Love

Good morning. Family life can be challenging, to say the least. Brothers and sisters can love each other passionately and infuriate each other all the time. They can be your best ally or your harshest critic. They can be the ones who give you that pep talk you needed at just the right time and just the right way. They can be the ones that you listen to when you, they can be the ones that you listen to when they give you that tough but necessary piece of advice about how you're making a big mistake, advice you might not even be willing to take from a parent or a spouse or a close friend. Sometimes in a family, one child is known as the responsible one, the one who's often taking care of elderly parents and managing family difficulties. And sometimes there's a black sheep who can't seem to keep a job, may need to borrow money, and just can't seem to handle taking on larger family responsibilities. In a healthy family, brothers and sisters are the ones you most want to be around in both good times and bad times. One common picture of the church in scripture is that of a family, the household of God. Every time we are blessed to bring in new members at a members meeting, the old members and the new members recite together in unison our church's covenant to remind each of us of the promises that we have made to each other as brothers and sisters in this particular body. We promise our brothers and sisters that we will love them with encouragement saying we will watch over each other in brotherly love. We will pray for each other. We will participate in each other's joys and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. We also promise our brothers and sisters that we will love them with correction. saying, we will humbly warn a brother who is in danger of falling into disobedience or error. We will speak the truth in love, be slow to take offense, and be eager to seek swift and lasting reconciliation. Why are we commanded to be holy? Because as Galatians 5 tells us, among the works of the flesh are sexual immorality and impurity and sensuality. Why are we commanded to love? Because among the works of the flesh are strife and jealousy and anger and envy. Two ways that Christians are called to be distinguished from the surrounding culture are holiness or purity and love for one another. God's word requires Christians to be both holy and loving. We don't get to choose one or the other. Last week we talked about how Christians focus on sexual immorality because God focuses on sexual immorality. Today we're going to focus on love because God also focuses on love. A quick reminder of where we've been in 1 Thessalonians. The Thessalonian church appears to have been in confusion about last things, holiness, work, and persecution, and these themes occur throughout. In chapter one, the subject is the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit in saving the Thessalonians and the Thessalonians responding by imitating Jesus as well as Paul and his missionary team. Chapters two and three discuss the hard work of good doctrine and good character in the lives of believers and their spiritual leaders as they live faithfully while awaiting the second coming of Christ. The beginning of chapter four, which we looked at last week, addressed the need for holiness, particularly in regard to sexual immorality. As we mentioned, the organization for chapter four comes directly from the last two verses of chapter three. If you'll look up just a sentence or two above where we are this morning, you can see there in 1 Thessalonians 3, 12 and 13. Paul's prayer for the people of Thessalonica is that the Lord may make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. The abounding in love for one another actually leads to our holiness before God. And then he, in chapter four, covers holiness in verses one through eight, which we looked at last week, And then in verses 4, 9 through 12, he talks about brotherly love, which we're going to look at this week. And then at some future date, we'll be looking at the rest of chapter 14 and the second coming. These sections on holiness and brotherly love are closely tied together. The language of what you are doing and doing more and more in verses one and 10, God's teaching in verse nine, Paul's urging in verse 10, Paul's instruction in verse 11, all parallel the language of verses one through two about the commands that the Thessalonians have already received from Paul in person and focuses on the divine source of this teaching. We're gonna move from the negative commands of last week to abstain and not transgress and not do wrong, to a more positive set of commands, to love more, to aspire, to work. Last week we saw the effects of sin inside and outside the church, and this week we're gonna see the effects of godly behavior inside and outside the church. Today we are meditating on the truth that believers are set apart from the world by loving one another and living humbly. Believers are set apart from the world by loving one another and living humbly. We'll look at two simple points. In verses nine to 10, love one another. Love one another. And in 11 and 12, live humbly. First we look at the command to love one another in verses nine and 10. Paul writes, now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you were doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia, but we urge you brothers to do this more and more. The word for