Fiction

We love fiction, don’t we? We love to see how in the middle of the fight between good and evil, when evil seems to prevail, a savior comes who defeats the enemy, rescues people, and makes life prosperous again.

Lately, there has been an increase in fiction movies and TV series, with plot lines which foretell the coming of a Savior who can deliver people from their oppressors. Usually the story goes like this: the characters are suffering, they’re fighting an enemy too strong for them, but they’re awaiting someone who can save them and defeat the enemy.

Saviors

That someone is usually pictured as the savior, whose birth is foretold and whose power is greater than anyone else’s, even the enemy’s, no matter how powerful the latter might be. Word of his existence, of his come into being, brings hope to a people who’s lost all hope, subjugated and despairing of life, with no way out. Hope that someone can help them, save their land and bring restoration and joy again.

The story then goes on showing a process through which the savior goes, of acceptance – of his purpose and power – and of action – fighting the evil forces and crushing the enemy, delivering the people and bringing joy to the land.

Why do we love the picture of a Savior? What makes it so attractive? I believe the answer is this: our own longing for a savior. Our heart’s cry is to be loved in spite of our flaws, to be accepted in spite of our imperfections, to be forgiven in spite of our mistakes. And most of all, to be forgiven our sins. We long for a savior.

Reality

We love this picture because spiritually we are in a helpless and hopeless condition. But a Savior has come in our dark world to be that! Jesus is the great Light that pierces our darkness! Look at this prophecy of old:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone (Isaiah 9:2).

We are those who walk in darkness, who dwell in a land of deep darkness, but on whom the Light has shone!

The Son of God, incarnated, holy and pure, came into a world of hatred and sin, which was once perfect but now is tainted by sin. The Light has shone on us! And the good news is that Jesus wasn’t just a man who was born, who suffered and died, but He suffered, died and rose again, who now has immeasurable power to rescue us and all those who walked before or will walk ahead of us. He is our Savior! He is the One whose birth was prophesied long ago:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

I pray this Christmas you’ll rejoice in the reality of the great wonder brought by the coming of the baby in the manger, who pierced our darkness and now lives victoriously! He can bring light into every corner of our being.

—

Oh come Emmanuel,
Come and fill
the void I feel,
the void that is too real
and always cries: “I’m here, I’m here!”
Oh come Lord Jesus,
For too long I sought
a place
to find that kind of love
that overflows
even in my darkest nights,
but could not attain its heights.
Oh come and take
my sinful thoughts
and what I cannot overcome,
the inner evil that comes out
because I’m a mortal one.
Oh come Emmanuel,
into my little world
and be the Savior
who can redeem and fill
what’s been lost for real.
Come and be my Light, my all,
Oh Savior of the world!

It’s at this time of year that we celebrate the Incarnation of Jesus, or to put it another way: the coming of God to earth as a human. The Nativity scenes that lie in churches across the world, and find themselves on the front cover of many Christmas cards, rightly depict Jesus as the helpless baby in a manager. Paul, however, paints Jesus in a completely different light and challenges us to remove all small thoughts about Jesus.

This is what the Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus in Colossians 1:15 – “He is the image of the invisible God”. Or, in the words of the carol: “veiled in flesh the Godhead see.”

The Most Real Thing

“Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see”. So said the train conductor in one of the most famous Christmas animations of all time: “The Polar Express.”¹

If we ever read only the Nativity story, it’s easy to imagine Jesus as more human than God. And yet, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the same human Jesus who is in the manger is also “the image of the invisible God”. Although “veiled in flesh”, Jesus really is “the most real thing in the world”. Jesus said “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The writer of Hebrews wrote that Jesus is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

No small thoughts allowed: The most real thing in the universe, the invisible God, put on flesh for all to see. That is who Jesus is.

Higher than High and Lord over All

Paul writes: He is “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

Firstborn means “priority” and “sovereignty”. So Paul says that Jesus is first in order. In the Old Testament the idea was used for the eldest son in a family, the one who carried the family name. There was no one like them who was able to carry out the wishes of their father. This is why the psalmist wrote: “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27). We shouldn’t understand “firstborn” to mean that He is the first one created; It simply means that He is not outranked by anyone.

The second thing the word “firstborn” means is the idea of sovereignty. Paul says that He is sovereign over creation. He is not part of creation but sits outside of it and rules over it. J.I. Packer wrote: “The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man [that the second person of the Godhead became the “second man”] … determining human destiny … and that He took humanity without loss of deity.”²

No small thoughts allowed: He is the One who is the highest of high and Lord over all. That is who Jesus is.

Never Out of Reach

Paul then writes: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).

Are you starting to get a picture of who Jesus is? May I tell you something that will blow your mind? Paul is saying that Baby Jesus was not only the instrument by which creation was made but that everything that was made, was made from within Himself. For example, we take pigments of colour and blend them and organise them and call it a painting. We haven’t created anything. We take audio frequencies and organise them into patterns and call it music but we haven’t created anything. Even the most glorious Beethoven symphonies are just organised audio frequencies.

But all that exists, everything visible and invisible, Jesus made out of nothing.

Let me tell you why this is important: Paul wrote to the church in Rome and reminded them that since Jesus is the firstborn of all creation and the sovereign creator of all things that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). Why? Because Jesus is sovereign over all those things. These things are all within the reach of Jesus … and so are you.

No small thoughts allowed: The moments and situations that seem out of control have Jesus sitting sovereignly over them. He is not out of reach and none of the things that seem to us out of control are ever out of His reach, or out of His control. Everything is held together by Him. That is who Jesus is.

To Reconcile Us To Him

Paul writes: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (Colossians 1:19-22).

Frank Cross (Bill Murray), in the hit film, Scrooged, said this: “It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be.”be.”³

Maybe C.S. Lewis sits better with you. In his book, Miracles, Lewis puts it like this: “In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity … But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him…”⁴

All that God desires in saving people from their sins and the brokenness of this life was made possible through Jesus. The little baby that was born in a manger 2000 years ago was God Himself coming to break the power of Satan and forgive people of their sins.

“Sam lay back, and stared with open mouth, and for a moment, between bewilderment and great joy, he could not answer. At last he gasped: “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”

“A great shadow has departed,” said Gandalf.”⁵

Perhaps this Christmas we’ll join in with Sam’s bewilderment and great joy as we look to Jesus: the image of the invisible God who is higher than high, Lord of all. Who has all within His reach. Never out of control. Come to reconcile us to Himself. “Born that man no more may die” says the carol. “Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth”.

No small thoughts allowed: Paul calls to us this Christmas to throw ourselves into the “life and light [that] He brings” and to join in with everything that is visible and invisible to exalt and glorify Jesus … with no small thoughts allowed.

_Notes

_{¹ Robert Zemeckis and William Broyles Jr, The Polar Express, directed by Robert Zemeckis (2004, Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Pictures), DVD.}

_{² J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 45-46.}

_{³ Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue, Scrooged, directed by Richard Donner (1988, Los Angeles, CA: Paramount Pictures), DVD.}

_{⁴ C.S. Lewis, Miracles (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996), 148.}

_{⁵ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings (Boston, MA: Clarion Books, 2020), ch. 4.}

One of my favorite Christmas carols is “O Holy Night,” mostly because I love the first verse:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
‘til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

The Weary World

If there is one word that accurately describes the feeling in the world right now, it is probably “weary.”

We are weary from two years of pandemic. We are weary of restriction and new variants. We are weary of our friends and family members getting sick, and even dying. We are weary from the divisiveness in society. We are weary of inflation, tragedy, tension, and strife.

But, as this song reminds us, the coming of Jesus into the world is good news for the weary world. It gives us weary people a reason to rejoice. Why? Because it tells us that, “yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”

The Day Dawns

One of the greatest metaphors the Bible uses to describe where we are at currently in the big picture of human history is: Dawn.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. – John 1:9

Dawn is an interesting period; *it is a time when night and day, darkness and light, exist simultaneously in the same space, yet neither are in full force*.

At dawn, the darkness that formerly ruled the night is broken by the light, but it is still dark out … though not as dark as it used to be. However, at dawn, even though light has come, the light is not yet present in its full form, because although the light has appeared, it has not yet broken over the horizon to fully dispel the darkness.

