Saturday February 28, 2015

Read 1 John 3:16-20

In Australia in the present day it’s rather inconceivable that we would be called to lay down our lives for each other. It’s possible in places like Nigeria and Congo where a bomb could well be thrown into the worship service and laying down our lives for each other could be asked of us. It’s possible in China or the Middle East where a gunman could easily burst into our church and start shooting and we could be faced with a split second choice to duck for cover or to shield someone else. In mid-January this year, a gunman fatally shot a Christian on his way to church in Mombasa, Kenya. But it’s highly unlikely in this great southern land.

So how does this command/exhortation in v16 apply to us in comfortable and easy-living Australia? Verse 17 answers the question for us.

1 John 3:17 (NIV84)

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Our love for each other in this land of blessing and plenty can be shown and evidenced by our provisions for each other. But even that has issues because many churches are filled with middle class people who don’t struggle and have issues of need.

How then can the love of God be shown among us? Let me suggest that one way of sharing the love of Christ is to be giving sacrificially each Lord’s day to the work of God in your local congregation. At present, almost every church I’ve spoken to is struggling financially and is only just meeting its obligations, let alone helping the poor and needy. Yet these same churches are filled with people who by and large think the church should be helping the poor and needy, especially the poor and needy believers in that church! But here’s the slap in the face! A church can only help the poor and needy if it has the finances to do so. And it only has the finances to do so if the congregation give sacrificially and consistently. Finances in the church rarely multiply like the loaves and fishes unless the church people give sacrificially!

You and I are in such a privileged position in Australia. We are in a land of plenty, a land of blessing. We have the opportunity to give sacrificially to the Lord and to support His work through the local church by tithing and offering to the Lord.

Let me challenge each one of us to rethink our spending habits and to put as a minimum a tithe to Lord before anything else gets taken out of our income. I challenge each one of us to calculate our weekly/monthly income from all sources and to set aside, as the bare minimum, 10% which goes to the Lord.

Imagine a church where everyone tithed. Imagine a church that could meet its financial obligations and still have excess to meet the needs of the poor and hard done by. Imagine a church that could support its needy members and that could reach out to the poor and the homeless.  I promise you that such a church would grow and thrive and get a reputation in the local community that is unsurpassed. People will talk about that church, your church, that is serious about it’s commitment to the Lord.

Will you commit a minimum tithe to the Lord each week? Will you set aside a tithe as a fragrant offering to the Lord? Will you take up the challenge?

Here’s how it works. You can fill in the table.

Weekly or monthly income

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3 _____________

Total income:                 _____________                                   

10% of the above =  

This is your weekly or monthly tithe.

Now ask the Lord in accord with 2 Cor 9:7, whether this is adequate or not and increase as the Lord leads.

Your total weekly or monthly tithe = _________________

Prayer:

Use the day’s reading notes and Bible passage to pray meaningfully:

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

· Pray that your congregation would be a congregation that tithes regularly and consistently

 Discussion & Reflection

1. Why should we tithe as a minimum?

2. Martin says to you that he doesn’t give to his local church because he doesn’t agree with the way they spend the money and that he doesn’t like the missionaries they support. How do you respond?

3. Marty says to you that he tithes after he’s paid the mortgage, the car loan, school fees and regular expenses. How do you respond?

Friday February 27, 2015

Read 1 John 3:14-15

How do you know if someone is a friend or a foe? It’s by the way they act and speak. How do you know if someone is a Bronco’s fan or a Bulldogs fan? It’s by the way they act and speak. How do you know if someone is a car fanatic? It’s by the way they act and speak? In each case, what’s in the heart is brought out to the surface in words and deeds.

How can you tell if a person is a Christian? It’s by the way they act and speak.

What’s in the heart is brought out to the surface. More particularly, the Christian acts and speaks in love. It’s very easy to appear loving and to say loving words and even to put on loving gestures. It’s very easy to wear a façade of love. But God here is speaking about a love that wells up from the inside, from the heart. God here is talking about a love that emanates from the love it has received from Himself and overflows uncontrollably outwards to others.

This kind of love that oozes out towards others gives the individual a sense of assurance and belonging. So many have struggled with inner doubts and questions such as Am I really a Christian? How can I know for sure that I am saved? What if I am lying to myself? What if I am not really born again?

