honest that I haven’t always known what this means, and it took a couple years to discover what Jesus means by this.

I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean, though.  Jesus is not saying that through Him, world peace can be achieved.  He is not saying that if the entire world becomes Christian (which is impossible), then world peace can be achieved.  (If the entire world were Christian, we’re still sinners infected by original sin and would still commit sins like adultery, murder, and other sins, and wouldn’t be at peace anyway.)  This ideology of world peace is done by our works alone.  But the peace of Christ is a gift, because He gives it to us.  Peace is not something that we can create or somehow consummate; it can only be given by Jesus Christ alone.  Peace will only be achieved when Christ comes again, and this peace will only be experienced in Heaven, not on Earth.  But this is not what Jesus is talking about either.  We know that Jesus is not talking about world peace because He says that He doesn’t give us peace as the world gives.  He gives us an entirely different peace.  What Jesus means is this:  Since you are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), you have our Saviour to look up to in faith just as the Israelites looked up to the bronze serpent in faith (John 3:14; see also Numbers 21:4-9).  After God had led the Israelites to destroy the kingdom of Arad, they began complaining to God and Moses that God had brought them out of Egypt simply to die in the wilderness.  In righteous anger, God sent snakes among them, and many Israelites who were bitten died.  After a while, the Israelites came to Moses, repented of their sins, and Moses prayed on their behalf.  In response, God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole and that whoever is bitten by a snake and looks up at the bronze serpent in faith will live.  Jesus brings up this part of Scripture, pointing out that the bronze serpent was pointing towards Him.  The only difference is that when the Israelites looked up in faith upon the bronze serpent they would be saved from temporal death, but when we look upon Jesus Christ in faith we are saved from eternal death.  That is the encouragement and peace we have.  We can look upon Jesus Christ in faith and know that we are saved from eternal death.  Also, as new creations in Christ and therefore a new identity, we can be completely at peace with whom we are as individual human beings.  Because God no longer sees us for our sins but now sees us in Christ, we can be completely at peace with ourselves and completely trust Him to sustain our lives, because He is our Source.

Let me explain this from my personal perspective so you can better understand what I mean.  It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve been completely at peace with myself — with life.  Because of how God sees me in Christ and how Christ views me, I accept who I am.  This is only possible through the peace of Christ that He gives us.  Because of His peace, I accept my personality and even my flaws.  For my entire life, I never accepted my personality and especially not my flaws because of the self-loathing I suffered with.  I defeated this self-loathing through the peace and grace of Christ that He has given me.  It is because of this peace that I am able to love myself and look past my flaws, as well as realising that where I am flawed, other fellow Christians make up for them.  Where I am weak at certain things, other people are strong in.  That’s the beautiful thing about the Church.  The Church is one body, of which we are all members of (1 Corinthians 12).  We all have different functions to maintain the function of the whole Church.  What the arms cannot do, the feet do.  We can’t walk on our hands, so our feet do that for us.  Likewise, where the pastor who knows nothing of financing an organisation (the church), a member or elder of the church who has a profession in finances can do that function of the body.

The best peace we have in Christ is what He concludes with by saying, “Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  The best way this can be explained is what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  I’ll explain this from my personal perspective as well for a better understanding.  Because of the peace that Christ gives us, whenever I face something troubling or some sort of tribulation, I don’t worry too much and I don’t become fearful because I know my life is in the hands of Jesus.  I admit that I worry a little bit (because I’m human and imperfect), but I don’t allow worry and fear to become my perpetual condition, and this is because of the peace of Christ.  When I’m stressed, face a tribulation, or face something troubling, I remember everything that Jesus has done for me.  I don’t mean just what He did for all of us on the cross, but I mean what He has personally done in my own life.  I remember everything that He has brought me through, both where I didn’t recognise Him and where I prayed for deliverance and He answered.  I remember these things, and the Holy Spirit calms me and I become at peace.  It is because of His peace given to me that I don’t allow my heart to become troubled or fearful

