Jesus¡¦ New Year Reminder.
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We all were made for relationships. First with God, and second with each other.
You will remember Jesus¡¦ own words in MT 22:37 -40, " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
We cannot say we love God and one another if we spend no quality time together.
A man called Richard Halverson once said, "We’ve got far too many churches and so few fellowships¡¨. Biblical Fellowship at its heart, always includes strong and godly friendships.
Friendship aint just claspin¡¦ hands, and saying ¡§How de do,¡¨ Friendship grips a feller¡¦s heart, and warms him thro¡¦ and thru!
Today, many people have made their faith a private thing; with no interaction, sharing or participation. And churches that have made no time for quality relationships are on the decline. And by quality relationships I do not mean having a jumble sale together or the occasional get together. No, true discipleship lives its life both in the public place and also behind closed doors.
They say that Cancer is the biggest killer. I recon that Loneliness is one of the biggest too.
Did you know that after the death of Queen Victoria¡¦s husband, she was heard to say, ¡§There is no one left to call me Victoria.¡¨ Even though she was Queen, she knew what it was to be lonely. There should be no lonely people in church, for we are the family to comfort them.
Sometimes churches can feel like a family that has been split apart for years, having hardly built any depth of relationship. They may say Amen together at the right times, and even a good morning or goodnight; but they are not loving ¡§each other deeply from the heart¡¨ as God¡¦s word commands them to do. We must be willing to show true fellowship in the Holy Spirit with each other (1 Peter 1:22).
Will you be a great friend in the body of Christ this year, or will you stay away?
It¡¦s not only those churches who have forgotten the great commission or those who have become wordly that have stopped growing. It¡¦s those churches that can offer very little in the way of meaningful friendships, care and help ¡V a church that doesn¡¦t pray together wont stay together. And by that I do not mean only joint prayer meetings ¡V I mean those meetings behind closed doors where two or three have gathered in the Lord¡¦s name to seek His face! Just consider how many revivals have started when a small group of believers came together to seek God¡¦s face?
When God called us together in His Son Jesus Christ, he called us a body, being built together. He called us living stones. He called us together.
John Milton once said, ¡§Loneliness is the first thing that God called ¡¥not good¡¦.¡¨ (¡§It is not good for man to be alone¡K.¡¨)
It is because God is so concerned with the creating of the church as his community, that so much of the New Testament deals with relationships. Jesus spent about two and a half years seeking to build a small group of followers into a true community. It is estimated that 44% of the letters of the New Testament are about how we should get along with one another. This contrasts with about 4% on spiritual gifts.
I remember hearing once, ¡§You must live with people to know their problems, and live with God in order to solve them!¡¨
If we look at the number of times the words "one another" occur, particularly in Paul’s letters, the Greek word allelon occurs 59 times as a specific command. We are commanded to:
love one another (John 13:35 - this command comes 16 times)
be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10)
honour one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10)
live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
build up one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11)
be likeminded towards one another (Romans 15:5)
accept one another (Romans 15:7)
admonish one another (Romans 15:14; Colossians 3:16)
care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25)
serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
forgive one another (Ephesians 4:2, 32; Colossians 3:13)
be patient with one another (Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:13)
be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)
speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19)
submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21, 1 Peter 5:5)
consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:3)
look to the interests of one another (Philippians 2:4)
bear with one another (Colossians 3:13)
teach one another (Colossians 3:16)
comfort one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13)
stir up one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)
show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)
employ the gifts that God has given us for the benefit of one another (1 Peter 4:10)
clothe yourselves with humility towards one another (1 Peter 5:5)
pray for one another (James 5:16)
confess our faults to one another (James 5:16)
We are to do these things because we belong to one another (Romans 12:5; Ephesians 4:25).
A Christian is: A mind through which Christ thinks; A voice through which Christ speaks; A heart through which Christ loves; A hand through which Christ helps.
