Imitation and Arrogance

 

“Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.” (3 John 1:11)

Diotrephes refused to give shelter and food to Christians passing through his town. This happened often enough that John was compelled to write about him in his third letter. This one-chapter epistle is about what Diotrephes was doing, how he viewed himself, and what the good Christ-follower should be and do.

John began by commending Gaius for what Christians are expected to be and do—be hospitable to traveling teachers of Christ. Gaius’ actions came from his relationship with and obedience of Jesus and were the baseline of what was expected of Christ-followers.

After setting the example, John juxtaposed the alternative with Diotrophes’ actions and attitude. Diotrephes refused to receive instruction about being hospitable to traveling Christ-followers.  To John, this signaled an arrogance problem. That arrogance led Diotrephes to feel self-important and tout it aloud by slandering traveling evangelists. His heart problem led to a speech problem. Diotrophes’ heart problem led to an action problem; he refused to give shelter, sustenance, and support to Christian travelers. He farthered this attitude by forbidding his congregants to offer hospitality and excommunicating those who gave shelter and food against his command.

Diotrophes had a “me” problem. He determined church law is what he demanded. For Diotrophes, church actions were what he approved. What he commanded, said, and did was the “law.”

John’s example of Diotrophes taught a succinct Christian truth. He wrote, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God” (vs 11). John applied Jesus’ teaching of the two greatest commandments from Matthew 22:36-40. He made a teachable moment. Loving God and your neighbor includes giving shelter, sustenance, and support, at the minimum, to fellow believers.

John’s letter, directed to rebuke Diotrophes, provided edification and commendation. He taught believers should be hospitable. Additionally, John commended Gaius and Demetrius by using them as the example of how a Christ-follower should speak, act, and consider themselves compared to others.

From this short letter, we are led to consider how God is prompting us. Do we need an attitude/heart change, so we are more like Jesus? Do we need to alter how we live and what we say so we act and speak like our Savior? Do we need to grow more in our relationship with God? These questions should be part of your daily time(s) with God.

 Where do you not have a heart like Christ? In what area of life do you regard yourself as the authority? What are you doing and saying that does not imitate Jesus or look like what He taught?

Do you look and sound like Jesus, Gaius, and Demetrius or like Diotrophes?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-39)

Bearing and Forgiving: The Example

 

“Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13)

Bearing means to endure or tolerate a person and his or her actions, opinions, etc. It is a stance of not judging because of your respect for him or her as a creation of God, one loved by Him. Bearing comes from living out visibly and tangibly what God has put into you from His being and His indwelling Holy Spirit. Because we are “raised with Christ,” as Paul stated, we are enabled to bear with each person if we are willing to do that which God compels us. We can simplify this action and attitude of bearing with a slogan from the 1980s-2000s, “What would Jesus do”—WWJD.

Paul wrote we are to bear each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ—their various attitudes, actions, thoughts, words, etc. Still, he added to that. He specifically added that we are not only to bear but to “forgive any complaint.” Forgiveness is hard for any person, especially the unsaved. It should be easier for a Christian because he or she recognized and recognizes daily his or her own sins. Still though, without humility, forgiveness is hard to give. Without a willing heart, the forgiveness God puts within you will not be extended to others.

Bearing a person is easier to do. Sometimes we just grit our teeth and put up with a person (“grin and bear it”), probably while interacting very little with the person. Forgiving requires more of a person to be done. It requires humility, understanding, mercy, compassion, kindness, and acceptance of that person with whom you bear his or her opinions, actions, attitudes, etc. Forgiving is freely, willingly, and graciously extending favor, kindness, and pardon to a person who has harmed or offended you or someone else. 

Paul said forgiveness is a refusal to cast blame for “any complaint.” Forgiving is totally removing a harm from your memory of offenses, not harboring any grudges for later quarrels or arguments. Paul also recognized that forgiveness is a two-way street when he wrote, “against one another.” It takes at least two people for an offense to happen. The offense of one person by another may occur from interactions between those two people because of attitudes, words, or actions misunderstood or misstated. Therefore, forgiveness often needs to be extended by each person in the equation of offense and hurt. 