Many of us may have read this passage in Matthew 11:28 numerous times as well.  I didn’t really know what a yoke was until I looked it up.  I wrote about this in my blog, The Yoke of Slavery, so if you read it and what I’m about to talk about seems reiterate, bear with me.  Paul wrote in Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  When you’re set free from slavery, you can certainly experience peace for the first time in your life.  We have been freed from the curse that the Law pronounced on the sinner who has been unsuccessfully striving to achieve his own righteousness (this is all of us).  A yoke refers to the wooden crosspiece that was used to control domesticated animals (oxen, horses, etc.), and fastening it over the neck of two animals and attached to a plow or cart that they are to pull.  The Jews thought that the “yoke of the Law” was a blessed thing — the essence of true religion and salvation.  But Paul argued that for those who pursued it as a way of salvation, the Law was a yoke of slavery, hence the imagery here.  The use of the Law is to make our sins known, and immediately following must come the Gospel, which is the proclamation of our forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Christ.  When you talk about Christianity, you must include both Law and Gospel, not one or the other.  When you preach only Law, you get condemnation (because we are incapable of fulfilling the Law, which Jesus fulfilled for us [Matthew 5:17]).  When you preach only Gospel, you get the necessary grace and forgiveness of sins, but not the diagnosis nor the recognition of original (and personal) sin.  (I talk a little bit more about the yoke of slavery in the aforementioned blog.  It’s nice and concise, so if you’d like, you can refer to it.

So, having been set free from the condemnation of the Law, we now take upon the yoke of Jesus Christ.  What is His yoke?  It is grace, mercy, and forgiveness — the essences that make up His peace.  It is because of His yoke of peace that we can take upon ourselves — His grace, mercy, and forgiveness — that we cannot allow our hearts to be troubled or fearful.  Jesus Christ is humble and meek.  The yoke of sin is hard and heavy, and the yoke of Jesus Christ’s peace is easy and light.

Patience

We see multiple times in Scripture where Jesus said to His disciples, “You of little faith!”  Imagine that!  The apostles that we so look up to and read the writings of, and Jesus accused them of having little faith more than once!  The fact is, they were just as human as we are.  Jesus first says these words to them (and a large crowd of people) during His Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 6:24-34, Jesus calls the audience to observe the birds and take notice that God takes the time to feed them.  He says, “Are you not worth much more than they” (v. 26)?  Why would God take care to feed the birds and animals and neglect His specially created children?  Exactly, He wouldn’t do this.  So Jesus encouraged them not to worry about their life, what they will eat and drink, or what clothes they will wear.  Likewise, God takes the time to clothe the fields with grass, so how much more He will clothe us.  And this is where He first says, “You of little faith!”  And rightly so.  If we are so worried about having food, drink, and clothes tomorrow, we do have little faith because we are not trusting the God who feeds the rest of creation and clothes the entire earth on a daily basis, all without pausing while He takes care of us, His children.  This is why Jesus concludes that part of the section by saying, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  each day has enough trouble of its own” (v. 34).  Take everything one day at a time.  Trust God in what He will supply tomorrow.

Jesus says the same words just two chapters later, this time directly to His personally chosen disciples.  We all know of this event.  It’s when Jesus calmed the storm and the sea.  Jesus was sleeping during the storm, and after all efforts to not let the ship sink, the disciples feared for their lives and woke Jesus, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing” (8:25)!  Jesus then responds with, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith” (v. 26)?  Immediately afterwards, He calms the storm and the sea.  Even though Jesus’s physical presence was on the boat with them, they feared that Jesus would allow them to perish.  This is a great place to see Jesus’s humanity.  He was so weary that He slept through a raging storm on the sea!  After the disciples woke Him, in His weariness He first rebuked them and then calmed the sea and storm.  Amazing!  If He could so easily calm the storm and sea in His weariness, then they certainly would’ve been fine while He peacefully slept.  Indeed, they had little faith.

Again, in Matthew 14:28-33, we read these words.  This is where Peter, after seeing Jesus on the water, walked on water and then began to sink.  Crying out for Jesus to save him, Jesus takes hold of him and says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt” (v. 31)?  Peter was doing just fine on the water until he saw the wind and became frightened, causing him to sink (v. 30).  Fear caused him to doubt.  I wonder how many times our own fear of our personal situations cause us to doubt God?  Think about this.  Fear causes a lack of faith.

We last see Jesus use these words in Matthew 16:5-12.  While they were in the region of Magadan (now a city in modern Russia), the disciples forgot to bring bread.  In verse 6 Jesus warned them about “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  They thought he was talking about actual bread, but He was warning them about these Jews’ dangerous influence.  The disciples discussed what this meant among themselves and concluded, “He said that because we did not bring any bread” (v. 7).  Then Jesus says, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread” (v. 8)?  He then reminds them of the miracles He performed by making five loaves into five thousand, and seven loaves into four thousand.    “Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (v. 12).

Now, why did I walk you through all those times Jesus said to His disciples, “You of little faith”?  To make this point:  Jesus is infinitely and mercifully patient!  If you or I witnessed either one of those miracles that Jesus performed, we would probably never doubt for the rest of our lives!  But the disciples, whom Jesus personally chose, and who witnessed these miracles firsthand several times, doubted from time to time!  Yet, even though Jesus personally chose them, He was patient!  If Jesus was so patient with His disciples, then how much more He will be patient with us.  That doesn’t give you a reason to procrastinate, but use this as encouragement to not dwell in shame if you repent of a sin later than you think you should have, or any other reason that makes you think Jesus is impatient with you or disappointed.

As Jesus’s modern disciples, we are to mimic this.  We must use this as encouragement to be patient with one another.  We have many reasons to be impatient with each other, but Jesus is patient with us.  We don’t deserve His patience, but He is patient nonetheless.  How much Christlike love we truly show to people by simply being patient with them!  If you’re helping someone through a troublesome time, be patient with them; don’t push them.  You can’t expect them to recover at the rate you want them to.  Push them gently, but don’t shove them over the cliff of despair, for then they will only sink into a deeper pit and you’ll have to double back and retrace your steps.  As Paul put it simply, “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:14).  Whomever you’re admonishing, encouraging, helping, teaching, disciplining, whatever, exercise the patience of Christ.

Kindness

I cannot think of a greater example of Jesus’s kindness than what was told during the events of His arrest.  While He was being arrested, Peter cut off one of the high priest’s servant’s ear in frustration.  Jesus yelled, “Stop!  No more of this” and healed the servant’s ear (Luke 22:51; John 18:10).  Whenever I read this, I am always amazed at the lovingkindness of Jesus.  Here He is, being arrested, guilty of literally nothing, and He heals a fatal wound of whom one of His companions attacked, and still let Himself be arrested!  The greatest form of kindness is mercy, which is exactly what Jesus showed here.  Mercy is showing kindness even when you’re angry or offended, and when the opposing party deserves retribution.  Now, we all deserve retribution, but Jesus showed the ultimate kindness and mercy for us when He died for our sins.  Kindness does not need a reason to be shown.  If you spend time trying to think of a reason to be merciful to someone, you’ll find that you’ll never show any mercy.  Mercy is undeserving.  Of all people, we Christians should know this because through God’s mercy He gave His only begotten Son for our sins.  The word “kind” doesn’t even suit this sort of action, but mercy, its ultimatum.

We can show kindness in many ways.  We have the perfect guideline for showing Christlike kindness.  “...and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously…” (1 Peter 2:23).  Amazing.  When people criticise you in angrily insulting ways, do not revile in return.  I’m guilty of this.  Before I was wise, when an atheist would attack me about my faith with angry insults, I returned the same.  Now, however, I either say nothing or speak kindness.  For example, an atheist throws an insult at me and I say, “It’s okay, Jesus loves you anyway.”  I may say it sarcastically, but I nevertheless say it truthfully.  This frustrates them more than the most profane insult.  You can apply this to any situation.  If you’re criticised at work (if it’s not constructional), don’t criticise your employee in return.  What I usually say is, “I appreciate the feedback, and I’ll do my best to do better in the future.  By the way, I appreciate the way you do _________.”  Leave off with a comment of a job or task that they do well, then walk away.  One of my favourite proverbs is, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you” (Proverbs 25:21-22).  Such kindness!  Not only is genuine kindness the perfect revenge, but it finds favour with God.  And we can entrust ourselves in knowing that God judges righteously.

To Be Continued...