The Obligation to Love One Another

Transcript

GR 2264
1/31/2021
The Obligation to Love One Another
Romans 13:8-10
Gil Rugh

We’re in Romans chapter 13, in this last part of Romans, as you’re familiar, is talking about how we are to live in light of God’s grace bestowed upon us in salvation. True salvation transforms a life, that’s the only salvation there is. A life that’s not transformed by the power of the gospel is not a life that has truly experienced God’s salvation. We’re not talking about you’ll live perfectly, but it’s not just like salvation’s a little bump in the road where there are some minor adjustments made and we just keep going. If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature, a new creation, old things have passed away, new things have come. You ought to recognize it in your own life and others ought to recognize a difference, even though they may not understand all that took place. In Romans 13, he’s talking about the practical outworking, how we live in the context of a world that is governed by, often unregenerate, usually men, and often men who are difficult. But God has appointed them to their task and even, if I can put it properly, bad government has benefits. We noted that in our study of the Apostle Paul, where there the civil authorities intervened to put down a riot, and all of that going on there. The activity of the civil authorities helped serve to protect Paul and other believers at the time. That wasn’t a government committed to promoting Christianity, but it was a government committed to maintaining a level of peace. That is true, generally, of government, even when it may not be as well done as we would like.

We come to verse 7 and that sort of moves into the next section here. Verse 7 said, “Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” And that would fit with what precedes, but you’ll note verse 8 begins with, “Owe nothing,” and since we have it the way it’s translated you don’t see the connection. That word ‘to owe,’ in verse 8 starts “Owe nothing,” is the same basic word as you have translated “what is due” in verse 7. “Render to all,” if we had translated it consistently, “Render to all what is owed them,” then verse 8 picks up, “Owe nothing to anyone except…” So you can see there has been a connection and a transition from the civil government thing, but foundational to what he’s going to be talking about, as a background when he’s going to talk about what you owe and what you don’t owe. We’ll get into the specifics he’s going to move it to because we do owe governing authorities, for example, respect, submission, and so on as we talked about in the opening verses of chapter 13. So we “render to all what is due them,” that’s flowing out of that. As God’s appointed these authorities, they act as His representatives. Not that they’re believers, but He’s appointed them for that responsibility. The Roman system, as we noted, provided a context for the gospel to be spread throughout the empire. Wherever Paul traveled, he could claim certain rights as a Roman citizen, for example. The transportation system, the roads, all facilitated things.

So render to everyone what is owed them. If you owe taxes pay your taxes, verse 7, if someone’s owed honor or respect you give it to them. In a way, you summarize it and then condense it in verse 8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” When he says in here, owe nothing to anyone, we’ve had discussions on this before because then people say we should not have debts, but you can see in the context of verse 7, you render what is owed. Well, I may owe my taxes but they’re not due to a certain date. So I want to keep up to date in paying, but I’m not deficient even though I’m paying them in arrears or something like that. So we want to be careful we don’t just pull this one statement out of verse 8, “Owe nothing to anyone,” that means you can never borrow money and you should pay cash for everything… But the context gives you the idea you keep current on your responsibilities, you pay what is owed. I would take it that would mean if you enter into a contract to buy a house then you pay accordingly. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a debt on a house because it’s the kind of debt that is agreed. At least my understanding of this in the context, you’re going to render what is owed to whoever is owed to, verse 7, and you don’t want to be behind on anything, that’s the point. Owe nothing to anyone, in other words, he’s going to say you never fulfill your responsibilities (in personal relationships). He’s not primarily concerned with the finances. The Bible does talk about finances, the dangers of debt and all that, but that’s not his focus or what it’s been here. He just didn’t jump into a totally new subject. He’s really talking about our personal relationships, like in verse 7 preceding that, where those who were owed taxes, owed honor, owed fear, and so on. So we are to owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. The point is, I can never say I’ve decided I’ve paid enough taxes and I don’t think I should have to pay any more. Well, I have to obey the laws and pay what is required when it is required.

But one debt I can never have fully paid off, and that’s the responsibility to love others, and I want to say something here. The worldview of love is of a feeling and emotion. That’s not this love, that’s not the biblical love we’re talking about. We’re familiar with the Greek word ‘agape,’ ‘agapao.’ This is not a feeling love, an emotion, and that begins to influence us believers because so much of what the world talks about as love is dealt with on that level. You fall in love, you fall out of love, the feelings come and go, so we talk about not loving them anymore. That can never be true of a believer because I can never fulfill my obligation in loving another believer. We’ll see how far that’s extended as well when he says owe nothing except to love one another. I may say I’ve paid all my debts to everybody in the congregation., I know, but there’s one I can never say is paid in full, and that is the object to love one another.