In Acts chapter 2, we read that the first two characteristics of the early church were that "they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship" (Acts 2:42).
Many of our churches today may be strong on teaching but weak on fellowship. Good teaching is not a substitute for fellowship. They are two distinct aspects of the church’s life and both have to be worked at.
The Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, is a significant one in the New Testament. It can be translated "communion", "fellowship", "sharing", "participation". At the heart of the word is the adjective koinos, which means common. It is a trinitarian concept. "Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). Paul adds, "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" (2 Corinthians 13:14).
We all have the same God as our Father, the same Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord, and the same Holy Spirit as our indwelling Comforter. We share these things in common with all believers. The New Testament concept of fellowship began at Pentecost with the giving of the Spirit. Then the Spirit brought us together in Christ.
John goes on to say in chapter 1 of his letter, "if we walk in the light (in fellowship with God)...we have fellowship with one another" (1 John 1:7). In the early church this fellowship went as far as the sharing of material possessions. Luke tells of this generosity: "All the Lord’s followers often met together, and they shared everything they had. (Literally: "they had all things in common" - koine).
They would even sell their property and possessions and give the money to whoever needed it" (Acts 2:44, 45). It wasn¡¦t for at least 3 centuries after this event that churches were built. They would meet in homes and public places for sharing fellowship. If God¡¦s people rarely meet together to share fellowship, we neglect each other and the command to ¡§love one another deeply from the heart¡¨ Is ignored.
Mother Theresa was correct when she said, "The worst disease in today’s world is not leprosy or cancer: it is the feeling of being uncared for, unwanted, of being deserted and alone"
The basis for our relationship with one another is Christ’s relationship with us. We are to "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God" (Romans 15:7). It is this acceptance that brings glory to God. Christ’s acceptance of us is gracious, total, unreserved, unprejudiced, forgiving and freeing. Our acceptance of one another is to be similar. We have no mandate in the Christian church to decide who we will accept and who we won’t. All who receive the Holy Spirit are members of the family.
Did you know that People who like people are people who people like! Of course, the ultimate in community will be that time in which we experience the "new heavens and new earth" so graphically pictured in Revelation 21 and 22. That is why the Bible begins in a Garden, but ends in a City. In a garden the focus is on the pleasant environment; in a city it is the relationships that are important.
Our present cities are anything but places for good relationships, but in that city the barriers to deep and fulfilling relationships will be forever removed. "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Revelation 21:4) and "No longer will there be any curse" (22:3), the curse of spoilt relationships that sin has brought upon us.
As far as our relationship with God is concerned, it will be most intimate. "They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God" (21:3). We will "see his face" (22:4).
We live in a community-starved world. Ralph Osbourne, Executive Director of Faith At Work, says, ¡§The search for community is our culture’s deepest longing and the Christian faith’s greatest promise.¡¨
No doubt Jesus had this in mind when he spoke of the church as a "city set on a hill" (Matthew 5:14). He said that people would know who we are by our love for one another. "If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples" (John 13:35).
In prayer to his Father, Jesus said that people would know who he is by our unity. "I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me...Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me" (John 17:21).
Bishop Stephen Neill, wrote in ¡¥Christian Faith Today¡¦:-
Within the fellowship of those who are bound together by personal loyalty to Jesus Christ, the relationship of love reaches an intimacy and intensity unknown elsewhere...Where it is experienced, especially across the barriers of race, nationality and language, it is one of the most convincing evidences of the continuing activity of Jesus among men.
We can see God as he is revealed in a loving Christian fellowship:
"No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts." 1 John 4:12
I WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE WE HAVE LEARNT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER DEEPLY FROM THE HEART, WE ARE ALL THE MORE EFFECTIVE IN OUR WITNESS FOR CHRIST UPON THIS EARTH.
IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU AND I, DEAR FRIENDS!
Now, who wants to love their pastor this year¡K¡K. ƒº¡K¡Kthen love me by loving one another¡K¡K.ƒº