Peter expressly uses this metaphor of dawn in his second letter:

We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until *the day dawns* and *the morning star* rises in your hearts. – 2 Peter 1:19

The Morning Star

Jesus is called “the morning star.” The “star” known as the morning star is not actually a star, but the planet Venus. The reason it is called the morning star is because it is the last “star” that is visible in the sky once the dawn has come.

The meaning and message of Christmas is that the true light has come into the world, and the dawn has begun. The beginning of dawn is an irreversible occurrence; once the first light of dawn has broken the darkness of night, it is only a matter of time before the sun crests the horizon, totally dispelling the darkness, bringing about the full light of the new day.

We live in a time right now where there is darkness in the world. It touches our lives, and we groan, along with all of the fallen creation, under the weight of the curse of sin and death. And yet, with the coming of Jesus into the world in His first advent, dawn has come: The light of life has come into our world in the person of Jesus Christ. We have the light of God’s Word to guide us … as we wait with eager expectation for Jesus’ second advent when He comes again!

For our world, covered in the shroud of darkness, a darkness which permeates even our own hearts, the message is clear: The advent of Jesus is the death knell of darkness and the guarantee that a new day is on the horizon.

Let us look to the morning star to give us hope until that day comes!

My start in ministry was unexpected. I’m the son of a church-planting pastor. My childhood memories consist of awkward church people, financial struggles and a fatigued father who was trying his best.

Many memories stand out, but here is one: One winter rain hit our community particularly hard. The church office, rented from another local congregation, was the only permanent space our church occupied. Being in the basement, the offices were situated below street level and would flood when heavy rains came.

On that Saturday afternoon, rains pouring, office entryway in the midst of flooding, my dad tried in vain and alone to fix the pump designed to divert the water back to the street. The offices flooded. He was drenched and tired. I remember thinking, “Isn’t anyone going to help him?”

Memories like these made me sure I wanted nothing to do with church work. And, throughout my teenage years, I lived as if I wanted nothing to do with the church’s Savior either. But the Spirit of God pursued me, and the grace of God moved me; and one night just after my high school graduation, alone and amid rebellion, the Lord captured my heart.

Still, I was uninterested in ministry life. What I did want, however, was a better understanding of God’s Word. So, in a matter of a few weeks, my college plans changed, and I enrolled in Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, CA. There, the Living Word began shaping my mind and heart. Surrounded by great pastors, teachers and students, I began wanting God to use my life, just not in vocational ministry! So, I prayed, and God answered, but not in the way I expected.

Before any opportunities were opened to me, or any ministry desires or gifts grew in me, God began growing love for His people in my heart. I now know it was the embryonic stages of a Shepherd-Teacher calling, but back then, it felt so strange. After years of selfishness, my newfound care for others was a shock to my system.

It started when, as college students are prone to do, groups of friends and acquaintances would gather. As we laughed and talked and roamed, I found myself consistently locking onto one or two hurting or discouraged people. Even after the group dispersed, I often found myself engaged for an additional hour or so, encouraging and exhorting someone. I’m sure my counsel wasn’t all that good, but by God’s grace and the power of His Spirit, the Good Shepherd seemed to use it to help His hurting sheep. This continued in various groups and settings.

It wasn’t until one afternoon when I plopped down next to our director at the time, a man more than twice my age, and found my encouragements to him filling his eyes with tears that I realized God had done something to me. A tiny sliver of His love had invaded my heart. I now loved His people.

And it wasn’t until later that a desire to share His Word with His people also began to consume me. For me, the order of calling was all-important. Looking back, I can see how I needed to begin with love so that my desire to share God’s Word would always carry that motivation.

I love His Word, but I also love His people, and I believe the combination greatly aids the delivery of the Word to His people.

Which brings me to my text. The Corinthian church, it seems, was highly gifted. Paul said they were “not lacking in any gift” (1 Corinthians 1:7).

My point is not to detail their giftedness or talk about spiritual gifts in general. Instead, I want to point out that the Corinthians were powerful and dynamic but lacking in love. This is why, after giving them some guardrails and directions for their giftedness, Paul said,”…And I will show you a still more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).

And the “still more excellent way” Paul would show them is found here, in 1 Corinthians 13. You know this chapter isn’t primarily about married, parental or friendship love. Instead, it is first about love in the church; I’ll call it “ministry love,” and because of this, it serves as a powerful prescription for the modern servant of Christ.

Like a lighthouse exposing a jagged coastline, 1 Corinthians 13 exposes the dangers of a loveless ministry before showing us the attributes and benefits of love-fueled ministry life.

Certainly, Jesus approves of such a message. He said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Let’s enter the text to discover what Christ has for us.

Ministry Without Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

Paul’s Hypothetical Ministry

Paul is incredibly gracious here. Instead of saying, over and over again, “if you,” he says, “if I.” He was a great preacher and a true servant, so he didn’t feel he needed to excoriate his audience! He’d already rebuked the Corinthians for many of their actual sins, so he felt no need to rebuke them for their hypothetical ones.

And I think Paul was able to do this because the gospel had convinced him he was the “foremost of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). Humbly, he said, “if I.”

And Paul’s hypothetical ministry is an astounding one. First, he describes outstanding oratory power and ability. He said, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels…” (1). In the context of 1 Corinthians, he’d just written to them about word-based spiritual giftedness. So, this first example imagines a man at the height of communicative ability, whether in known or unknown languages.

Second, he describes extraordinary intellectual power. He said, “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge…” (2). This second example is of someone who possesses keen insights into the “mysteries” of Scripture. Their “knowledge” exudes from them, and they can declare it to others, which is why they have “prophetic powers.”

Third, he describes a person of incredible courage and boldness for God. He said, “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains…” (2). Jesus spoke of this type of faith: “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). This third example is of a person with an amazing and admirable faith in God.

Fourth, he describes a person of deep, personal sacrifice. He said, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned…” (3). This describes someone who first sells it all to give away, or simply gives it all away, to go preach in places they know they’ll be persecuted. We might sing about it, but they had truly surrendered all.

Before moving on, we must pause to reflect on such a life. None of these attributes are seen as negatives. Paul knows this brand of life is valuable, to be desired by servants of Christ. In each example, there is spiritual power and ability.

Imagine a person like this! When it comes to their relationship with others, they are an effective spokesperson for God. When it comes to their relationship with Scripture, they have great understanding. When it comes to their relationship with God, they act out on deep trust in Him. And when it comes to their relationship with self, they are highly sacrificial.

I Help/Am/Gain Nothing

Three times, though, Paul says, “But have not love” (1-3). In his hypothetical ministry, though there was power and seeming effectiveness, there was no “love.”

It’s hard to say what the motivations for such a ministry would have been, but one can imagine. Perhaps ego or a sense of purpose or an inquisitive nature or a strain of legalism infected the minister. On they went, fueled by something other than love.

And notice what Paul said would result:

. I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (13:1).

. I am nothing (13:2).

. I gain nothing (13:3).

Now, these statements have often bothered me. I don’t know the heart of every servant of Christ and do not have the responsibility to judge them. But when I look out at Christianity throughout the world, it seems obvious many are in it for the wrong motivations. I don’t think I’m making much of a leap there.

These are people who say nothing, are nothing and benefit nothing, but who are simultaneously received by the masses. They seem loveless in their ministries, yet they are loved. Their followers might object to the idea their ministry is fruitless.

Nonetheless, this is what Paul taught. And it must ring true from two vantage points.

. First, to God, a loveless ministry is pointless and empty. Even if what man sees is largesse and power and influence, God sees nothingness.

. Second, the long run of such a ministry is also pointless and empty. A loveless service of Christ is an abomination to God and will prove ineffective over time. Even if the immediate recipients swear by it, the impact of a loveless ministry will not endure.

Our Resolve

Let it not be so with us. Let us have love-fueled ministries. Let’s divest ourselves of any motivation for service to Christ void of love. Instead, let’s allow the flames of our love for Christ to burn, responding to His great love for us. Then, let’s love His people as a way to love Him.

To strengthen this resolve, though, we ought to take a few moments to look at Paul’s definition of love. And as we do, remember the context, because Paul was thinking of the ministry life when writing this robust definition. He’d already likened the church to a human body. He compared each member of the church as part of the body. Each part was to serve the whole in the way in which it was designed. Here, Paul tells us each part is meant to serve the whole body in love.