What is involved in this kind of biblical love, there’s really not any discussion on this, it’s so clear that all commentators and writers on it… It’s an action love, it’s doing and a willingness to do what is best for the other person. It’s not driven by my feelings, because I may not feel like doing what I should biblically for that person, but I am responsible, that is a debt that I have that God has imposed upon me. The last part of that, that we’ll look at in a little bit, “for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Remember Jesus said, when He was on earth, that when you have done everything commanded, remind yourself, say to yourself, I am an unprofitable slave. Why? I’ve only done what was required. I never fulfilled all that I should do, and that’s the way it is with love here. This action, Jesus talked about it in John 15 when He said greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. What more could you give? You give all your possessions, but you still have your life. But when you give your life for someone, you’ve given the maximum, that’s the picture here, the provision here.

Come back to John 13. We need to understand when the Bible’s talking about love and we go on and quote Scripture, and we’re just not on the same page, if you will, as Scripture. We’re going to John 13 and look at verse 34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” And we’re going to look at verses… a person who doesn’t have love for another believer is not a child of God. We’re going to look at some Scriptures that are pretty demanding here. So I have to be careful that my view of love doesn’t get conformed to the world and so I think I have reason not to love. Well, love is an action, not a feeling. I’ve had people tell me, “I can’t help it, I don’t feel anything for them.” So what? God doesn’t say have a certain feeling, He says do this and this involves always doing what is best. And you’ll note the standard, it can be no higher, as Christ has loved us so we are to love others.

We can leave John, come on over to Ephesians, we’re going to pick up on Ephesians. You know what the key word in Ephesians is? Right, love, twenty times in those six chapters the word ‘love,’ either the noun or the verb, is used. Ephesians 4:32, and note this, the context here, he tells them in verse 30 of chapter 4 not to grieve the Holy Spirit. And He’s dwelling in us, He’s the seal, His presence in our life that we are the recipients of God’s redemptive work. So if we don’t function biblically it grieves Him. What does he say? “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” There’s the standard again. We say where’s the word ‘love’? But remember, there were no verses and chapters, this was written as a letter. Look at chapter 5 verse 1, “Therefore,” that connects it to what he has just said, “be imitators of God, as beloved children,” as the children that He loves, “and walk in love.” So what he is saying can be summarized, he said all walk in love; just as God loves you and loved you as His child. You “walk in love, just as Christ also loved you,” you note it’s connected, “and gave Himself up for us,” indicating we don’t put limits on our love. Well, if you treat me right I respond in love, if you don’t I don’t. Well, no. Did Christ love me because I was so appealing to Him? No, I was a sinner in rebellion against Him and He reached out to me in love, so walk in love.

Really you don’t want to miss it with this chapter division. That’s part of imitating God in the sense God’s character is to be seen in and through me. I’m His child. I’m one of His beloved children, verse 1, so I ought to be imitating God, I ought to be manifesting His character; they ought to see Him when they see me, the way I behave, the way I treat others, my forgiveness, my lack of bitterness, that I treat them with love. Why would you treat somebody so mean to you, who treated you so unfairly that way? Maybe it’s an opportunity to express what? To share the truth of the gospel! Because, you know, I was such a mean, unkind, unthoughtful person, and I treated God that way but God reached out to me in love, I’m to be manifesting that. If I’m responding like the world, well, they got what they deserved, I’m just like the world. So walk in love, be imitators of God, what a standard. It doesn’t say, well, be like this Christian… no, be imitators of God. You almost think what an impossible standard. That’s why it’s a standard we can never ultimately meet, but we can never be comfortable not meeting it, that’s our striving goal every day. That’s why all that comes into my life is part of what God is doing, giving me an opportunity to grow and mature and be more like Him. Christ gave Himself up for us, and that was a sacrifice very pleasing to God, that’s what the end of verse 2 says. What kind of life do I want, a life that pleases me? No, a life that pleases God. This is the most unselfish love you can have, it is totally focused on the good of the other person. It is not an exchanged love like erotic love. Not even family love, the particular word for this is only used twice in the New Testament, the family love, and they’re both used in the negative. And then we have the ‘phileo’ love which was a responsive love. But this is doing what is best for the other person, period.

Come over to 1 John 4. We’ll look at some of these loves and when we’ll walk through Romans we’ll see... 1 John, all the way back almost to the book of Revelation, chapter 4, and here we have a reminder the Spirit of God is in us. That makes us totally different than the people of the world; I ought not to be like them. The end of verse 4, “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore, they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” A person who doesn’t listen to the word of God tells you where they are. We don’t change our conduct or what we teach to fit them.