brotherly love in Greek is a single word, which I think most of you know, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Before appearing in the New Testament, it was only used of familial love within a biological family, the kinds of family that we talked about in the introduction. However, in the New Testament, it's only used of love expressed to fellow believers in Christ, in the Christian family. The Thessalonians had already heard this message from Paul. He told them that he didn't need to write to them anymore because you yourselves, he's putting emphasis on that, you appears four times there in verse nine. The emphasis is they already know this, they've already heard it from him in person, and they've already been putting it into practice. But Paul also reminds them But this is not a word coming just from Paul, who they only knew for a short time, but rather it is taught by God. Taught by God is also a single word in Greek, God-taught. sort of along the same lines of God breathed. He put the two words together to make one, and it's in the present tense. This which they have known and been told to them, they're being taught by God. It is God taught commands to love the brothers. It actually appears to be a word that Paul may have come up with. There is no earlier instance of the word in Greek other than here in the New Testament. What does it mean to be God taught? As I already mentioned back in verses one through three, there's repeated talk about the divine source of Paul's commands. And at the end of the previous section in verse eight, he talks about how the spirit is given to us by God to lead us. We have the spirit involved. We have the word of God. We have Jesus who teaches us this very same truth. These are all our teachers. And we are being God-taught today through Paul's words recorded here in Scripture. He was one of the men who spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and it was recorded for us so that we have it with us even today. So if you don't have your own Bible, please take the one that is in front of you in the pew. Use it today. Take it home with you, keep it, study it, read it. It is the God-breathed, God-taught source of truth. Next notice in verse nine that brotherly love is placed in parallel with loving one another. And the word for love here is agape, agape one another. But they're in parallel. You've been told to engage in brotherly love, you've heard it taught, don't need to write it again, because you know you need to love one another. Agape love is love we should have for all people. As Jesus says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and he makes it very clear that your neighbor is everybody. But here and throughout scripture, it is especially connected to love for one another, meaning mutual love between believers and identified with brotherly love. It's also striking how love for one another and brotherly love are connected to holiness as they are not here in 1 Thessalonians but elsewhere. Listen to how all these ideas come together in key passages of scripture that describe brotherly love. Turn with me now to Romans 12. At the end of Romans, beginning in 12.9, Paul is giving instructions to the Romans who have read this very long, highly detailed theological dissertation. And now he's telling them what they need to do with it. He starts in 12.9, let love, agape, be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection. The same word for Philadelphia. In the English translation, they tend not to have love twice in the same sentence. Agape one another with Philadelphia. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. So we begin to see what loving one another with a brotherly love looks like. And again, if you turn over to Hebrews 13. Again, the writer to Hebrews, after a long theological discussion, is coming into application and telling his readers how they need to behave. We hear some of the same things in Hebrews 13, beginning in verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. There is a special first love for brothers and sisters in Christ. this brotherly love. This is very counter-cultural, not just to the people of Thessalonica in the first century, but here with us today, not just in America, throughout the world. The natural flow of love is to family, your brothers and sisters, your mother and father, maybe cousins. Maybe it extends to a clan or to a tribe. and maybe at the outer fringes to a nationality or a nation. But scripture tells us that our primary identity is as God's people. Sex, race, party, nationality, citizenship are all secondary. There are only two groups of people that matter. not Republicans and Democrats, not black and white, not conservatives and liberals, not legalists and libertines, not those who emphasize holiness or those who focus on loving, but those who are God's redeemed people and those who are not. John in his epistles basically makes loving the brotherhood a litmus test for whether or not you're a true believer. He doesn't think that you're a believer if you don't love your brothers. One commentator said that this fact is often overlooked by Christians. It is not sufficiently considered by most Christian people who, if they looked into the matter, might find that few of their strongest affections were determined by the common faith. Is not love a strong and peculiar word to describe the feeling you cherish towards some members of the church, brethren