At the end of one of the episodes of the TV miniseries, Band of Brothers, as Easy Company was marching into the Ardennes Forest, for what turned out to be “The Battle of the Bulge,” the soldiers passing warned Easy that they were about to be surrounded by the enemy. Easy Company’s CO, Captain Winters, replied, “We’re Airborne. We’re supposed to be surrounded.”

The next month in the dead of winter was a grueling test of endurance as American troops went without winter clothing, subsistence rations, limited ammunition and constant shelling that decimated their ranks. No one who endured the month-long siege came out unscathed, physically and emotionally.

I recently remembered Captain Winters’ comment while listening to a news commentary podcast lamenting Christianity’s expulsion from the public square.

Christians are supposed to be surrounded. Jesus said as much.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16).

“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

For the first three centuries of its existence, the Church faced persecution, yet thrived. During the Middle Ages, the Church emerged from the catacombs to rise in prestige till it became a kingmaker, commanding armies and vast wealth. It also became horribly corrupt.

Yes, there were seasons and places where the Church maintained a modicum of faithfulness. But by and large, when Christianity is the favored worldview of the society it finds itself in, accommodation and compromise tends to blunt its edge as an advocate for the Gospel. Church leaders play politics and vie for power. Local congregations compete with each other rather than work together for the good of the Kingdom. When culture is hostile to the Faith, churches have to pull together to survive.

It’s no secret contemporary American and European society has shifted from a historical Christian worldview to a thorough-going secular worldview, increasingly hostile to Christianity.

While it’s easy to lament this turn and the harmful results we’re already seeing, followers of Jesus must remember this is where the Church started, in a hostile culture that hated it. In the end, hate always bows to love.

Christmas time is often marked by cards with perfect family pictures on the cover. Everyone smiling, everyone wearing cute Christmas sweaters. The perfect family on the perfect card. In reality, however, life is not very often like the cover of a Christmas card. Life is messier than that; it is, for all of us. But we don’t want anyone to see.

Why is it that being vulnerable is so hard?

Here’s a definition of the word “vulnerable:” “The quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.”

Exposing yourself emotionally to attack is a scary thing to do. We have all grown up in this world. It is not a perfect world. We have all had our weaknesses thrown at us; we have all experienced abuse in moments of vulnerability. It is painful; it leads us to build walls around the tender, weak areas of ourselves. To fortify our hearts with battlements, that become so strong over the years, so entrenched in who we are, that the thought of tearing them down, is simply beyond us.

We live in a world of such pretense. Being “real” or “authentic” is often lauded but rarely achieved. The notion of truly exposing your worst moments is a shuddering thought. If you look at my Instagram account, there are cute pictures of my children; there are not, however, mini videos of me roaring my head off at them. That’s not cute. That’s not fit for public consumption. That would leave me vulnerable to too much criticism. And honestly, I have enough of that going on in my own head as an, often tired, sometimes overwhelmed mum.

The idea here is not that we have any call to expose our worst moments on social media, no, the idea is, in fact, to hopefully stop feeling the need to present a manic, besieged, image of perfection. Your body, your family, your church, your ministry, your children. All of these areas hold some weaknesses for all of us. That’s just a fact.

The problem arises when we let fear force us into presenting ourselves in such a way that we remove all vulnerability. If we are honest about ourselves, we often feel vulnerable. What will people think of us? What if they knew what I’m really like?

Sometimes, in order to help somebody who is struggling, you might need to be honest with them about your own struggles.

If a person comes to you with their weakness, and you look down on them from your fort of false perfection, it will not help them. But, if you open yourself up to vulnerability and humbly share your own imperfections and struggles, but remind them of our righteous position in Christ, you could be a huge blessing to people who need it in this Christmas season.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the most beautiful example of this. Jesus embraced vulnerability on a scale none of us can ever truly understand. He made this universe. He spoke it into being. By Him all things were created. And yet, for you and for me, for the love of us, He became a baby.

Luke 2:12 tells us, “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” What is more vulnerable than a baby? He became completely dependent on the very people He Himself made.

He was helpless. Exposed. Needy. Weak. A baby. But, because Jesus was willing to become vulnerable for our sake, He won salvation for all of us, for all the world. What a gift, what a Savior, what a King! As we remember the good God we serve this Christmas, as we recount His humility and humanity, Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin.”

Our God was willing to become vulnerable, and because of it, He can relate to us and to our struggles.

Let’s let His example encourage us to be more open and honest with each other this season. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” Let’s remember we are loved perfectly by a God who has been present in every moment of our lives.

He’s seen the very worst of us and still He loves us. We have nothing to fear. Let’s let that love rule our hearts and allow us to act honestly and humbly to those around us who need us to shine God’s love this Christmas.

Happy Christmas to you all!

There is a bridge in Paris that joins the Louvre on the right bank of the Seine River with the Academy of Les Beaux Arts on the left. It’s a walking bridge with wooden planks as flooring, a few scattered benches and a handrail to lean on and admire the cityscape painted before your eyes. It’s known as the “pont des arts” but it used to be called by locals as the “pont des amoureux” or the lovers’ bridge. Couples would bring a padlock, pop the question or renew their vows, then kiss and click the lock shut on the fence as they toss the key into the river. My wife and I even attached a lock ourselves on our 20th wedding anniversary.

Through the years, this unofficial public display of love provoked structural damage to the bridge, and the City of Paris had to intervene. This was no easy job because love cannot be legislated as several renegade padlocks can be seen scattered on other Parisian bridges, resulting in several awkward solutions proposed with mixed results. Love has its way of triumphing.

Love is, in fact, a powerful force as it says in the NLT version of Proverbs 30:18-19, “There are three things that amaze me— no, four things that I don’t understand: how an eagle glides through the sky, how a snake slithers on a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, how a man loves a woman.” It only seems ironic that a city like Paris, known for romantic love, has found itself in a struggle against lovers.

But what do we mean when we speak of love?

Over the course of time, love has taken on new meanings. When speaking about physical attraction, sexual desire or passionate longing, the word is instantly employed. From kids teasing their older sibling on her first date, to the anguished musician lamenting his broken relationships or even the scriptwriter preparing the next episode of a soon to be aired series—a vision of love is cast that we can recognize when we see it. For our world today, the intelligentsia doesn’t necessarily define love. Those who seem to be defining love are the ones Francis Schaffer said have now dominated philosophy in his book Escape from Reason:

“The interesting thing today is that as existentialism and, in a different way, ‘defining philosophy’ have become anti-philosophies, the real philosophic expressions have tended to pass over to those who do not occupy the chairs of philosophy—the novelist, the film producer, the jazz musician, the hippies and even the teenage gangs in their violence. These are the people who are asking and struggling with the big questions in our day.”¹

Various philosophers still reflect on love today, even if they aren’t always the voice we hear on the street, especially in France. One such writer who caught my eye at a bookstore this summer was Luc Ferry in his book the La Revolution de l’Amour (The Revolution of Love). In it, he describes love as the lasting force that has stood the test of time throughout humanity that motivates people to embrace life decisions creating what he calls a new humanism. He says, “The reign of consumerism and capitalism has created individuals who are abused and isolated, looking for new values. In spite of it all, we are witnessing the development of a new humanism, not founded on reason but on love.”² In the end, love or one’s perception of it, produces a new vision for life that will color concepts as old as faithfulness, integrity and purity. Or as Oprah says, it’s “your truth.”

Even though a Christian would have trouble claiming Ferry’s views as their guiding light, he does bring to the surface some interesting points in a chapter he calls “La tentation du christianisme” (“The Christian Temptation”). He reveals that one point in the new humanism that falls short, as all it does for the history of philosophy and religious culture, that chasm we call the resurrection. In Jesus alone, we find the eternal hope for love. Because death cannot destroy all that love has built in this life, because in the resurrection, we are physically reunited with our loved ones.³ In this, the New Testament believer would embrace his point of view, and yet there is more.

There is a bridge that runs from this new humanism founded in a popular notion of love, past its natural end in death to the ageless, divine love of the Gospel.

Jesus is the bridge.