“Beloved,” here we go, verse 7, loved ones, beloved may sound a little archaic but we are the loved ones, we are those loved by God, “let us love one another,” John loves them, he’s writing out of this, “for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Now be careful you don’t misuse that, it’s one of the verses people take out of context. We’re talking about this kind of biblical love that is beyond the world’s love. “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Note the next verse, I stated this earlier but now you have the verse, “The one who does not love does not know God.” You know, when I find myself with any bitter feelings or things like that, no matter what the person’s done to me, I have to sit down and think, Lord, this should not be true of me if I belong to You, it doesn’t matter what they did or didn’t do. “The one who does not love does not know God.” Now, remember, we have to take the warning that Jesus gave, remember in the Sermon on the Mount? Many will say to Me, Matthew 7, on that day, the judgment day, Lord, Lord, we did all these wonderful things in Your name and He’ll say depart from me, cursed ones, I never knew you. Well, what does he say here? It’s pretty clear, “the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love,” that means in His very character He is love. What did He do for us? You know, if we’re not careful, we deny in our practice what we claim as the foundation of our theology, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him would not perish. Now that’s the standard, and we are loved by Him. He loved us as unloving, as repulsive, if you will, as we were to His holiness, His righteousness, as rebellious as we were. I shudder to think, and I was privileged to be saved at an early age, but my offense is against a holy God, and yet He loved me. We get a shallow view of sin, which ends up with a shallow theology all around.

“By this the love of God was manifested in us,” in our case, verse 9, “that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation,” the satisfaction, “for our sins.” That’s the foundation of our whole Christian life, is it not? It just doesn’t get left there. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” That has a practical outworking. I can talk great theology and be lost and on my way to hell. That’s what these verses say, it’s not talking about love, it’s living it out. Look how he continues on here, verse 12. “No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us,” brought to its completion. That does not mean now I’m perfect in love, but that is the maturing, completing. This is God’s intention, that I be like Him in my character, that’s what it means, we are partakers of the divine nature Peter put it.

Verse 13, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” So again it’s the indwelling Spirit, and what does the Spirit do? He produces the character of God in us. “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us,” we’ve come to know that, “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” This says love is the identifying mark of a believer. If a believer does not manifest love, then he’s just a professor, not a possessor. I didn’t write this. Verse 20, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he’s a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” This gets serious, this sifts out a number of church-going people who have professions but bitterness and strife, you know, they can’t get over their hurts, a serious matter.

I shared with you I pastored a small country church and it’s long gone out of business. I hope I didn’t help that. I’ve shared we had a center aisle, this side to my right, your left, belonged to this family connection. This side belonged to… I said we’ve got to resolve this. This was going on long before you got here, and it will be going on long after you’re gone they told me. Wait a minute, we don’t walk across the aisle? This is a Bible-believing church? We all profess our faith in Christ. We just don’t love one another. So you stay on your side and we’ll stay on our side. If I had said we were going to mix up every other person on this side, move over here, and every other person on that side, move over there, they would have trampled each other getting out the door. And there weren’t that many of them. Something’s wrong here, is the Scripture true or is it not? If you say you love God and you hate your brother. Well, I don’t hate him, I don’t want anything to do with him, but I don’t hate him. Now we’ve reduced things to an emotion. What we’re really demonstrating by our action is we don’t love them. A priority of my life is not to treat them with kindness, thoughtfulness, or thinking of how I can do what is best for them. If you can’t do that for someone you can see, how can you love God whom you haven’t seen? It becomes a feeling. Well, I feel like I love God, but I don’t feel like I love them. God never said how you feel, God never said feel this way about them.

It’s where we get concerned, you know, we don’t want to go through books like Romans and where we say do not allow yourself to be conformed to this world, and yet in very practical, every day interaction ways we become conformed and the people in the church become conformed. Is there room for bitterness and strife, slander? No, and so 1 John 4:21, “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also,” that’s the commandment. Look at chapter 3, verse 23, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another,” Christ commanded that when He was on earth way back in John. Well, “the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” You see the Holy Spirit there again.

