What Christian Love is Really Like (Romans 12:10a)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:04.919 Let's give our attention to God's word. If you're able, please remain standing. 2 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:16.910 Let's hear Romans Chapter Twelve. We're moving on carefully and through this section, 3 00:00:18.949 --> 00:00:22.660 but I'm going to I'm going to be focusing on the on verse ten, 4 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:27.059 the first part of verse ten, but let's read nine through thirteen. 5 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:38.329 Romans twelve, verse nine. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, 6 00:00:39.009 --> 00:00:43.369 hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection. 7 00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:48.649 Out Do one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, 8 00:00:48.969 --> 00:00:54.719 be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient 9 00:00:54.880 --> 00:01:00.280 and tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints 10 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:06.750 and seek to show hospitality. Ay God bless his word to us. Please 11 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:17.709 be seated. So, as I mentioned, the focus for the sermon this 12 00:01:17.950 --> 00:01:23.099 morning is verse ten, the first sentence of verse ten, and the English 13 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:27.819 Standard version it's translated to love one another with brotherly affection. If you have 14 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:34.010 a different translations you'll see different versa or different ways of expressing this. It's 15 00:01:34.329 --> 00:01:38.530 a little bit difficult to translate. We'll talk about that in a moment, 16 00:01:38.849 --> 00:01:42.530 but the basic idea is really simple. We're talking about love. We're talking 17 00:01:42.569 --> 00:01:48.359 about love for the brothers. That's what really a much of this whole section 18 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:53.000 is all about. It begins. Let love be genuine, sincere love, 19 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:59.840 not faked, not pretended, but love. And here Paul's giving us instructions 20 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:04.030 on how we should think about each other when we come to church on Sunday 21 00:02:04.030 --> 00:02:08.509 mornings or really any other time of the week. But let's think about love 22 00:02:08.789 --> 00:02:14.389 for a moment. In English we have a collection of words that allow us 23 00:02:14.430 --> 00:02:19.259 to express different kinds of love, different loves that we feel and experience. 24 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:23.860 Imagine, for example, there's a young man who meets a young lady at 25 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:29.340 Church. He strikes up a conversation. She's good looking, she's fun to 26 00:02:29.379 --> 00:02:32.490 talk to, she seems interested in him. They go on a date, 27 00:02:32.889 --> 00:02:36.729 and another and another and another, and you get you come up to him 28 00:02:36.729 --> 00:02:39.330 and you say, Hey, how are things going? He says they're going 29 00:02:39.569 --> 00:02:44.960 well, but how well? Do you ask? And now he has the 30 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:49.240 some options right. How is he going to express how things are going? 31 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:53.840 What will he say? Is He fond of her or is he in love 32 00:02:53.879 --> 00:03:00.949 with her? Does he highly esteem her or does he adore her? Is 33 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:08.430 he fascinated or captivated? Is he affectionate or adoring or bewitched? We have 34 00:03:08.509 --> 00:03:14.939 a lot of fun terms, ways to describe the ways that we feel. 35 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:20.300 These words and many others like them help us to express our feelings of love, 36 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:24.139 help us to express the different kinds of relationships that we have. Well, 37 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:28.409 I point this out to say that it's the same in Greek. As 38 00:03:28.449 --> 00:03:32.770 Paul writes here and throughout the New Testament, he talks about love in different 39 00:03:32.810 --> 00:03:38.090 ways. Here Paul uses some specific Greek words to help us understand how you 40 00:03:38.370 --> 00:03:44.159 and I ought to feel about one another, but what our relationship is like 41 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:49.520 and what are your relationship lot is like with one another, how we should 42 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:57.270 feel towards one another in the church. So what does Paul say? First, 43 00:03:57.310 --> 00:03:59.870 let me give it to you in Greek, because I think it'll make 44 00:03:59.909 --> 00:04:09.310 the explanation easier. Paul says to be Philostoregu to one another with Phil Philadelphia. 45 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:15.580 Okay, he says be philos store, go to one another with Philadelphia. 46 00:04:15.659 --> 00:04:19.220 Those are our two words to be thinking about now. You probably recognize 47 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:25.569 Philadelphia. It's the name of one of our great American cities and, as 48 00:04:25.649 --> 00:04:30.209 you may know, the Greek word refers to love between brothers or sisters. 