Life With Others Pt 2

The science of homiletics, or
probably more familiarly, the study of oratory, calls the opening
remarks in a speech or perhaps a sermon, the hook. And the hook
is essentially designed to give the hearer the reason why he
or she is to listen. Well, Last Sunday’s hook, the
opening remark that I made, was probably, it was a moment
that I probably haven’t ever experienced as I saw the faces
of the saints in their reaction to the hook. I’m not much of
a fisherman, but I do know that when you fish, you use a hook,
you put the bait on the hook, you cast the line into the water
and When you feel a tug on the line, you set the hook. And that’s
the image that oratory teaches that you’re supposed to basically
dangle the bait that people take the line and you set the hook.
Well, last week, I really could have used bare hands. My line
went like this, that we could be the greatest Christians the
world has ever seen. We could be the most godly people.
We could be the most productive, the most fruitful, the most giving,
the most holy, if it were not for people. And then I read you
that lengthy grocery list, which I’m not going to read today,
on all the things that people do to ruin our Christianity. They’re aloof. They’re boring.
They’re critical, they’re deceitful, they’re foolish, they’re intrusive,
they’re impatient. They offend, they slander, they
steal, they’re unproductive. All those ways that people offend
us. And as I said, and as I said
it, people smile. That’s only the beginning, right?
That’s really not a complete list. I counted them up this
week, there are some 70 descriptives in that list. And I think Paul
really, in turning his attention to life with others, as I’ve
entitled it, beginning here in verse 9 of chapter 12, Paul has
this very thing in mind. That, you know, you could be
great Christians if it weren’t for people But we are called
to be great Christians in spite of the people. In spite of those
around us, we are to persevere through those shortcomings that
our brothers and sisters have, that unbelievers have. We are to persevere in our practical
love of them so that we can be And they too can be the greatest
Christians the world has ever seen. If you would, take up the
passage at hand. Chapter 12, beginning in verse
9, where Paul writes, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to
what is good. Be devoted to one another in
brotherly love. Give preference to one another
in honor. Not lagging behind in diligence. Fervent in spirit. Serving the
Lord. Rejoicing in hope. Persevering
in tribulation. Devoted to prayer. Contributing
to the needs of the saints. Practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice
with those who rejoice. And weep with those who weep.
Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in
mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your
own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil
to anyone. Respect what is right in the
sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends
on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written,
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy
is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him
a drink. For in so doing, you will heap
burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. As I begin to introduce last
Lord’s Day, Paul turns the corner into this section that I’ve entitled
Life with Others, and it’s essentially a guidebook on how to deal with
people. How should we live with regards
to other people, because they’re not imperfect and they never
will be. And it shouldn’t hinder our ability
to function and to become sound and profitable, great Christians. The way other people are shouldn’t
affect any of that. As I pointed out to you last
week, this opening section, verses 9 through 13, is Paul’s counsel
on how to live with Christians. That’s what he’s dealing with
there in those verses. In verse 14, he deals with those
that are antagonistic toward you. He deals with the downtrodden
in verses 15 to 16. We’re not to overlook them. We’re not to ignore them. We’re
not to pretend that the downtrodden don’t exist. He deals with those
that are contrary in verses 17 through 21. Not everybody is
going to be our big fan, are they? Not everybody is going
to be for us. Chapter 13, verses 1 through
7, Paul deals with civil government. We need to know how to function
towards them, don’t we? And then what I would suggest
is at the end of Chapter 13, Paul deals with everyone. How
should we deal with everyone that we come across? But first,
let’s remind ourselves of what he says regarding how we’re supposed
to deal with Christians. He says, first and foremost,
that life with others, especially life with Christians, is to be
a focus for us. We’re supposed to practice the
way that we live with others. We’re supposed to think about
it. We’re supposed to do it intelligently and passionately. Our interaction
with others is to be a Christlike interaction. We are to interact
with others as Christ would have interacted with them. And the
first thing that Paul points out is that it is to be a genuine
affection. That’s what he’s talking about
in verses 9-13 is love or affection for the brothers in Christ. And he says, let love be without
hypocrisy. We spent no little time on this.
