Cutting to the Core

An interesting statement was made by a visiting pastor at Park Street Baptist and I'll never forget what he said. His words were,

"How much are you doing as a Christian that an unsaved person can do?"

This got me thinking, unsaved people can attend church, give to the poor, teach a Sunday school class, quote entire books of the Bible and sing in the church choir. The lost can act religious just like Christians can. They can play every part of the act, yet the question still stands, what truly makes someone a Christian? Jesus Himself answers this question. Without a doubt one of the most powerful moments of intimacy in Jesus' ministry can be found in John 13, where the God of Creation and Eternity stooped down in the garments of a slave to wash His own disciple's feet. This selfless act is a demonstration of Jesus' character. Following the washing He gives a new commandment to His followers, saying

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (ESV)"

Lost people around the world can serve others, this is true, but the defining mark of a Christian is love that is acted upon because of the salvation and love the Christ has so graciously given to us. No lost person can truly claim this, because they have not experienced salvation through Jesus. Without the residing presence of the Holy Spirit, true & selfless love is impossible. 1 Timothy 1:5 demonstrates the ultimate goal of apostolic teaching when it says,

"The aim of our charge [The Great Commission] is love that issues from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith".

Love cannot come from an impure heart, a defiled conscience, or a disingenuous faith, and which according to Scripture; a lost person fits all three of these descriptions.When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, asking what he must do to be saved, Jesus responded by saying "Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and only then can you be my disciple" Jesus was not commanding us to sell all our possessions, but rather He was teaching us that we must lay aside every distraction and follow Him. We must treat our possessions for what they really are, gifts from God that are to be used as tools for God. Otherwise the love we show as Christians will be riddled with our own selfish greed for possessions, or we won't show love because we're so caught up in what we possess. All our knowledge of Scripture can be duplicated by the lost. All our church programs to help the community can be cloned. Our music can stir the same emotional experience. But a true Christian is one who, in every situation, acts out of love that has been placed in their heart by Christ in salvation. Jesus said by the love we show, others will know that we serve Him. Miraculous, selfless love brought on by salvation in Christ is the defining essence of what it means to be a Christian.

Think about this prayer Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus... (Ephesians 3)

"When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God."

Love as the Endgame

Let me throw 1 Timothy 1.5 back here…

"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith"

This verse is directed at Timothy from Paul. Essentially the whole letter is instruction for Timothy on how to lead the church there. (Thank you ESV Study Bible!) But even reading this book through, this theme is pretty clear. The verse itself is in the middle of a section talking about false teachers. (vs. 3-7) The church in Ephesus was dealing with these false teachers and in turn started to wander, speculate, participate in vain discussions, and lack in understanding. With the church wandering in the midst of whatever false doctrine that was there, Paul's statement serves to remind us what true Biblical teaching produces.

Let's put this situation in an American context….

Often here in America, with all the communicative technology we possess (YouTube, Tangle, Digg, Facebook etc.) Christian emails, videos, and audio clips get passed around at the speed of light it seems. With all this Christian content flooding around, we tend to just say to ourselves "Well if it says Christian, it must be true" and then click the forward button. (Believe me, I am really guilty of this.) We give no thought to really look into each video we watch or facebook message we read. As long as it says "Christian" and gives us a good feeling inside, we throw it down the tunnel for the next Christian to pick up. With all this theology being thrown around, perhaps we subconsciously expose ourselves to teachings that are not Biblical. Satan won't always distract us with teachings that go completely against our faith, but rather hopes to ensnare us with essentially the same faith yet with small perversions riddled throughout, like a good, crisp apple, with a colony of maggots inside. (grossssss I know) The apple looks great on the outside, and it even may taste good for a few bites, but once you hit the lil vermin inside of it…it all goes sour. With all this false "Christian" information out there, is it any surprise that absolute truth doesn't exist anymore even in the church? How many times have you sat in a small group that just talks about "What this verse means to me"? Here we again confront the "Window Shopping" mentality. We enjoy being fed with every kind of teaching that claims to be Christian and if it gives us a warm feeling inside, we won't bother to confirm it with Scripture. Swaying even just a little from Biblical truth will lead us into vain discussions, doubts in our faith, and damaging the authority of the Word. Just like the church in Ephesus.

