Don't Abandon the Justice of Our God (Feb 21, 2021)

Isaiah 58:1-12

Introduction: Here is the premise of our series this Lent: there is no true justice without Jesus, and there is no true Jesus without justice. Many today are calling for justice without Jesus. Many are ignoring the call for justice in the name of Jesus. Scripture teaches that both these approaches are incomplete. Those who seek justice without Jesus and those who seek to follow Jesus without listening to what He says about justice will not find what they are seeking. To begin our series – we will look at very convicting and very important text on justice in the bible – Isaiah 58. It’s a serious warning to all those who claim faith in the God of the Bible - Don’t Neglect the Justice of God. Speaking through his prophet, God is doing three things in this text:

1. Calling Out Imposters
In this passage, God tells the prophet Isaiah to call out all spiritual imposters. In vv. 1-3, it is made plain that Isaiah is told by God to “shout” at very religious people. People who are very serious about their devotional life (they fast – how many people do that!). People who are the comfortable and advantaged in society (they are the employers, not the workers). They are called out for having an empty shell of religion. How do we know it’s empty? Isaiah tells us. They are oppressing their workers, ignoring the afflicted in their community and not sharing what they have with the poor and needy. This reveals that all their goodness and religious devotion is not really for God – it’s all for themselves (v3). It’s all an act to get God to give them the life they want, not true worship that seeks to offer God the life He wants – ie a life that does not abandon his justice.  

• Isaiah makes clear that any faith in the God of the Bible that abandons His justice in these ways is an imposter faith. Though we might not want to hear this, if we seek to be faithful to the God of the Bible, we must hear it – even if it calls us out. If we claim to have a relationship with God but abandon the poor and oppressed, this text is saying that we need to examine whether, in fact, we have a relationship with Him.

2. Calling For Justice

So what exactly is the justice that is the fruit of a real relationship in God? In verses 6-7, we have a powerful 3-fold description of the justice God is calling for.

1. We must first see injustice – We must learn to see it for what it is.  People who are comfortable and believe they have earned their good life tend to overlook the plight of the poor/oppressed. They think, “I earned what I have by my own hard work. Other people need to take care of themselves”. But here God describes people who are hungry, the poor and the naked, those oppressed, trapped in injustice with chains as “your own flesh and blood”. In the ancient world, the idea of the equal dignity and human rights of all people was not a concept. It was your own kin/family were what you cared for. Isaiah is saying, “Would you neglect the needs of your own kin?” That would be unheard of and shameful in the ancient world! God calls us to see all people as our own flesh and blood; to see their needs as the needs of our very own family. This is the baseline for justice in the bible - the equal dignity, value, and rights of all people to care and provision.

2. We must show special care for oppressed groups – This passage shows us that biblical justice must go beyond simply showing equal concern for all people, because some people are weighed down by yokes that others do not carry. Isaiah here calls us to break the chains of wickedness, tear off every yoke, untie the ropes that bind people. This is a call to address both individual structural/systemic causes of injustice.
   
   Think about it like this - to clothe or feed someone without tearing off their yoke (giving individual relief apart from addressing the structure/larger system), is a form of justice but it is not enough. In the Old Testament, special care was demanded for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger/foreigner. These are groups for whom God shows special concern (see Deut. 10:18 for one example of many).
   
   It is important that we see why should these groups get special concern. It is because the systems and structures of the ancient world provided them with no security or help if they found themselves in need (wealth passed from fathers to son, women had security only through marriage, foreigners normally ad no access to rights of the judicial system). God’s call for justice goes beyond equality to include a special concern for groups who the systems of a culture overlook or oppress (intentionally or unintentionally).

3. We must share in the cost of justice - Why would working for justice be called a “fast? Fasting is willingly forgoing something, choosing discomfort. Fasting is choosing to feel the cost of greater obedience and devotion. When we fast, we give up something good (ie, food) in order to get something better (God). Verse 7 applies this to justice – we are called to share what we have with those in need. The sharing described is more than just “writing a check”. Isaiah says invite the poor into your home! The justice God calls for comes when his people share what they have with the needy in costly and uncomfortable ways

3. Calling to Repentance

This passage not only calls us out and calls for Godly justice, it calls us to repentance – a change in mindset and life. This is where it might be easy to misunderstand what the prophet is saying. He is not saying, “Do the justice God calls for and then He will allow you to get near to Him/to be in relationship with Him”. He is saying, “If you really get near to God, are really in relationship with Him, you will do the justice He calls for – even when it costs you”.