He demonstrated a love that served to the point of washing His disciples’ feet. He loved until the end, even to the point of laying down His life to save us from sin and death. In fact, He loved us in His resurrection, because in rising from the dead, He gave us the chance to be united with Him in His love. Greater than a new humanism, Christ’s love has created a new humanity and hope that will one day join us with those we loved and who have passed on before us. In this, we can identify love’s greatest triumph, for the God who is love, demonstrated it by saving us.

…

¹ Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape from Reason, Chapter 4, “The Leap,” IVP Classics, 2014 .
² Luc Ferry, La révolution de l’amour, “Introduction,” Éditions Plon, 2010.
³Luc Ferry,La révolution de l’amour, “Livre III, L’échec de la philosophie la tentation dh christianisme,” Éditions Plon, 2010.

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:13-14).

I read the above scripture recently, and was nonplussed for a bit. How do you be brave when you know you are not brave?

Slight digressive disclosure: I am afraid of everything. It’s more than a miracle that I have been a missionary for the last 28 years. I tell prospective missionaries, if I can do it, anybody can, because it doesn’t depend on what I bring to the table. It depends on God. That’s my secret to being a missionary.

But getting back to being brave, another translation is “act like men.” Technically, I am a man. Some guys are really manly: They are often referred to as the alpha male. That’s not me. I’m not much at being a leader, I am not a dominant personality that sways crowds with magnetic charisma. (I’m not whining; I’m okay in my own skin. I do have certain life skills.)

My question was, how do I do what Paul is commanding? Seriously?

I read the next line, and it clicked: Let all that you do be done in love.

I remembered those times that I have loved, I have been utterly fearless.

Like in witnessing. When I love that other person, I have been fearless. If they brush me off, I’m not destroyed. Or I persevere after an initial brush-off, and suddenly, we are having a significant conversation; and the other person doesn’t feel like I’m pushy or obnoxious but realizes that I care. I know that I could be ridiculed or despised, but I don’t care about myself.

I have seen this fearlessness in giving money, in going on outreach trips, confronting people and doing memorial services. I could not have done them if I was concerned about myself.

That’s the great part about love. You can’t worry about yourself and the other guy at the same time. Love is concerned about the other person. That makes love the true bravery. I have been aware that something bad could happen to me. This might cost me. I could lose somehow in all this, but I’m concerned about the other person, not myself. If you were concerned about yourself, it wouldn’t be love.

So then, the challenge is to do everything in love.

Watch out because you live in love. Stand firm in the faith because you love. Be brave because you love. Be strong because you love.

One application of this exhortation is to be humble. If I am going to love, I need to be unconcerned about myself. For this, one needs Jesus.

All I do, on my own, is think about myself. I really need something to happen to me before I can love, and that is the cross. Thank God for the cross of Christ, which ends my life, so I can be joined to Christ raised from the dead.

Arrogance and thinking more highly of myself than is warranted, is out. Paul says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4 is about love. If we are arrogant, we are not acting in love.

Another application is to love all the time.

There isn’t an appropriate time to not love. Love has to identify us. This makes me think of so-called “discernment” ministries that slice-and-dice the people they think are “off”. When do we get to be arrogant, or slander, or treat others badly?

But for me, this way to truly be brave excites me. Even a guy like me can be fearless legitimately, to be able to do the things God wants me to do. Maybe those things aren’t impressive in themselves, but for a guy who’s really not a Jason Bourne type, it’s significant.

There is no such thing as the perfect church. Someone once said you’ll never find the perfect church–and if you do, don’t start attending there because you are imperfect, and you’ll ruin the perfect church!

Jesus had something to say to seven distinct churches in Asia Minor, almost 2,000 years ago–as He relayed His message to the Apostle John who was exiled off on the rocky island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. With each of these seven churches, Jesus had something to communicate, and they all needed a remedy. That remedy was, and still is, the same remedy for every church. It is JESUS!

Just a quick glance at the seven churches shows us what they were struggling with (adapted from David Hocking):

Ephesus: Neglected Priorities
Smyrna: Satanic Opposition
Pergamos: Religious Compromise
Thyatira: Immoral Practices
Sardis: Spiritual Apathy
Philadelphia: Lost Opportunities
Laodicea: Material Prosperity

With almost all of these churches, there will be a commendation, a criticism and a correction.

There will be a characteristic of Christ (borrowed from Revelation chapter 1) that Jesus customizes about Himself in His address. There will also be a crown that will be offered to the church if they will overcome their sin and adversity. We will be looking at each of these seven churches and the cities they were planted in, to understand both their implications on the modern church and what we can learn individually and corporately from their feats and failures.

Today we turn our attention to the first of the seven churches: Ephesus.

The City

Ephesus was a major port city on the western coast of Asia Minor center for seaborne trade and the hub of the region’s road system. It was a thriving urban community of more than 250,00 to 300,000 people, very similar in population size to Anaheim, New Orleans, Honolulu, Cleveland or Tampa. By the late 1st century AD it was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. The Romans made Ephesus an administrative center for the province of Asia.

World renowned religious shrines, a spacious theater, stadium and elegant public buildings gave Ephesus an integral place in the cultural life of the entire region.

But don’t get the idea that Ephesus was a nice, clean administrative mecca! It was a city with rampant paganism–including the worship, manufacture and sale of fertility idols of the goddess Artemis/Diana (the goddess of the hunt)–whose idol was depicted with dozens of breasts. As you walked through the streets of Ephesus, there were little idols of breasts everywhere the eye looked.

Ephesus had a huge volume of occult arts & practices. Their temple to Artemis/Diana was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and its largest religious structure. Paul had founded a church there, and Timothy was their pastor. They had the benefit of God working powerfully in this dark city, known for its worship of Diana. This was where people brought their handkerchiefs and aprons that touched Paul, and they were healed; and Demetrius the silversmith started a riot because he thought he would lose money from his business for Artemis (Acts 19). This was a city with both great opposition and a great move of God’s Spirit.

The Characteristic of Christ

Revelation 2:1: “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.”

It is believed by many that the seven lampstands are the churches, but also the Church at large. This is reminiscent of the Jewish menorah, at Hanukkah. We as Christians are to be the light of the world, a lampstand burning for others to see. Notice that Jesus is holding the Church, and He’s walking among us. These two ideas are a picture of intimacy: Jesus is both holding the Church in His right hand (the hand of blessing), but He is also walking among us. He isn’t far off, distant, untouchable, unreachable; you don’t have to dial long distance to speak or hear from Him. He’s right here among us–among you and I–and He wants us to be at peace in His presence. Theologically that is the balance between His transcendence and His immanence. God is transcendent: above His creation; yet He is also immanent: present and with us.

What a great picture of Jesus’ steadfast love. He desires intimacy, love, relationship with us. He wants to be near. Now let’s read the commendation.

The Commendation

Revelation 2:2-3: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.” Also notice verse six: “But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6).

Jesus commends them for three things:

Their Duty: They were hard-working, busy ministers. You could nickname them “the church of Saint Martha”! Lots of work–but busyness in a church doesn’t always mean the Spirit is at work. Often when things are simple, you can focus your energy on what is most important, things like Acts 2:42 instead of all the flurry of things some churches expend all their energy doing. But Jesus was commending them for their hard work.

Their Doctrine: The church at Ephesus could not bear those who were evil. They would vet, test and confirm if someone was true or false according to Biblical orthodoxy, and if they were false, the church would have nothing to do with their teaching. The word “bear” is the same word used of Jesus carrying the cross. This church could not bear the weight of bad doctrine. They couldn’t carry it. They wouldn’t tolerate it. The church of Ephesus knew their doctrine; they knew what they believed. Would that the church of Jesus Christ today be more like Ephesus on that point! Many Christians today can’t even explain the Gospel plainly, or communicate sound doctrine.

Thirdly, Jesus commended Their Determination: They were persevering and hanging in there despite a lot of hardship, oppression and suffering. Jesus says, “You have not become weary.” That’s amazing! They were the marathon runners of the church! Many people give up as soon as there is a problem in their faith, but not the church of Ephesus.

So, with all of these positives, can’t Jesus just stop there? I mean, isn’t that a great church to be a part of? Doesn’t matter if you are doing amazing things for God, if you have separated yourself from God. What would Jesus say as a word of criticism to this upstanding, doctrinally-sound church?