Come to chapter 5 of 1 John while we’re here, verse 1, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,” well there, I believe in Jesus Christ… but he’s not done, “and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.” You know what? Everyone who truly loves God will love other believers. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” So I don’t have to be like the world, in fact, I must not be like the world. The key area that the Bible keeps mentioning, like I said, we’ll have to go to the book of Ephesians in our study, in twenty times he’ll want to bring up the subject of love. Ten of those times will be commandments, and the others will be nouns talking about love. It just permeates Scripture, but somehow we feel justified to blow by this, and I don’t have to always do what is best for them, you don’t know what they did to me… I don’t have to know. For me, it simplifies my life, I come back here, what’s my responsibility? Well, to get them to realize how much they hurt me, to realize how what they did was… Well, get me that verse. I quickly switch it to my issue before God is to obey Him. What does He tell me to do? Love them. We say it’s easier said than done. No, it’s not easier said than done, it’s impossible to do unless you have the Spirit.

Back to Galatians 5, you knew we were going to get here, it’s talking about the Spirit, Galatians 5 verse 16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh,” walk under the control of the Spirit in submission to Him. “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another.” We have not yet been fully perfected in our salvation, so a true Christian can have struggles here, but I can’t live the life of an unbeliever. “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” This is not done by just externally trying to conform my life. That’s what brings frustration to a professing Christian who is not truly a born-again Christian; they try to always conform their life to what they are not, and it’s endless pressure, endless frustration. We are trying to conform our life to the character of God with a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, out of which heart comes all kinds of sinful actions. “The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:” (here’s how you know whether you’re controlled by the flesh or not, unredeemed humanity) “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealously, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing,” and that’s not a complete list, so he says, “and things like these,” everything that’s inconsistent with the character of God. And note what he says, “of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” You’re lost, you’re not saved, you’re not born again, because you have to be born again to go into the kingdom. Remember John records Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. If this is characteristic of your life, you’ve never been born again.

Now the fruit of the Spirit, verse 22. This is what the Spirit produces in a life. It doesn’t mean a Christian can never lose his temper or can’t ever commit any sin. But if that’s your practice, that’s a characteristic of your life, you ought to be concerned. I can’t help it, my dad lost his temper, my grandfather lost his temper, it’s in my genes. Of course it is! Because your real grandfather in the great-great extent is Adam. So it’s in our genes not to function as God would have us. Remember we were conceived in sin and we go astray from birth. We think that’s an excuse. That’s right, unregenerate people sin, that’s the whole argument here. But verse 22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is,” what’s the first thing mentioned? Love, that covers everything. I mean, you can cover all the commandments of the Mosaic Law, all 613 with what? Love God and love your neighbor, that summarizes them all. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there’s no law.” Look at verse 24, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit,” if He’s created new life in us, “let us also walk” under the control of that same Spirit. “Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.” Now if you see a fellow believer caught in a sin, chapter 6 goes on, then you help to get them on the right track.

This is liberating, we’ve been set free, I don’t have to sin any more. I’m not saying I don’t sin, but I never have to sin, I never have an excuse for sin. So I can clean up the fog in my life that I sometimes like to descend so I think I have reasons for not doing the right thing. Well, you know what they did… I mean, if they did it to you, you would have…” What’s that got to do with anything? That doesn’t mean irresponsible conduct doesn’t have consequences, but you know, the battle we really have is with ourselves. Why does God bring difficult people like you to this church? So a perfect person like me… No, we learn to live together and work out our differences, learn to appreciate one another, even with our different levels of maturity. You know we have two new great-grandchildren. You know, when we gather all anyone can say about them is how cute they are, oh, how sweet they are. But we’ll soon lose that. Someone mentioned to me as we looked at the cute picture and in mentioning all the cute things, and they inserted, “Yes, and they make messy diapers.” There is a reality, and there will be the reality, but you’re not going to say, “Well, when they got to be this age, we just put them out with the garbage, it wasn’t worth the trouble.” Somehow we almost act like that as believers, we’ll just run and get away from each other because we don’t love each other anymore. Maybe the difficult people are there to help refine me so I can grow in love and when I’ve grown in love, maybe my biblical responses to their being difficult will help them over time see something of the beauty of the character of God. That’s what they ought to see in me, an imitator of God. So that’s the love we’re talking about here.

Come back to Romans. I think sometimes a chief concern that we go through this and we all do it, I have to bring myself back to these passages -- Gil, that’s not a proper attitude, that’s not a proper way to think. I can go through my mind on things and yet bring my conduct into some conformity. I want to be careful, Lord, I want to be honest with You, the way I’m thinking about this is not a way I should be thinking. If we’re not careful and we don’t get it there, those thoughts turn into actions and things go on. So he says, “Owe nothing to anyone, Romans 13:8, “except to love one another.” If you don’t remember, in chapter 12:9, he’s already touched on this subject, “Let love be without hypocrisy,” don’t put on a show. Well, I don’t want to be a hypocrite, I don’t love them and I’m not going to pretend like I do. That’s not a biblical response, you know what the biblical response is? I have to be honest before the Lord, I’m not demonstrating love to them, I have to fix that; I don’t have to fix them, I have to fix me. So, “let love be without hypocrisy.” Sometimes, we as Christians… really, I don’t know how to put it… act infantile, we think if we fool others God is fooled. I mean, He’s looking at my heart, my mind, He’s looking at me as I am. I mean, no matter what you think of me, God sees me as I am, that ought to concern me. “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.”