How does this work? No amount of guilt or  cultural pressure to do justice will move us to do the kind of justice God calls for. What can move us to do justice like this? It’s knowing that what God is calling for here, he has already done for us. The call for justice alone is not enough to make us just. We need to know grace. A true experience of God’s grace is what makes us just. When we understand grace, we see ourselves in the poor and oppressed. When we understand the gospel, we see Jesus in the poor and oppressed (see Matthew 25:31-46). How?

In order to rescue us from the consequences and effects of abandoning His justice: Jesus came to us. The one who was equal with God became equal with us, he took on our flesh and blood; He saw past our sin and mess to our created dignity and worth. He came to break the yoke, chains, and ropes of sin, selfishness and evil that oppress us. He became a victim of injustice, a poor peasant, rejected by the religious structure and wronged by the judicial system; He was beaten, killed and chained, carrying the yoke of the cross. Why?

To bear the full cost of justice in the place of those who don’t meet the standard – even imposters.

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. In our current cultural moment: many of us put our defenses up when the topic of justice comes up (oftentimes because of how justice can be attached to ideologies not founded in God’s Word or character). Others put all their defenses down when the topic of justice comes up, and affirm everything (because of how important justice is to the character of God in Scripture). Which do you tend toward? Why?

3. Based on this passage (and others you may be aware of) – why is abandoning justice a sign of imposter faith? How does this challenge you personally?

4. Of the three aspects listed above of the justice God calls for – which is most important for you to take to heart right now? Why?

5. Our current cultural calls to justice avoid personally sharing the cost of helping the poor and afflicted. Progressives look to the government to solve the problems; conservatives generally look to the poor themselves to solve their own problems. God calls his people to share in he cost of working for justice.  John Calvin powerfully describes this in his commentary on this passage: “It is indeed thine, but on this condition, that thou share it with the hungry and thirsty, not that thou eat it thyself alone.” And indeed this is the dictate of common sense, that the hungry are deprived of their just right, if their hunger is not relieved.”

6. How does grace – not guilt – lead us to repentance and a life of justice?

7. Read Isaiah 58:9-12. Here God describes what could be for those who heed his call for justice. What most excites you about what Isaiah describes here? What is a first step you can take toward this?

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Love Is Never Ending (Feb 14, 2021)

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

Introduction: In many ways we have started this year as confused, divided, and unsettled as we ended last year. As we look to the future as a church, people, and country, we must embrace the language of love. We might think we live in a peculiar time of division and despair, but in 1 Corinthians, Paul encouraged a church in a similar situation. Like us, the Corinthians were not only divided by whom they followed, but about what values they emphasized. What we can learn from Paul is that it is easy to lose sight of what can guide us through our differences. We might have good intentions or correct theology, but when we don’t have love, we miss out on everything that God intends for us. In this passage, Paul makes his final case for love as what should be pursued before all other things.

Paul’s Loving Rebuke
Love is in the air around this time of year. Whether it is the sappy appeal of Valentine’s Day advertising, the cheesy  movie recommendations on Netflix, or the reminder to revisit those New Year’s resolutions we made to our families,  we can all feel it. Because we often associate love with romance, it seems much more light and abstract. However, the  Bible speaks of love more concretely. We must not forget that when Paul is writing to the Corinthians about love, he  begins in the form of a sharp rebuke. Far from fuzzy feelings or mushy sentimentality, Paul is calling out the  Corinthians for their inability to choose love in their divided context. As the text makes clear, they have failed to love  both actively and passively, in what they have done and what they have left undone.  