The Criticism

Revelation 2:4-5: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

The church at Ephesus had their doctrine down, but no devotion. Later we’ll see that Thyratira has the love down, but no doctrine. We need a good balance of truth and love. People that are all truth with no love tend to forget that they too were once a sinner, and God’s love and mercy saved them. People with too much love and not enough truth tend to embrace everyone and fall for anything because they don’t stand for something. The church in Ephesus was a busy, successful church—but they were so busy they had forgotten God.

They knew what doctrines to believe, but they had neglected who the doctrines point to! Jesus says, “You have left your first love.” You’ve forsaken it. The church as a group had lost the intimacy they once had with God. Interesting that they lived in a city known for its worship of Artemis/Diana, who was known as the goddess of the hunt, of children and animals. She was very independent and frivolous and was known for not being faithful to her husband, though she was considered an eternal virgin. Interesting! Ephesus, known for worshipping a goddess that would have no intimacy with a man, had a church that had lost its intimacy with Christ!

The Correction

Revelation 2:5: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

Remember. Repent. Return.

Remember where you used to be with Jesus. Repent–turn back. Acknowledge and own up to the fact that you have fallen away. You haven’t lost your first love. You’ve left it. You’ve drifted. You’ve allowed other things to creep in. Then return to those things you did when you first fell in love with God. When’s the last time you lost track of time when you were spending it in God’s word, in worship or in prayer? If we don’t change, there is another “R”: Remove—Their lampstand would be removed, implying immediate judgment. This could mean that their witness would cease to exist—the light would fade away. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. Jesus came and removed their lamp–their influence–their witness to their city.

Within time the church at Ephesus died out. Just 30 years earlier, Paul had ended his letter to this church with this admonition:

“Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible” (Ephesians 6:24).

Thirty years after Paul wrote that to them, their undying love had died. Their love incorruptible had become corrupted. They had turned their back, forsaken God, even though they still did all of these things in His name and were known for their deeds. They had left their first love, and they needed to repent and turn back. That is what all of us need today: a fresh look at our priorities and our love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Crown

Revelation 2:7: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”’

The crown–the reward–is the right to eat from the tree of life in God’s garden. Adam and Eve were never given that right, because they forsook their first love and disobeyed in rebellion against God. If they did eat, they would be forever stuck in that state of separation from God.

So He banished them from the garden after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Today, if we would overcome our cold hearts for God, and return to our first love, He will allow us access one day to the tree of life, and that intimacy can once again be restored. Isn’t that incredible? God wants intimacy with you. He is always there; it is we who turn away and lose our love. He loves you completely and will never lose His love for you.

The Modern Church

In like manner, we can leave our first love, the Lord Jesus. In fact, there may be many more than this, but here are four ways that we leave our first love:

1. We replace LOVE with LAW.

We think erroneously that God wants us to simply follow a list of principles and that equates to a relationship. Now I have to be careful here because Jesus did say in John 14:21 that, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” Obviously the best expression of love for God is to obey His commands. But the danger is when we equate love with merely principles. We begin to set up rigid rules and guidelines and then start serving God out of duty, not out of desire. We can see lots of people doing things out of obligation: military, employees, salesmen, spouses, love relationships. Family Feud asked people to “Rate your marriage on a scale of 1-10.” They surveyed 100 people, and the top answer was rated at a one. That’s what happens when we leave our first love. It’s obligation, not love. Does that describe you today in your relationship with God?

2. We replace LOVE with EMOTION.

Sometimes we feel that we must experience goosebumps or some type of “word from the Lord'” to “feel” the love of God. Charles Spurgeon said: “Deep waters run silently. Great feeling is dumb: There is a frost of the mouth when there is a thaw of the soul.”

Does that mean we should never express our emotions? Of course not! God created us with emotions, so we would be minimizing the Imago Dei if we suppressed any and all emotions. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, had compassion for the crowds who were unshepherded, drove out in anger the money changers from the temple. We read in Scripture that the Holy Spirit can be grieved. These are all emotional responses, and we would be truncating our love for God if we were always suppressing joy or sadness. But we shouldn’t base the quality or reality of our love simply on how we raise our hands, pray our prayers, or cry our tears. I love this quote from Dr. M. Scott Peck:

“Genuine love is volitional rather than emotional. The person who truly loves does so because of a decision to love. This person has made a commitment to be loving whether or not the loving feeling is present. It if is, so much the better; but if it isn’t, the commitment to love, the will to love, still stands and is still exercised. Conversely, it is not only possible but necessary for a loving person to avoid acting on feelings of love. I may meet a woman who strongly attracts me, whom I feel like loving, but because it would be destructive to my marriage to have an affair, I will say vocally or in the silence of my heart, ‘I feel like loving you, but I am not going to.’ My feelings of love may be unbounded, but my capacity to be loving is limited. I therefore must choose the person on whom to focus my capacity to love, toward whom to direct my will to love. True love is not a feeling by which we are overwhelmed. It is a committed, thoughtful decision.”

Have you replaced love for emotion? Have you left your first love?

3. We replace LOVE with LABOR.

This was prescriptive of the church in Ephesus. They had gotten so tied down with their heretic-hunting that they forgot that church is where people experience the love of God and the love of God’s people. How many pastors take a day off from the ministry (or two!) and spend it simply enjoying their families? How many husbands take a consistent date night with their wife? How often does a family sit down and enjoy a meal together without technology? How many families spend time in devotions together? What we tend to find in the church is that people are inundated with diligent, assiduous busywork. How many of us stand exposed as being bogged down in the busywork of Christianity instead of choosing what is better?

4. We replace LOVE with INDIFFERENCE.

We become numb to the things of God because they become familiar. Instead of keeping our zeal for the Lord as we serve Him, we get bored by the same old same old. When there is disinterest in your heart for the things of God it is time for a renewing of your mind! The church of Ephesus had warm hands but cold hearts. Does that describe you today in your relationship with God?

I was shocked by the relevance of this story to our current condition in the world: Muynak was once a thriving fishing port on the Aral Sea. But today, according to James Rupert of the Washington Post, Muynak sits on the edge of a bitter, salty desert. Sand dunes are strewn with the rusted, hollow hulls of a fishing fleet that once sailed high above on the surface of Central Asia’s fountain of life.

Things began changing 30 years ago when Stalinist planners began diverting the Aral’s water source to irrigate the world’s largest cotton belt. No one, however, envisioned the environmental disaster that would result. Weather has become more extreme; the growing season has been shortened by two months, and 80 percent of the region’s farmland has been ruined by salt storms that sweep in off the dry seabed.

What happened at Muynak parallels the history of the church of Ephesus. Once a thriving spiritual community, the Ephesian believers diverted their attention from Christ to works done in His name. They had lost sight of what was most important in their relationship with Christ— their love for Him.

Perhaps that is where the modern church is today. Forgetting the height from which we’ve fallen, we need to repent that we may experience times of refreshing from the Lord once again. We must return to our first love and remember that He first loved us. That first love–that pure love–the love that never let you go–the love that accepts you even now–with all of your rebellion and coldness toward Him–is available for each of us. We may not find the perfect church–but we have certainly discovered perfect love.

To my sons whom I love more than words can say:

“If there was only one principle that I could impart to you, what would be the most impactful for this life and the life to come? By the grace of God, the priority of this value is so clearly evident in the Scriptures that I feel confident in discussing this principle first: Love God more than anyone or anything. Nevertheless, despite it being obvious, we can be easily distracted and thus neglect this vital truth. Let’s consider the value, then I can confess where I have struggled to live it and share my journey of rediscovery.