So here he is picking up this subject now in chapter 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law,” because all the things forbidden in the law were things you would do to work for the best of that other person. If I’m always my first thought is what would be best for them, what would be most helpful for them, what would be most comforting and encouraging. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to encourage a person in sin, but we’re talking about here primarily our relationship with believers. But it will go beyond that. That doesn’t mean we encourage sin and comfort people in sin. But I can come with kindness and share with them, you know, sin brings discouragement. And if they are not believers, I can share with them, you know, sin weighs you down, takes away the joy of your life, the peace, the happiness. I was like that, and I can tell them what God does. If it’s a fellow believer and they stumble like in Galatians I can help them without trampling all over them. And say, you know, we can be thankful that God forgives and He is a forgiving God and the blood of Christ cleanses us. And God is ready to pick you up where you are and move on with you, and I am too. There is nothing between us. You’ve dealt with it before the Lord. If the Lord has forgiven you, am I not? I’m here to be a help. That’s the attitude here and he gives us the example, verse 9, “For this, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” That covers it, you’re doing what is best for them. If I’m stealing from someone, I don’t have their best in view. You know the failure to love is always a selfish action, it becomes about me. Biblical love is about the other person, their good, their best, so that’s why you can say it fulfills the law.

That’s love, that’s the example of Christ’s love over in Ephesians 5. We go to Ephesians so much, I’m sure some of you thought, well, didn’t we just do Ephesians? But there is so much in Ephesians. In Ephesians 5, when he’s talking about a husband and wife relationship, the husband is to love his wife, and he’s to love his wife as Christ loved the church. So verse 28, he’s to love his wife as his own body, “He who loves his wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” I remember when we were going through that movement on self-love, that has flourished now, everybody learned that lesson well. I love me, we didn’t have to learn that, we just aggravated the situation by elevating it as a good thing. The Bible says no one ever hated himself, we always take care of ourselves. You know, you slam the door on my finger, I don’t say, don’t worry about it, we’ll open the door later. No, we’re going to take care of that right now, open the door, my finger is caught. I take care of my body, I want to be careful. I had an automobile accident recently. You know, first thing, stop thinking, am I ok? Yeah, I think I can get out of the car. Well, I can’t get out my door, I better climb over, and I get out, I stand up, yeah, I think I’m ok. Then I ask the other person, are you ok? First I checked number one, we do, we take care of ourselves. It’s a simple analogy, it’s not telling us we should love ourselves, it’s saying we already do. W get up, we have breakfast, we eat, we take care of ourselves. So love is showing the other person that care, I want the best for them. We don’t need to develop that any further.

Come back to Romans 13. This kind of love has no room for selfishness. Just think about it, if everyone was always thinking about the other person. What would be best for them? How I could appreciate them more. How I could be an encouragement to them. Wow, it would take care of the conflicts. Conflicts come when we’re upset about what someone else has done or not done that impacts me. What I think they should have done. How they think they should handle. All of a sudden, you know, the selfishness, I’ve set myself up as authority. Ok, well, what they did was not right. What can I do to get involved in a way that will help them, help them to deal with this, get through it, get on track with the Lord again? That’s the purpose of the steps of discipline like in Matthew. Cause God is not willing that even one of His precious little children perish. So if anybody gets off the track, here you go to help them, get them back. It’s showing love. God loves us, and since God loves you, I better love you. Since God loves me, you love me. Verse 10 summarized it, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law,” it’s not a difficult concept.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 13, just after Romans, next book back in your Bibles. This is the love chapter where he states out and unfolds what love is like and its importance. And if we don’t have it, like we said, we’re not believers, we’re not pleasing God. I think, well, nobody’s perfect, I keep that in it’s own encasement, but it doesn’t work that way. Chapter 13, If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do no have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal,” I’m just noise. “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” You note there, if I do not have love…. if I do not have love… a third time in verse 3, “If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body… but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” We do a lot of things that aren’t driven by love, but we want to have a good appearance, we want to get ahead. And sometimes doing what we don’t want to do, we do for the wrong reasons. Here’s love: “Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked,” you cannot get under my skin, not provoked; it’s what he says. “Does not take into account a wrong suffered,” that’s the standard, “does not take into account a wrong.” Boy, usually when you go into counseling, you come with a list of what you think is the other person has done wrong. You know, God’s not impressed because He says, if you’ve got the list, whether it’s on paper or in your mind, you’re in trouble with Me, because you’re not showing love. Why are you keeping a list of the wrongs for, where did that come from?