Lest we be too overwhelmed, we must not forget how Paul follows his rebuke. Paul writes in a way that moves from the  challenge of love to the concept of love. He writes more descriptively in verses 3-6, but in verse 7 he writes that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Notice that his superlative style here is weightier than a list of attributes. Paul then moves from the concept of love to the duration of love. In verse 8 he begins  with “love never ends” and follows with a discussion about completeness and maturity. As we close this series, we are  reminded that the biblical concept of love is much more than mere romance, a list of commands, or even a collection of  virtues. Love is something eternal. This world might weigh us down, but love will always lift us up. By this we are  empowered to join in the work of love.  

1. Love is Hard Work

When Paul writes that “love never ends,” he is using a unique form of the word never that only appears here in all of his writing. The term denotes a strong negative form that takes on a temporal extension: “not even at any time.” The significance for us is that aligning ourselves with love will not come easy. Love is hard work! In our experience, love is something that will feel as if it is too much to bear especially at times when we feel we have nothing left to give. Consider your present circumstances. Perhaps you are weighed down by life, family, or work in the midst of the pandemic. You might feel the desire to love others more, but not the energy to carry it out. Love demands of us not only action but an underlying and continuous attitude. It is tempting to think that it just isn’t worth the effort, but like many hard things in life, the difficulty lies in that we desire to overcome our aversions in order to mature. Paul is aware of this desire in the Corinthians despite their inability to act in love toward one another. Instead of directing their attention to the hard work of love, they directed their attention to other works that were only partial or limited in comparison.

2. Love is Holy Work

A. Love is the most holy work we can do for another person – Don’t miss the direction of Paul’s argument in  verses 8-10. Love is where the very energy, eternal power and life of God is found. The Corinthian church was  most excited about tongues, prophecies, or great knowledge. They thought these things were the difference  makers. We find ourselves in a similar predicament. We too easily set aside the work of love in favor of other things that seem more effective and exciting to us. The climate we find ourselves in does not make it any easier.  We are drawn to politics, power, education, money, and influence as a means to satisfy our longing for  significance and impact. Paul confronts us head-on by telling us that the most holy and lasting work we can do  is the work of love. The work of love we do for others will last forever.  

B. Love is the most holy work God does in us – We can be tempted to think that a mature faith is one where love  sits in the background while center stage belongs to flashier things like theological knowledge, eloquent  prayer, and externally religious works of ministry. Paul argues that this is how spiritual children think. He  challenges the Corinthians to stop acting like children and grow up into adulthood (13:11). The flashy things  are partial (and even necessarily signs of saving faith), they come to an end, but love never ends. The holy work  that God does in us may seem insignificant (listening, changing diapers, doing acts of service), but it is the  work of God moving us toward true spiritual maturity – growing up into a person who loves.  

3. Love is Heavenly Work 

We ought not be too hard on ourselves because many of our spiritual desires, even those apart from love, are not entirely devoid of meaning or intention. Paul is pointing out that they are a partial reflection of God, just not the complete reflection. Historically, Corinth was known for the production of mirrors constructed from metal, particularly bronze. In these mirrors, you could see your reflection, but only a partial reflection. Paul touches on this in verse 12: “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face,” but then connects it with what it means to “know fully.” The Corinthians were pursuing what was dim or partial as if it was complete or full. Paul then makes one of his most radical points. Faith and hope have some form in eternity, but they are not intrinsic to God compared to love. Love is the greatest. This makes more sense if we turn briefly to a fundamental Christian doctrine. If God is a Trinity, then we can understand love as ontologically essential to his nature in a communal way. In this way, love is a complete reflection of our glorious God, and our work of love is fundamentally an outworking of a heavenly work.

4. Love is Our Highest Priority Work 

As we conclude our series on love, we would do well to summarize how Paul began and ended his instruction on love. Consider the connection between 12:31 “I will show you the most excellent way,” and 14:1 “Pursue love.” The word pursue in this context is aggressive, like a hunter pursuing its prey. In the same way, if you claim to be a Christian, you are called right now to make love your highest priority. This will not be easy, but it will be rewarding. Life will demand of us different tasks in different seasons, but love should always be at the forefront. We are instructed in this way because God’s love for us in Christ is more that we could ever need or want. If you ever feel inadequate, you are not alone. Think about God’s love for you and allow it to fill your heart with purpose, your minds with focus, and your hands with work.

