Not by the Rules We Keep

Not by the Rules We Keep:

The whole world is watching how we love one another. Jesus gave the world the right to judge the authenticity of our faith by how much we love other believers. We prove our faith in Christ, not by the rules we keep, but by the love we give. Notice Jesus didn't say, “Love me,” as proof of our discipleship. He said, “Love one another, and that will show the world you belong to me.” Our love for one another is a tangible reflection of God's love, allowing the world to witness the power of transformed lives. Before we could ever engage our neighbours about the truth of Christ, we already are telling them about God's love by the way we love each other. Until the world sees the love of God modelled in Christian community, they're going to have trouble believing it could ever exist.

When we care as Christ for one another, we show the world a love so authentic and contagious that they can't help but be attracted to it.  The world is desperate for love and a sense of community, and we're meant to be the salt (Matthew 5:13) that increases their thirst for the living water John 4:10. “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” John 7:38.

Community requires unity – Our love for one another shows the world our unity with the Father, and also shows them that community requires unity, an oneness about the purposes of life. Jesus says, “I want all (my disciples) to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me” John 17:21CEV. We make a statement about God by the way we love one another. It may be a positive statement or it may be a negative one, but the fact is that people often form their opinions of God based upon our individual reputation, “You may be the only picture of Jesus people will ever see.” Or they may form their opinion of God based upon the reputation of our congregations - how we get along, how we support each other, how we criticize, how we love one another.

(Written by Jon Walker)

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Jon Walker is the managing editor of Rick Warren's Daily Hope Devotionals and a senior editor at pastors.com. He is also the author of In Visible Fellowship: A Contemporary View of Bonhoeffer's Classic Work 'Life Together' and Costly Grace: A Contemporary View of Bonhoeffer's 'The Cost of Discipleship'. Prior to present times, Jon was vice president of communications at Purpose Driven Ministries and Editor-in-Chief of HomeLife magazine, published by LifeWay Christian Resources. Jon's website is GraceCreates.com, where you can find his free devotionals and the Costly Grace blog. Twitter. Facebook. You can contact Jon at jonwalker@gracecreates.com.

 

Spiritual Soul Food

Spiritual Soul Food:

Anorexia and bulimia are mind-crippling diseases that only function where food is plentiful. There are way too many starving people on this Earth, but most of them can't help it. Where they live there is not enough food to go around. It is ironically tragic that people can starve to death in the midst of plenty. What happens in the physical world is almost always an illustration of something like it in spiritual realms. And in spiritual terms, there is nothing more tragic than to have Christians starving spiritually with an overabundance of Bibles and teachers everywhere.

 

John admits that he doesn’t know a lot about anorexia and bulimia, but only knows that they are fueled by a culture that glorifies being thin, and that those who purposely starve themselves have a false view of themselves as being overweight. They look in the mirror and see a fat person regardless of how thin they are. The spiritual implications are obvious here as well. Our culture is awash in its own shallowness. We even glory in it. Shallowness and stupidity are celebrated in many of our most popular movies.

 

I worry that as democracies begin to flourish around the world, it seems that the lifestyle of American culture goes along with them through the power of music and entertainment. We are exporting our own emptiness. And yet when we look at ourselves in a spiritual way, we look fat with so much cultural Christianity. Never in history has a culture looked more Christian while being so spiritually dead. We are, indeed, the spiritually anorexic.

 

What changes this picture is a commitment to the truth of God's Word and a constant diet of it in our spiritual lives. And you have to do this yourself. No one can save an anorexic person; each has to decide to eat. The Word of God is spiritual soul food, and if you are spiritually starved, that's only because you are not eating. We need to get a more realistic view of ourselves. We may look fat to ourselves, but in truth, we are thin, near death, and we need to eat - and food is plentiful.

Just pick up your Bible and eat.

 

(Written by John Fischer)

 

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John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife and son.  John is also a published author and songwriter.