The tendency to go through the motions The tendency to say things
and promise things and even do things when our heart really
isn’t in it. To say things that we don’t really
mean. To do things that we’re really
not fond of doing. And to live in such a way that
really is hypocritical. We really don’t mean what we
say. We really don’t Have our heart in what we’re doing on
behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re just going through
the motions. Paul says, don’t live like that.
First and foremost, our affection is to be genuine, it is to be
sincere. It is to be. It’s to be real. And there’s so much pretend out
there that we begin to we begin to get confused, even ourselves. That maybe what we’re doing is
real. Paul wants us to examine our
heart. Paul wants us to really look within and have the spirit
look within and examine to make absolutely sure that we’re not
going through the motions. That we’re not just walking through our Christianity
hypocritically. I repeat a quote. That we closed with last Lord’s
Day. From a pastor named John Brown,
a Puritan, he said, Envy, wrath, selfishness, love of the world
with coldness and all the concerns of religion have possessed the
place of it. He says that’s what most Christianity
looks like. Envy, wrath, selfishness, the
love of the world, He goes on and says, and in vain shall men
wrangle and contend about their differences of opinions, faith
and worship, pretending to advance religion by an imposition of
their persuasion on others. Do you hear what he’s saying?
He said, we tend to think of our Christianity, our testimony
as what we believe. And that’s a good element. It is important what you believe,
but that’s not what that isn’t what’s going to persuade unbelievers. He said, unless this holy love
be again be reintroduced among all those who profess the name
of Christ, all the concerns of religion will more and more run
to ruin. Do you hear what he’s saying
in his archaic way? Your testimony, your witness,
your outreach to the lost is hopeless if you don’t have a
genuine affection for your brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s
what he’s saying. He said the very continuance
of the church depends primarily on faith in Christ, secondarily
on the continuance of this love. Where this faith and love are
not, there is no church. That’s a profound statement. And I would say. By way of encouragement, we do
have a church. We’re not perfect. But we do
have a church, we do have a church where people are seeking, not
everybody and not everybody all the time. But we are seeking
to have a genuine affection for one another, People, when they
say things, do mean it. And they see them through. There
is integrity in what they do and say on behalf of one another.
Most of the people, when they say they’re going to pray for
you, they pray for you. Not all, and we don’t do it all
the time. None of us. Most of us, when
we roll our sleeves up to offer some kind of assistance to our
brothers and sisters in Christ, our whole heart is in it. We
mean everything that we do. You remember what I said last
week? Don’t say it. Don’t offer it.
Don’t do it if you don’t mean it. The saints of this church,
by and large, do that. What Paul would say is excel
still more. You know when you’re being hypocritical. You know when you’re going through
the motions. You know when you Say you’re
going to pray, and you don’t. And there’s forgetfulness in
there. God knows that. But if you say you’re going to
do it, pray for the grace to see it through. We’re called
to a genuine affection. Secondly, we noticed last week
that this Christ-like interaction is to not only be one of genuine
affection, but it’s a purified affection. Look at verse 9. Abhor
what is evil. Cling to what is good. Christians
become quite adept at blurring the lines between what is evil
and what is truly good. And we’re never to cultivate.
We’re never to coerce or integrate evil into the lives of others.
We’re never to affirm those things. We’re never to smile at dirty
jokes. We’re never to wink at somebody’s
sinful struggles. The Roman Christians lived in
a an absolute vile society, vulgar and hedonistic, and it isn’t
unlike our own. And it’s so easy for us to begin
to give tacit approval to things that God says are positively
sinful. It’s so easy. And then once we’ve
approved it, we give hearty approval to those that are around us.
God says that our affection for one another, that we are to love
what is good for one another. We’re to hate what is evil for
the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s that
simple. He says that we are to have a
genuine affection and we are to have a purified affection. But there’s a third thing that
Paul urges, and this is where we just introduced and left off
last Lord’s Day. Not only are we to have a genuine
affection and a purified affection, it is to be a practical affection. This is exactly what James deals
with, doesn’t he? Be at peace, be warm, be filled. That’s not affection. Paul says
you’re going to need to roll up your sleeves. The world’s
going to need to see this affection in action. The saints of God
deserve it. The Lord Jesus Christ deserves
practical affection towards your brothers and sisters in Christ,
not words, not mere epithets, not mere promises. That’s what he takes up in verse
10. Look at what Paul says when he
says, be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference
to one another in honor. And then I want you to note that
everything else from 11 to 13 hangs on those statements. This
is how we can be devoted to one another and brotherly love. This
is what it looks like to give preference to one another in
honor. Not lagging behind in diligence.
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering
in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of
the saints, practicing hospitality. Some of those, they’re so simple.
Of course, they’re extensions of brotherly love. Of course,
that’s what it means to give preference to one another in
honor. You talk about contributing to the needs of the saints, showing
hospitality. Of course, those talk about our
love for our brothers. Of course, those require the
giving preferential treatment to others. But when you talk about some
of them. You have to keep in mind that what Paul’s talking
about here are those two commands be devoted to one another in
brotherly love, not lagging behind in diligence. Give preference
to one another in honor, fervent in spirit. Be devoted to one
another in brotherly love, serving the Lord. Give preference to
one another in honor, rejoicing in hope. Be devoted, give preference,
persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer. Paul says that the
way that you live is the way that you show out your love for
your brothers and sisters in Christ, the way that you give
preference to them. We began to look at these last
week, this being devoted to one another and brotherly love, it
is the language of family love. And some families have that intense
affection for one another. pure and it’s it’s real. And it’s it’s a it’s a profound
love that they have for one another. And it’s not just, you know,
physical affection by way of hugs, but it’s watching for their
every need, providing for them, practically loving them. It’s
the love of parents between or rather between parents and children.
It literally says this in the brotherly love In one another,
we are to be lovingly affectionate. So in that love that we have
for our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to have that
affection for for each other that is on display for all in
the fellowship and outside of the fellowship that when two
people see us. Rather, when people see two believers
from this particular church, when they see us interacting,
they should know they should think that we’re family relation. They should think that we are
so loving towards one another, so kind. That there is some kind
of a special bond there, maybe their cousins, maybe that even
though there are different nationalities and hair color and skin tone
and one wears glasses and the other one is tall, they should
know there is something special about this relationship. They
should. It’s not a mere name. It’s a real relationship. It’s
a reality. And it should be characteristic
just like a family relation is characteristic Paul points out
this duty. And he says that this, this affection,
this being devoted to one another and brotherly love, this relationship
that we have in this church, it has a tendency to fade into
formalities where we go through the motions, we get here, we
greet one another, you know, we adjust the time, we sit down,
we go through, you know, the protocol, right? He says that
that’s the pitfall. The pitfall is that we can fall
into formality in this regard. That it shouldn’t be that way.
There should be a warm genuineness. I love the way that we were commanded
to greet one another. Share your joy. For what are
you joyful? How sad that we so often just
begin to go through the motions. We don’t ever let anybody in.
And we don’t ever press into anybody else’s lives. We just
go through the motions of what we think is worship. The reality is that the Christian
family, we should have such an intense love for one another,
it should be so sincere, so genuine, so tender, just as if you were
hugging your dearest grandparent Your beloved mother. Your sweet
son. For Paul, brotherly love was
just at such a high regard. He said to the Thessalonians
now, as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to
write you. He said, you know what? This
is free. This is over and above. You’re
already doing it. I don’t even need to go here.
But he brings it up anyway. You don’t have anybody need for
anybody to write you regarding the love of the brethren for
you or yourselves are taught to love one another, but he urges
them excel still more. We all can grow in The affection
that we have for one another in the depth of our love and
the genuineness of it in the practical nature of it in the
purity of it. We all can grow. Paul says grow. Do it. For the first century
Christians, this whole thing. This is a new concept. It’s not
like they could look to any model. Religious, civil, Nothing was
like this that they could look to, except the family. They couldn’t look to civil government
and see a brotherhood. From time to time I hear people
talk of, you know, the department on which they work. It’s a brotherhood.
Or the police force in which they’ve served. It’s a brotherhood.
It’s not a brotherhood. Not like Christianity is called
to be a brotherhood. In fact, in a sense, in a lot
of these cases, they’ve stolen the idea from what Christianity
lived out. So well. For the first century
Christians, they didn’t have anything to look to. Paul said,
you this little church that you have in Rome, this fledgling
church that is beginning to grow and flourish and have a testimony
and be a light to all the nations. This little church is supposed
to be like a family. That’s what he says. You’re supposed
to be like a family. You’re supposed to look for ways
to serve one another. Look for ways to show your love
for one another. You’re supposed to bear with
one another and see each other through difficulties. It’s supposed
to be real. second command there in verse
10, not only be devoted to one another and brotherly love, give
preference to one another in honor. Oh, boy. Give preference to one another
in honor, that’s a tall order, isn’t it? To defer to other people’s
opinions. To defer to other people’s wishes. To defer to other people’s weaknesses. To defer to other people’s tendencies. To defer to other people’s shortcomings. And still, through it all, to
honor them as a brother in Christ. Wow. Literally means in the honor
of one another leading before it’s we’re supposed to show leadership
in honoring one another. No, let me honor you first. No,
let me honor you. No, let me. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
I remember seeing two people approach a door one day, right? And instead of, you know, the
dance that you engage in at the door, they both. They both showed
honor to themselves first, and they almost got stuck in the
door, right? What we’re supposed to do. No,
you go. No, you go for it. Have you ever watched two Japanese
people greet each other? It is the most amazing, most
wonderful thing. What they begin to do is you
talk about a dance. They begin to bow. One bows.
Well, the other one says, well, I’m going to show you honor.
You’ve just shown me honor. And he bows further. And the
next returns the favor and he bows even deeper and the and
it goes on and on and sometimes it lasts a few minutes. It’s
an amazing testimony, an illustration of how we’re supposed to prefer
one another in honor. This. This result, this affection
that we’re supposed to have is supposed to have the practical
result That we’re not supposed to get into these nitpicky wars
of each one seeking our own honor. No, you should honor me. Don’t you know who I am? We do
it. We’re not supposed to press for
first place. We’re not supposed to jockey
for position and power. What Paul’s arguing is here is
against the very conceit that so often is there when we begin
to assert ourselves above others, we pull rank. One pastor said it this way,
it is the honor due from each to all without question, and
you know that in in many places we have this tendency. Well,
I’m going to show honor to him. He’s shown it to me. You know,
we got this reciprocal thing going on. What about the one
who hasn’t shown you honor yet? Goes on to say. The honor due
from each to all in Christianity is the noblest school of courtesy,
commending the man to the refining power of the divine presence
and constantly rebuking the self-regard, which is the essence of discourtesy. That is so profound. I’m going
to repeat it. What he’s saying there is that
if we would only commend ourselves and others to Christ, there would
never be a moment of discourtesy. There would never be an offense
of conscience. There would never be hurt feelings. Listen to what he says. The honor
due from each To all in Christianity is the noblest school of courtesy. We’re all in school. Some of
you think you graduated a couple of years ago, you’re in school.
The noblest school of courtesy, commending the man to the refining
power of the divine presence and constantly rebuking the self-regard,
which is the essence of discourtesy. We do what we do because we don’t
care what they think. I’m going to do what I want to
do. That’s what he says is the essence of discourtesy. But as we begin to show mutual
respect for one another, we’re pointing each other to Christ,
we’re drawing on the divine resources to be and to become what God
wants us to be. To show honor. to almost battle
it out, to contend with one another in a sanctified way in who’s
going to show greater honor for whom? Who’s going to take the
lead? That while the world is striving
with each other for power and prestige and position and everything
on the face of the earth, Christians, we’re not going to follow suit.
We’re not going to React in kind. Our contention, if you will,
our challenge, our contest is to see who can honor who more. Wow, it’s it’s powerful. Philippians
2, 3 says it this way, do nothing. From selfishness or empty conceit,
I mean, if you just were able to apply that one verse, think
of all the problems that would be removed from the world and
the church. Do nothing from selfishness or
empty conceit. But with humility of mind, regard
one another as more important than yourselves.” What great
counsel. See, it’s simple. If you think
through the equation, our fellow Christians are made in God’s
image. Well, that will help you. They’re
made in God’s image. They are those for whom Christ
died. Well, now that’s a help. And
they are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. They’re made in God’s
image, paid for by Christ, and they’re indwelled by the Holy
Spirit. If that doesn’t help how you react to them, there’s
no hope. No hope. One pastor said it this way,
wherever you see the image of your Lord. Wherever there is
a consistent profession of the faith of Christ, there are there
we ought to fix our Christian affections and having fixed them,
we are not easily to allow them either to be abated or to be
transferred. In fact, in other words, when
he says is you can’t quit loving your brother, you can’t. Can’t turn it off. You can’t
turn your affections from one another. You’re to see it through.
If you think. Back to what Paul,
what started this entire discussion, the diverse gifting in a body,
the various ways in which we’re gifted, the fact that we have
different gifts and different measure. and the fight that so
often ensues because I don’t possess this or because you possess
that. We’re to see it through. We’re to look for the giftedness
of others and the usefulness of them. And we’re to play that
up. We’re to honor them in that.
Because it’s a gift of Christ. It’s not them. I love James Boyce’s paraphrase
of this little verse. He said, don’t wait around for
people to recognize your contributions and praise you. Instead, be alert
to what they are contributing and honor them. We don’t do that
enough. We don’t. One of the amazing
things in my, I guess, exercise of my studies as an exposer,
I’m preaching Philippians, right? I come to the end of the passage,
I’m into the book rather. And I’m like, what on earth am
I going to do with this? It’s just names. And, you know, please
greet so-and-so and so-and-so did this good thing. And I’m
like, what am I supposed to do with this section? And the more
I meditated on it, that’s exactly what Paul’s doing. You know,
he’s looking out over the Philippian church and he’s saying, I remember,
I remember when you did this. Do you know that gift that you
had? Oh, wow, that’s powerful. We don’t do enough of that, we
don’t do enough of looking at others and seeing God working
in and through them, we need to. We need to first notice it,
then we need to thank God for it, and then we need to acknowledge
that in them and play that up, use that for God’s glory. Instead of thinking about. our appreciation for other Christians.
Unfortunately, our minds are usually on ourselves, aren’t
they? Then we get resentful because we’re not recognized because
somebody didn’t appreciate what it is we’ve done. Christianity
isn’t that way. It’s not supposed to be that
way. We’re supposed to give preference to one another in honor. And
Paul begins to flesh that out. Paul wants us to know in profound
ways how this is to play out in the church. And the first
thing he says there in verse 11 is not lagging behind in diligence. We’re to show brotherly love,
we’re to give preference to one another, and we’re not to fall
back on it. We’re not to quit. We’re not
to fall short. We’re not to give up. We’re not
to get tired. We’re not to get sick of it.
Isn’t that how we function? I am sick of Sunday school. I
am sick of doing this. I am tired of always going second. The literal translation of that
little phrase is in the diligence, not troublesome. That’s what
happens. First, we notice it and then
we cross our arms and we begin to scowl. I give up. I’m not doing my part
anymore. They’re not doing theirs. No
one noticed me. See, the Christians in Rome,
Paul saw, Paul knew people, he knew tendencies, he knew he’d
seen it in other churches. They start great. They get off
to a great start. They’re passionate about what
they believe in. Oh, we’ve got a church here in Rome, the First
Baptist Church of Rome, no less. And they’re out there beating
the bushes and witnessing and serving and reaching out to others. And they’re passionate about
their church. And then they get tired. This
is my third week in a row of setting up chairs. But in lives that are genuinely
touched by the Lord Jesus Christ, we don’t get tired. We can’t
get tired. We can’t fall back. We can’t
give up. The sad part of this. Versus,
so oftentimes people translated that word for diligence in most
of our translations as business. Not falling behind in our business,
and there were many that went on and on about how we should
be, you know, I have a great work ethic, Puritan work ethic,
and we should be out there in the marketplace making a difference. Our businesses should look different.
All that’s true. You just can’t get it here. That’s
not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about a general
diligence. We’re talking about if you remember
back to what started this whole discussion, it’s our spiritual
service of worship. This is a very general command
here. He says, don’t be lazy in it,
whatever God has gifted you to do or called you to do, don’t
be indolent. Don’t give a little and take
a little and keep track and measure it out. One pastor described
it in these terms, he said, it does not appear that the word
in the original can be translated business. It denotes eagerness,
earnestness, zeal, urgency in doing everything with respect
to the things both temporal and spiritual. Believers are not
to be slothful. Nor are they to indulge in indolence,
but in every duty to use exertion and manifest earnestness. You
know, I have preached for years. I one day, by God’s grace. I hope to preach. from the book
of Ecclesiastes. It’s though if I preach one Old
Testament book that’s the one that I want to take up. And in
that passage I’ll preach part of it right now in that passage
or in that book. There’s a passage that says Ecclesiastes
9 10 whatever your hand finds to do. Do it with all your might. What great counsel. Wouldn’t
it transform the world? Wouldn’t it transform your workplace?
Whatever your hand finds it, if you had three employees working
like that to do it with all your might, you could get rid of half
the staff, right? If we were doing that, wouldn’t
the world see and sit up and take notice? They would. Proverbs talks about a slack
hand, right? Somebody just kind of goes through
the motions, somebody just kind of half-heartedly That should
never be how we function as Christians. That should never be how we exercise
our giftedness. It should never be true of us
as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ that we’re going through
the motions in the gift that Christ has given us to serve
Him ever. The Scripture says do all that
we do to the glory of God. What great counsel. No half-hearted
efforts. No. No halfway. No burnout. That’s an excuse
that’s used in these days. I’m burned out. I’m just burned
out, burned out on serving. I’m burned out. I’ve heard I’ve
heard people take years off of the ministry for that very purpose.