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. How have you felt challenged or convicted about this series on love? Do you feel as if you have learned  something new about Paul’s loving rebuke in 1 Corinthians 13? 

2. What are some ways that contemporary culture portrays the concept of love that are appealing to you? What  are some of the ways in which you feel it is incomplete? 

3. If you were to be honest, does the challenge of love discourage you or motivate you? Are you able to identify  what it is that makes you feel the way you do?

4. Read verse 7 again. Which aspect of the commitment required of love is hardest for you (bearing, believing,  hoping or enduring)? How so? How can we keep committed to the hard work of love when we feel our “love  tank” is empty?  

5. Paul contrasts childish things to mature things in verse 11. He says the slow, hard work of love is the way of  true maturity not the dramatic and impressive things (ie things a child is drawn to). How might this help you  reframe how we think about the work God is doing in you right now?

6. How does knowing that our highest goal and destiny is to be face to face with a loving God in eternity compel  us to do the hard work of love now? In other words - What impact does it make to you to know God knows you  fully and loves you fully – enough to bear any cost to bring you face with his love? 

7. What are some practical ways that you can make love our highest priority in your life? Does this only relate to our relationship with others??

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Love Is Not (Feb 7, 2021)

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

Introduction: In many ways we have started this year as confused, divided, and unsettled as we ended last year. As we look to the future as a church, people, and country, we must embrace the language of love. We might think we live in a peculiar time of division and despair, but in 1 Corinthians, Paul encouraged a church in a similar situation. What we can learn from Paul is that it is easy to lose sight of what can guide us through our differences. We might have good intentions or accurate theology, but when we don’t have love, we miss out on everything that God intends for us. In this passage, in order to help us understand and apply the ways of love, not only does Paul define what love means, he also tells us what love is not.

The Photonegative Principle:
When you want to clearly describe/define something, it’s often helpful to both say what it is and what it isn’t. So after describing what love is, Paul tells us 7 things love is not. The first 5 things have to do with our relationship to ourselves, the last 2 with our relationship to others. The underlying principle here is that in order for our relationships with others to change, God must first change our relationship to our own selves.  To grow in loving others well (looking outward), God must deal with our relationship to self (looking inward). 

1. Where Love is Not
Last week, we saw how truth and love are necessary companions (v6). Here it is the opposite – wherever these 5 things are found, love is not there and in actuality cannot be there. Envy, boasting, arrogance, rudeness, and self-seeking are all distortions of our relationship to self, and are never companions to love. Let’s take a quick look at each of these:

1. Love does not Envy – Envy is all about self-obsession; it is when I cannot rejoice over or acknowledge the achievements, gifts, or success that others have. All that I see is what I lack or want and that I do not have. When we are obsessed with our own situation, we can’t love others.

2. Love does not Boast – Boasting is all about self-promotion: “Am I being recognized and applauded here? Am I being seen? Do I have the attention?” When we are trying to be seen and noticed, we cannot love others; the needs, voice, feelings of others will be pushed aside in favor of the self.

3. Love is not Arrogant – Arrogance is self-inflation, sometimes translated as “love is not puffed up”. If we have a higher view of ourselves than we do of others, we can’t really love them. Our help/actions will be controlling, patronizing, self-serving – like the Pharisee heart that prays “Thank you God that I am not like that”. We can only truly love someone when we stop looking down at them.

4. Love is not Rude – Rudeness is self-absorption; the Greek word has to do with acting in a way that dishonors/ disrespects others. It is manifested when we are careless about what/how we say and do things, willingly or unwillingly failing to account for how it will be received by the other person.

5. Love is not Self-Seeking – This term is a little more difficult to translate, but ultimately boils down to seeking our own things, our own way, and can be seen as the source of all of the above. This is also at the core of what the Bible calls sin.

 It is important to keep in mind that it is not wrong seek things for ourselves, nor is it wrong to love ourselves, to want to have enough/be satisfied, to be seen/recognized, to be valued, to be important or be validated. But it is the essence of sin to seek them as our end goal and desire, as our own, rather than as a means to the end of loving God and loving others.