Jesus revealed that the Greatest Commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength (Matthew 22:37-39; Deuteronomy 6:4-5). We are to love God with our thoughts, emotions, body and soul. In essence, God is to be the supreme love of our lives. Similarly, when God made a covenant with the Jews, He set apart the Ten Commandments uniquely when he wrote them on tablets in His own hand. The first four of the ten all relate to the value of loving supremely: You shall have no other God, you must not make any idol since it will diminish the glory of God, you shall revere His name, and honor the Sabbath to contemplate and worship Him (Exodus 20:1-8). So, we discover that the value of loving God more than anyone or anything else is crystal clear, but the application to our lives can be clouded and elusive. So, here’s my confession…

I was contemplating Jesus’ letter to the church at Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7). He commends them for their sacrificial service, perseverance and endurance with difficult people and circumstances. He also affirms their sound doctrine, and that the leaders served the people rather than seeking to be served. But Jesus also gave a word of correction, “Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

I began to wonder: How did that church receive Jesus’ correction? He truly knows the condition of our lives, and His assessment is always perfect. However, we may be unwilling to receive His correction. Did they seek to justify, defend, deflect or deny? As a quick aside, whenever there is repeated justification, defense, deflection or denial, there is likely to be spiritual and emotional unhealthiness. On the other hand, humility, receptivity and openness to correction often reflect spiritual and emotional health. As I was contemplating Jesus’ correction of the church at Ephesus, that is when the conviction came.

Several years ago, our neighbor Phyllis made the comment, “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were having an affair.” She had been observing me leave early in the morning, and frequently go out at night. And although she knew that I was going to the church, she made the tongue-in-cheek comment. What she didn’t realize was that she was right…

No I wasn’t having an affair with another woman (I’m madly in love with your mom), but in a sense, the church had become a mistress. I have to confess, there were times in the last 25+ years that I’ve allowed the ministry to become the master passion of my affections. I was seemingly more in love with the ministry than the One I was doing ministry for. It was subtle, because I love the Lord and was truly seeking to do good works for Christ and His kingdom. But there was no denying that something had taken his rightful place.

As long as I’m confessing, I should ask for forgiveness from you (I’ve already asked for forgiveness from God (1 John 1:9). To the extent that I neglected you or your mom in any way, I’m so very sorry. What I’ve come to realize is that when Christ is the master passion of my life, then I’m a better husband, father, friend/neighbor and servant. The only way that I can do those relationships well is doing my relationship with Jesus right.

For you, it may not be ministry, but there are countless other ways that someone or something can become a master passion. It could be your spouse, your kids, your friends, your career, your recreation, possessions or position. And as long as you’re not in full-blown-backslide-rebellion mode, you may not even notice that you’ve left Jesus as your first love. But you’ll suffer, and others that you love and care for will suffer; and the sooner you realize the unhealthy pitfall that you’re in the better.

You know that He deserves to be the One you love more than anything or anyone else.Jesus gave His life to give you eternal life and an abundant life in Him. You will be separated from everything and everyone else that you treasure on this earth, except for Jesus. And I’m confident that you know this and will remember this. And if sometime you discover that someone or something has become the primary focus of your affections, Jesus provides the answer. Jesus encouraged the church at Ephesus, and you and me, when He declared, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works …” (Revelation 2:5). First, remember a time when Jesus was your first love. Second, repent or change your thinking about Jesus and return to Him. Third, do or redo the first works. What were you doing when Jesus was your first love? Return to those disciplines such as, but not limited to, Bible learning, prayer, contemplation, serving God by serving others, worship, charitable giving and sharing your faith.

I have many values that I want to share with you, but this is the first principle to live by.

Love always,
Dad”

“Forgive me for being so ordinary while claiming to know so extraordinary a God.”
—Jim Elliot (1927-1956), martyred for sharing the love of Christ.

In the next article, I will tell you about when a heavy jug of aged, North Philly [homeless-and-possibly-heroin-addicted] urine splashed onto my bare feet and flip flops, how fast I dashed to the nearest North Philly bathtub to douse my legs in straight bleach, and how fast it subtly made my heart “wax cold” that day.

The risky side of ministry. The limitations of our own hearts. The necessity of God’s Spirit.

But first and most importantly, let’s go back 2,000 years to the most amazing night in human history, and its timeless anecdote for every emotion, moment and situation.

Surveying the Holy Land on the eve of the Crucifixion, you saw dichotomies in every direction. You saw crowds of worshipers wearing their very best, and you saw beggars showcasing how much they had nothing. You saw those on the edge of their seats with reverent anticipation, and you saw Roman soldiers sharing strong drink like it was just another day. You saw golden vessels in the temple, and you saw dingy Roman instruments of torture in the Antonia Fortress right next to the temple. Yes, dichotomies were everywhere.

But then there was the ultimate dichotomy. In the Upper Room, as our Lord sat with the disciples [and Judas] at the Passover meal, Jesus the Christ—King of kings and Lord of lords, the great I AM, the Creator who became clay (1 Timothy 3:16), the Infinite who became an infant (Isaiah 7:14), the true “Governor of the feast” (John 2:7-10)—exhibited the ultimate dichotomy: The holy Messiah—of such eternal purity that made even the priceless spikenard seem like sewage by comparison—rose from the dinner table, wrapped a towel around His waist like a house slave and began washing the disciples’ [and Judas’] feet—taking all their dirt and foul odors upon Himself with joyful ownership (Zephaniah 3:17).

Alas, the One who should’ve been served and washed by every person in that room, by every person gathered in Jerusalem and by every human and angel in existence! It is He who actually performs the most abject form of servitude, Himself. Why did He do this? Well, He gave the answer when He finished the foot washing: “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love (agápē) one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another” (John 13:34, AMP). And there you have it. In that Upper Room with 12 of the planet’s most blessed theologians—who shamefully enough, had just finished envying each other and arguing over who was the greatest (Luke 22:24).

Jesus gave a loving yet shocking rebuke and reminder of what this thing called Christianity is all about: LOVE.

But not a mere phileō love, where you simply love those whom you feel some type of connection with (as Jesus taught that even the grimiest of sinners are capable of that (Matthew 5:46). But rather, agápē love—a love not motivated by feelings, but motivated by esteeming others better than yourself (Philippians 2:4); a love unlike anything this world can produce or fathom; a love where you actively seek to treat every human being the way you yourself would [ideally] wish to be treated (Matthew 7:12); a love that is divine in origin. It is that “Good Samaritan” love that will cross any social, cultural, socioeconomic or racial barriers to fully give one’s compassion, time and resources to literally anyone and in any place (Luke 10:29-37). It is a love that will even do this for our enemies. It is a love that is not spelled L-O-V-E but rather S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E. Why it is the very love that moved the Father to give His only begotten Son for treacherous humankind.

I try to imagine the conviction that fell upon those in that Upper Room. At that moment, the most blessed theologians on the planet realized just how theologically “off” they had been. For as Paul said by the same Spirit through which Jesus washed their foul feet, “If I have all knowledge, enough faith to move all mountains, give away all my possessions, and even embrace martyrdom itself, if I don’t have [agápē] love, I AM NOTHING (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

No doubt, the disciples couldn’t help but stare anew into Jesus’ eyes—the gateway to His blessed heart—as they watched their King so lost in joyful, other-centered agápē (even washing the feet of His own betrayer after announcing that there was a snake at the dinner table). And to this very day, as the Word makes clear, it is not just a mere look at theology itself that realigns our hearts with the very “eyes” and heart of Jesus, but rather, a fresh entering into His presence through His living Word (2 Corinthians 3:18), prayer (Jude 20) and His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10). And how we need to be ever mindful of the vast difference between doing our daily devotional studies as mere “theological calisthenics,” and actually seeking and experiencing the very presence of Jesus, Himself.

Fast forward now to our present day, where this “Information Age” keeps us all tossed to and fro, from place to place and thought to thought, overstimulated and bombarded until we are benumbed by bedtime. Self-promotion and self-care are being propagated everywhere (2 Timothy 3:4)—the very opposite of [other-centered] agápē—as it even seeps into the church like invisible gases in a coal mine. Only, just as the at-risk coal miners would never dare take their eyes off the gas-detecting “canary bird” (the first sign that something is dangerously wrong in the coal mine), we as the church are all too often taking our eyes off the [gas-detecting] dove —the “grieved” Holy Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30).

We are no different than the disciples as they ignored Jesus sitting right next to them while arguing over who was the greatest.

In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus said that our very day—these “last days” precipitating His return —would be a day where believers’ hearts would “wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). And this sobering warning is definitely talking about believers (and not unbelievers, as I once thought), because He uses the word “agápē,” which only born again believers can possess (Romans 5:5; Colossians 1:27). Jesus says that this “waxing cold” would be due to such “abounding iniquity” (e.g. such uncanny levels of lawlessness and drama, such overwhelming amounts of grieving information and grieving statistics, such callousing news reports from calloused news reporters, and no doubt, even calloused sermons from calloused pastors, along with calloused church members with no desire to give their pastors basic honor—let alone the “double honor” that the Bible commands (1 Timothy 5:17)—which alone can even make the loneliest, battle-wearied pastor suddenly feel loved and alive again.

