Love without qualifications

Posted on April 26, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

John 13:35 – By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Jesus is here indicating that love is to be the identifying mark of the believer. We are commanded to love, not love if . . . our love is to be not conditioned upon the response of the object of our love. There should be no qualifications on whether we give or withhold love.

While all churches would claim that they practice unconditional love, this is clearly not the case. Too often, for one reason or another, love is conditioned on rule keeping, service to the church or some other qualification. When any conditions are placed on love, it is not the love described by Jesus.

Conditional love must be avoided because it sends the message that you have no value unless you are complying with the demands. People who come to this type of church may feel loved for a while, but that investment of love better pay off in the desired response or it will not continue.

James speaks about this type of value judgment in James 2:1-8. In this passage James identifies this behavior as sin and a violation of the second great command to love your neighbor as yourself. James pulls no punches. In verse 4 he says, “have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?” The root of this type of value judgment is evil.

The verb form of agape (selfless love) is used as a command 9 times in the New Testament. In only two verses was there a qualification on the love. In Ephesians 5:25, husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Later on in verse 33, Paul commands every husband to love his wife as he loves himself. There are no further qualifications. And even these qualifications are not dependent upon how the object of love behaves. In all 9 commands to love, there is no out clause; there is no situation where it is appropriate to withhold love.

James tells us that to assess the value of a person based on their use to the church or their ability to keep rules is a sin. Paul tells us in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We all have equal value before the Cross.

To practice unconditional love, we must acknowledge our dependence upon God and our own need for grace. Once we realize how much we have been forgiven, then it should be easy to forgive and accept others. Can we follow Paul’s advice in Romans 12:9 and practice “love without hypocrisy?”

A world starved for real love is longing for us to get this right.

Why are you provoked? A Lesson from the Apostle Paul

Posted on December 9, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

Acts 17:16 records that when the Apostle Paul arrived in Athens, “his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.”

Lots of things provoke me; I assume that is true for you also. The challenge that I get from reading about the Apostle Paul is that I am often provoked about the wrong things or about things that ultimately don’t matter.

Does it really matter that the guy in front of me in the “20 items or less” aisle has 25 items? Perhaps I am the only one, but inconsiderate or incompetent drivers frustrate me. Lots of things provoke me but most are unimportant in the long run.

The lesson I learn from Paul is that when I am provoked about something I should ask myself, “Am I provoked on my own behalf or am I provoked because of an injustice done to someone else?”

In 1 Corinthians 13:5, Paul tells us that “love is not provoked.” In other words, the one who loves does not take offense at the behavior of the one he loves. The one who loves does not look for opportunities to be offended. If I am offended or provoked because I have been inconvenienced or feel disrespected, I am not practicing love.

Paul was provoked because the Athenians’ worship of idols was misguided and futile. The Athenians were spiritually lost and Paul sought to do something about it. Paul was provoked on behalf of the Athenians, not on his own behalf. Being concerned for the people around him is a trademark of the Apostle’s behavior.

In Philippians 2:3-8, Paul identifies his inspiration for this attitude. He gets it from Jesus and encourages us to do the same. He points out in verse 5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” He then identifies the trait of humility as being the motivation for looking out for the interests of others.

Perhaps this is a good test of humility. On whose behalf do you get provoked? Is it for your own promotion or for the benefit of others?

Ouch!

The balance between worship, service and fellowship

Posted on December 3, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

The Balance

For a church to be healthy, each believer must have opportunity to participate in worship, service and fellowship.

Some definitions are in order. First, when I refer to worship, I am speaking of the activities of the congregation when we come together on Sunday morning. We worship through singing and the teaching of Scripture. Both are important. Yet, a good worship experience cannot be the only aspect of church life. A great teacher and worship band may draw a crowd, but it is the addition of service and fellowship that make it a church.

Service is the acts that are done within and outside the church body to minister to specific needs. An example of service within the body would be teaching Sunday school or working on a cleaning team. Service outside the body would be typified by short term missions, or providing meals or clothing to people having physical needs. Service alone makes for a charitable organization but not a true church.

Fellowship is when members of the body share life together. When the church group starts to feel like family, then we are nibbling at the fringes of true fellowship. Yet fellowship without worship and service makes for a clique, not a church.

