If you have been following my entries this week, you have probably picked up on the fact that we are truly enjoying the week. It has been an incredible time of learning and application. Marti and I have really been blessed to meditate on such central truths to our faith. At this point, it is difficult to say which session has been the best or the most influential. But I must say that our session on Loving Others has been quite important.
Dr. Kooistra introduced the session with a paraphrase from Francis Schaeffer. He said,
“You can’t have true ministry without both orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community.”Basically, to have right doctrine is not enough; we must also have the right love for others.
Our ability to love others must start with God’s love for us. We can risk vulnerability by the certainty of God’s love. If, as Dr. Kooistra points out, Jesus was willing to give up heaven, life, and righteousness for us, then certainly we can risk loving. Otherwise, if we try to love in our own strength, then we will fail. As Dr. Kooistra taught, “Unless the love of God washes over us daily then we can’t love others as Jesus loved us.”
Discord within the church is the way Satan discredits the church. Satan is a wise enemy. He has learned (for the most part) that attacks from within (arguing and disputes) are far superior in stopping the advance of the Kingdom of God than attacks from without (persecution). Dr. Kooistra poignantly states,
“we have little impact on the culture because we love so little.”Or as New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce succinctly says,
“The love of God displayed in His people is the strongest apologetic that God has in the world.”
Dr. Kooistra then closed with these thoughts on why Biblical love of others is “easy” to recognize.
First, it is sacrificial. Philippians 2:3 reminds us to “consider others better than yourself.” Second, love does not give up; I Corinthians 13:7 teaches that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Lastly loving others is not some abstract thing but real and organic.
What is hard about the teaching in this session is not the head knowledge or the theology, but the action. We are called to love others. And if we take serious God’s economy, we are called to love the unlovable - the rotten, filthy, poorly put together folks who smell bad, look bad, and live bad. We are called to love the poor, the proud, the arrogant, the foolish, the crazy, the belligerent, the hostile, the different, the cruel, the wicked, the selfish, and the well, the VERY UNLOVABLE. Again, it is not an abstract love, but a true love backed up by action. The only thing that even allows me to CONSIDER this is the fact that God loved me first.
Lord, give me strength to do this impossible task.
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