So how is the statement "the aim of our charge is love" livable?

While the church was wandering in speculation, Paul reminds church leadership to remember the aim of their original charge or mandate. While the church wanders, Paul is saying "Wait! Look! We have a goal! A mission! A specific purpose! Stop wandering!" The mandate Paul is taking about was given to apostles by Jesus Himself. We know it today as the Great Commission, the call to preach the gospel, baptize, and make disciples (lifelong followers of Christ). Paul reminds us that the final result of the gospel working in us is the love of Christ being displayed to all. In the notes of my study bible they summarize this statement as "proper apostolic teaching results in good behavior rooted in love." In light of all the videos, emails, and teachings that come our way throughout the course of the week, we need to remember that the ultimate result of any true Biblical instruction should produce an outpouring of love in our lives because of Christ. False Biblical instruction that causes us to participate in vain discussions needs to be avoided at all costs! Believe me, there are places to debate and to discuss controversial issues. However, we need to remember as Romans 13:10 tells us, that love is the fulfillment of all we are called to do as Christians. This means ACTION! This love can only come from experiencing the love demonstrated by Christ for us on the cross!

This kind of love will compel us to go across the street to minister; this kind of love will compel us to stay an extra hour with a hurting friend when we could be getting yard work done.

Instead of taking our fill of teaching that persuades us to be distracted, and causes us to wander in our charge as Christians, let's fill ourselves with teaching that brings us to actively displaying the love of Christ.

~Jared~

Next I want to go through the 3 sources that this love comes from!

Window Shopping for Jesus

I Timothy 1:5

"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." (ESV)

I read this verse the other day for my NT class and, umm..really, I'm kinda in complete shock I've never read/heard of this before! I mean really.

It's like sometimes I read the Bible like someone would window shop. Yeah, in window shopping every now and then we come across something really, really stinkin awesome in the window..for instance, I would stop walking if I saw a Taylor guitar for under $150 or stuff. I guess you can use your imagination with what you would actually stop for. Maybe a dress, some stylish loafers, one of those cool talking cookie jars, haha, I don't know, use your imagination. My point here though is, when we see something amazing in a store window, usually we just stand there and gaze at it, it sticks in our mind for the rest of the day, and we tell everyone about that great thing we saw in the window. Usually forgetting about it when the next cool window flies by.

Imagine with me though, that instead of treating God's Word like window shopping, we actually run INTO the store at the sight of the amazing item in the window. Too often I look at an amazing verse in the window, and say "Yeah God that's cool!'' Then walk away, failing to realize that INSIDE that store is the author of such an amazing verse, who is seeking more than knowledge of Him, but an experience, and an intimate relationship. What I should do is recognize the amazing "verse in the window" so to speak, as a door to a deeper relationship with God. Asking Him why this verse is here, what's it saying to me, and how can I apply this in my life? How can I let You God use this passage of Scripture to change me into something different, and something more useful to You?

Demon's believe and tremble. Satan knows Scripture just as well as us, if not better. Albeit he misquotes it quite a bit (check out Jesus being tempted). So then what's the difference between us knowing Scripture and the enemy knowing Scripture? I would submit that there really isn't any difference. The difference however comes with what we DO with this knowledge! Satan and his evil horde (horde is such a descriptive word ha) know who Jesus is, and have chosen their pride and sin instead. We as believers know the Word (Jesus) and have chosen HIM. We have the very Spirit of God who promises to "guide us into all truth".

This is kinda a rough reason as to why I started this blog. I'm interested in really getting to the livability (yes, made up word. haha) of Scripture. This is simply a testing ground for bringing Scripture fresh from being read and stored in my mind into a simple action plan that is carried out. I Timothy 1:5 is kinda the verse that kicked this thing off. So I think for the next few posts I want to break this sucker down so that we can turn it around and live it, instead of using it as an answer in another class.

If you decide to stick around, feel free to comment, critique, or anything.. if I'm wrong, call me on it.

~Jared~

In other news,

1. the new Decemberist album will take some getting used to.
2. the bucs need to trade for jay cutler
3. my NCAA bracket was dead, and is now slowly crawling back to life for the Sweet 16
4. call of duty's new zombie level is hard
5. its finally warming up in Lynchburg