By: Undre Griggs, Jr. What is it about love that makes it so perfect? Love has the ability to turn enemies into friends, and it has the ability to create lasting relationships. Colossians 3:14 (ESV): And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. We may not wake up each day with the intention of offending others, but it is going to happen. Love helps us be humble enough to apologize and forgiving enough to accept it. Love holds us together through the most difficult of situations. When we find it difficult to forgive, when we see ourselves looking for justification over compassion, we will find love is often missing. The Greek word for harmony in this verse means, perfection or maturity. Perfection in the sense that harmony is built on what has already occurred and continues to be supported by what is to come. 1 Peter 4:18 (ESV): Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Sound relationships are built on trust, compassion, understanding, and love. Our relationships are maintained by the same love they are built on. We strive to maintain this perfect unity, because it is the only way to have lasting relationships. As misunderstandings occur, and bitterness or selfishness creep their ugly head, we have to return to what sustains us. Luke 6:35 (ESV): But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. It is the reminder that our love is fueled by the love God has for us. We look at others and it is much easier to recognize shortcomings and wrongdoings. However, how easy is it to see it in ourselves? Love asks us to bear the burden of those we encounter. It is not because we are better than they are, but because we are the same. We are all ungrateful and evil when compared to God. God is perfect and without sin; He is full of love and righteousness. As those who sin, the wages of our lifestyle is death. God has provided us an opportunity at salvation and we do not have the ability to earn or repay this gift. It is a blessing to be considered children of the Most High, and it is the bond of love that connects us to God and each other.
By: Undre Griggs, Jr. Scripture depicts our heart as a dishonest and desperately sick. It has the amazing ability to confirm and convince us of any reality we believe exists. Our heart can alter our perception of other people, as well as ourselves. Even those with the best intensions can fall victim to confirmation bias. Jeremiah 17:9-10 (ESV): The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Confirmation bias is the ability to take any situation and use it to confirm our predisposed beliefs. If we see ourselves as a good person, we will be able to rationalize any behavior. If someone we admired and respected behaved in a less than desirable manner, our opinion of him or her would allow us to be more understanding of the situation. The opposite also tends to be true. If we do not respect the person, every mistake they make further proves our opinion of them. Since humans do not have the ability to comprehend the heart, they lean on appearance when making their judgement. It is the chief difficulty we face when attempting to require actions as a way to judge another’s heart. The fact is we are so bad at judging hearts; we cannot understand our own, let alone another’s. 1 John 3:16-22 (ESV): By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. If we want to be confident in our salvation, all of our actions need to be motivated by love. To love God is to keep His commandments and to abide in Him until death. John says we know love by the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Love is selflessly giving for those and to those who cannot repay you for your love and kindness. We see this with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). He gave his time and showed compassion for the man beaten and robbed. When the Samaritan took him to the inn, he told the innkeeper, he would return to pay his bill. We see the same type of compassion showed by Paul when he was talking about paying Onesimus’ debt (Philemon 1:19). If we want to be confident we are pleasing God, our actions must be selfless, and motivated by love and compassion.
By: Undre Griggs, Jr. When discussing forgiveness, do we have the ability to punish the person who wronged us? Oftentimes, when making the case for the ability to forgive with conditions, we quote Bible verses where God’s forgiveness included a punishment. It is true, there are examples of God forgiving and then punishing those He forgave. We find an example of this in the Old Testament when God forgave the Israelites, but still punished them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Leviticus 19:18 (ESV): You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. While this statement is true, Jehovah does not give us the authority to punish someone we forgive. There are many reasons for this, with the most obvious reason being, we cannot judge someone’s heart. If we could properly judge someone’s heart, we could be trusted to understand his or her motive and true intensions. There are two key difference between God and us; He judges the heart and all of His actions focus on saving souls. Our punishments are based on preconceived notions and the desire for self-aggrandizement. We do not like being wronged and believe an apology is the least someone could do to earn our forgiveness. Romans 12:17-21 (ESV): Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Christians are not encouraged to punish the actions of others. Instead, they are commanded to leave the wrath to God. James explains why, as the wrath of man does not bring about the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Even if someone only required an apology to forgive another… are they not seeking to avenge their mistreatment? Whether the person apologizes or not, Scripture makes is very clear we are to treat everyone (friend or foe) with love. The Apostle Paul states, any action completed without love does not benefit us (1 Corinthians 13:3). We are to forgive others in love, because God loves and forgives us of much more. If we require some form of penitence, how did we determine what was required? By compelling an apology, can we be certain someone has repented? Since repentance is a change in one’s heart and mind, only God is able to determine matters of the heart (Jeremiah 17:9-10). We can only judge by outward appearance, which is unreliable because we are judging based on our personal dispositions (1 Samuel 16:7). We must rely on God’s vengeance and not our own.
