12-22-2009

1 Peter 1:22 (New International Version)

22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.[a]

Ahhh...we finally get to #12 in the House Rules. It's all been good though. House Rule #12 Love One Another Deeply from the Heart. In Chapter 1 the Word talks a lot about obedience and the truth. It also talks about receiving the truth and walking in it. If our souls are truly purified, then we can reflect the love of Christ. We will then have a sincere love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The word sincere means not hypocritical or deceitful; open; genuine; archaic pure; unadulterated; unmixed. In Webster's dictionary it says sincere stresses absence of hypocrisy, feigning, or any falsifying embellishment or exaggeration.

In the NASB version this verse says "purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart." In this sentence the first "love" comes from the Greek word "philadelphia" which stands for brotherly love. The second "love" refers to an agape love which the early church used to describe the unique love of Jesus Christ. As believers we are all washed by the same precious blood of the lamb. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is evidence that we are truly obedient and the love of Jesus radiates through us to everyone. In the Word, it commands us to love one another so we would truly be obedient if we love each other from our heart. It is an intense love. It is a love that should be able to reach all believers. It should not matter that one may be more mature than another in the Word. We should be able to encourage, love, and strengthen one another.

We do not falsify or exaggerate words or actions that might hurt another believer. That would not be a pure love. So many times as believers we think we know what each other is going through or we might hear from other people in the church as to what someone might be doing or going through. Many times it can be exaggerated. It brings to mind that old game where you sit around and the first person says a few sentences and by the time it gets around to the last person they hear something totally different. So start being obedient and show a sincere love of your brothers and sisters. Don't gossip or exaggerate something that you heard about a fellow believer. Tell the people that are gossiping that they are wrong and stop the spread of the gossip. If Christ is truly in our hearts, then we will show a true and sincere love to each other. If our hearts are truly purified, then we will go on to a higher level of love with a strong and tender affection for one another.

12-01-2009

Matthew 7:12 (The Message)

12"Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's Law and Prophets and this is what you get.

Here is House Rule #11 - Treat Each Other Like You Treat Your Friends. This was sometimes called the Golden Rule (Luke 6:31). Another good Scripture that says basically the same thing is James 2:8 - "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well;" Verse 9 of James, Chapter 2 says "but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors." Since we are believers in Christ and have received new hearts, we should be able to treat everybody the right way - with the love of Jesus. Verse 9 says if we show partiality we commit sin. I don't know about you but I don't want to show partiality of just treating my friends nice. I want to show everyone the love of Jesus.

If we study what Jesus said and how He acted among everyone He came in contact with, we should be the same way. Jesus lives in us; we should not have a problem with these verses. This is basically common sense to treat someone the way we would like to be treated. This is the Lord's rule and there are no exceptions. Jesus came to teach us what to know and believe. He also came to teach us not only how to treat each other as believers but how to treat all men. We have to change our old habits of just being nice to our friends but also be nice to the one at work who might "press our button." This means we don't have to act like they are acting but realizing their condition and think of what we would do if we were in their situation. Maybe find out a little more about them and be more understanding. They might be going through more than we realize and we could share the love of Christ with them.

Other people have put the "golden rule" in a negative sense but Jesus put it in the positive. I like the Message version because it says for us to "take initiative" and do things for others what we would like them to do for us. One definition for initiative is "a beginning or introductory step; an opening move." Another one is: "without prompting or direction from others; on one's own." Let us think and pray about how we treat others. Stop forming cliques in our churches, our work places, even our families. Treat each other with the love of Christ. Take the "initiative" and make the first step to include others. We need to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone.