Christian Basics
Christian Basics Part 3
Love forbids covetousness (v.9).
Love sums up all the commandments (v.9).
Love works no wrong to a neighbor (v.10).
Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must either be true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse - so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, book 3, ch. 1
Are you seeking your basic shape in Christ today? Join us as we finish our look at Christian Basics today…
Love forbids covetousness (v.9).
For this…Thou shalt not covet… Romans 13:9
Love forbids covetousness. “Thou shalt not covet” (Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21).
Covet means to crave or desire.
We can crave both good and bad things.
Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. 1 Cor. 14:1
In context of our scripture today, we are not to covet in an evil sense.
If we love our neighbors we will not desire their things.
The commandment condemns not only the act, but the desire to sin.
The desire is what covetousness is. It precedes the act.
How do we avoid it? Take every thought captive…
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor. 10:5
This strikes at the heart of what we are deep inside, apart from complete submission to Christ.
It shows the cravings of our hearts are evil.
Why? Because desiring and craving are natural. We crave things…
We want possessions we see others have.
God says…do not to covet. To covet is evil. Why?
It causes us to focus our energy on securing more, instead of on God and what HE calls us too.
What is your focus on today?
Love focuses on sharing/helping people, not craving.
There is a world of difference between centering one’s life upon people instead of things.
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s...
·house: personal provisions.
·wife: companion and love.
·manservant or maidservent: employee, position, employment, authority.
·ox and colt: possessions, property, wealth.
And, God adds: “Thou shalt not covet...anything that is thy neighbor’s.”
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17).
If we truly love our neighbor we will not covet what they have. Instead we will be focused on blessing them.
We encourage them to know the Lord and to surrender their lives to the great task of meeting the needs of a lost and dying world.
“And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints” (Ephes. 5:3).
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).
Love sums up all the commandments (v.9).
For this…and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Romans 13:9
The royal commandment is “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Love is an active experience, not inactive and dormant.
Love for God acts. Are you actively loving for Christ?
Love acts by showing and demonstrating itself.
If we truly love God, we will do things for God.
Loving our neighbor proves our love for God.
We can say we love God, but if we hate our neighbor, everyone knows our church and religion is a profession only. What is yours today?
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35).
“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:20-21).
Love works no wrong to a neighbor (v.10).
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10
Love works no evil to a neighbor.
To work evil against a person does not mean just doing or carrying out evil against a person.
Working evil means...
·thinking evil.
·wishing and hoping evil.
·planning and devising evil.
·practicing and doing evil.
·withholding good.
“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. Devise not evil against thy neighbor, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee” (Proverbs 3:27-29).
A person who loves will not work evil, but on the contrary, they will work good.
What does it mean to love? Scripture says:
Love suffereth long (endures long, is patient).
Love is kind.
Love envies not (is not jealous).
Love vaunts not itself (brags not, boasts not).
Love is not puffed up (is not arrogant, prideful).
Love does not behave itself unseemly (rudely, indecently, unmannerly).
Love seeks not her own (is not selfish, insisting on one’s rights and way).
Love is not easily provoked (is not touchy, angry, fretful, resentful).
Love thinks no evil (harbors no evil, takes no account of a wrong done it).
Love rejoices not in iniquity (sin, injustice), but rejoices in the truth (in justice).
Love bears all things.
Love believes all things (exercises faith, under all circumstances).
Love endures all things (never weakens; has the power to endure).
The call of believers is to love our neighbors—everyone.
God’s love is to be demonstrated through us. The commandment is clear:
Is Christ being demonstrated through the basics of Christianity in your life today?
Are you showing, thereby drawing people nearer to Christ in all that you do and say?
Have you submitted to Christ in your life?
Will you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in your life today?
Will you commit to attend at least one additional Christian fellowship next week and invite someone to come with you?
God would love the additional time of fellowship with you and so would we.