In considering offense and forgiveness, Paul summed up the ultimate example of forbearing and forgiving, in case anyone forgot and in hope they will remember it in the heat of the moment. Just as the word “bearing” should cause us to consider the ultimate reason to bear with another person and just as the word “forgiving” should cause us to think of the ultimate reason to forgive, Paul explicitly stated as reminder and prime example Jesus’ bearing with and forgiving of us, His followers. 

Even if you are so hurt or offended that you do not want to be with or think about the person by whom you took offense, remember, but for Jesus, you would not know or have freely received forgiveness. You would not have received salvation and the promise of eternal life. Your interactions with God read like a litany of charges of offense and rebellion against Him, but He extended and extends undue grace and forgiveness to you. He bears with and justifies you. God removes your sins from your name as far as the east is from the west. 

God did not have Paul write and teach that we are to do something impossible. He bore and forgave all your sins. God gave mercy and grace to you and pours into you the ability to be merciful and gracious toward other people. You can bear and forgive because of His love, of which you are the recipient and the channel to other people. 

So, be like God. By the love of God within yourself, bear with and forgive any complaint you have with one another. Are you willing? 

 

Are you forgiven and saved by Jesus? If not, now is the time to believe in Jesus, confess your sins, and receive His forgiveness.

Live It Out

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

— Colossians 3:13

 

The command from Paul to “bear with” means to endure by living out the faith God works in you and do it with calmness and composure. It’s not the “grin and bear it” determination just to get through a meal with someone who irks you. This “bearing with” is more of being a loving presence of God to the person by your example of patience, faith, and forgiveness. God bore with sinful humanity out of love. He planned the perfect method of salvation for humanity before time began, before day and night existed. One who loves so much that He plans our salvation before our sin shows great love and that love shows itself in many ways, two of which are patience and forgiveness. This kind of bearing is the example from God and Jesus that Paul commanded the Colossian church and all Christians to show each other. Without this example of bearing, we Christians would have a hard time relating to people who grate on our nerves. So, be patient— endure with love—the person who irks you or is difficult.

 

Paul then commanded them to “forgive” any complaint. Forgiveness originally comes from God. It’s a grace—a favor—He gives to us. Forgiveness is one of His characteristics and its source is God. Believers can forgive because they have received the example of forgiveness from God for their sins. They can forgive because, with that gift of forgiveness received from Him, they forgive and live in harmony with other people. Forgiveness is part of growing closer to God and growing to be more like Jesus. It’s a gift the Spirit bestows to us. God extended down to us forgiveness freely. Nobody who has ever lived or will live can ever do enough good things to earn forgiveness from God. In the same manner, believers in Jesus are to extend forgiveness freely to other people. That person who irks you shouldn’t have to do anything to earn it. 

 

The second part of this command says to forgive without complaining. Paul used a Greek word here in this verse that means forgive without casting blame or fault. Freely forgive, whether or not they know they’ve offended or hurt you. Freely extend forgiveness by living out your faith in Jesus like He modeled to and for humanity. Never did Jesus tell His Father people were unworthy. Never did He complain when people distrusted, betrayed, hurt, or spewed lies about Him. Jesus knew His task to live as God with us in daily life and God for us at His crucifixion. He did this because of His love for humanity. Jesus forgave people with His life.

 

Live out your faith in Jesus with the patience and forgiveness He has shown to you and gives to you. Live this way among people who are easy to love and those who are difficult. Do it without casting fault or blame on them in your heart, mind, words, or actions. To emphasize these commands to Christians, Paul reminded them to forgive as the Lord has done for you. You forgive others as Jesus forgave and forgives you—seventy times seven—ceaselessly and perfectly. 

 

Take time to ask God who you have not loved and forgiven as He loves and has forgiven you. Seek God’s mind and heart about this person. Live out your faith with that person first by asking God to correct your thoughts and heart about him/her. Then, in the quiet of your spirit, forgive that person without seeking that person’s fault or confession. Now, go and be with him/her as you worship, live, and minister, living as Jesus did by loving and forgiving people. Forgive as often as necessary, for bitterness in your heart can cause your relationship with God to become distant. Forgive seventy times seven. 