2. When Love is Not

Now let’s take a look from a slightly different perspective: when love is not in us, what do we see? Rarely will we be able to fully acknowledge our (insert here: envy, boasting, arrogance, rudeness) mentioned above.  Perhaps the best way to tell is by examining our relationships and interactions with others – where the symptoms can be revealed, and where the final 2 things in Paul’s list come in to play. These two things are directly related to our interactions with others, as opposed to our interactions with our own hearts. What are the symptoms and signs?

1. Irritability – this has been called the ‘launching pad’ for anger. It is to have your insides coiled, ready to spring into anger. When you are irritable – snapping, short, quick to be angry, eager to be offended – the problem is usually less about the other person’s words/actions and more about the lack of love in our own hearts.

2. Resentfulness/Keeping a record of wrongs – this is much like keeping score, about how ‘I’m doing so much!’, ‘After all I’ve done for you’, ‘What have you done for me?’ It is when we keep scorecards – for our friends, family, spouse, co-workers, church members, really anybody we interact with.

With resentfulness in particular, we often keep it inside (check for me, minus for you), but when the dam breaks it often flows out all at once. Especially when we do something good for another person and we receive rudeness or – perhaps even worse, no acknowledgement at all – the seeds of resentment are born. This can even happen within the context of our relationship with God; as someone once said, “We cannot feel gratitude for life as a gift when we feel cheated out of the life we are trying to earn”.

3. How Does Love Get into Where It is Not

The pull of self to seek our own things is powerful… Who can let go of the need to be satisfied with who/what we are, what we have, and to be affirmed, seen, and validated? Who can let go of the demand to seek our own things? Who can let go enough to genuinely love others expecting (and requiring) nothing in return from them?

 That’s a trick question – but here’s a better one: What has the power to deal w/ our envy, boasting, arrogance, rudeness, self-seeking, heal our bitterness and sweep away all our record keeping? How can we experience genuine change and growth? Only one thing is powerful enough. Love. What’s the cure for a self-centered heart? The Bible says that it is God’s love for us in Christ. Only God’s love has the power to get love where it isn’t – into us.

 Irreligion will tell us “You need to love yourself more – (follow your heart, find your truth)”. Religion, on the other hand, will say, “You need to stop loving yourself so much! Don’t seek what you want; just do good, follow the rules and you will be rewarded!” But the Gospel says that Jesus loved you into being and gave himself for you in love. Thus, your life is not your own. Your salvation, your self, your things are not your own – it’s ALL undeserved grace.  This alone can fill the heart with love so that we let go of seeking our own things and seek the good of others and the glory of God. The gospel is the power for a whole new relationship to self; it is a power to love as we have been loved.

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. Do you agree that we must feel deal with our relationship to self in order to relate to others in love? If so, why do you think this is?

3. Of the first 5 things Paul says love is not, which do you most identify with in your own relationship to self?

4. In a self-obsessed, individualistic culture there is a enormous pull toward self, toward seeking things as “our own” (contra the fifth thing that Paul says is at the root of a love-less life). How is seeking our own things the root of sin (ie the what’s beneath our sinful actions)?

5. How do bitterness and resentment show up in your life? How do they reveal a self-oriented heart? What impact do these things have on your ability to love?

6. In his book on this passage, Lewis Smedes wrote. “We cannot feel gratitude for life as a gift when we feel cheated out of the life we are trying to earn”. Does this strike a nerve with you? your relationship with God?

7. How does the message that we the love of God can be ours eternally and unconditionally through Christ get love into our self-oriented, seeking hearts? How does it give us the security, the importance, the validation, the satisfaction we seek in our envy, boasting, rudeness? How truly believing we are loved by God heal our bitterness and resentment toward others?

