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Let Us Love In Deed & Truth (Part 4)
Here are three more points mentioned in the article entitled “Thirteen Things Churches Need to Know”…
Be a place where people are comfortable bringing their unchurched friends.
Inviting the unchurched is an individual responsibility. Therefore, your unchurched neighbors need to be comfortable with you. People view or gauge the church as they view you. How well do you represent Christ in your daily living? King David was a man of great respect until he “despised the word of Jehovah, to do that which is evil in his sight” (2 Samuel 12.9). His murder of Uriah brought this stinging rebuke from the prophet Nathan: “Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given a great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme” (2 Samuel 12.14).
The Jews condemned themselves in their wrongful judgment against the Gentiles for things they themselves practiced. But Paul pointed out a greater damage in telling the Jews “…the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Romans 2.24). Christian servants (1 Timothy 6.1) and wives (Titus 2.5) have the same responsibility to heed their example. Loving in deed and in truth is a responsibility we have to both God and others.
Understand that you will never make everyone happy. That’s okay.
Man’s concept of happiness is so different from God’s There is great happiness (pleasure) in the satisfying of fleshly lusts. The pleasures of sin are short-lived (Hebrews 11.25). This type of happiness is to be avoided.
Our aim must ever be to please God. Discipleship is about making people happy in the manner that God uses the term “happy.” That term is “blessed.” Israel was told, “Happy art thou, O Israel: Who is like unto thee, a people saved by Jehovah?” (Deuteronomy 33.29). The queen of Sheba told Solomon, “Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, that stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom” (2 Chronicles 9.7). Eliphaz told Job, “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty” (Job 5.17). The Bible concept of “happy” is being blessed by God.
In loving in deed and in truth, we have the example of Paul before us: “And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, not being without law to God, but under law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9.20-23).
This does not promote the happiness that most seek. The Christian must not become discouraged by this to the point that they shrink back from offering true happiness to them. There is the ever-present lure to go back to the world (2 Peter 2.20-22). Therein lies the danger for God’s child. He must maintain a strong faith to prevent this (2 Peter 1.5-10).
His strength will come from practicing Paul’s teaching to the brethren in Rome: “The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before God. Happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he approveth” (Romans 14.22).
Take risks and never be guilty of saying, “But we’ve never done it that way before.”
Regret will rob you from the joy of the spiritual blessings that are available in Christ. We must not look backward but press forward (Luke 9.62; Philippians 3.13-14). A change of life, if for spiritual betterment, will be a decision never to be regretted, but it is a decision that requires faith in God’s lead, for you will follow a lead without visible markers.
Abraham made such a decision: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11.8-10).
The children of Israel embarked upon such a journey of faith: “And thou shalt remember all the way which Jehovah thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8.2-3).
Upon entering Canaan, Joshua reminded Israel of the need to continue in faith, saying, “Ye have not passed this way heretofore” (Joshua 3.4). So is it with Christians today. We know not what awaits us daily, save what Paul stated to Timothy: “All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3.12). Faith is what empowers the Christian to overcome all such fears. Let us remember, “we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition, but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10.39).