49 00:04:30.730 --> 00:04:34.970 That's why Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love. But the word 50 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:41.560 Philadelphia wasn't just restricted to blood brothers. Indeed, a city could be filled 51 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:46.399 with that kind of love, and we know from ancient inscriptions that the Greeks 52 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:51.000 would use this term to describe any kind of close family like relationship, even 53 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:56.310 if it was outside of the family. So you might say of a you 54 00:04:56.350 --> 00:05:00.069 might belong to an association or have membership in some group, and talk about 55 00:05:00.189 --> 00:05:05.990 these people as and there your relationship with one another as Philadelphia. You might 56 00:05:06.069 --> 00:05:10.699 call them a brother or sister, or call someone even a mother or a 57 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:15.819 father in their relationship with the group. Now Paul uses the word in this 58 00:05:15.939 --> 00:05:20.649 way because he wants us to think about this in this way. With the 59 00:05:20.810 --> 00:05:27.850 church. There are lots of differences that we have between us. Some of 60 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:31.370 us are related, we come here as families, but we are many ways 61 00:05:31.490 --> 00:05:35.839 not related to one another, no family connections. And yet he wants us 62 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:41.040 to think of think about each other as brothers. The love that we are 63 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:45.040 to have for each other is like the love of two siblings. We are 64 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:48.079 to think about each other is being close related, cut from the same cloth, 65 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:54.189 even though we may have only recently met. We don't know what the 66 00:05:54.269 --> 00:05:58.550 other person's favorite sports team is yet, we don't know what method of schooling 67 00:05:58.629 --> 00:06:02.589 they prefer. All of that sort of goes by the wayside when we find 68 00:06:02.629 --> 00:06:08.980 out someone is a Christian, a brother, a sister. Well, in 69 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:14.420 the deficition to Philadelphia, Paul uses a second word to strengthen our understanding of 70 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:19.850 the family bond that we share in Christ Philo storego. Now this word is 71 00:06:20.009 --> 00:06:25.250 not a noun, but it's it's a participle. For you grammar of fiends, 72 00:06:25.449 --> 00:06:30.410 and it's functioning like a command, like a verb, and sometimes translated 73 00:06:30.569 --> 00:06:38.000 heartfelt affection, and the ESV translates that way. Translate its translates it that 74 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:43.160 way. But really it's much more. It's much more than tender affection or 75 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:47.670 heart affection. There's a classic article by BB Warfield. You can find it 76 00:06:47.750 --> 00:06:53.269 online. It's called the terminology of love and the New Testament. It's very 77 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:59.470 good. What he shows there is that Philistorgo or Phil Storegu or it's related 78 00:06:59.509 --> 00:07:03.899 words, has this kind of family meaning. It's often used of a love 79 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:11.220 that is natural and obligator or in the closest of social bonds. So, 80 00:07:11.420 --> 00:07:15.180 for example, it's sometimes used in a way to speak of a mother's love 81 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:19.490 for her child or a father's love for his child. It's a kind of 82 00:07:19.689 --> 00:07:27.290 love that you expect to be there because of the relationships and your surprised when 83 00:07:27.329 --> 00:07:31.399 it's absent. So, for example, when Isaiah says can a woman forget 84 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:35.439 her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her 85 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:41.160 womb, the point is that it's not just that the child is weak and 86 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:46.509 needy, but that it's hers. How could she forget because it's her child? 87 00:07:46.990 --> 00:07:54.670 There's a natural loving obligation in that relationship. Or, as Warfield puts 88 00:07:54.709 --> 00:08:01.540 it, it's not the word Phillistore Goo is not precisely the strength or tenderness 89 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:07.540 of love, but rather it's meaning is found in its obligatoryiness, in its 90 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:13.970 natural necessity under circumstances. This is the term for love which cements social units 91 00:08:15.050 --> 00:08:18.810 together. It is the love which is due from people one to another in 92 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:26.800 those kinds of relationships. So when Paul Rides be Phillistore Gu with one another, 93 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:31.879 it or be Phillistore Goo to one another, with Philadelphia. What does 94 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:37.360 he mean, essentially Paul saying that Christians are to love each other like brothers 95 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:43.149 and sisters who not only feel a loving fair, a loving association, but 96 00:08:43.269 --> 00:08:48.950 also a loving obligation. There's a kind of natural connection that he wants us 97 00:08:48.990 --> 00:08:52.549 to feel together. These are family members. We don't just relate to one 98 00:08:52.590 --> 00:09:00.100 another because we're similar, because there are as great similarities, but there's obligation 99 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:05.259 and duty, not just in a kind of dry and boring way, but 100 00:09:05.379 --> 00:09:15.570 