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Love Is Rejoicing in Truth (Jan 31, 2021)

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

Introduction: In many ways we have started this year as confused, divided, and unsettled as we ended last year. As we look to the future as a church, people, and country, we must embrace the language of love. We might think we live in a peculiar time of division and despair, but in 1 Corinthians, Paul encouraged a church in a similar situation. The Corinthians were not only divided by who they followed, but also about what they emphasized. What we can learn from Paul is that it is easy to lose sight of what can guide us through our differences. We might have good intentions or concerned theology, but when we don’t have love, we miss out on everything that God intends for us. Not only that, but Paul defines what love means, so we must seek to understand and apply the way of love in our everyday lives.

A Quick Reminder:
Although the focus of our current series – 1 Corinthians 13 – is often read at weddings or blithely printed in picture frames, these uses tend to overlook the practical (and actual) reason Paul wrote this beautiful poem.  This letter was written to a church that was trying to find its way through a mess of division, conflict, brokenness, immaturity and “outright sin”. 1 Corinthians 13:6 in particular is not part of some ethereal, fluffy inspirational poem. It is practical, real-life wisdom for messy, broken people and situations. This verse shows us the way of love for these situations and moments. How do we love people who are doing wrong, engaged in unrighteousness, or committing sin?

1. Love’s Constant Companion

In general, we tend to either be “love” people (tending toward a softer, accepting, affirming, approach), OR “truth” people (strong/firm opinions, a take-it-or-leave-it approach, no shades of gray). And sometimes we may lean differently depending on the context we are in (spouse, kids, work, church). Whatever the case, “love” people tend to see “truth” people as hard, harsh and self-righteous, while “truth” people see “love” people as soft, weak, and compromising.

 But Paul – who taught that love is the greatest of all virtues, the one eternal virtue, final measure of our Christian maturity, and the fulfillment of the whole law of God – teaches here that true, genuine love has a necessary and constant companion: truth. To be a Christian is to be a “truth” and “love” person. Paul says that love never avoids or compromises the truth – love rejoices in the truth!  BUT truth never moves forward without love – never acting or speaking for its own benefit, but out of a true concern for the well-being of the other. The catch is that we are not called to be 50% love and 50% truth – but rather 100% love AND 100% truth.

 2. Love’s Necessary Grief

Focusing on the first half of v.6 – “Love finds no joy in unrighteousness” – two key ideas are present: A) love never finds any joy, in wrongdoing, sin, unrighteousness in others; but also B) love is never indifferent to wrong, sin or unrighteousness in others.

A. Love never finds any joy in the unrighteousness of others – on the surface this sounds self-evident, but consider the eagerness in our culture, even amongst Christians, to call out the wrongs, faults and mistakes of others. Underneath this eagerness there is a kind of joy – but not love’s joy. Rather, it is the joy of moral superiority. When we have that kind of joy, it’s a clear indicator that we don’t have love. Love’s joy is to see people moving closer to who God has made them to be.

 B. Love is never indifferent to unrighteousness in others – in the earnest desire to avoid taking joy at others’ sin, should we simply support, accept or ignore everything that a person does? NO – Paul indicates that, rather than apathy, the opposite of finding joy in unrighteousness is to experience grief over unrighteousness in a person’s life. Genuine love is grieved over anything that keeps the truth out of someone’s life – evil, injustice, lies, self-deceit, hypocrisy, pretense – we are to grieve all these things. If we have the joy of superiority or the indifference to wrong, our response to other peoples’ issues will only cause harm.

3. Love’s Greatest Joy

There is no greater joy than to see another person live fully in the truth of who God is, who they are and who God has made/called them to be. The truth is what God says is good and right and is His vision/design for human flourishing. This is love’s greatest joy – to see someone we care about walking in this truth. It’s important we see that love does not rejoice in truth for truth’s sake – but for the sake of the other person’s well-being and flourishing. There is a big difference. When we take up a good, righteous cause or have a concern about someone’s choices/behavior, we need to ask: Am I doing it for their good? Or to be proved right? Truth is on the side of love and love is always about what is best for the other person.