Vv14-15 give us one way of knowing whether or not we are born again. As verse 14 says, if we love the brotherhood then we are born again. We have passed from death to life. This is not the kind of love that the world shares among itself. It is the love of Christ that loves the fellowship and puts the needs/desires of others above oneself. It’s the kind of love that would willingly lay down one’s life for others. It’s the kind of love that gives with a Jesus-honouring heart and serves with Jesus-exalting compassion.

On the flip side, we know that we have to think carefully about our position in the Lord if we are filled with hate towards a brother/sister in Christ Jesus. Put bluntly and simply, if you have received the love of Christ you cannot live in hatred or negativity towards another believer.

Think about Marty as he sits in his local church. As the preacher pounds out hell, fire and brimstone from the pulpit, he’s wondering if he’s really born again. He thinks about 1 John 4:13-14 and realises that he does love the brotherhood. But then he thinks about Mary-Anne. As he thinks about her he realises that he hates her. He can’t stand her and often goes out of his way to avoid her. Almost immediately a deep sense of fear envelopes him. Does that mean I’m not saved? Have I been fooling myself? Is the preacher right? Am I condemned to a life of eternal torture?

These are not simple questions to answer. It really depends on how Marty continues to react to the revelation that he hates another believer. If he repents of his hatred and seeks to be reconciled to Mary-Anne then we can assume that he’s a believer listening to the Word and will of God. If however, he remains hardhearted and excuses his hatred or justifies it then Marty needs to have a good hard think about his salvation. Under this scenario, it’s possible that he isn’t saved or born again.

A genuine Christian overflows with love for other believers. That doesn’t mean we will never have issues or that other believers won’t rub us the wrong way or that we will never have personality clashes. It means that in all of these situations we work towards reconciliation and mutual edification. It means that we refuse to live in hatred and anger. It means that we work at making peace and love.

How do you know if someone’s a Christian? By their life of love.

Prayer:

Use the day’s reading notes and Bible passage to pray meaningfully:

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

· Continue to pray for the work of CMTC - ChristLife Ministry Training Centre that the students would learn well the Word of God and that the teams goings out to other churches would bring growth and vitality. Pray that the teachers would remain faithful to the Word of God.

· Pray that the Engage team would continue to bring us missionary news and open up opportunities to share the faith even here in our local town.

 Discussion & Reflection

1. What advice would you give to Marty if he approached your for wise counsel?

2. What if Mary-Anne refused to cooperate?

3. Someone once stated that you can see a person’s true heart and the amount of love they really have by the way they act/speak/react when things go really bad for them. Discuss.

Thursday February 26, 2015

Read 1 John 3:11-13

The world loves a love story. Almost every movie has some form of a love story built into the main plot or into the sub plot. Most of the songs on the radio are about love. Stories and novels have been about love since writing began.  As an example, the Hunger Games, the second highest earning movie in 2014, has as the sub plot the to and fro love tension between Katniss and Peter and/or Gale as the trio seek to overcome the evil powers and intentions of the Capitol. Taken 3, another big box office money spinner in 2014, is based around the injustice of a man being framed for his wife’s murder –a miscarriage of justice and a destruction of a love relationship.  Need we go on? The world loves a love story. We all do.

How is it then that verse 13 can be in the Bible? What does verse 13 mean? How can John possibly say

1 John 3:13 (NIV84)

Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

If God is love, if Christians are loving and oozing out love and if the world loves a love story, how can the world possibly hate us? We could see the threads of love and righteousness throughout 1 John 3 as totally separate and unrelated to a large degree. We could treat them as separate entities. Unfortunately for this approach, the Word of God here weaves them together and has them intertwined around each other. Separating them would be a grave injustice and would suggest that love, any form of love, even the love of the world, is from God and Jesus honouring.

But Consider 1 Peter 2:21-23

21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

When Jesus was being crucified he reacted in love and righteousness. He did not retaliate to save His own skin. He did not lie or deceive to get away. He did not make counter threats but rather submitted in love to the Father’s will. Had Jesus reacted in any way but righteousness and love, His sacrifice would not have been acceptable to God.