to you in Christ Jesus? Yet love to the brethren is the very token of our right to a place in the church for ourselves. There is a necessity for a universal love. You should love everyone. But there's also a necessity for a hierarchy of love. We love God first. Then we love our fellow believers. And then we love everybody, including the outsiders, and even our enemies. But as Galatians 6.10 tells us, even as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. Those are our first priority. And we can see here that the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica were not stingy with their love for the brotherhood. It was not just the brothers and sisters in their own immediate congregation that they cared for, but we see in verse 10 that they are doing so to all the brothers throughout Macedonia, their entire region, which included, we know, at least churches in Philippi and Berea, in addition to those in Thessalonica itself. We not only hear that they are showing brotherly love to those fellow Christians, we saw in 1 Thessalonians 7 that they had been an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia. Throughout Greece, they were known, they were in relationship, they were sharing the faith that they had throughout the area. We also see in 2 Corinthians 8 where Paul talks about the churches in Macedonia, including the church at Thessalonica, even though they were poor, out of their abundance of joy overflowing in generosity to give to other Christians who had less, who made a collection so that others would not suffer. And Paul essentially puts the Corinthians on a guilt trip and tells them that it's not a command, but if you were to actually give yourselves, you would prove that your love is also genuine because you're putting it into action, sharing with less fortunate brothers and sisters. And I'm thankful here that we are able to joyfully work with local, national, and international networks of believers on church building and education, missionary work, sharing our finances so that the work of the gospel can be carried throughout the world. Next in verse 10, Paul begins the command part of this passage. He says, but we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more. And here, of course, this thing they're commanded to do more and more is that brotherly love, that love for one another that they've already been called to. As we talked about last week, the sanctification of the believer, the becoming more holy, progressively as they act in this life is critical in the Christian life and critical in the message of Paul here. We're told that they are to do this, they're already doing it, and they need to do it more and more. This is the same language from 312, 4-1, and 4-10. Yes, you've already been saved. You've already been set apart by God as one of his own people. but you need to make your life more and more holy. You need to follow the commands more and more consistently and mature in your Christ-likeness. And in fact, in 2 Peter, One, where Peter goes through the famous chain of virtues. He makes it very clear how holiness and brotherly love and agape love are key elements of this chain. He says in 2 Peter 1 beginning in verse 5, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue is knowledge. and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. So we're called to continue to grow in holiness, including the command to love with brotherly love and to love one another. There are so many ways we could talk about how this has worked out in our lives. Ben's prayer was a beautiful introduction to the many ways that we can show brotherly love among the body. And I'm very thankful to say that I see lots of great family-like love at Jefferson Park. As we have promised in our covenant, we watch over each other in brotherly love. We pray for each other. We participate in each other's joys, like the wedding shower that's going on today. And we endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows, as we do when a loved one dies, or when someone is suffering an illness, or someone is struggling spiritually. I look around and I see college students loving the older saints, and playing with the children as if they were their very own brothers and sisters. I see the men about to get married, the famous Matcombe program recently started by Keith, where engaged men are given godly counsel by older married men to help get them started on a good course. I see us try to outdo one another in showing honor. I see us contributing to the needs of the saints. I show us showing hospitality as we're in each other's houses and getting to know each other and serving one another. I know of the food that is given when people are sick or have a baby or are in the hospital. I know of the mercy ministry and how we reach out and care for those who are unable to care for themselves. I also know that as we promise in our covenant, we will humbly warn a brother who is in danger of falling into disobedience or error. We will speak the truth in love, be slow to take offense, and be eager to seek swift and lasting reconciliation. I see people being deeply in each other's lives. I see people able to know when something is wrong and provide counsel and redirect away from sin. I see people in each other's lives enough that they can rebuke when sin is ignored or minimized and get a response that doesn't completely reject it but listens. I see people forgiving