By: Undre Griggs, Jr. Jesus said to love one another (John 13:34). Do we meditate on how we can do this? Do we understand the selflessness that is required of us to be able to love one another? 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (ESV): Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. We must love one another with a love that we do not expect to be repaid. Remember, it is better to give than receive (Acts 20:35). And why must we love one another in the manner we read in 1 Corinthians 13? 1 John 4:20 (ESV): Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. Now some will say, well I don’t hate them. Hate is such a strong word and I don’t know if I hate anyone. We have to understand the word hate did not mean to them what it does to us today. The Greek word for hate here can be translated as “loving less than another” or simply “love less”. For example, you read in, Luke 14:26 (ESV): If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus is not telling us to hate our family the way we understand hate today. He is telling us, we have to love our family and ourselves less than we love serving the Lord. Jesus didn’t want His disciples to be doubled minded and hindered by a greater commitment to themselves and/or their family. John is telling us the same thing when he says we cannot love our brothers and sisters less than we love God. This concept is consistent with the parable of the sheep and the goat. Matthew 25:44-45 (NKJV): “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ We do not have the ability to love man less than we love God; because the manner in which we love our fellow brother is the exact manner in which God will consider our love for Him.
By: Undre Griggs, Jr. A trait unique to God is His ability to accurately judge the heart. There is good reason, as judging the heart is a difficult task for any of us to accomplish. We may even find it difficult to understand our own actions, let alone what is encouraging the actions of others. Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV): The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Our heart may have us believing we are being considerate of others, when the reality is we are only considering ourselves. Our heart may have us believing we are not disappointed by the actions of some, but the reality is we are truly hurting from the betrayal. Proverbs 21:2 (ESV): Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. Our inability to understand the motive to the action is why we misunderstand each other on a regular basis. Consider someone purchasing another person a cup of coffee: did they have extra money that day, are they in a good mood and wanted to share the joy, or are they interested in getting to know the person on an intimate level? While the action has value, it alone is not enough for us to confidently discern the implications of the action. Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV): “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.” This is part of the reason we consistently see the Bible equating sins that many believe to be “capital offenses” to the sins that many believe are a shortcoming of being “only human”. Revelation 21:8 (ESV): But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Even among believers, not everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21). Some believers will be separated with the sheep while other believers will be placed with the goats (Matthew 25). Even though they both sin every day, God found some acceptable and others unworthy. Could the judgment of the heart be the difference? We look at Paul and understand he played a vital role in the murder of Christians; yet God thought him worthy to be an Apostle. Could it be that while his actions were evil, his heart was not? In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), could the Tax Collector have been the one who left justified; not because he lived the better life, but because he had the better heart? I encourage all Christians to live a life of spirit and truth, but remember, nothing is greater than love (1 Corinthians 13:13) and love covers a multitude of sin (1 Peter 4:8).
By: Undre Griggs, Jr. There is a distinct difference between “fruits of repentance” and “forgiveness”. The confusion appears to be the result of not understanding who will benefit from each. Many people believe forgiving someone is a benefit to the person who is forgiven. That mindset will help explain why people believe a person needs to do “something” before they can be forgiven. Some will say that “something“ can be as small as an apology, while others may feel a remorseful person should attempt to nullify each wrong they committed against the person. 2 Corinthians 7:10 (ESV): For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. It is clear in scripture we should immediately forgive others of any wrong we have endured. We do not have the luxury of waiting for others to apologize to us before we forgive them. The reason is also clear; an unforgiving soul is not a soul that is in fellowship with God. Our issue must be resolved for us to partake in the Lord’s Table (Matthew 5:24) and for us to pray to our Father. Some will go days, weeks, months, or even years before they forgive another; but we should not go a moment without the ability to communicate with God. Mark 11:25 (NKJV): And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. Fruits of repentance are something that happens over time and are separate from our ability to forgive others. The outpouring of love will prick the person who needs to be forgiven to change their life for the better. It is no different than our relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus had already forgiven us when He came to the world as a human being and died in our place. We showed no fruits of repentance to encourage Jesus Christ to die for the remission of our sins. Romans 5:8 (NIV): But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Similar to the people who actually placed Jesus on the cross, we put Jesus on the cross with our sins. Also comparable is the way Christ forgave the people who crucified him without them apologizing or showing sorrow for their actions. It is true that we need to be baptized for the remission of sins to be saved; but does the consequence of our action/inaction reflect on whether God forgave us? Consider someone guilty of murder being required to serve a mandatory sentence of 20 years. There is nothing that the victim’s family can do to shorten the criminal’s sentence; but they can still forgive them of all consequences they can control. They can pray for the person and write encouraging messages to them. They can feel sorrow (instead of joy) for the person who is about to lose their freedom. Sin separates us from God and the wages of sin are death, so the mandatory sentence is the mandatory sentence. That is why we must put to death our old body in the watery grave of baptism - so we can live again with our new body in Christ. But the fact that we have an outlet only proves God has already forgiven you.
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Dean Road
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