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"PROVING OUR LOVE"

All Bible references are taken from the New International Version.

Part 2: Attitude Check!

We learned in PART 1 that real love is more than polished, "positive" showmanship on Sunday mornings; that it actually involves our pocketbooks. We saw how Scripture points out the presence or absence of God's love in our hearts by our actions towards the poor. In this lesson, we are going to look deeper into this matter of our hearts' attitudes.

Here in the United States of America, our attitudes have been molded by television, newspapers, magazines, professors, parents, peers and our sinful natures to reject that which does not look perfect or successful. We judge by what our eyes see. We have been vigorously and systematically brainwashed to have cold, self-superior attitudes. Oh, we've learned how to mask the internal coldness and self-worship by using the latest buzzwords, corporate techniques and other masquerading devices taught by Satan, but they remain what they are: attitudes diametrically opposed to everything that is godly.

That is one reason why it's so good to be one of God's children: Christ has set us free from this world's system and from the despotic control of its rulers! Praise the Lord! Now it is time to start letting the Holy Spirit transform us. We are taught by James:

"My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

"Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor... If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers." (James 2:1-6,8,9)

God accepts everyone who has been born again through faith in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. Because they are a child of God, they are more precious and important in the eyes of the Only God than the richest and most influential unbeliever alive. They are not to be despised nor looked down upon by those who have more than they.

Besides, you are forgetting from whom you got all your income and possessions! Speaking through Paul, the Spirit says,

"For who makes you different from everyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" (1 Corinthians 4:7)

Where did you get the skills with which you earn your living? You received them from God. How did you get your college education? You received it from the hand of God. Who opened the door to financial prosperity for you? It was God. You have nothing which you did not receive, so how can you boast as though you did not receive it but rather got it all by yourself? Do you see the point the Holy Spirit is making?

None of us has anything which we can call our own, for all has come from the hand of the Almighty One and is still his to do with as he pleases. So, when he plainly commands us to open our hands and share with the poor among us, how can we puff up and stubbornly refuse to obey him? Is it fitting for the children of the kingdom of righteousness and true holiness to behave like insolent brats? Remember, precious child of God, that Christ died in the most gruesome fashion to set us free from the mindset of this wicked world and its hateful systems. So come on! Let's walk in that freedom!

Are you afraid that God might not replace or replenish your treasury after you have obeyed him by giving generously to the poor? Doesn't that tell you something?

Listen to the apostle Paul again:

"The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you have been completely defeated already. WHY NOT RATHER BE WRONGED? WHY NOT RATHER BE CHEATED?" (1 Corinthians 6:7)

Wow. What questions! It just isn't natural to let ourselves be wronged and cheated. Doesn't God know that? We want to expose the cheaters and to recover whatever we lost. In fact, in the USA today, too many seem to have a chip on their shoulder, just waiting for someone to offend them in some way so that they can haul them into court and sue them for everything they have. Apparently, the same kind of spirit was operating in the Corinthian congregations, and the Lord told them that they had "been completely defeated already." Now, why did he tell them that? What did he mean?

Maybe we can discover the answer by looking at two more of his statements to the Corinthian Christians.

"You are still worldly. For since there is jealously and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? ARE YOU NOT ACTING LIKE MERE MEN?" (1 Corinthians 3:3)

"Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?... Do you not know that the saints will judge angels?" (1 Corinthians 6:2,3)

Ah! Now we're getting somewhere. The Holy Spirit clearly implies that we who have been born of God are no longer simply human beings, or "mere men". IN CHRIST we are new creatures. IN CHRIST we are all saints. IN CHRIST we are children of God. IN CHRIST we are joint heirs with him. IN CHRIST we are partakers of the divine nature. That divine nature, which Jesus exemplified with his life and teachings, is characterized by a remarkable lack of greed and possessiveness.

If, then, we walk in the Spirit and crucify the sinful nature with its passions and desires every day like Jesus tells us to, then we will naturally triumph in love when we are wronged and cheated. We know that we serve a Righteous and Faithful and Just Judge.

Further instruction about this is found in one of the most familiar passages about love:

"[Love] keeps no record of wrongs." (1 Corinthians 13:5)

It would behoove us to more fully comprehend what Jesus gently told Pontius Pilate in response to Pilate's question, "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above." You see, the Master realized that the Father is in complete control.

So when we are taken advantage of, we are to respond like the Lord would. Rather than trying to make things right for ourselves, we can instantly forgive from our hearts. We can pray in love for those who have wronged us. For our battle is not with our fellow human beings who do us wrong. They are simply obeying their sinful nature. No, our battle is with the spiritual forces of wickedness. At those moments, we who truly walk in the Spirit will seek his kingdom and his righteousness first, so that we can be strengthened in our inner man through love to stand firm in our gentleness and faith. To angrily rip control of our situations from God's hands in an attempt to handle things ourselves can only result in a victory for Satan. The instant we do that, we "have been completely defeated already."

Brothers and sisters, we MUST stop ignoring this matter!

Ask yourself this: Is my faith in God? Or is it in my own abilities to take care of things my own way, by myself?

I would like to address that tired old defense about being a good steward of the Lord's money. While a responsible-sounding argument, it is almost always nothing more than a transparent cover-up for selfishness. It's another lame excuse for not obeying the Lord's commands to "freely give," and to "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." Judas Iscariot tried that stewardship ploy and Scripture exposed his hypocrisy for all eternity.

"Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

"But one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 'Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.' He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it." (John 12:1-6)

You are the keeper of the money bag the Lord has given to you. The money in that bag is yours to do with as you wish. Just remember that the Spirit denounced Judas Iscariot for helping himself to the Lord's money to satisfy his own desires. In the same way, he will denounce us if we do the same thing. While it is not at all wicked to have nice new things, it is sin to buy those things instead of sharing with someone who we know is in need right then.

You see, then, how our giving and sharing with others proves with real, visible actions our faith in God and our love for Christ and the church. We have to throw off the traditions of men. We must embrace the word of God if we ever hope to escape the imprisonment of this world's mindset. We have to listen to the Savior with the heart and ears of a little child. And, as good little children, we will graciously and cheerfully share with our friends in Jesus Christ the giftsGod has given to us.

Afterwards, of course, we can testify to the whole congregation about how we helped poor old Ben Havinnuttin over there, right? We can run right on up to the Throne of our Father, the Great King, and shout joyfully, "Check it out, Poppa! Look at what I did! I've been so good!" We can arrange a photo-shoot for the media where we can display a giant replica of the sizeable check we wrote, right? You know better! Let's look at one final passage of scripture before we end this lesson.

"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" (Luke 17:7-10)

Attitude check!

Next Month's Installment - Some Biblical Examples

(c) 2001, Richard M. McCord
Full Grain Harvest Ministries
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Full Grain Harvest Ministries is a web-based ministry exalting the Lord Jesus Christ through rock-solid Bible teaching, poetry and lessons in speaking the very words of God. Evangelist Richard McCord is living proof of the longsuffering patience and tender mercies of our heavenly Father. His wife, Christy, provides the graphics for the web site and has her heart set on entering the music ministry if the Lord wills. Full Grain Harvest Ministries relies completely on the obedient generosity of God's people for its continued existence on the web.

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