much as we have been forgiven much. If you are here and you are not a believer and you are not part of the Christian family, We already heard from John 15 that we are to love one another. That is Jesus' command and how we are distinguished. He also says there that greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. But Jesus is not just our friend, he's our brother. We are co-heirs in Christ as children of God, and he showed the ultimate in brotherly love by laying down his life for us, that we might have all the benefits of sonship that he has as God's only begotten son. He not only loved his brothers, he loved his enemies, us. We were his enemies, yet he loved us. As John tells us elsewhere, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. Unbeliever, repent of your sins and call upon Jesus who can wipe away your sins, make you holy, and make you a member of God's family. Secondly, today, we're called to live humbly. Live humbly. In addition to loving more and more, as it says in verse 10, the we urge you brothers carries on into verse 11 and gives us other things that we are supposed to do. We are to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. We're called to live modestly, respectably, lowly, and this is another way of putting ourselves, excuse me, this is another way of putting others before ourselves. by living modestly, respectably, and lowly. I was tempted after the gravity of last week's message to lighten things up by calling this point, don't be extra. Or as a commentator put it a little bit more formally, Paul exhorts his readers to take the lowly place. That is the way that love acts. That is the way that love acts. As Paul wrote to another church in Macedonia, to the Philippians in Philippians 2, love and affection are tied up in not putting yourself to the fore, but to put others at the fore. In Philippians 2, he writes, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Here in this particular passage in verses 11 and 12, the reference is mostly to outsiders compared to the brothers who are in view back in verses 9 and 10. And there's going to be an interesting switch as we look of the idea of lack of dependency rather than the mutual support that we get from the brothers. Let's look at the three commands in return. He urges us to do three things, to aspire to live quietly, to mind our own affairs, and to work with our hands. The word for aspire is interesting. Elsewhere in scripture, it is actually translated as ambition, have the ambition to do something. And the word for quiet here is a sense of remaining quiet, being at rest. The focus isn't so much on how much noise you're making, but your posture of being in rest and quiet and unperturbed. Not frantic. Calvin used the word tranquil. In the New Testament, it is used at least once for, on the Sabbath, they rested. And in the Old Testament, it is used for how the land had rest for so many years. So quiet life is a normal life. You're content with what you have. As we talked about last week, not being content with what you have is a major driver for sin. But there's also, as we're going to hear this, state of not being dependent. It really is an interesting command to aspire to live quietly. As one commentator translated it a little bit more aggressively, he says basically it says, make your ambition to be unambitious. Seek restlessly to be still. Live normally, live faithfully. Accept providence, what you've been given. I'm reminded of some of the passages in scripture where Paul tells people not to be in a hurry to change the status they're in, that just because they become a Christian doesn't need to change what their job is or their status in society, that those things continue on. We also need to remember that he's writing to those who had been and were continuing to be persecuted. We read about that earlier in chapter two. And in fact, they're told to be bold in the gospel, but maybe they don't need to be bold in everything else. We remember back in Acts 17 where we first learned about Paul, Silas, and Timothy coming to Thessalonica, and it turns out they were only there for weeks because they got kicked out, because they were proclaiming the gospel, and a mob that didn't like it went to the local authorities and said that they were preaching against Caesar. They were being told that they were disrupting the social fabric. Now they were happy to be guilty of preaching the gospel. Peter and John were happy to go to jail and be beaten in the book of Acts because they were preaching the gospel, and the Sanhedrin told them to stop, and they said, no thank you, and continued, and went repeatedly to jail. But there's that sense that you don't want to be disrupting things just to be disruptive. You need to focus on the important things. And part of that living quietly, I think, is carried out in the next item, to mind your own affairs. Finally, some commands for those of us who are introverts. Don't have to be all up in people's lives. Don't have to be worried about every problem out there. You can mind your own affairs. I think I speak for many people to say those commands to love are just as exhausting as the other commands that can seem so challenging about behavior because Being in other people's lives is not my normal state of being. But we are called to mind or attend to our own. It really isn't an object there, it's just our own, our own affairs, our own business, our own things, our