in a loving, loving way. Sometimes young couples wonder will the Magic Go 101 00:09:15.649 --> 00:09:20.690 Away? How could I be committed to someone thirty, forty, fifty years 102 00:09:20.730 --> 00:09:28.240 from now? What happens when our interests change? What happens when the SKIN 103 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:35.039 STARTS TO SAG? What happens when our lifestyles and our circumstances change? How 104 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:43.870 can we still be in love? Because some in relationships are entered into because 105 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:50.750 we love other really other times we love because of the relationship. A man 106 00:09:50.029 --> 00:09:56.820 loves his wife because she's his wife. He has no other, he wants 107 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:01.460 no other. She belongs to him and he belongs to her. She is 108 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:09.610 his love, he is her love. Parents and children, all kinds of 109 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:13.610 examples you can think of. There's nothing dry, there's nothing boring about that. 110 00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:24.720 It's wonderfully romantic, it's wonderful and it's that kind of obligation and natural 111 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:30.600 connections, cemented together with love, that we are to be thinking about when 112 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:33.799 we walk through the doors of the church in the morning. We say, 113 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:37.669 who are these people that I'm going to see? I'm going to see my 114 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:46.750 brothers be loving toward one another, have that kind of heartfelt tenderness, family 115 00:10:46.990 --> 00:10:58.940 tenderness and connection to one another with brotherly love. I think it's worth saying 116 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:05.769 this idea is not just found here, but you find it out the Bible. 117 00:11:05.970 --> 00:11:11.049 Just focusing on the New Testament. Listen to a few verses, Galatians 118 00:11:11.610 --> 00:11:16.129 Thirteen. For you are called to freedom, brothers only. Do not use 119 00:11:16.169 --> 00:11:20.799 your freedom as an opportunity to for the flesh, but, through love, 120 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:28.159 serve one another or relation or a hebrews thirteen one. Let brotherly love continue. 121 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:33.470 First, Peter One hundred and twenty two, having purified your souls by 122 00:11:33.549 --> 00:11:39.750 your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly 123 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:46.549 and from a pure heart. That's Peter saying very much what Paul says about 124 00:11:46.669 --> 00:11:52.220 genuine love. Sincere love for the brothers. Or listen to these strong words 125 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:58.860 from John and First John Twenty. If anyone says I love God and hates 126 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:03.009 his brother, he is a liar, for he does not love his brother, 127 00:12:03.169 --> 00:12:07.529 whom he for. He who does not love his brother, whom he 128 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:13.370 has seen, cannot love god, whom he has not seen. Over and 129 00:12:13.490 --> 00:12:18.320 over and over again, this family language, family imagery, is used, 130 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:24.120 the commands we read over and over. In fact, they're so common perhaps 131 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:28.200 you've forgotten about them in a way, perhaps they've sort of slipped under the 132 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:33.190 radar or faded into the background. Is just part of the texture of the 133 00:12:33.269 --> 00:12:37.190 New Testament that we assume. But here we focus it on the on it 134 00:12:37.269 --> 00:12:41.429 this morning is Paul draws our attention to it. Love one another with brotherly 135 00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:48.940 affection, think about one another that way, those ways. It's a good 136 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:52.860 moment to stop up and ask ourselves, do we think about one another in 137 00:12:52.940 --> 00:13:01.250 this way and if we don't, how might we more one way is thinking 138 00:13:01.289 --> 00:13:05.970 about the basis on which all of this is true. Paul's not just throwing 139 00:13:07.129 --> 00:13:11.649 out terms or speaking in a overly romantic way to kind of drum up support 140 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:18.039 for the cause. He's talking about a reality. We are brothers because we 141 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:24.879 are brothers, we are sisters and brothers and siblings with one another, because 142 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:30.990 that's the truth. Why is that the truth? Because we share a father. 143 00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:37.429 We read in God's word that it's in Jesus Christ that we have become 144 00:13:37.149 --> 00:13:43.940 sons of God. Through faith, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we 145 00:13:45.220 --> 00:13:52.620 become sons of God, adopted but still owning and having to us all the 146 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:56.049 rights of Sonship, all the rights of belonging, and we have the right 147 00:13:56.370 --> 00:14:01.649 to know God and to call him our father, who are in heaven. 