By: Undre Griggs, Jr Throughout the New Testament, Christians are expected to “forgive as we have been forgiven”. This brings the natural question of when and how we were forgiven. Many will submit: we are forgiven when we confess Jesus is the son of God and are baptized for the remission of sin. This is often used as a justification that humans do not have to forgive unless the person does something first. Sometimes, this can be as simple as saying, “I’m sorry”; but for others, they believe there is a path of redemption that must be satisfied. Genesis 22:8-12 (NKJV): And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” As early as Genesis, we can see the foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. What action did you take to cause God to send His son to die on the cross for your sins? At least for me, I did not do anything to deserve such an act of love and forgiveness. Many conclude that our need to be baptized for the remission of sin proves we can demand action before forgiving others. However, the fact that we find ourselves with a path to restoration before acknowledging our sinful nature reflects otherwise. If Jehovah waited for us to prove we deserve Jesus to die for us, He would still be waiting. Our death with Jesus in the watery grave of baptism is the only way for us to purify our corruptible body (1 Peter 1:23). Without it, we could not be rejoined with God, because he is the absence of evil. We see this confirmed when Jesus embodied our sins on the cross and Jehovah forsook Him (Matthew 27:46). As sinners ourselves, we do not have the same reaction or disdain for sin. Therefore, we cannot require others to perform an act of purification to interact with us. We are to do all things in love; and love requires us to be unprovoked, be patient, bear all things, believe all things, and endure all things. Can you confidently say requiring some form of penitence falls under the definition of love? I find it difficult, to say the least.
By: Undre Griggs, Jr. After Jesus found out John the Baptizer had been murdered, He was concerned. Not in the way most of us would be concerned, but He was concerned about the void John’s death left. John had been preparing the world for His coming, and he had been baptizing those who believed. His teachings were the inspired word of God, and Jesus was focused on saving souls. Mark 6:30-34 (ESV): The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. Immediately seeing a need, Jesus began to teach the lost people the word of God. In Matthew’s account (Matthew 14:14), he highlights the fact Jesus began to heal the people who were there. Jesus was worried about their physical and spiritual body. He taught the word of God to deal with the soul, and he healed their body to handle the physical. Mark 6:35-37 (ESV): And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” His disciples were not filled with the same amount of compassion and mercy for the lost. They understood they were not obligated to help anyone more than they already had. As a result, the disciples were ready to send the people on their way to fend for themselves. Can we find ourselves in similar situations where we teach someone the word, and if they do not come to Jesus, we send them on their way? The word for compassion in Scripture is defined as mercy. To show compassion requires us to go beyond the call of duty. The disciplines felt they met the requirement of teaching the word of God to the people, so they did not see the need to go any further. Jesus showed us the effort He put in was more than what anyone would expect. No one would expect someone to feed five thousand people, yet Jesus fed them. The amount of time it took Jesus to heal each sick person was likely exhausting and cumbersome, yet He did it. Jesus showed mercy to the lost because He was focused on savings souls and He wants us to do the same thing. Be patient, show compassion, and forgive those who sin against you; because God affords the same mercy to you.
|
Dean Road
|