own lives. We need to be reminded that there is a good reason to be in people's lives and there's a bad reason to be in people's lives. And scripture is not shy at pointing at the bad reasons to be in people's lives. Back in Proverbs 27, 25, 17, it says, let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you. There can be those neighbors that are not there to help, but to interrupt, not there to love, but to interfere. And even in the New Testament, Paul writes to Timothy that there in Ephesus where Timothy is living, there are widows who should be following after God and God's people, but instead they spend their time being idle, going from house to house, being gossips and busybodies. And this is the exact opposite kind of behavior that Paul is calling for here in Thessalonians. And indeed, Peter writes about this kind of behavior, and it comes in a very serious spot. In 1 Peter 4, He's talking about how we can suffer for being Christians. In 1 Peter 4, he writes, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. That was a weird de-escalation in the common sense things from murderer and thief and evildoer to meddler. But being a meddler can cast indignity and shame on the name of Christ just as other sins can do. C.S. Lewis, who is known for his clever writing and his sort of English sensibility, had something on point to say about busybodies and meddlers. Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep. His cupidity or greed may at some point be satiated. But those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. And of course, the own conscience is the issue there. Ultimately, this, like all sins, is a hard issue. Are you in someone's life to lovingly help them and point them to Christ? Or are you there in their life to entertain yourself with their sin and their drama? Next, Paul tells us to work with our hands. We know that Paul himself worked with his hands, even as he was an apostle traveling the known world to share the gospel. He worked with Aquila and Priscilla as a tent maker. Earlier in 1 Thessalonians, he reminded the brothers in Thessalonica that while he was there among them, even though it was for a few weeks, he labored and toiled, working day and night so that he would not be a burden to any of them. He worked, even as he was preaching the gospel, so that he would not be a burden to these people among whom he ministered. Now this was very counter-cultural in the Greek world. Manual labor was for slaves. People who were free-born or had any kind of wealth wanted to live a higher life and not get caught up in manual labor. But Jewish sensibility, biblical sensibility, Proverbs, all of the Testament of Scripture is that working hard working for your own good, working to feed yourself and your family, working diligently, is something to be praised. Paul's command here is that we not be in poverty, but we're also not to be caught up in the prosperity gospel. What we're supposed to be responsible for is good, honest, personal provision, taking care of ourselves. He's not saying if you're a knowledge worker that you have to give that up and become a tradesman. He's saying that you need to take responsibility for yourself, whether you're a farmer, or you work in IT, or you're a doctor, or you teach the word of God. We should want to earn money. We should want to take care of ourselves. Indeed, we are told that we should want to make extra so that we have some that we can afford to give away to help those who need it, to help the brothers and the sisters who are in need. So why did Paul branch off into this sort of middle-class view of living quietly, minding your own affairs, and being a good, faithful worker? Well, he tells us that it is seen by those on the outside, those who are not brothers and sisters, those who are not believers, see how we behave, and it has an effect on their opinion of us. Now, Paul has been very clear, that's what last week was about, that we should not go along with society on issues of immorality. But we also shouldn't put off others in society by ignoring our responsibilities to the community or the society. There's nothing wrong with being respectable for leading an orderly life. If we're going to be rejected, it should be because we're godly, not because we're a jerk or a busybody or lazy. We're told in Colossians 4, 5, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. We should treat them with concern. We should be worried about what they think about us. We should try to be our best selves and put our best foot forward when walking with outsiders. That's the best way that we have in our own human power to show the attractiveness of the gospel. Even elders in 1 Timothy 3, 7 are said to have a requirement to be well thought of by outsiders so that they may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Christians should absolutely have God's standards far, far above the world's standards. But we don't want to bring condemnation on our faith through unthoughtful or unloving action. That would just damage the name of Christ and his gospel. We're also called to be dependent on no one. And this idea of work and independence are being contrasted with idleness and dependence. We who are of the family of God need to be willing to give charity. We need to be willing to receive charity when we need it. But we're not to abuse charity. We're not just to stop working because there's somebody else who can take