 

Live out in your life what God has given and keeps giving you.

The Purpose and Journey

 

“Then He [Jesus] took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.’” (Luke 18:31 [NASB])

“¹Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; ²and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. ¹⁵Therefore, be careful how you walk. ²¹Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” (Ephesians 5:1-2, 15, & 21 [NASB])

A young adult professed Jesus Christ as the Son of God. She believed in Him for salvation and confessed and repented of her sins. Later, the pastor baptized her. Before the ripples in the baptismal waters stilled, she read Ephesians 5:1-2. She wondered what it meant that she had to imitate Christ and love as He loved. The loving part would be easy, she thought, but would she have to die, experience slander and persecution, and have nothing to call her own? Fear gripped her mind and threatened to halt her daily walk with God. The next Sunday, she heard more through the sermon. The preacher spoke about the Beatitudes-blessed are the persecuted and reviled. After the turmoil rolling in her mind, she received peace. Why are the persecuted and reviled Christians blessed? They will see and be with God. They have a purpose and journey with God.

Luke wrote in Luke 18:28-34, the account of Jesus’ words to His disciples before he made His final journey to Jerusalem. Jesus told them what the prophets wrote, which soon would happen. Before He said this, though, Peter told Him he and the other disciples had left their homes and followed Him. Jesus replied to Peter’s statement by saying no one has left all behind for the sake of the kingdom who would not receive many times more now and in eternity. His statement in verses twenty-nine and thirty prepared the disciples for verses thirty-one through thirty-four. Jesus, too, left the safety of His home in heaven and would face betrayal by His earthly people, the Israelites. He left His Father’s home in heaven and the home of His birth father on earth for the sake of the kingdom of God. The key, the reason Jesus left His homes, is in verses twenty-nine and thirty-one. He did it for God’s purposes.

Consider now what Paul wrote in Ephesians 5. He taught the Christians of Ephesus (modern Turkey) to imitate God as those who looked to their Father for their example. In verse two, he added, they were to love as Christ loved. How did Christ love? He gave His life as a sacrifice for the sins of each person, as the sacrifice for people, and an offering to the Father to give righteousness to sinners. From Ephesians 5:3-21, Paul told these Christians how their lives were to be an offering and sacrifice because of love for God and people. He stated several things. The most important were from verse 18a and 21. Paul told them to “be filled with the Spirit” and “be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” By doing these, Christians could be imitators of Christ.

If you consider Ephesians 5:1 and Luke 18:31, Jesus and Paul taught, in word and by example, each Christian is to imitate Christ. Jesus would not have explained what would occur to Him soon, nor would He have told them, in reply to Peter’s statement, that His followers would receive more when following God, if He did not expect His disciples would imitate Him and incur the same treatment of hate, persecution, ostracism, and death by other people’s hands. He, to the disciples, was first their Rabbi, their Teacher. When they called Him Teacher and Lord in John 13, Jesus told them they were correct in calling Him that. So, He spoke to them as Teacher in Luke 18 and as the Savior. Jesus’ life, in the days soon after that lesson, would teach them by example what following Him required. This explains why Jesus reminded them if they gave up everything, including their homes and families, for the sake of the kingdom of God, then God would give them even more than they sacrificed for His purposes. Jesus’ example of sacrifice and submission to the Father’s purposes, to provide the sacrifice for the sin judgment of each person, would replay in their minds and spirits the rest of their lives. It would show them how, why, and of whom they would imitate (Ephesians 5). They would follow Jesus’ example because of their love for God and for people. The disciples received redemption like any other person who trusts in Jesus. They gave their hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits to God in submission because of love for Him and His purposes and because of love for people, so they could hear about the redemption from sin Jesus provided and grow to know and become more like Him daily.