Love intertwined with righteousness is the kind of love that refuses to counter attack, retaliate or to make threats. This is what the world finds very threatening. When the world sees righteousness it is threatened and retaliates because it is challenged about its own unrighteousness. When the world is confronted with love and righteousness together it is doubly threatened and lashes out. If the world tried to remove Jesus by nailing Him to the cross, can we, the followers of Jesus expect anything less?

Prayer:

Use the day’s reading notes and Bible passage to pray meaningfully:

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

· Pray that you personally would have opportunities to show the love of Jesus to someone outside of Christ Jesus.

· Pray this for your family.

· Pray this for your cell group.

· Pray this for your congregation.

 Discussion & Reflection

1. What are the implications of love intertwined with righteousness for

a. two teenagers thinking of going out with each other?

b. parents and their children

c. two Christian friends

2. Describe what love and righteousness could look like if love and righteousness were separated?

3. In 2 Chronicles 30 we see love and righteousness sitting together and working together, even though many aspects of the   law are “broken”. Can you explain how they sit together in this chapter?

Wednesday February 25, 2015

Read 1 John 3:7-12

Context is a great help in reading the Bible. We use it when reading all other forms of literature but sometimes put our brains on hold when reading the Bible.  We rarely read a news paper article out of context or a part of a novel out of context, but we often take bits of the Bible out of context and some people build their entire theology on a verse or two taken out of context. In fact, its been stated many times that a text without a context is a pretext to say whatever you want.

Think for a moment about the context of today’s passage. 1 John 3:1 is about the corporate reality of the believer. We together are called children of God. God has lavished His love on us corporately. In 3:11 we again see the corporate nature of our identity – we are called to love one another. It’s a togetherness thing not a “sit by myself” thing.

This corporateness means that the verses in the middle of the chapter about sin rightly apply to our corporate identity as well. Vv 4-10 are not just talking about sin in general (to which they apply, of course) but sin against the Christian family. It's talking about sins against each other. In fact, verse 10 picks up on this corporate nature, clearly telling us that anyone who does not love his brother is not of God. Such a person is called a child of the devil. OUCH!!!

Our corporateness or our togetherness is summed in the command to love one another. This command to love is seen from the very beginning as seen in the Cain example. It’s been there throughout the history of Israel (seen in many parts of the law), in Jesus’ ministry (John 13:34-35) and in the church because God is love.

Love. It’s a many faceted thing. Let me encourage you to take time to define love. If you are in a corporate setting, cell group or family, take time to define love together, pooling your knowledge and wisdom.

Love is _________________________________________________________________________

In verse 12 we are commanded not to be like Cain who was unrighteous and did not know the love of God. In fact, we read in Genesis 4 that sin desired to have mastery over him but he didn’t master or control it. He gave in to his unrighteous desires and temptations and lived for self. He was an example of those who are children of the devil mentioned in verse 10.

Love is not just a commitment to the wellbeing of others. It includes that but it is also a commitment to the righteous requirements and standards of God’s law.

As we read in verse 10

1 John 3:10 (NIV84)

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Love and righteousness go hand in hand. Let me share a simple illustration to highlight what I mean. Someone shares a cake with you and it’s disgustingly horrible to the taste. They ask you what you think. What does love involve? It’s a commitment to the other’s welfare. If that’s all love is, then lying and saying ‘Hmmm. It’s delicious’ is an ok strategy. It gets you out of a bind and doesn’t hurt the other person. But is that really love?

If however, you are committed to the righteousness of God then lying is not an option. When you think about it, lying to that person actually deflates and destroys that person’s welfare and unrealistically builds up that person and could lead to tragic results. He or she might enter a cooking competition with their delicious cupcakes. He or she might make a batch up for church and …. get the picture??

The love of God that dwells in the children of God upholds and betters the welfare and wellbeing of others but it also simultaneously seeks to bring glory and honour to God by being righteous as He himself is righteous. It adds a whole new dimension and perspective to love doesn’t it?

Prayer:

Use the day’s reading notes and Bible passage to pray meaningfully:

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

· Pray that your congregation would be able to hold love and righteousness together as it ministers and serves.

 Discussion & Reflection

1. What does it mean to love in righteousness?

2. Why is it important that love and righteousness be joined together and not separated?

3. In what way is the cross the perfect example of love and righteousness sitting together?