In our professing Christian culture that is increasingly leaving its “first love” in exchange for a self-satisfied, impotent “lukewarmness” (Revelation 3:15-17), we are cooling off in our love for God, and inadvertently, cooling off in our love for everyone else. The deceitfulness and wickedness of the human heart cannot afford this (Jeremiah 17:9). Just as in the fashion world, where gurus have coined the peculiar phrase, “brown is the new black,” there are even arising some peculiar “switcheroos” in today’s love-waxing-cold church:

Subdued bitterness is becoming the new forgiveness. Slander and gossip is becoming the new spiritual discernment. Competition and envy is becoming the new spiritual zeal. “Church hopping” is becoming the new “freedom in the Spirit.” Martha is becoming the new Mary. Sharing stories on social media is becoming the new way of getting involved. Phone texting heart emojis is becoming the new intimacy. And exchanges with “friends” on Facebook is replacing the once priceless commitment to cultivating friendships—even through adversity (Proverbs 17:17)—where what David and Jonathan had, and what Naomi and Ruth had, was once the prized goal with every person we called “brother” or “sister.” Again, adding up all the aforementioned Scriptures and more (Matthew 24:12; Luke 18:8; Revelation 3:14-21; Jude 2-4; Matthew 25:5; 2 Timothy 3:1-7), God says so much about this day we are in. But sadly, we’re often lukewarm even in how we get convicted about it.

Well, being the beautiful, merciful and faithful Great Physician that He is, Jesus gives us the guaranteed remedy.

He commands us to be honest about the lukewarm and cold places of our hearts and be “zealous” (i.e.[Greek] “be on fire”) in repenting about it (Revelation 3:19). Then, may we come back to remembering and celebrating our Lord’s eternal love for us—“the first works” (Revelation 2:5)—just as He called wayward Israel to remember just where His saving (and sanctifying) love had brought them from (Ezekiel 16:1-14).

So let’s seek to love each other and “wash each other’s feet” like never before. Let’s be like Paul, who “exercised himself” to always have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men (Acts 24:16). Let’s exhort one another anew about the easy trap of becoming “busy and religious.” Because while this confused world is drowning in false wisdom (worldviews), false senses of security and falsities at every turn, and while we are indeed called to “give an answer to every man” (1 Peter 3:15), Jesus made abundantly clear that one of our greatest apologetics to this world would be the way we agápē one another in the church (John 13:35; Galatians 6:10). Let’s be still and let Jesus wash our feet once again (and again, and again, and again), until our hearts melt anew from His unfailing love, and may all those around us receive the evidence and fruit like never before.

“It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus.” —Charles Spurgeon.

I have known loneliness in my life. When I first started to follow Jesus, I was 24 years old. Soon after making that decision, I moved to a new house. During this period I lived alone in a house with no television and no internet. I lived like that for four years. Because of my decision to follow Christ, I didn’t have many friends who were very present during this time as I wasn’t socializing the way I used to. I would come home from work, and the silence in my house felt deafening and overwhelming. I ate many a solitary pasta meal; and honestly, I felt lonely a lot. While this was a challenging period in my life, I look back now and see that it was also a period of amazing growth and a time when the Lord did a huge work in my heart. Let’s explore some of our views on loneliness and see if we can change them in order to embrace it in a more hopeful way.

Don’t run from loneliness.

Often, when loneliness strikes, our first reaction is to fill up our time in order to escape the feeling of being alone. Sometimes our need to not be alone can cause us to make unwise decisions, to look to people we know are not going to be a positive influence in our lives just so we are not alone. Sometimes we need to take a moment, breathe and just admit to ourselves, “Right now I feel lonely…… and that’s ok.” Don’t be so quick to avoid loneliness, the fact is, it is an emotion that everyone will experience at different times in their lives, so it might be worth just facing it and learning to accept it; or you will spend your whole life fearing it. God tells us in Deuteronomy 31:8, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” As a Christian, no matter how alone you may feel, the truth is, you are not alone. The one who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24) is by your side. It might be time to rest in that truth and allow the very real presence of God to pervade your loneliness.

God wants to use this solitary period of your life to work in you.

We know that “everything works together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). So, do trust the Lord that He can turn your lonely time into something beautiful. Instead of resenting this time, look at it as an opportunity to tune into the Lord; it is you and Him now, and He knows your needs better than any human person. The Lord wants you to “abide” in Him, rest in Him, allow Him to fill up the empty, lonely places in your heart.

This season will eventually end, and you can come out of it closer to the Lord, fulfilled in Him, ready for the relationships He has for you in your future. You can emerge from your desert season, standing on the constancy of Christ in your life, or you can rush around filling your time with unhealthy relationships, born out of the fear of loneliness. I would encourage you to turn to Christ and see His work in your life during this time of loneliness.

Loneliness is not something to be ashamed of.

There is no shame in being lonely. It is not something you need to feel bad about. There is nothing wrong with you. You are just human, you, like everybody else at different times in their lives, are going through a desert experience. Remember that even those who seem to have very full lives can be feeling lonely in the midst of their busyness. So, resist the urge to compare your life with someone else’s. We never truly understand what people are feeling in their hearts, only God knows that, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). God knows your heart. He knows your needs, and He wants to use this time to draw you closer to Him, so that you can become practiced in relying on Him.

Instead of dreading loneliness, look at it with hope that this is in fact an exciting season for you, one where God wants to do something that would not be possible in another, busier time of your life. Do not miss this opportunity!

Don’t worry about what you’re missing.

During those periods when I was young and very lonely, I suffered from what I called W.A.I.M. (What am I missing). I would sit at home alone and think that everybody else was out having loads of fun. Everybody else had tons of friends and was out having fun, and I was majorly missing out. WHAT AM I MISSING? The fact of the matter is, I wasn’t missing anything, and neither are you. If you are following the Lord and seeking His will for your life, then you are where you are meant to be, even if that is a season of loneliness. Stop wondering what you’re missing or trying to figure out ways to dodge feeling lonely. Just allow yourself to be in the season you are in and let the Lord do the work He wants to do in your life during this period. I know you will look back on this time and rejoice in the goodness of God and the beautiful plan He has for you.

Rejoice in the Lord!

“Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Remember that God is your joy, just as much in the season of loneliness as when your life is full of friends and fun. So find your joy in Him. No matter what period of life you are in, whether full or lonely, there is only one constant, one rock we can stand on, the rock of ages, the rock of Christ. He will never let you down.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

It was a stormy night in Somerset, England, in 1763. A large thunderstorm had quickly moved in, and Augustus Toplady, a preacher in the village of Blagdon, found himself exposed in the brutal elements of wind, rain and lightning. Noticing the nearby gorge of Burrington Combe in the Mendip Hills, he quickly found a small gap in the gorge and took shelter from the violent deluge.

While huddled in the small cove, Toplady was suddenly inspired with words. Scrambling to write them down, he found that he had no paper to write on except a playing card. He quickly scribbled these words:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee

These words later comprised a hymn, known as “Rock of Ages.” Within a generation, this hymn became known as one of the four greatest Anglican hymns of the 19th Century, sung by millions around the world, including at the deathbed of Prince Albert. It is claimed to be in more hymnals than any other English hymn! The lyrics later state:

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Toplady was saved that fateful night from the storm because of the shelter provided by the rocky cleft. You and I, in like manner, have been saved by Jesus Christ from the despair and destruction of sin and death. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks of three unique aspects of our salvation:

“…Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.” (1 Peter 1:2).

1. CHOSEN: “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”

First, Peter says that we have been elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. The word “elect” is the Greek word eklektois (ἐκλεκτοις), which is a plural adjective from the verb eklego (ἐκλεγο) which means “to pick out” or “to select out of a number.” The verb is used in Ephesians 1:4 where it is rendered “chosen,” referring to the act of God in sovereign grace choosing out certain from among mankind for Himself, the verb in Ephesians being in middle voice, meaning the subject acts in his own interest. Quite literally, those to whom Peter is writing could be called “selected out ones.”