With Ephesians 5:21, Paul emphasized the new meaning of submission. He said it was part of being imitators or Christ. Just as Jesus submitted to God’s plan to live and die as the sinless sacrifice and payment of the judgment of humanity’s sins, so Christians can submit to God, too. Jesus knows people cannot submit their willful and rebellious nature to God or people in their own power. His Spirit, which He gives to live in each Christian, enables the person to be as He is. Like Jesus submitted Himself to God for His purposes, though it would cause Him immeasurable physical pain and departure from His heavenly home, Christians can submit to God’s purposes of love for Him and others through His indwelling Spirit. They can do it because of reverence of Him as the One having authority over them as Teacher, Savior, and Son of God.

Jesus told the disciples what the prophets had spoken in the Old Testament about the Son of Man dying for the sins of all people, then rising to reign in heaven. Christians’ following Christ’s example by being imitators of Him in word, thought, and action would occur because of who Jesus made them to be upon their belief in Him. He would enable them to do these things for the sake of God’s kingdom by His filling them with His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Christians will desire to imitate Christ because of their love for God and for all people.

Blessed are the children of God. They will experience persecution, slander, and sometimes death, yet, see God. Yes, thought that young lady. No matter what I will face as I imitate Christ, I will see God. My greatest blessing is God Himself.

 “Be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 [NASB])

Are You Listening?

On April 16^th this year, I wrote an article called “FIRE: It’s a Relationship.” Since then, people have asked me more about FIRE and the basis for it. This article is an expansion on that article.

            John, in his gospel, writes many things. His whole book is written with the sole purpose being “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31 [NASB]). John showed throughout his book ways that we as hearers and readers could know Jesus as the Son of God. He told us his personal testimony. He told of the testimony through Jesus’ signs and miracles, through the Spirit, and through the Word (God’s inspired Word). Yet, there is something we must do. Paul in Romans 10:14-15a states it this way, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent” [NASB]? Unless we who know God personally tell others about Jesus, the salvation of the world, most will not know Jesus.

            In John 13:15, Jesus used the word “example” only once to His disciples. After being with the disciples for almost 3 years teaching them by word and action, before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. He took His tunic off and wrapped a towel around Himself as a servant would. This is the example Jesus gave His disciples; they are to be servants to each other. Jesus reinforced this "example" He showed and spoke. Later in chapter 13, Jesus told the disciples in verse 34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35, [NASB]). Previously, Jesus said He was the fulfillment of the Law but stated that they must follow the Shema. The Shema is a Jewish Law combining Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF” (Luke 10:27 [NASB]). This Jesus called the greatest commandment. At the end of His time with His disciples, He added another, John 13:34-35, they were to love each other so that all people will know they are His disciples. These two commands cover love of God, love of others (outside the faith), and love among disciples.

            How are people to know Jesus? They are to come to know Jesus by us coming to know them. In the gospel of John, John states many times that Jesus knew what people were thinking, what their past was, that they were grumbling or complaining, and that certain persons needed a miracle or sign so they could believe. Jesus knew and knows all people. Jesus spoke into their lives at the point of their need. Consider Mary and Martha. Jesus could have gone to their home in Bethany before Lazarus died, but He knew them and He wanted God to receive glory. Mary and Martha believed Jesus is God’s Son and believed there would be a resurrection on the last day. They did not know that Jesus had power over life and death. By waiting until Lazarus was truly dead (4 days after his death), Jesus’ power over life and death would not be doubted, God would be given the glory, and Mary and Martha’s faith will have grown. You can look at other miracles in John and see this same thing occur – Jesus’ power over that part of life would be revealed, God would receive glory, and the faith of people would increase or occur for the first time. Jesus knows people and what they need. He meets people at the point of their need, when they are at the end of their understanding and knowledge, so that any good/miracle that occurs can only be explained as being from God. The question remains: how are people to know Jesus?

