Perfect Love

March 5, 2017 Background Scripture: 1 John 4:7 – 19 Lesson Passage: 1 John 4:7 – 19 The topic “Perfect Love” could equally be rendered “God’s Love”. Indeed, the focus of the lesson text is derived from the Greek word agape. Agape describes a type of love that can only originate in God. Christians can only attempt such a love by first appropriating it from God. Agape is so unselfishly given that only God can be the originator of it. There are two key points to be understood about agape. First it is an absolutely unselfish act of the will of the one who loves. The action is manifested in benevolently giving what is perceived to be needed by the recipient. However, the one receiving the love does not determine what the action will be but the determination is made by the one giving. The text of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”, is the supreme example of agape love. Note that God did not give the world what the world desired or requested but rather what God knew the world needed. We can only begin to comprehend the extent of His unselfish motivation by considering that God and Jesus are one. God totally gave Himself as the sacrifice for sinful mankind. Because God is spirit, He came in the person of Jesus Christ that we might know Him and to give His life as a ransom for us. It is with this as a backdrop that John admonishes Christians to appropriate from God agape love and to allow ourselves to be used by God to sacrificially give. This is the perfect love. On our part, we must surrender our will to the will of God because He is the one to show us the need that others have. We then give according to that need. In the text, John admonishes Christians to commit to agape love one for another. Since we know this can only be done by appropriating agape from God and yielding our will to His, then we are assured that loving others in this way will always give evidence of the indwelling Spirit of Christ in us. This will also establish the community of faith as one where true love is at work. Perfect love is not reciprocal from person to person but from Christians to God. In other words, we don’t love others as a reaction to anything they have done for us. Rather, we unselfishly demonstrate benevolent love to others under the direction and influence of God—and only for that reason. As we yield ourselves to God, He motivates us to act and places within us the capacity to act unselfishly to meet the needs of another. The first century church took this to such an extreme that the church at Jerusalem became impoverished because they gave all they had after they had cut off their means of obtaining more. This was very much like Jesus in that he was rich but became poor that he might enrich all, who put their trust in him, with eternal riches that are beyond this world. Today’s lesson does not lead us to such an extreme but calls us into a fellowship of brethren that has the hallmark of love defining it. This is perfect love and we are invited as Christians to willfully and with joy enter in. Robert C. Hudson February 15, 2017

Christ Creates Holy Living

February 26, 2017 Background Scripture: Galatians 5:18 – 6:10 Lesson Passage: Galatians 5:18 – 26; 6:1 – 10 The Spirit of Christ in the believer is available to empower us to live holy lives. Paul, in another letter, wrote that it is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Spirit of Christ gives us the desire and the ability to live holy lives. Christians cannot live holy on our own power. The Law proves that holy living is not attainable through sheer human will power or determination. In fact, the harder we try to live holy by keeping the Law—which is strictly obeying God’s commandments, the more we fail to live holy. There is a raging spiritual battle going on inside of every believer. The Spirit is at war against the flesh. The Spirit of Christ in us is fighting our old attitudes, desires, and actions. The Apostle Paul noted in yet another letter, every time we desire to do good things, evil is always present. But when we yield to the Spirit of Christ in us, then we see the fruit of the Spirit manifested in our lives. The characteristics of the Spiritual fruit give evidence that it is not the works of the flesh because the flesh yields the fruit of destruction. The text makes it clear that we only see the fruit of the Spirit when we yield ourselves to be led by the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ does not over power us and does not take away our will or control our mind. We still have the ability to choose right or wrong even as children of God. Christ patiently waits for us to submit to His guidance as Lord of our lives. After we submit to Christ’s lordship, then Christ manifests his presence in us through the demonstration of holy living. There are at least three things made evident in the background scripture to help us understand this. First, the text describes the difference between holy living and living according to the flesh. We can use these two lists to grade our own paper, so to speak. We can discern who is lord of our lives by examining the works or manner of living we engage in. One list suggests we are in charge and the other list is indicative that Christ is in charge. Secondly, the text gives instructions to the believer as to how we should react to a person being overcome by personal sin. The text stipulates that the instructions are only for those who are spiritual. One person walking in the flesh is ill-prepared to help another person walking in the flesh if one is overtaken by sin. As an analogy, a lifeguard should first and foremost know how to swim well enough to save himself. That is prerequisite before he or she enters the water and attempts to save a drowning person. When we first attempt to apply the principles of God’s word to our lives, then the results that show up in us will be instructive to others. This is not to say that we need to be perfect before we can assist another person. (Even a child who has completed the fifth grade can probably help a child who is struggling in the second grade.) Thirdly, the text indicates that believers should have a preference for other believers in showing hospitality. This is as Jesus taught it should be. In all of this, it is Christ who is creating holy living in us. Robert C. Hudson January 20, 2017

