Ultimate Love!

Today we conclude the series of thoughts highlighting How To Guarantee a Productive and Effective Life from II Peter 1:5-11. The pivoltal verse in this paragraph of Scripture is verse 8 which reads, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowlege of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have looked at these qualities: 1. Faith is the foundation for all things, You must be born again! 2. Add to your faith virtue involves Taking Out the Trash! 3. Add to your virtue knowlege, which we called Christianity for Dummies Like Me! 4. Add to your knowlege self-control, which we called Living a Balanced Life! 5. Add to self-control perseverance, Keeping On Even When It Hurts! 6. Add to perseverance godliness, You Must Say 'Yes' Before You Hear the Question! 7. Add to godliness brotherly kindness. 8. Add to brotherly kindness love, which we are calling Ultimate Love! Romans 5:8 reads, But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You can never say that no one cares about you again. Once and for all, the Lord has demonstrated his love for you and that's unquestionable. Someone has said they they asked Jesus how much he loved us and he stretched out his arms and died for us. Wow! No one ever loved like that! When I was younger, I often took up for other folk in school, on the bus, in the neighborhood. Those whom I took up for and often fought for knew that I loved them. However, on occasion, I got whooped! It's not all about just taking up someone's cause, but it's also about winning. Jesus took up for us and in a few weeks, we will celebrate Resurrection Day, which was his vindication that he won! You and I had no hope of ever paying the debt for our sins that we owed. Jesus owed no debt for he had no sin. However, he demonstrated his love for us in that he paid a debt he did not owe for you and me, who had no hope of ever paying our own debt. This is ultimate love! Agape means to lose sight of meeting my own needs in the meeting of the needs of the object of our love. Reminder: You are guaranteed a productive and effective life if these qualities are in you and increasing!

Brotherly Kindness

We are continuing our series of thoughts on, "How to Guarantee a Productive and Effective Life" from II Peter 1:5-11. Verse seven tells us to add to your godliness, brotherly kindness. The word used here is phileo. This is the term used in the transliteration of the city of Philadelphia. You may recall that this city is known as the "city of brotherly love". This quality is best understood in the passage often referred to as the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.
There are three lifestyles in this world:
1. What is yours is mine and all I have to do is take it. This lifestyle is represented by the robbers who beat the traveler and left him half dead by the side of the road. Those who exhibit this lifestyle are takers and never givers.
2. What is yours is yours and what is mine is mine and never shall the two meet. The priest and the Levite who came by where the traveler lay but rationalized that they could not be bothered. Admittedly, they had some good reasons not to get involved. If they had touched the wounded man and he had died they would be unclean and have to go through a purification process before they could resume their religious duties. Do you know the names of your closest neighbors and what really makes them tick?
3. What is mine is yours and all you have to do is need it. The Samaritan represented this lifestyle. He went out of his way to help a stranger, not because of what he was hoping to get out of it, but just because the traveler needed him. Jesus asked the lawyer who was neighbor to the traveler and his reply was the Samaritan. Do you go out of your way to help others?

You Must Say "Yes" Before You Hear the Question!

Godliness is exactly what it sounds like...being like God. Perhaps a better way of saying it is to be Christ-like. The Scripture says,
"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you." II Peter 1:5-11
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is a great example of godliness. Upon hearing the news that she would bear a son who would be Jesus Christ, her response was, "Behold the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." Luke 1:38
Notice that God has a five year plan for your life, but He is not going to give you the details up front. Godliness is totally counter intuitive. Our normally accepted practice is to examine all the implications and decide to go one way or another. We weigh the pros and cons and see whether to take the job, make the move, etc. However, God did not spell out all the details to Mary as to what she'd have to go through (such as the crucifixion of her son), but she said yes to God even without knowing the whole picture. Do you trust God enough to say yes to Him before you see the whole picture? I would have cheated myself a thousand times if I had not said yes to Him early in my life. On the other hand, I have been blessed a thousand times as much because I said yes to Him. Do you trust Him enough to say yes without seeing the full picture?

Keeping On Even When It Hurts!

Let's recap, we have been exploring the qualities that are referred to in II Peter 1:5-11, especially verse 8, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowlege of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have called this study, How To Guarantee a Productive and Effective Life. We have explored several of these qualities, such as, faith which is the regenerational relationship with our Lord as we commit to Him our everything. We are instructed, then, to add to our faith virtue, the "Taking Out of the Trash" of our lives. Then to add to our virtue, knowlege which we addressed as "Christianity For Dummies Like Me!" Then we are instructed to add to our knowlege, self-control which we addressed as, "How to Live a Balanced Life!"
Today, we will look at how to add to self-control, perseverance. Perseverance and patience are often misunderstood. They do not imply a passive sitting and twiddling of ones thumbs while waiting for God to intervene in our situation so as to rescue us. This word really means to keep on even when it hurts. It means that I will not put down the load I am carrying no matter how badly it hurts to hang on. There is a scene in the movie, Facing the Giants where a football coach challenges one of the players to do the "death crawl" for 100 yards with another teammate on his back while blindfolded. It is quite a riveting scene. What are the challenges in your life that tempt you to turn back from the path of the Lord?
Colossians 1:9-12 tell us how to walk worthy before the Lord. Verse 11 reads, strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously. This verse alludes to two main sources of discouragement in life, circumstances and people. The word stedfastness refers to the circumstances of life and the word patience refers to the people in our lives. I don't know if you have noticed, but some people are hard to love. One man said he thought he would like the ministry except for the people he had to deal with. Relationships are a challenge, but a right vertical relationship with the Lord makes it possible to deal horizontally with the people in our families, our co-workers, neighbors, etc.
If you find yourself tempted to turn loose of the load the Lord has assigned to you, hold on, help is already there!