Sharing the Gospel With One Another

There is a misconception among many Christians these days that the gospel is for unbelievers and that believers move on to more "profound" things. It is absolutely true that the gospel is for unbelievers. We are to preach the message of Christ's life that brings us righteousness and his death that brings us forgiveness. We should urge unbelievers to heed the gospel's message and repent of their sin and turn to Christ. However, we are to preach the gospel to one another as believers as well. We never graduate from the gospel, but continue forward in our education and strive to become "doctors" of the message of grace - experts.

Biblical evidence for this is found in Romans 1:15 as Paul is beginning his letter to the church in Rome. He tells these believers, "So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." Paul had not been to see the Roman Chrisitians. They had been evangelized and formed as churches by Paul's understudies, Paul had not been there to evangelize or meet the believers. Paul longed to go see the believers and share in the fellowship of Jesus Christ with them. Part of that fellowship was to preach the gospel to them, not because they didn't have it or know it, but because it is a message, the message, that must be repeated over and over again. The gospel must be shared by believers, to believers.

What does that mean for us today? It means that as believers we should be preaching the gospel to ourselves daily. It means we should be sharing it with our brothers and sisters in Christ in our homes, churches, and other places. The reason we keep preaching the gospel is that it continues to ground us in the reality of God in His holiness, justice, and power. It grounds us in the reality of the sinfulness that marks our lives and our complete unworthiness. It grounds us in the life-giving sacrifice of Jesus Christ who atoned for our sin by his death and it is the basis of our hope in his resurrection. We are grounded in the reality that he who predestined us, called us, he who called us justified us, and he who justified us will glorify us (Rom. 8:29).

This is good news worth repeating every day, even with believers.

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Measure Your Love For God

We have been taught from the time we were young that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. This teaching has been repeated so often that we are almost numb to its shocking and radical nature. The truth of the matter is this: if you want to measure your love for God, test and evaluate your love for others. Then you will get an idea of the answer. There are some mind-blowing implications from the teaching "love your neighbor as yourselves," here are a few:

1. It comes on the heels of another command, the first great commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37). They are connected together and inseparable. You cannot divide these two commandments from one another because they hinge on one another. Love God and love others.

2. The love we are expected and commanded to love others with is outside of our natural capacity to produce. The love we give others, that God commands and is satisfied with, comes from Him, not ourselves. This is why we must start with loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, because it is then that we can love others. This is why the two commands are connected together. It begins with God, then moves to others.

3. We cannot say "I love God," but fail to love others. Because the two commandments are tied together, it does not allow for you to say you love God but not love others. It also means you cannot say "I love others" but fail to love God. You will not love others as you have been commanded because it will be all self-driven and self-willed. If you have no relationship with God, you will be very selfish in your love with others because love is from God (1 John 4:7).

4. A failure to love our neighbor as ourselves is not a problem with our relationship with our neighbor, but with God. At the end of the day, our love for our neighbor is a reflection of our love for God. In Christian circles we love to say, "I love them, I just don't like them." That is our "Christian" way of saying, "I don't love them." We feel like it excuses us of sin, and that's what being unloving to our neighbor is - sin. 

If we say we love God, then we must love our neighbor. If we truly love God, then we WILL love our neighbor as ourselves. It will be a natural overflow. 

Pray this prayer: Father, I recognize today that I am incapable of loving others as you have commanded me to. I am sinful, selfish, prideful, and often love conditionally. Forgive me Lord. I turn from this wickedness today and cast myself upon the mercy of Christ. I need you Lord. Strengthen me, help me, and shape me into the person who is able to love because I have been loved by You. Thank you for not casting me aside when I sin. Thank you for the love you demonstrated for me when you gave Jesus for me, even when I was still a sinner. Open my eyes today to see ways in which I can love as you have loved me. I pray for the Holy Spirit to empower me with a love that can only be supplied by You. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. 

Offer a thought: When you look at how you love others, what does it reveal about your love for God? In what ways do you think the definition of love in our society differs from the Bible's definition to love?

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Bearing With One Another vs Putting Up With One Another

Ephesians 4:2-3 (ESV) - Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The apostle Paul, through the power of the Holy Spirit, gives a command to the Ephesian church that still stands as the expectation for believers today. Paul tells them to "bear with one another." In speaking about the relationship with fellow believers, particularly those who worship in the same local gathering of believers (the church), there is a high expectation as to how we relate to one another. We are called to bear with one another. 

Why is this necessary? 

BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE JACKED UP! People gossip; people make commitments that they do not keep; people are selfish, people make critical statements; people get jealous; people judge others wrongfully; people hurt other people with dirty looks and cold shoulders. Why do people do this? BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE JACKED UP! We are sinners! Last time I checked, that included EVERYONE, me included. 

In the midst of all this, we the church are called to live differently. We as followers of Jesus, in the middle of a broken world, with broken people, in which we are counted among them, are called to live differently, not out of the power of our own strength, but through the strength provided in Christ through the Holy Spirit. What does Paul tell us to do? Bear with one another...in love. This is how unity can be found amongst people who are very different. This is how unity can exist when sinners are the constituents. 

But there is a big difference between bearing with one another vs putting up with one another. The first has everything to do with enduring through tough times & with tough people as the Lord gives you strength, the ability to forgive, and the reminder of your own sin. The latter just suggest that you DEAL WITH IT. You may have bitterness and resentment toward someone who has hurt you, knowingly or unknowingly, yet you just PUT UP WITH IT...because that is what Christians do. 

Christians are not called to "put up" with one another, but to "bear with" one another, in love. We do this as we trust Christ to give us a love for those who sometimes are unlovable. We do this as we look to the Lord to help us forgive those who have hurt us. We do this as we see ourselves more and more clearly, and realize that we are part of the problem. It is much easier to bear with others when we realize the great need we have for others to bear with us.

It is a gospel-imperative that we bear with one another, not simply put up with one another.  

Leave a thought below on: ways in which you think believers can grow in their ability to bear with one another. What other differences can you highlight between bearing with one another vs putting up with another? 

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