So, how do we get and grow in this kind of love? It comes from the joy of receiving this kind of love from God. When we do not feel the joy of being loved by God, our treatment of others will lack either love or lack truth. Consider:

a) The gospel has the hardest truth of any belief system – that we are infected with sin in every part of us, we deserve judgment, and that we are unable to save ourselves. This is a hard truth, especially when other religions say that you can make yourself acceptable or righteous, if you just strive hard enough.

b) BUT the gospel also has the greatest love of any belief system – we are not loved because we do anything to earn or deserve it. We are loved 100%, without condition, with an everlasting love. We are loved with a love that knows us fully, in the fullest truth about us – yet accepts, receives and delights in us fully. This love has taken on our unrighteousness to make us righteous.

 God’s joy is to see us live fully in the truth of who He is, who we are and who He has made/called us to be.He does not take joy in our sin, but our sin and unrighteousness cannot stop or change his love for us. When the full truth and the full love of God hit us at the same time – we discover a joy that sets us free from self-righteousness and self-condemnation to love as we have been loved. 

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. Do you tend to be a “love person” or a “truth person”? How does this reveal itself in your relationships?

2. Where do you most struggle see how we can be 100% truth and 100% love people? ]

3. How is it that we can find joy in the unrighteousness and sin we see in others? How do we see this at work in our divided culture? How have you seen this at work in your own heart?

4. If the opposite of joy is grief, what does it look like to be grieved by the unrighteousness we see in others? Make it personal – how can your own moral superiority or indifference be turned to grief in a sin/wrong you see in others? This could be a personal or cultural wrong/unrighteousness.

5. How does the gospel turn up God’s truth dial to 100%? How does it at the same time turn up God’s love dial to 100%? Which dial is usually turned up highest for you? [It may be helpful onsider what happens when we have God’s truth dial turned up louder than His love and vice versa.  

6. Consider the following applications – which do you most need to grow in?

• If we love the issue or cause more than the people affected by the wrong/unrighteousness… it’s not love.

• If we enjoy pointing out wrong, or if we are eager and quick to do so… it’s not love.

• If we rarely rejoice over the good in others (even our opponents)… it’s not love.

• If we are not able to see the truth about a person’s wrongdoing in the context of the greater, whole truth of the person (a person’s story, situation, suffering, etc)… it’s not love.

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Love Is Kind (Jan 24, 2021)

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

Introduction: In many ways we have started this year as confused, divided, and unsettled as we ended last year. As we look to the future as a church, people, and country, where should we turn? We might think we live in a peculiar time of division and despair, but in 1 Corinthians, Paul encouraged a church in a similar situation. The Corinthians were not only divided by who they followed, but also about what they emphasized. What we can learn from Paul is that it is easy to lose sight of what can guide us through our differences. We might have good intentions or concerned theology, but when we don’t have love, we miss out on everything that God intends for us. Love, according to the Bible, is the most excellent way.

The True Power of Kindness | If you were asked what the most powerful force in the world is, you would probably not respond “kindness.” If you are a Christian, you might even respond with something like truth, persuasion, sacrifice, or miracles. However, Paul makes a case for unmatched power of kindness. In 1 Corinthians 13:4 Paul coins a new verb (chresteuetai) from the noun form of kindness (chrestos). He did this to get the point across that kindness is not primarily a concept, an inward feeling, or a force out there, but “love in action.” We need to remember that Paul wrote this chapter as a rebuke to a divided church, and not as an abstract description of love. He was telling them that they were missing the unmatched power of love in action because they lacked kindness.

Last week we looked at love as patience, and this week we are considering love as kindness. Notice that patience and kindness are the only two positive descriptions (“love is…”) Paul attributes to love. Every other description is negative (love is not…). What Paul is saying is that patience and kindness are two sides of the same coin. Genuine love has both. Patience is the restraining side of love, while kindness is the active side of love. What’s remarkable is how Paul puts forward patience and kindness as having the power to heal and restore even the messiest and most difficult of situations and relationships.

1. The Strength of Kindness – To grasp the true strength of kindness first we need to clear up some misconceptions about what kindness is.

