Centralia 161 church of Christ

11/03/2024

Love Endures All Things

This quality of agape love comes right after the three: beareth, believeth and hopeth all things.

Remember, we are discussing relationships between Christians as well as the nature or quality of love.

So… endureth all things is in the context of relationships that are based on love, AND love: "…Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things…"

It is amazing how powerful the desire in some young women to have a baby. Many times, that desire is built around the image of the cute cuddly baby that will become the baseball star or ballerina. Young women will build up in their mind the image of this wonderful child she will have and hold, and then she gets pregnant.

First, we get the morning sickness, then the mood swings, weight gain, change in appetite, doctor visits and the accompanying cost, we have the changes in the body that sometimes can be dangerous (bed fast pregnancy) and then the oncoming cramps, pain and day of delivery.

What do you get for all of this? You do not get a ballerina or baseball player; you get a small helpless, screaming, always hungry, always needy child that will take up your time for the next 21 years... or more.

It is love that enables her to endure through the years of struggle and trial till that child becomes what they were meant to be.

Love keeps going even when our life is filled with burdens. It doesn't quit or give up because of a few bumps in the road.

Some approach marriage with the same dream filled idea of prince charming and the princess, yet when they are faced with reality, they often will get a divorce. That is not love.

Some approach Christianity with this same fantasy filled idea; they want to become a Christian, thinking that all their troubles will then be over, they will be surrounded by perfect holy and righteous people. However, when they realize Christians are still often flawed and still growing or life is still tough, or they do not get what they think God should have given them… they falter and turn away.

I have seen Christians, deal with congregations the same way. They will stay so long as things go smoothly for them, but as soon as there is a bump in the road, they are out looking for another congregation.

Instead of working to make the congregation better by starting that program or mission work they think should be there, or helping the brethren face and improve the situation, they just leave to find a congregation that has already done the work for them.

Such Christians have no ‘agape’ love for their brethren. They may have a fondness for them or ‘phileo’ love, but not agape.

Love endures through the tough, growing pains and sorrows with a hope for better.

Love endures bitter struggles and failure, believing in better.

10/27/2024

Love Believes All Things, Hopes All Things

It is a sad truth that we live in a cynical society, we do not always think very well of each other. Certainly, we have had many bad examples in our leaders, friends and co-workers; men and women that have lied to us, giving us reasons to doubt the honesty and pure character of those we interact each day.

It should not be that way. This is a very interesting phrase. Paul uses a similar phrase in Ephesians 5:1-8: "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

In other words: It should not be this way!

Then at the end of the reading in verse 8, he says this:
"…walk as children of light…"

We are talking about relationships between Christians, and we Christians are to love (agape) each other. This love requires a level of trust between children of God with a positive view of each other’s character. We need to believe and hope for the best from each other

Love"…believeth all things, hopeth all things…" 1st Corinthians 13:7

Love is optimistic, not pessimistic

Love desires the best outcome not the worst

Love believes and hopes for our fellow Christians to be what they are supposed to be… Love both expects and desires that Christians:
"…walk as children of light…"

10/13/2024

Love Bears All Things

In a perfect world when someone becomes a Christian:

They would immediately understand what is right and what is wrong.

They would immediately take their place in serving God

They would immediately start giving generously of their means

They would immediately stop doing all those things they shouldn't do

They would immediately be exactly what God wants them to be

They would immediately be the best friend, the best servant, the best everything……… that is, in a perfect world.

But… this is not a perfect world and there is not one person that is immediately perfected ‘in actuality’ when they become a Christian. They are accounted as righteous by faith: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” Romans 5:1

Righteous…Yes… BUT ‘in actuality’, each one of us carries with us the baggage that we have so carefully filled over the years with our temptations, desires, prejudices, personal beliefs, pet peeves, relationships, fears and so on and so forth……..

We enter this wonderful relationship with God in Christ with our sins forgiven, and certainly, we want to be perfect as He is perfect. We want to get rid of all the things that do not fit with a child of God as is commanded:
"…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…" Hebrews 12:1

AND yet… we often carry this baggage with us for a long time until we can, with time, effort and God's help become the mature Christian we are meant to be. It takes time.

10/06/2024

Love… "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth…" 1st Cor. 13:6

Truth is a much-diminished commodity, for it stands hostage to the wayward love of the heart… to the emotions.

The friend who will not turn away from his buddy's wickedness.
The person that will not reject their spouse’s debaucheries or lies.
The politician who will not call sin… sin, buts names it a sickness.
The parent or child who will not condemn the sin of their parent or child.

The excuse? "I love them."

They certainly do not mean: "I agape them", but in fact they mean:
"I phileo them". Phileo is the form of love that finds its origin not in the mind, but in the heart. It is a love that is subjective in its application and to the whims of the heart. Phileo love will excuse bad behavior rather than rebuke it.

"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." Proverbs 28:26
Wisdom is an attribute of the thinking mind, and it should be the mind that trains the heart to love (agape). It must not be the heart that teaches the mind to love (phileo). Way too many Christians are being led by their hearts only, and not by their mind.

God tells us through the apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 13:6
Agape love: "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth…"

09/29/2024

LOVE THINKS NO EVIL

Once again, as with our last lesson: "Love is not provoked…", we must understand what this does not mean. Just as the phrase ‘love is not provoked’ does not mean an absolute prohibition on getting angry, this phrase ‘love thinks no evil’ does not necessarily mean that a person who loves (agape) will never think an evil thought.

The word translated as 'think', has a particular meaning. It means: ‘a response to an action’, it means to estimate the meaning of what someone has done or to reason out why something has occurred.

For example… In every Matlock episode… we have a dead person, we have a murder weapon, AND… we have an innocent patsy who comes in and for some reason picks up the murder weapon just before a witness walks in, and so???????

Everyone concludes? Everyone estimates? Everyone reasons that the person holding the weapon standing over the body is the murderer.

However, God says that agape love does not automatically conclude evil to the motives or actions of someone.

09/22/2024

"Love… is not easily provoked…" 1st Corinthians 13:4& 5

There are some who like to read this as: "Love is not provoked…", and to be honest, the word 'easily' is not in the original Greek text. This leads some to adopt and vehemently proclaim as one commentator says: “…the love of which he speaks can never be provoked.”

However, when we read other scriptures that deal with anger, we learn that it is not a sin to get angry. "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath…" Ephesians 4:26

We learn that God is provoked to anger: "They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities…" Deuteronomy 32:21

And yet??? “...God is love” 1st John 4:16

We recognize that even Jesus got angry: “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts…” Mark 3:5

Jesus Himself taught this: “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…”
Matthew 5:22

So then, if the exact translation is: "Love is not provoked…" and this then places an absolute prohibition on getting angry if you love (agape), then the Bible is not in agreement with itself, and we are in the realm of calling Jesus a sinner and a false teacher.

James teaches correctly when he says: "So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” James 1:19& 20

Anger, in and of itself is not wrong, but what anger leads to, how swiftly anger is manifested, and how long anger lingers is a problem that leads to sin.

09/21/2024

09/21/2024

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