I shared I was in a ‘counseling session’ with a husband and wife a number of years ago now, and talking about the two and this and that. We went and we go through this, I read this, I get done, we lift our heads and look at each other. And you know what one of them said? And that’s not all, you know also what they did? I said, you know, I don’t think I have anything else to say. What do you mean ‘you know what else they did,’ didn’t we just read this? You know, we want to be careful as believers the word of God just doesn’t run through and out, you know, in one ear and out the other as we say. It does not take into account a wrong suffered. So if you come and tell me I got a list of what they did wrong, you probably don’t want to come. It “does not rejoice in unrighteousness.” Why do we want to bring up all the dirt about other people? We want to let everybody know. It “does not rejoice in unrighteousness,” I’m not glad. We have to deal with sin, we have to deal with false doctrine, of course, and those kinds of things. But what we’re dealing with here, we’re not glad to point out a person’s stumble, we need to get in and help them. And that’s why the steps in Matthew 18, are we keeping quiet? It starts out it’s just between you and them. If they’ve done something you want to go and help them, and get through it and over it.

It “rejoices with the truth; bears all things,” you note the word ‘all’ here, “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” And then you can underline that first statement in verse 8, “Love never fails.” Aren’t you glad that’s God’s love? That’s God’s love, isn’t it? If He quit loving me when I stumbled, you know what? I’d have been long ago lost for we all stumble in many ways James says. Is there any one of us that get through a week without letting our tongue maybe say something we shouldn’t. “Love never fails,” love doesn’t give up, love perseveres, love “bears all things.” I sometimes read some of the people and how’d they put up with that. Then you read the martyrs, I said, man, I don’t know that I’m ready for that. Well, I must keep going because it may come to that. To be willing to bear all things, believe all things. Love’s not suspicious, I don’t think I doubt about this. Well, I’ve always had doubts about them, you know, I’m not sure and that just makes me more doubtful about them. It’s not love, it hopes all things, I always want the best. And it puts up with a lot, I have to remind Marilyn of this, that’s why the Lord had you marry me, so you could learn to endure all things. But you know, we do always transfer it to the other person and what they need to get out of this and what they need to learn. So a good thing for us to do, go through these passages, sit down and sometimes make a list of these things and then put a checkmark how you’re doing. How am I doing, where are my weaknesses here? I have to strengthen this area of my love life, I have to be stronger here, I’m sometimes too touchy about these things, I have to get over that, I let these things get to me, I have to get over that. That would take care of a lot of our problems. If you’re worried about doing the best for me one hundred percent of the time, well, that takes half of the potential time for conflicts out, right? And if I have the same concern about you in love, well, that would be wonderful. Let’s have a word of prayer then I want to shift gears a little bit.

Thank you, Lord, for Your word. And Lord we are encouraged and blessed to read this is what You have done for us in Christ. And You’ve given us a Spirit, Your Spirit to dwell within us so that we can live like this. There’s no excuse for us not to live like this, unless we have fooled ourselves, we’re going through life make-believe, pretending believers. But it’s a serious thing to fool ourselves; I come to judgment day and I say, oh, Lord, we did all these wonderful things and be told You never knew us. So may we be honest with ourselves. And Lord, as believers, be honest of areas that maybe need to be adjusted, so our lives are brought into line, so we do not grieve the Spirit. Thank you for the grace and love that has made us new, so that we are the children of God, manifesting Your character. In Christ’s name, amen.

I didn’t have any other particular questions that deal with but I do want to elaborate a little more, cause it is on my mind these days cause I see the evangelical church sliding away. And it starts out by incorporating good works, social action. Look where the world is, look how much is going on, we have to take care of social issues, racial issues. And you see the church becoming just like them in their practices. These things go on, people like to hear these things and they feel good about them. Then it moves. I think we’ve crossed the line. When you begin to say, this is part of the gospel and without social action you no longer have a true gospel, like I say, we have the Galatians heresy. Paul couldn’t state that any more clearly, those who hold that are condemned to hell. Remember, you can’t add anything to the gospel as a necessity, otherwise you’re condemned to hell. I’m not their judge, but I have to deal with what they’re teaching. And we have to be on guard, because the more ‘evangelical church’ goes that way, the more pressure there is on us. Why are we always out of line? Why are we the ones who think everybody else is wrong and we are right? There’s a certain arrogance that comes.

