This week’s Bible Talk took us to John 14:15-27 where we saw that while we wait to go home to Jesus, he makes his home in us by his Spirit, enabling us to love him and live for him.
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Yo Petey Pete, thanks so much for the great reminder of what we are called to. Love is often drowned out in our action as legalism and dry doctrine creep in. We live in a time when we have been shown love so clearly, how can we delude ourselves into thinking we are called to anything less and rob God of the glory due to him alone.
Let us love with deliberate decisive love being poured out as a drink offering for all.
I pray this weeks reminder may continue to burden our hearts for one another as we continue to look to the one who gave everything for us.
Hi Pete,
Thanks for the talk. I agree that love is about serving others, like Christ served us. I am not quite sure though how to interpret the below verse though:
1 Cor 13:3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
How can doing such a selfless thing such as giving all you possess to the poor be not loving?
Also, do you think that fellowship with the Spirit is part of “real life”, as it is then we are connecting to the one who is life (see 2 Cor 13:14 below)? If so, how do you think we do this?
2 Cor 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Thanks.
Hi guys, glad that you were both encouraged to love “one another” as Jesus has loved us!
David, I remember wondering the same thing about 1 Cor 13:3. I think that the answer I was given was that the “if” at the start of the verse makes it hypothetical and not necessarily possible. While that answer may be true, I suspect that there is more to it. I think that it is possible for an unbeliever to give his/her “all” for someone or something that he/she loves. I’m sure that there are examples of this. But I think Paul is saying that unless it’s in response to the gospel then it’s not really love, not TRUE love.
As for fellowship with the Spirit, it’s completely necessary for “real life”. The message of the later OT prophets was that a time was coming that would be marked by the outpouring of the Spirit of God on all people (Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36-37, Joel 2 & see also Acts) and at the heart of the new covenant. There is no regeneration (new life) apart from animation by the Spirit of God.
As for how we do it, we don’t – God does! I take it fellowship means “indwelling” rather than what Paul means by “keep in step with the Spirit”. Actually, Galatians 5:25 is a very helpful verse: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Hope that helps!