Called to Serve in Love, John W. Errington [to read list txt] 📗

how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.





WWJD?? HE WOULD WALK IN LOVE!

Where we would be as followers of Christ had He (Jesus) a "My rights" mentality? I wonder, had he this attitude, if he would have sued the Roman Government for whipping Him and for placing a crown of thorns upon His head?

I wonder, had he this attitude, if he would have sued the Roman soldier who pierced His side or who gave him vinegar to drink whilst on the cross? I wonder, had he this attitude, if He would have sued those who divided u His clothing and sold them?


I wonder, had he this attitude, if He would have bothered to come to this world at all? We are most fortunate that Jesus did NOT have this attitude. Folks, He did not die for our rights, He did not die for our religious freedom.

He dies so that we might me FREE from our sins!! He suffered on a cross, not so that we could sue people for violating our "rights" but because He loved us! He set the ultimate example of "Walking in Love" as His walk took Him right to the cross!!

Jesus taught us Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.

If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full.

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

He also taught us: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

I don't see anywhere in these Scriptures where Jesus told us to sue people or even spoke of our "rights". If fact if you look at them closely, it seems that Jesus is telling us to put others before ourselves!

Paul tells us: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.


IF there was any human being on the Earth after Christ that had their rights violated it was Paul! Just read over his letters to the churches of his day, how many times he mentions his sufferings, some of these letters were written whilst he was in jail!

Paul tells us this: I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.

You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face.

To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!
What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I.

Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.

I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.

I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.


Frankly if Paul had a "My Rights" attitude it just might be possible that none of us would be enjoying the rights we think that we deserve. Yet through all of this Paul knew what Love was and knew how to walk in love despite his circumstances!

Beloved we are commanded to walk in love, Love is not self seeking, boastful or proud!! And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Paul also know that nothing could separate us from God’s great love: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[ neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL

1 Corinthians 13 (New International Version)

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
We find here that love has a few characteristics the biggest one being that love never ends or fails. No matter where we have been or what we have done God loves us! For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This passage from I Corinthians 13 is the basis of my belief that love is unconditional. According to this passage if I don’t have this kind of love I gain nothing, I am nothing.

I think it is hard for us to comprehend love in this light. It is difficult for us to accept that we are loved unconditionally much less love unconditionally.

But there you have it love is indeed unconditional. Before we can express this unconditional love to others we must first be able to love ourselves unconditionally and in order to do this we must understand how God loves us. Herein lies the difficulty.

In our society, we have been conditioned to equate wrong doing with unlovable, the fact the word unlovable even exists is proof of that.

I believe that NO ONE is unlovable. Consider this.. Even men such as Hitler or Saddam Hussein were loved by God.
I know!! The mind reels at such a concept! However God loved even the men who nailed His Son to a cross, who whipped Him to a bloody pulp, He loved the men and women who spat upon him on the Via Del a Rosa.

Even Christ Himself as He hung suffering on the cross loved them so much that He was thinking of them as exampled by this statement: Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

Consider these passages of Scripture:


Matthew 5:43-45 (New International Version)

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love