Jesus intentionally brought together disciples who were very different – fishermen, tax collectors – not people who would naturally love one another. But he did this to show us what love looks like in practice. We have the privilege of putting this same kind of love on display as we love those in the body of Christ who don’t look like us.
You have no control over how your friends treat you but you have absolute control over whether your spiritual batteries are charged. If they are, you’ll have strength even when your friends are trying to take you down the road you don’t want to go.
I believe that without the kindred affection of friends, a man is very one-sided. Just as it takes iron to sharpen iron, through the course of navigating relationships, friction and comfort are created, often showing the truth of a man to himself. Without the grinding wheel, the knife would never be sharp, and without one another, unconditional love with humanity would only be a theory. But through my closest relationships, my rough edges have become smooth and sharp.
We are working towards the same goal. If you go further than me, it’s also to my advantage, because we are one. We are all working for a common purpose and for the glory of one King.
When we deny our pain, losses, and feelings year after year, we become less and less human. We transform slowly into empty shells with smiley faces painted on them. Sad to say, that is the fruit of much of our discipleship in our churches. But when I began to allow myself to feel a wider range of emotions, including sadness, depression, fear, and anger, a revolution in my spirituality was unleashed. I soon realized that a failure to appreciate the biblical place of feelings within our larger Christian lives has done extensive damage, keeping free people in Christ in slavery.
Satan loves isolation. He wants to draw the believer out of healthy relationships into isolated relationships and out of healthy practices into secretive, unhealthy practices. He purposely woos us away from those who might openly recognize the seduction and call his hand on it. Let’s beware of anything that separates us from godly people.
When you debate a person about something that affects them more than it affects you, remember that it will take a much greater emotional toll on them than on you. For you, it may feel like an academic exercise. For them, it feels like revealing their pain only to have you dismiss their experience and sometimes their humanity. The fact that you might remain calmer, under those circumstances, is a consequence of your privilege, not increased objectivity on your part. Stay humble.
What if church is supposed to be less like a lecture hall and more like a spiritual gymnasium where we come and workout the spiritual faith and muscle required to do the works of Him who sent us?
There is an amplified encounter in the gathering of faith filled hearts that is not reproducible on your own. However, there is an intensified intimacy in the quiet of our personal and solitary rendezvous that is inhibited by the presence of others. People of faith need both to thrive.
March 12, 2020
Rather than viewing Scripture as a book that merely teaches us how to believe and how to act, Jesus shows us that everything is rooted in how we ought to love. By distilling all the doctrinal and behavioral truths of the Bible down to a simple two-part statement—love God and love each other—the Lord of the universe showed us that the dual boundaries of what we believe and how we behave are intended to be understood and experienced within the framework of deep, loving relationships with him and with one another.
Josh McDowell
——-