148 00:14:03.809 --> 00:14:07.850 We belong to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through Jesus is work on 149 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:13.080 the Cross, By God sending His only Begotten Son, This Eternally Begotten Son. 150 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:18.679 He has brought all of us into this family. That's a reality. 151 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:26.149 That's something that has happened in time and space. Jesus Christ bought US and 152 00:14:26.590 --> 00:14:31.629 brought us into the family of God, and when we put our faith in 153 00:14:31.750 --> 00:14:37.950 him, we're no longer strangers and aliens and children of Wrath, as Paul 154 00:14:37.029 --> 00:14:46.899 says in Ephesians. We become sons and daughters of God. So Ephesians fought 155 00:14:46.019 --> 00:14:52.100 one five in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through 156 00:14:52.179 --> 00:14:56.730 Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. And again, to 157 00:14:56.850 --> 00:15:01.450 refer to the Lord's prayer, remember that Jesus doesn't sell us to pray my 158 00:15:01.769 --> 00:15:05.049 father, who are in heaven, though that's certainly true. He says, 159 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:13.679 pray our father. We're brothers because we belong to one another. We are 160 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:20.159 under this same father. And how we came to share in the father is. 161 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.909 Is this most precious truth. First, John Three one. See what 162 00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:28.509 kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children 163 00:15:28.549 --> 00:15:35.019 of God. And so we are love the way John Puts that, beloved. 164 00:15:35.139 --> 00:15:39.980 We are God's children now, and what we will be has not that 165 00:15:41.059 --> 00:15:45.259 appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, 166 00:15:45.620 --> 00:15:50.049 because we shall see him as he is. Why shall we be like 167 00:15:50.169 --> 00:15:56.690 Jesus? Because he's our brother, he's we are being made into his image, 168 00:15:56.730 --> 00:16:03.169 we are being brought into the family. Now some people may still want 169 00:16:03.210 --> 00:16:04.960 to protest this. They mays want to say, well, I can see 170 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:10.559 that we may have similar births, that we might be associated to with one 171 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:15.559 another, but can we go so far as to talk about obligation. We 172 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:22.190 can. One reason is because the nature of the family of God is in 173 00:16:22.389 --> 00:16:29.029 some ways different from the nature of our families here on earth. When my 174 00:16:29.269 --> 00:16:33.259 brother and I grew up together, we live together for a time, but 175 00:16:33.340 --> 00:16:37.299 the ultimate goal was in some ways to separate, to go out and become 176 00:16:37.340 --> 00:16:41.460 our own men, establish our own families. We still keep in contact and 177 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:45.179 in some ways we're even closer now than we were when we were kids, 178 00:16:45.379 --> 00:16:52.450 which I thank God for, because we weren't very close as kids. But 179 00:16:52.570 --> 00:16:55.450 Anyway, my point is is that there's a way in which we which, 180 00:16:55.529 --> 00:17:00.049 in our human families, we separate right brothers and sisters tend to spread out, 181 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:08.200 not always but sometimes. But as Christians there's no sort of next step. 182 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:14.759 As sons and daughters of God, we are eternally in this position, 183 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:21.950 eternally children of the heavenly father and therefore eternally brothers and sisters to one another 184 00:17:22.549 --> 00:17:26.789 in the household of God. Our goal is not to gain independence from our 185 00:17:26.869 --> 00:17:32.140 father and become fathers on our own. Our goal is to me remain ever 186 00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:37.779 dependent children. That's a good thing. In the family of God, of 187 00:17:37.900 --> 00:17:41.299 course we want to grow up in maturity and strength and all of that. 188 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:48.730 But in this relationship sense we will always, always, always, always, 189 00:17:49.609 --> 00:17:56.690 have God as our father, watching over us, taking care of us some 190 00:17:56.890 --> 00:18:00.200 of us, some of us have good fathers, some of us have bad 191 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:07.440 fathers, some of us have deceased fathers, but God is eternally good and 192 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:14.230 eat and always an eternally living. He's a father who will always be our 193 00:18:14.349 --> 00:18:21.670 father, and that means that we will always be siblings. Our goal is 194 00:18:21.750 --> 00:18:26.069 not to go off and become independent from one another, but to grow up 195 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:33.059 together forever in this family, and that creates a kind of obligation, a 196 00:18:34.380 --> 00:18:41.490 living to with one another, a striving together under the Lord God. A 197 00:18:41.650 --> 00:18:45.329 second reason it has to go as far as obligation is that the union we 198 00:18:45.529 --> 00:18:52.930 share with one another is not merely relational, but it's spiritual. The Holy 199 00:18:53.130 --> 00:19:00.680 Spirit who unites us to Christ also unites us with one another. So that 200 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:04.319 means to break our bond with one another or to deny it is to cut 201 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:10.390 the cord of life. That's