This book was written to promote historic pre-millennialism which is post-tribulationalism. They believe that Christ will come to earth after the tribulation. The kingdom has already started but it’s fullness will come when Christ returns. And there’s an arrogance about this situation. I’ve shared with you, they view dispensationalists because we take the Bible literally, and prophecy, as well as other areas, they’re just not very scholarly. And they say it, here the conclusion, and this is written from Denver Seminary, their faculty lectures. “There is no doubt, considerable irony if the fact that this volume perpetuates the trend” that they started out with in chapter one. I don’t want to bring up the name there necessarily, “throughout the resurgence of pre-millennialism over the last two centuries. Historic pre-millennialism,” that’s post-tribulational pre-millennialism, that believes we are in the kingdom, but there is a future dimension of the kingdom, and tends to blend Israel and the church. “Historic pre-millennialism has been promoted mainly through seminaries and Christian colleges and in works of nonfiction, written for a reasonably theologically literate audience. This collection of essays is no different. It emerged from an academic conference at a theological seminary.” Wow, just so you know, we are scholars, we are intellectual, we’re just not common people writing this stuff you know. “The essays presented there and commissioned subsequently, preserve that level of academic rigor. If there is to be a popular, populist contextualization of these essays, at the simplest level, for the complete theological novice, someone else will have to create it.” The arrogance of it.

I remember Robert Thomas telling me, in a conversation I was having with him, I mention him because most of you are familiar with his work, when he did the two volumes on Revelation. A professor, true scholar, but I asked him, what is the problem? He says, well Gil, you cannot be accepted in the academic world if you’re a dispensational pre-millennialist. You’re automatically closed out. He says, I can’t get accepted in the scholarly world. I’ve taught Greek… he’s written books, he’s a scholar’s scholar… You know, there’s no room for me. It’s sort of like we see goes on in the world, this view: there’s no room for the other side, those people have to be pushed out and silenced. So there’s that era, and there’s other writings on this, “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” by Mark Noll, professor at Wheaton. “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” are dispensationalists, literal interpretation of scripture, taking the opening chapters of Genesis literally. They have destroyed the mind of evangelicals. What arrogance. The Bible wasn’t written by scholars at academic institutions for other scholars in academic institutions, Peter was a fisherman, Amos was the herdsman of Tekoa. Alright, enough of that.

Let me just read you a couple more things. I’ve selected out the article by the South American. The introduction says, “We’ve included him even though he claims to be a progressive dispensationalist. His theology is more in line with us who are post-tribulationalists than it is with dispensationalists.” Let me read you some things they say, critique of one of these writers of dispensationalism. His accusation is “that understanding the eschatological kingdom of God exclusively as a future historical event has made dispensational missions indifferent to concern for the present social context.” They keep bringing it back to all you want to do is go out and save souls and you don’t care about their social setting. Well, that’s not my concern, others can deal with that, government can deal with that. Let me adjust some of the words. “Although this approach to missions is changing now, we are moving away from that dispensational approach where you just focus on the preaching of the gospel. Although this approach to missions is changing now most dispensational evangelicals have shared this common understanding of the mission of the church which is to seek at the present time individual, spiritual salvation. Thus, they seek to spread the gospel about Jesus Christ the Savior in order that sinners may repent and receive forgiveness from God and prepare for the Lord to establish His future kingdom. The future kingdom of God is the physical earthly millennial kingdom which stands in contrast to the present spiritual activity of God, His present work of saving souls.”

Now what concerned me there, he says this is changing but the problem is the influence is still there but we’re getting over that. If we are, where is the coming generation going to be? You as young people… younger people need to be aware of this. We see our old saints going home to heaven. But if this approach to missions and reaching out with the gospel whether in this country or other countries is now no longer just bringing the message of God’s salvation through faith in the person and work of Christ but also fixing their social settings and problems, what kind of gospel do we have? You can see they are very clear on what dispensationalism has taught, the simple gospel of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world; the message “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Well, we’re moving beyond that. It ought to concern you that they will talk this way, we are moving, and we are, schools have moved away from this. The seminary I went to moved away from this, Dallas Seminary has moved away from this, Talbot Seminary has moved away from this. Our Bible colleges and Bible institutes that promoted it have by-and-large closed up. Churches have moved away from it. Christians get caught up and they think it’s just about eschatology, future things.

But you know what the real issue is here? The dispensationalists believe the kingdom is future. Since they believe the kingdom is future we shouldn’t be doing social work. We believe the kingdom is here already and in the kingdom God wants society to be improved, He wants justice to prevail so we’ve got to get that going.