A. Kindness is Tenderhearted (not nice) – Kindness is not merely goodness done to another person, but goodness that comes from a tender heart (Eph 4:32). This means that kindness is the strength to let other people and their needs into our hearts. By contrast, consider niceness. We ought not completely denigrate being nice, but we ought to realize how easy it is to be nice while also remaining at a “safe” distance from others. It is actually quite easy to be nice and hard-hearted or closed off to others. Often, we are nice just to keep people from bothering us. Remember that the Bible never describes God as nice, but kind. Niceness doesn’t require much strength, but kindness requires the strength to let others’ needs, hurts and concerns into our hearts.

 B. Kindness is Gentle (not weak) – Kindness is not merely doing or saying the right thing, but gently doing or saying the right thing (Titus 3:2). Kindness does not take the weak or timid way of not speaking or acting when love requires. Rather, kindness takes the way of action. But it is action with caution knowing everyone is subject to the brokenness and difficulty in life as we are. Weakness takes the way of inaction. Action without kindness responds to disagreement and tension with anger, irritability, or rudeness. Kindness is the strength of gentle action. Kindness like this has the strength to turn away wrath (Prov. 15:1) and put out fires - even fires you did not create.

C. Kindness is Gracious (not courteous) – Being courteous is about giving people the respect they deserve, but kindness is about doing good to people even when they deserve otherwise. Of course, everyone possesses dignity by virtue of being made in God’s image. But we all know when some people don’t deserve our kindness! Perhaps you have clashed with someone and their irritability and rudeness prompted you to respond in kind. It takes great strength to move beyond being courteous to being graciously kind. But kindness like this has great power. In fact, it has been shown that the strongest predictor of marital strength and stability is kindness (see the work of marriage expert John Gottman). True strength is required to show grace towards those that have offended you and who don’t deserve your kindness – but kindness like this is what strengths and sustains relationships for a lifetime.

2. The Strength For Kindness – How do we get the strength for kindness like this?

A. Confronted – Romans 2:1-4 says there are two types of people in the world: those who despise God’s kindness, and those who recognize it and repent. We must first be confronted by God’s kindness to us to become kind ourselves. Despite our sin and lack of love, God has been tenderhearted, gentle and gracious to us beyond what we will ever know! It is God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance! The confrontation that leads us to genuine change and transformation is a confrontation with God’s kindness. At the cross we see 1) the judgment we deserve and 2) the kindness we’ve been give.  Christianity says how can someone who has been confronted by the kindness of God, tell anyone else that they are unworthy of our own kindness?! 

B. Compelled – Because of God’s kindness to us, we are compelled to be kind to others. The compelling nature of Christianity is not in commands, strictness, or guilt, but the person of Jesus Christ. He is kindness in action! We need not ask what is love, as if just need a clearer definition - but who is love. Though we were once lost, disobedient, and enslaved by sin (Titus 3:3-4) Jesus became love in action, love in person for us. Only those of us that have truly experienced the kindness of God to us in Christ – at our worst - will be strong enough to be truly kind to others – even at their worst. Let us go into the world with a new awareness of the power for kindness that we have in Christ. Love is patient, love is kind… what about you? . 

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. How is Paul’s teaching about kindness and love in 13 relevant to you? Are you challenged or convicted?

2. Have you ever considered patience and kindness as the most powerful characteristics of a Christian? What other characteristics have you considered important in your life (truth, sacrifice, prayer)? How would these all work together?

3. Consider the Greek word for kindness “chrestos” and how Paul coins the verb form “chresteuetai” to communicate the kindness is love in action. What does this say about biblical kindness? Is this how you have traditionally understood kindness? 

4. Can you think of a time recently in which you were nice but not tenderhearted? How does this connect with your overall view of vulnerability in relationships?

5. Read Proverbs 15:1. What is the connection between gentleness and turning away wrath? Do you have a story when you have done this successfully?

6. Marriage expert John Gottman mentions a difference between “masters” and “disasters.” Masters scan people for things they can appreciate and be thankful for, while disasters scan for people’s mistakes and what needs to be criticized. Do you agree with his assessment or not? How does this relate to biblical kindness?

7. Read Romans 2:1-4. What does it mean that God’s kindness leads us to repentance? Where do you most need God’s kindness? What does that say about how we should treat other? How do we do this without being regarded as passive or weak?

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