care of us. Galatians 6 talks about the need to bear one another's burdens, thereby fulfilling the law of Christ. But then it also says, we will each have to bear his own load. There's this balance there between what we get from our brothers and sisters and what we need to bear for ourselves. Those who abuse the generosity of the church or its members through taking things that they don't need or depending on others, are using up money that can be used for people who are truly in need or for better causes. A church that's full of people working to make an honest living can contribute outside their congregation to other believers in places where they don't have as much money. We can send money to Zambia and East Asia where it can be magnified in ways that it can't be here where we are. We can support missionaries as they go to difficult places where they can't fend for themselves monetarily, where they need support in order to be able to do the work that they need to do. The Bible is very clear about condemning this kind of false dependence, abuse of charity. The Bible is full of injunctions to care for widows and orphans, those who are...and in a biblical sense, those are literally those who are unable to provide for themselves. In that time and culture, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, widows and orphans were on their own. They didn't have husbands and fathers to take care of them. They didn't have other families that they could move into and they were unable to take care of themselves. But even in the case of widows, Paul wrote to Timothy about being careful about which widows they give charity to. And he says to be careful, to make sure, well, is this a widow who maybe should be getting remarried rather than depending on the church? Is this a widow who already has a believing son or daughter who can take care of her? And we want to make sure that as we're partaking in charity that we should be quick to help, but we don't want to breed dependence. And as a matter of fact, this need for us to take care of our biological family and not expect the church family to take care of it is a matter of salvation. Paul says in 1 Timothy 5, 8, but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So even within the family of God, the biological family is supposed to be the first line of and the church family is to be the second line. We're not supposed to be dependent, but we're also not supposed to be isolated. We're in a community that's defined by and distinguished by brotherly love, received well by those outside the Christian community. We're not just thinking about ourselves, we're thinking about others as well. So how does this work itself out in our life. Bluntly put, love does not look out for number one. Love looks out for everyone around us. It looks out for others. It looks out for those who are in need, whether that's spiritual need or physical need, that we come alongside and we put their needs ahead of our needs. As we've already used the phrase repeatedly, try to outdo everyone else in giving honor. Love does not abuse charity, but provides it. The way we live should not put off outsiders. They should look at us and say, those are some really nice people. They really take care of each other. And they're great neighbors. The only thing weird about them is this idea they have about this guy who died on a cross to save their sins. I don't get that part. And two, Great discredit. Mormons have done a much better job at this than believing and evangelical Christians have. You cannot outnice a Mormon. Now they teach false doctrine, but it's been one of the fastest growing religions in the U.S. over the last hundred years. because it looks like they've got something. It looks like they found the secret to success. We should have both parts of the package, truth and a lifestyle that is attractive to those who are outsiders. Ultimately, outsiders should have no cause to criticize us for how we care for each other and how wisely we live. How we don't take advantage of other people, but instead take care of them. The only thing that they should be able to criticize us for is the scandal of the gospel. So as we close, Let's just be reminded that we're God's special called-out treasure. We are his called-out redeemed people. He's called us to be different. We're his. He's made us holy. He's making us holy. And the way that we're supposed to show the world this is by loving one another and living humbly as the household of God. Let's pray. Father, you have given us everything that we need to know salvation and holiness, yet we still fight you. Even in things like love, we want our own way and not the honor and good of others. We want self-control over matters so that we run things and we get what we want and not worry about others. But Father, we know that we can trust in you who has called us to these great things, to be holy as you are holy, to be loving as you are loving. Father, we pray that you would make us more like your Son, Christ, every day, that by your Spirit, we would be empowered to be as Christ, to our brothers and sisters, to be as Christ to the lost so that they would hear the gospel. And Father, we pray that you would use this to bring many, many to know yourself. May you bring many of the lost to yourself so that they too can be part of the kingdom of God, co-heirs with Christ, sons of God, with you eternally. We pray now in Jesus' name, amen.