When one side is atrophied

If we are not coming together for singing, praise and teaching, then the church body will be fragmented and struggle to find unity. Fellowship may happen, but it will not be centered around a common vision for what God is doing in that church body.

If the acts of service are minimized, the church will become ingrown and proud in it’s attitude toward the community in general and newcomers in particular. This is a Christianity that is self serving and smug.

If we are worshipping and serving without real fellowship, then the saints will advance from feeling unappreciated to feeling abused. People will come and then drift away when they do not find the interaction that they feel should typify the true church.

In my experience of evangelical Christianity, it is the fellowship leg of the triangle that seems to suffer the most. Evangelical, Bible centered churches understand the need for good teaching and worship on Sundays. Even a cursory reading of Scripture prescribes the need for service, so opportunities to serve abound. Fellowship is a different story.

Home group Bible studies, home fellowship groups, adult fellowships, koinonia groups, etc. may be the beginning of fellowship, but they cannot be the total solution. Fellowship is not something that can be arranged with a program.

Toward Deeper Fellowship

If we are in need of deeper fellowship, how do we go about finding that depth? Here are some thoughts:

In John 13:35 Jesus tells us that love is to be the defining mark of the Christian. If there is resentment or division in the church, those who are participating in that behavior need to repent and be restored to the opponent.
Keep in mind that while there may be different roles in the Church, there are no differences in value. (Galatians 3:28) Everyone is to be valued, not for their giftings or accomplishments, but for the fact that Jesus sacrificed himself on their behalf.
In Matthew 25:41 Jesus tells us that by responding to the needs of those who have no resources, it is as if we ministered directly to Jesus. By seeking to support, encourage and meet the emotional and spiritual needs of or church mates, we are ministering to Jesus.
Each of us, no matter how strong we seem now, will come to a place where we will be needy. Since Christmas is upon us, the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” comes to mind. George Baily came to the point where he needed the community into which he had invested so much of his energy. It was there for him. So should the church be.

This certainly is not an exhaustive list. Any other ideas out there? Feel free to chime in with comments.

The Goal of Christian Teaching – Love From a Pure Heart

Posted on July 12, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

Confused About the Goal

In Matthew 22:37-39 and Mark 12:29-31, Jesus tells us that the two great commands are to love God with our entire being and love our neighbors. The concept is simple but the execution is difficult. Only two commands and if we’re honest, we admit that we cannot keep either one of them on our own.

If these are the two great commands, it seems that every time Scripture is taught, every time a sermon is delivered, every time we worship in song, it should encourage us to the fulfillment of these.

Yet, often we miss the opportunity to reinforce these commands in our expressions on a Sunday. We should come away from worship with a burning desire to love as God commands us to love.

The Goal is Love

The Apostle Paul reinforced love as the goal when he wrote to his protégé Timothy. He writes, “the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:5)

The goal, the end game, the desired result, the proof that we have progressed is love. What is the source of that kind of love? The source is a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith. Encouraging people to this kind of love should be the goal of every teaching opportunity.

The Path Toward the Goal

From this passage in 1 Timothy, we can see that if our teaching is geared toward developing a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith, that teaching will be in support of the two great commands.

David asks a pair of rhetorical questions in Psalm 24:3, “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?” His response is found in the following verse where he writes, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart.” In Psalm 51:10, David cries out to God “create in me a clean heart” after confessing his sin with Bathsheba.

A clean heart, a pure heart is required to love as God wants us to love. I am reminded that in 1 John 1:9 we read, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and confession of our sin, we can have a pure heart.

Romans 5:1 tells us that we are not condemned if we are in Christ Jesus. We can have a good conscience if we are waling in the Spirit (see Galatians 5:16). To be waking in the Spirit precludes any behavior that would tarnish our conscience.

The Greek word translated sincere in this verse means literally without hypocrisy. In other words, the faith that is on display is genuine; what is on the inside matches what is on the outside. I should also point out that the value of faith is dependent upon the object of faith. As a Christian, our faith is dependent upon Christ and the reality of who he is.

Conclusion

While not every sermon should have the two great commands as their subject, every sermon should have the two great commands as their goal. Everything that is said from the pulpit should be evaluated by preacher and pew sitter alike in light of the two commands.

My guess is that if we did a better job of this, our churches and our world might be a lot different than they are.