Election is tied to foreknowledge. This may seem difficult to understand with our finite minds, but God knows the end from the beginning. James the Apostle points this out in Acts 15:18: “Known to God from eternity are all His works.” Consider this truth: God is omniscient, which means “all-knowing.” God has always been omniscient, which thus means He cannot learn. He knows all things, thus there is nothing new for God to learn. So all His works were known to Him before a single one of them came to be.

I used to love Legos. Okay who am I kidding…I still love Legos! Legoland is only a few hours away from my house, and to be honest, I would probably go to Legoland even if I didn’t have kids (most people know Legos from their reputation in the middle of the night as parents go to check on their kids and step on one with bare feet!)

When I was growing up, I would get a Lego castle set. It came with a bag of bricks, and I would begin to organize each brick based on its size and shape, start reading the detailed IKEA-like instructions; and then I would begin selecting certain blocks to fit together.

One time it was dinner right when I opened my Lego box. I had dumped all the blocks out, and I had to leave it there and go to the dinner table. I remember coming back to the blocks after dinner once I had finished dish duty that night and my sister and brother had gone through my room and dumped all my normal blocks in with the new blocks. I was so mad! It’s funny to look back now, but I was so stressed out at the time, I thought I was going to have a small 12-year-old heart attack. I could hear the doctor saying, “Yeah we’ve never seen such a young boy have a heart attack of this magnitude…what happened…did one of his siblings mix up his Lego blocks?”

I had to slowly and methodically build the castle and look into this pile of mixed up blocks as I was hand selecting…or you could say… “electing” the blocks that were needed for this project. This selective process doesn’t make Lego unfair as a company or uncaring to the other blocks – it simply means that the Designer of the castle had a plan in mind from the beginning. The end result would mean some blocks would be chosen, and others would not.

Foreknowledge means that God knew us from the beginning. It isn’t solely based on knowing and electing us because He knew we would turn in faith to Christ, but that is certainly an aspect of it. What a wonderful truth! The Lord knew me and elected me before the foundation of the world! God foreknew and elected you to eternal life. Glorious!

2. CONSECRATED: “in sanctification of the Spirit”

The second aspect of our salvation is that we are sanctified or set apart: consecrated by the Holy Spirit. This concept is linked to the word “obedience,” meaning that when we first obeyed by placing our faith in Jesus, at that moment we were sealed and sanctified. We were made holy, forensically and legally put in the category of NOT GUILTY.

The Spirit of God has sanctified us, set us apart, consecrated us. Though we are already saved, past tense, we are “being saved” present tense (2 Corinthians 2:15; Philippians 2:12-13). This is the process of growing more and more like Jesus that begins with conversion and then continues endlessly until we see Him face to face in glory.

3. CLEANSED: “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”

The third aspect of our salvation is the cleansing, atoning work of Christ on our behalf. Peter uses the phraseology and typology of the Levitical ritual where the priest sprinkled the people with the sacrificial blood. The writer of Hebrews picks up on this in chapter nine of his letter and speaks of the shedding of blood on our behalf.

Did you catch the Godhead’s work in salvation in these verses? Notice that each member of the Trinity has a work in our salvation:

. The Father knows us in advance and thus calls us the “elect”
. The Spirit sanctifies us (makes us holy, consecrated to God)
. The Son, Jesus, cleanses us from sin through His atoning sacrifice, made effectual to us by faith.

Vincent says “The Father foreknowing, the Son atoning, the Spirit applying the Son’s work in sanctifying.”

I like what one person said about these three aspects of our salvation:

“We have therefore the three steps taken by the three Persons of the Triune God. God the Father chooses the sinner to salvation. God the Spirit brings the sinner thus chosen to the act of faith. God the Son cleanses him in His precious blood. Perhaps someone may read these lines who is not saved. Your question is, “How can I know whether I am one of those whom God has chosen?” The answer is simple. Put your faith in the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour, the One who died on the Cross in your stead to make atonement for your sins, and God will save you. You will find that God the Father chose you for salvation, God the Spirit brought you to the act of faith, and God the Son cleansed you from your sin.”

Are you saved? Chosen, consecrated and cleansed? Those who receive Christ as their Savior are protected like Toplady from the wind and lightning. No one else can save from the torrents of sin and death. Only Jesus can be your true Shelter. Will you receive Him today?

If you are saved, what a wonderful reminder for us today: We are chosen! We have been elected to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We are consecrated: set apart to obey God and mature in Him. We are cleansed: washed white and clean because of the Word spoken to us. Let’s trust our Trinitarian God in our salvation so that:

While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.

The world is again in the grip of yet another realization that it’s ways are bankrupt. The sexual revolution of the 60s has born more bitter fruit in the ever-growing sexual harassment scandals rocking one industry and institution after another. Like falling dominoes, leaders, athletes and celebrities face career-ending accusations.

In the midst of scandal, the Gospel offers an attractive option.

While secular society has objectified women, the community of Christ is called to honor them with dignity as joint heirs of glory and spiritual sisters.

This difference is seen in God’s commands to ancient Israel. In Deuteronomy 21, a policy was laid down for how a Jewish man was to treat a female captive. The act of sex was already limited to marriage, so rape of captives was prohibited. Any Jewish man who wanted to marry a foreign captive couldn’t just “take” her. There was a process that aimed to help him realize her dignity as a human being. Before he could marry her, she was to shave her head and cut her nails, exchange her clothes for modest wear and mourn her family for a month. It was only after all that, if the man still wanted her, that he could make her his wife. If he declined, she was to be set free, not sold off as a slave, as compensation for the humbling she’d endured over the previous month.

The culture of that time accounted a woman’s hair as a major part of her physical beauty. Her hair also served as a sign of being under the authority of her father or husband. She wore a veil over her head and only exposed her hair to her husband in private. By shaving her head, the captive removed a significant source of her sensual appeal. Her captor was now faced with why he wanted to marry her. Was his motive purely sensual? With a shaved head, he was moved to look past her physical beauty to see the person he’d be marrying. And with a shaved head, the message was clear: She was under no authority and had no protection. That put her captor in the position of having to continually watch out for her. He began to realize the ongoing role he’d bear as her husband. All of this aimed to make that man realize he was taking a person, not a plaything, into his life. That person possessed dignity he was to honor. She was someone he owed respect to. That month of mourning for her family reminded him he’d taken her out of her life and was installing her in his. He was to recognize what it all cost her.

A similar idea lies behind the Apostle Paul’s instructions to the church at Corinth in his instructions about head coverings. They served as symbols of authority and offered protection for women in a culture where sexual predation was rampant. Some pagan women eschewed such coverings in a bid for self-determination. The trend had influenced some ladies in the Corinthian fellowship. But going out in public without covering was inviting unwelcome attention; it was dangerous. Paul didn’t enforce a rule of head coverings to subject women to a tyrannical patriarchy. He encouraged the entire fellowship at Corinth to make the protection of women a priority. Men and women both were to realize the dignity inherent in being children of God and behave in a way consistent with that dignity.

Far from the Bible being a manual on misogyny as its critics often paint it, it begins by declaring both male and female bear God’s image.

While different physically and having different roles in the various spheres of life, they are equal as image bearers of the divine and ought to honor each other as such. Sin shattered God’s original plan, but the Gospel of Christ restores it. As the Redeemed and a redeeming community, we must offer an alternative to the world’s dehumanizing of women by relegating them to mere objects of prurient desire.

A practical way to do that is found in 1 Timothy 5. Paul says older women are to be regarded as mothers while young women are to be esteemed as sisters. In Christ, we’re family.

Men can protect women by treating them with respect and dignity as daughters of God. That protection begins by turning the “lure of lust to a hankering for holiness.” They can also stand guard by keeping an eye out for wolves. Mature women of faith can encourage new believers and those struggling with the world’s ways to more helpful habits that yield the beauty of genuine femininity rather than the world’s cheap counterfeit. While shaming has a long history in church discipline, it’s not a means of either the grace or truth we’re to operate in. The Spirit alone brings conviction from within. We’re not to shame from without. Rather, we encourage and exhort one another to walk in holiness and humility.

As we do, we show the world a better way, where one-time victims and victimizers are saved out of their past into the dignity and honor we, and they, were created for.