why John Speaks in such strong terms. You 202 00:19:10.509 --> 00:19:15.390 can't say I'm born of God and I hate my brother. They simply don't 203 00:19:15.430 --> 00:19:21.029 work. It's like saying a hand is a part of the body that is 204 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:26.619 cut off from the body. It just doesn't work that way. The Union 205 00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:30.779 that we have with Christ through the Holy Spirit is the same spirit that unifies 206 00:19:30.940 --> 00:19:37.890 us together in the bond of love. Our obligation extends to one another, 207 00:19:38.049 --> 00:19:45.210 because there's no life with Christ that excludes his people, that excludes his body, 208 00:19:45.450 --> 00:19:49.650 that excludes his church. Now, sure, some people resist this, 209 00:19:49.970 --> 00:19:56.359 but they resist reality. Branches of a tree might pretend to be independent of 210 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:06.000 one another, but they're not. And one final reason why we're obligated to 211 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:10.309 one another is the pattern of the very son of God, the pattern of 212 00:20:10.390 --> 00:20:15.069 Jesus. His Bond of love toward us must be present between us, because 213 00:20:15.349 --> 00:20:19.509 that's the pattern, that's the path that he is set. Again, turning 214 00:20:19.589 --> 00:20:26.779 to first John, chapter three, see what kind of love the father has 215 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:30.500 given to us that we should be called the children of God, and so 216 00:20:30.740 --> 00:20:33.660 we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it 217 00:20:33.859 --> 00:20:38.650 did not know him. Beloved. We are God's children now, and what 218 00:20:38.849 --> 00:20:44.690 we will be has not yet appeared. John goes on to say that it's 219 00:20:44.730 --> 00:20:48.609 because of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he came to do for us, 220 00:20:48.089 --> 00:20:52.759 because of his dying on the cross because of his giving of his love in 221 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:56.880 this way, that we should in turn go and love brothers in the same 222 00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:03.200 way. How can you, who is who have received this sonship with God 223 00:21:03.309 --> 00:21:10.349 through Jesus, now go and treat your brothers and sisters in this poor way? 224 00:21:14.750 --> 00:21:19.059 I say all this in such a strong way so that you have this 225 00:21:19.339 --> 00:21:25.619 lens that you can just drop in front of your eyes when you walk through 226 00:21:25.660 --> 00:21:27.700 the front doors of the church, when you're waking up in the morning and 227 00:21:27.900 --> 00:21:33.410 thinking about what it is you are going to do, that you can have 228 00:21:33.730 --> 00:21:40.450 rightly set in your mind this biblical framework that when we come together, we 229 00:21:40.569 --> 00:21:45.049 come together as a family. Now, sometimes that's great. We love being 230 00:21:45.170 --> 00:21:48.160 together as a family. We sit down, we eat, we share, 231 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:52.960 we laugh, we can lean on one another, we can cry on one 232 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:57.079 another, we can support one another in difficult times. Other Times it's our 233 00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:03.589 real pain. It's a real difficulty to deal with people you're stuck with that 234 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:11.950 you don't like and are unfair and they're mean and I'm noxious. But you 235 00:22:12.069 --> 00:22:18.539 know what, isn't it true that a lot of our sanctification comes not by 236 00:22:18.140 --> 00:22:23.059 being alone, by ourselves, meditating on a pillow somewhere in the forest, 237 00:22:23.980 --> 00:22:29.539 but by bumping up against one another. Is it true that we really learn 238 00:22:29.740 --> 00:22:33.490 patients not when we're all by ourselves, sitting quietly, but when we're dealing 239 00:22:33.529 --> 00:22:40.849 with someone WHO's trying us? Isn't it true that we learn love when someone's 240 00:22:40.930 --> 00:22:47.519 not very lovable, that we learn kindness and hospitality with people that are difficult 241 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:51.440 to be hospitable with? Now, of course, right now you're thinking about 242 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:56.519 all those other people, but remember you are sometimes the difficult person. You 243 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:00.789 are sometimes the difficult person to host and to get along with and to be 244 00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:06.029 generous to and all kinds of other things. It's true, isn't it? 245 00:23:07.069 --> 00:23:11.859 But that's in some ways okay, because we have a bond that goes beyond 246 00:23:12.299 --> 00:23:21.220 momentary circumstances and sometimes even see whole seasons of life. In Christ we have 247 00:23:21.380 --> 00:23:27.690 a bond that is eternal and cemented by the Holy Spirit, he himself, 248 00:23:30.089 --> 00:23:37.329 and in that way we can look on people and people can look on us 249 00:23:37.210 --> 00:23:44.359 in difficult times, in trying times, and we stick together, we work 250 00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:49.480 through it, we work it out, not because we're merely associated with one 251 00:23:49.519 --> 00:24:00.950 another, but because there's brotherly love, sisterly love, heavenly love. Let's 252 00:24:00.990 --> 00:24:07.029 pray together, ask that God would help us to grow closer to one another, 253 00:24:07.630 --> 00:24:10.980 that he'd pour out his spirit on us, that we might be one. 254 00:24:11.339 --> 00:24:11.980 Let us pray