Freedom in Christ

February 19, 2017 Background Scripture: Galatians 5:1 – 17 Lesson Passage: Galatians 5:1 – 17 Someone once said that the essence of Christianity is the freedom to choose your own Master. Of course the premise of the thought is that no person is ever totally free—or as another philosopher quipped, no man is an island to himself. Something or someone either enslaves us or we choose to submit ourselves as servants to another. This is just as true for patriotism as it is for religion. We are either enslaved or we are submitted servants. Salvation only comes after an individual realizes they are enslaved to sin and sin is carrying them down a road to eternal destruction. Sometimes we identify more readily with addictive disorders than sin. They both have easily identified side effects once we know what to look for. As social creatures, we too often occupy ourselves with the issues of others more so than our own issues. This attitude tends to lead to counterproductive behavior in a religious context. It can cause us to want to stipulate what constitute proper actions on the part of other adherents to the religion we embrace. This was one of the problems faced by the members of the Galatian congregation during the Apostle Paul’s ministry. The Gentile members of the congregation who had accepted salvation through Christ were being told by some Jewish congregation members that their salvation was incomplete unless they followed some of the stipulations in the Mosaic Law. Paul saw this as an attempt by the Jews to burden the Christian church with the works of the Law that were ineffective in bringing the Jews into eternal salvation. Paul was adamant that salvation in Christ is complete and final and it comes through faith alone and no works of the Law can add to it. In Christ, we are free from the stipulations of the Law that govern diet, holidays, and rituals. Christianity does not enslave us to the Law but it frees us from it. Christians are free to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ without following the precepts of the Law. The Jewish Christians were not comfortable with this because they knew the importance of male circumcision to the old covenant. They were not prepared to accept that Jesus had fulfilled the righteousness required by the Law for all who put their trust in him. In Christ they were made free. Perhaps it is easier to understand this for some of us who experienced the “mourners’ bench” as children. We know as adults that we were not saved because of the “mourners’ bench” but rather because of the prayers we were taught to pray as sinners seeking God’s grace. It would be tragic and misguided for us to require all new converts to Christianity who confess Jesus as their Lord to spend a week or two on a “mourners’ bench”. If sitting on the “mourner’s bench” did not cause us to be saved, then it would be ill-advised for us to insist that new converts sit on the “mourners’ bench” to confirm their salvation. This is similar to the Jewish Christians’ insistence that the Gentile Christians be circumcised to confirm their salvation. When a person has been freed from a yoke of bondage, we should not insist they be burdened again once Christ has set them free. Robert C. Hudson January 20, 2017

New Birth Brings Freedom

February 12, 2017 Background Scripture: Galatians 4 Lesson Passage: Galatians 4:8 – 20 There are times when it seems impossible for some Christians to accept the extent to which grace abounds in working eternal salvation in us. We still want to do our part, i.e. work, in bringing about and sustaining our own salvation. Grace seems too easy from our perspective so we feel that we need to make up for the lack of a struggle or, in other words, we want to do something to earn our salvation or to at least show that we deserved it. In fact, to not have to do something is what causes some to label salvation by grace alone as a license to sin. We reason that if a person can be saved and not have to go to church or give a prescribed financial amount or openly live a certain way, then people will be tempted to accept salvation and then proceed to live their lives in any fashion they see fit. This kind of reasoning totally misses the point. Grace does not give us the license to sin but instead it gives us the license and desire to live holy. Because of grace we can drop all pretenses and live life as God calls us to. Within the Law, the Jews identified six hundred and thirteen statutes or rules to live by to exemplify holiness. They also discovered that it is impossible for a person to keep all of them because of sin in the flesh. So they further divided the statutes into those that were greater or lesser sins. The Law makes evident the sin that resides in our flesh but the Jews were attempting to minimize some sins and elevate others. Through the new birth, we have obtained the grace of God which frees us from trying to be holy by keeping the statutes in the Law. It is this freedom coupled with eternal salvation that causes angst in many. Some are so accustomed to the bondage of the Law that freedom is downright scary. Never mind that no one was keeping all of the statutes anyway. We were content to compare ourselves to each other—at least, what we know about each other. As long as we felt that we were as good as the next person, we lived as though God was going to grade us on a curve. Truthfully, we don’t really know what to do with religious freedom. Although we have received grace, we still have sin in our flesh. This sin is in constant rebellion against God and the Spirit of Christ in us. Grace has given us the desire to live holy and the Spirit gives us the power to do it. However, we are warned to not use our freedom such that it would cause a morally weaker Christian to stumble. We should exercise restraint for the benefit of others. On the other hand, we should not allow others to convince us of what they believe to be necessary for salvation aside from what God has shown us. The Law is a yoke of bondage but grace makes us free. This was the message Paul attempted to convey to the Galatians to refute the false teaching of the Jewish Christians. Their attempt to burden Christianity with the works of the Law was either unintentional error or a clear denial that the new birth brings freedom. Today, many Christians who have never been under the Law make the same error by not comprehending the unsearchable depths of grace. It is because of the grace of God that we are not constrained to obtain salvation by works and therefore, in Christ we have freedom. Robert C. Hudson January 5, 2017