I can’t figure out the logic of this because they claim that the kingdom in its fullness is yet future, but somehow we are preparing the world for Christ to come and then bring it to completion. But if we’re not preparing the world for His coming by getting the world ready. I mean, we are getting the world ready for the coming of Christ by what? Calling them to salvation in Christ. Again, this is an evangelical seminary that’s not ashamed, they put this out as a corrective to dispensationalism.

I’m not recommending the book and you won’t get any discount if you do buy it. You’ll have to read it on your own. I don’t have a problem if you read it but you’ll want to read it with your eyes open. I’ve got so many things marked in the pages. The problem with dispensationalism, “they conceive salvation as a heavenly and spiritual reality almost to the exclusion of its physical, psychological, and social dimensions. They held that the primary task of the church is evangelism, that is the verbal proclamation of the Word.” Yeah, I still hold that. They think we’re outgrowing that.

“In Latin America, the theological and exegetical work of liberation theologians has served to spur evangelicals to reconsider how they read the biblical text.” Now we’re learning from liberation theology. Let me read you what they say so you’re not getting it just from me, their footnote on this, “Liberation theology was officially born with the Latin American bishops conference,” Roman Catholic bishops conference, “celebrated in Medellin in 1968 after Vatican II.” Now we as evangelicals are learning from the Roman Catholics liberation theology was we are going to rescue Latin America from its impoverished conditions, from the injustices. They’ve done a remarkable job since 1968, that’s why everybody is trying to pour out of Latin America and get into the United States, right? All their social problems were fixed. You’d think you’d see the failure not just theologically but practically. We don’t learn theology from the Roman Catholics, they are a-millennial, they think we are in the kingdom and the pope is the representative of Christ overseeing the earthly kingdom. Of course, they say they are going to fix the world. They’ve done a poor job in Latin America but that’s another subject.

Here’s what they say criticizing dispensationalists. “In theological development liberation theology was far ahead.” Far ahead? “But the Latin American theological fraternity,” which is the evangelical organization, “they’ve learned and then they’ve developed a concern for social contexts, for doing a Latin American theology.” And this is the big thing there, we want to have a Latin American theology. Is that what Paul did? We watch him travel from Palestine, Israel up across Galatia to Asia Minor over to Greece. Did he have a theology, an Asian theology and a Greek theology and an Israel theology? But we need a Latin American theology. Why? Because Latin American theology is the armpit, it’s social conditions are a disaster, it’s all of that. Well, let the Roman Catholics take care of it. We think, well, we’ve got to become like them so we’ve learned from them and they have the audacity to say this. “A focus on the kingdom of God for a holistic approach to missions,” there’s our word ‘holistic’. “A focus on the kingdom of God has become a conscious and common theological framework within liberation theology, ecumenical theology, and new-evangelicalism as well.” We just get in bed with anybody, liberation theology, ecumenical theology, new-evangelicalism, that’s holistic missions now.

You see, once you’ve moved it’s like you’re going down this slope but the further down you go the faster you are going and slope is getting steeper. In one sense I would say, well, (and I’ve got a lot more marked and I just took some pages out, and it’s too bad you can’t hear the rest) but if we don’t know what’s going on, this is my concern, the church if they are not serious about the study of the Word and staying with it, people just gradually say, well, yeah, we don’t hold the same view on eschatology and everything but you know we have the basics together. We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So isn’t that what binds us? Paul said anybody who believes in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and adds anything to it is anathema, cursed to hell. Read Galatians 1. This gets slid in. Remember Jude? “Certain men have crept in unnoticed.” They claim to be evangelicals, they are proud this comes from our seminary, this was the series of faculty lectures that we put into print. I’m appalled! What is evangelicalism anymore? What is the gospel? You can’t even be sure. You talk about the gospel. Oh yeah, I talked to them, they believe the gospel. Is it the gospel of the New Testament or the holistic gospel? They say, well, are we going to be against doing nice things to people? Well, we’ll leave that.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, for Your word. Lord these are challenging days, we sometimes get caught up in the political actions and activities and fail to appreciate the disintegration that is happening within the evangelical world, of those who profess to be believers. Lord, the gospel is Your power for salvation to everyone who believes. The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth and we want to be faithful, not allow ourselves to be subtly and gradually moved away from the solid foundation of biblical truth. I pray these truths will guide us. I pray for our conduct in the week ahead, adjustments that we may need to make. Lord, I pray for any who are not believers who have heard today, that the Spirit will impress upon their minds their need of faith in the Savior who loved them and died for them. We pray in His name, amen.