            More often than not, people come to know Jesus through His disciples speaking truth into their lives. Let me say it again; people come to meet and know Jesus through us getting to know them. By getting to know them, we hear them tell us about themselves, their families, their interests, and their religious experiences. We listen intently and we hear where they are hurting. We hear they are human, too. We hear with our ears and with the heart that Jesus regenerated in us through His love. We hear their physical and spiritual needs. In the process of listening, we earn that person’s trust. In the process of listening to them, we remember where Jesus met our need, physically and spiritually. We remember where Jesus came to us, met us, healed us, and forgave us, and where we gave our lives to Him. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6:26 that the birds of the air wear beautiful plumage, have their food requirements met, and are sheltered in God’s beautiful trees and bushes. The birds did nothing; God provided for their needs. God will provide more so for the needs of His created people. Jesus stated that in Matthew 6. God provides for spiritual needs as well as temporal needs. Jesus built relationships or strengthened them at the point of a person’s need. He wants to be the provider of everything humankind needs. We must also build relationships and through building these new relationships and listening, we are given the opportunity by the other person to speak about Jesus and show how He has changed our lives, how He has met our needs, temporal and spiritual, and how He can be the fulfillment of all their own needs now and for eternity.

            Consider the I AM statements in John’s gospel. Jesus said seven things that John recorded. Jesus said, I AM the Bread of Life; I AM the Light of the world; I AM the gate for the sheep; I AM the good Shepherd; I AM the resurrection and the Life; and I AM the True Vine. Each of these has a temporal and spiritual element to it. Jesus came to be everything a human being ever needs –bread, light, shelter, guidance, life and hope, and eternal sustenance/salvation. Jesus is the fulfillment of all our needs before we ever know we have the need for them. God provided manna in the wilderness for the Israelites to feed them for a day. Jesus became the Bread that would feed our spiritual need forever. God gave a light of fire before the troops of Israelites as they found their way to the Promised Land. Jesus is the Light to lead us to eternal life in God’s Kingdom. God provided a gate by which to keep out the wolves. Jesus is the gate that keeps the devil and his demons out when we have given our lives to Him. God provides shepherds for the sheep who protect them, such as David was for the actual sheep of his father and for God’s people Israel. Jesus is the Shepherd who will not run away but will fight the wolves to keep us protected in His hands. He protects those who are His own. No one before Jesus had ever beaten death and come back to life. Jesus died to be victorious over death so His children would be resurrected from the grave at the end of the time. Death does not have any hold on those who call themselves His disciples. Jesus gives eternal life to His disciples. God provides sustenance and guidance now to His children. He also provides eternal life forever. God provides the eternal guidance and remembrance of all He has taught us through our lives and the ones who have gone before us through His indwelling Holy Spirit. He gives us hope and guidance as the True Vine. We are His, adopted by Him, and grafted into His vine so that nothing can separate us from Him. This is what Jesus gives us for now and eternity and what He stated in the seven I AM statements.

            We must get to know people as Jesus knows people. We must hear them express themselves, their life, and their beliefs. Only be listening will we gain their trust to speak into their lives. Only by listening will we be able to contextualize the message of Jesus’ salvation for that particular person at that specific moment in their lives. This is relationship and our telling the gospel to them after hearing is contextualizing the Gospel for them. That is how FIRE helps us. FIRE is Family, Interests, Religious experiences, and Evangelism. FIRE makes us intentional in getting to know Jesus better each day, to have a growing relationship with Him. We must have a daily relationship with Jesus where we are learning more through His Word and through prayer with Him. Without this daily relationship, we may not know a passage of Scripture a person needs to hear as they are speaking to us. FIRE lets us know a person’s thoughts on their needs so we can show them how Jesus can fill their needs here and eternally. FIRE is how Jesus met us through others and it is how He will meet other people more often than not.

            The questions now to consider include the following. How is your relationship with God? Are you close or has it been a while since you read His Word or prayed to Him? How are your listening skills? Are you a keen listener and often hear a word from God? Are you a listener of other people or do you hear some of what they say and then begin thinking about what you will say also? We must be in an active vertical relationship with God. We must also know how to have a horizontal relationship with other people. This is what Jesus did well. He was very relational and showed us by example how to be in a relationship with God ( vertical relationship) and with one another (horizontal relationship). (These two relationship beams make a cross.) Jesus died on the cross because of these relationships, obedience to the Father and love for us created human beings.

Each of us has to make a decision: are we willing to get to know people like Jesus knows each of us so we can tell them the great news of Jesus Christ?