And whereas at one point they were there were the most zealous
servants in the entire body. And then they move on or they
go to a different place and then they sit back and put their feet
up and they say, well, I need, you know, I’m burned out. Paul says that we are not to
be lagging behind in diligence. We’re supposed to press on, we’re
supposed to cry out for new measures of grace and he ties to that,
and I think a lot of times these connections, as Paul is going
through this list, They’re there for a reason, the connection
is there for a reason, because he says not lagging behind in
diligence, fervent in spirit. There’s some big argument in
the commentaries of whether he’s talking about the human spirit
here or the Holy Spirit. You know. Whether the human spirit
is in view or whether the Holy Spirit is in view, while the
Holy Spirit is resident within us, I don’t know how you can
separate the two. That our human spirit is ultimately, if it’s
energized, it’s energized by what? The Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that ultimately
presses us and energizes us and makes us to be passionate. What
he’s talking about here, fervent in spirit, literally means boiling,
boiling from within. We’re supposed to be passionate
about what we do, not half hearted. We’re not supposed to quit. We’re
not supposed to give up in our diligence. Remember, one of the most shocking
addresses that the spirit gives to the churches in Revelation
is that church that had just grown lukewarm. Jesus says, I spit you from my
mouth. We’re not supposed to be lukewarm
Christians. There’s no such thing. We’re
supposed to be passionate about what we believe we were dead
in our trespasses and sins and God made us alive. And not only
did he make us alive, he gave us a gift. To serve him in this
church. Lukewarm. Impassionate. Casual. Not the Christian, the
Christian is supposed to be eager, We’re supposed to be zealous
about what we do and full of life and vigor. One said it this
way, that it is important that the human spirit be on fire,
but Paul is not referring to something that occurs by some
natural process. What he’s pointing to is the
result of the indwelling spirit of God. If you have the spirit
of God, you can’t quit. You can’t take a vacation. And
what I mean by that is a lengthy hiatus from serving Almighty
God. God isn’t against our refreshing,
but what he’s against is this attitude that, you know what,
I’ve just done enough. I’ve just done enough and I’m
just going to coast. We’re supposed to be passionate.
I’ll close with this one. Because this, too, is it’s linked
in. We’re supposed to be devoted
to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another
in honor, and he says this is what it looks like, not lagging
behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving. The Lord. You know, that would fix a lot of
things right there, wouldn’t it? You’re not serving me. I’m not
serving you. Not really, not ultimately. You’re
not serving on the Sunday school board. You’re not serving, you
know, on some committee. You’re not serving some appointed
individual. You’re not serving a church. Not ultimately. You’re in service. You work directly for your Immediate
supervisor is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s
who you serve. So if you have your complaints
in hand. Really, that is that’s who we’re
to see. If we have some reason that we
want to take the day off, put in your request and send it to
him. Literally, the translation says
in the master being a slave. In regards to the master, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s who he is, he is our master. We are slaves. Oh, shocking,
shocking terminology. No, it isn’t. Not biblically
speaking. That’s what Paul frequently called
himself. Paul frequently referred to himself as no more than a rowing slave. Down at the bottom
of the ship, smelly, stinking. Paul said, I’m a slave. What we’re exhorted to do here is to think of ourselves as that. But not so much even on behalf
of one another. We’re slaves. But we’re slaves. We’re servants of the Lord Jesus
Himself. And not merely in acts of worship,
there were some that wanted to take this and say this service
is the service of worship. Well, we are to do that, but
we’re also to stand up from worship and we’re to go out and we’re
to serve him in all the giftedness that God has lavished upon us.
And in our lives and how we conduct ourselves and what we do. See, it’s a. This personal relationship
that they had. Being granted with the Lord Jesus
Christ was to basically have a revolutionary effort on their
behalf, wasn’t it? They were supposed to be completely
new and different, that they are saved to serve. God saved
you, not just to rest you until heaven. God saved you so that
you could serve him in this life. How easy we tend to forget about
this, isn’t it? We tend to think that we’re serving
others, that we’re serving on committees, we’re serving in
particular positions, we’re serving this, serving that, when ultimately
we’re serving the Lord Jesus Christ or we’re supposed to.
That’s what we’re supposed to do. Paul says that we’re supposed
to be devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference
to one another in honor. And we’ll take up the next portion
of what he defines that to be. Next Lord’s Day, let’s examine
our hearts before him. Oh, our merciful King. We know
our hearts. We tend to keep accounts. And
we tend to pout and we tend to take umbrage at the way others
may have treated us. Grant us the grace to examine
our hearts. To really rekindle our devotion
to one another in practical love. To really begin to consider what
it means to give honor to others far above ourselves. God grant
us the grace of a renewed passion. Grant us the grace of a fervent
spirit burning within us that we do not quench. Grant us the
grace of the reminder that ultimately we serve not one another merely. We serve our Lord Jesus Christ
in all that we do. Grant us that grace. We pray
this in Jesus name.