Relationships

Praying for Our Extended Family

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12So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.16Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Hebrews 13:12-15
Religious persecution increases when those in government with power and those in society with social influence seek to control and dictate these matters of conscience. The rejection of religious freedom is a signal of greater dysfunction to come.
I have been praying for our Christian “extended family” in Iraq as ISIS advances. As many flee for their lives, others have not escaped. They bear the reproach of Jesus’ name. May the Lord Jesus comfort and strengthen them with grace. May the Kingdom of our Lord come. May those who bear His name offer praise and the confession of grace freely and be constrained to love in our broken world.

Our Code for Kinship

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3that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 1 John 1:3-4

“Koinonia.”

That’s Greek.

Koinonia is to share something in common: Common person. Common mission. Common work. Common interest. Common cause. In the New Testament the word “koinonia” came to represent the common life shared by followers of Jesus. This common life emerged from the Gospel and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

For John sharing the Gospel of Jesus expands fellowship. Our most common vision of fellowship is The Fellowship of the Ring. Could a more disparate “band of brothers” have been created by their common cause?

Yes. The Church.

The church is the Fellowship of Jesus. We are united by our common union with God through Jesus. We have been gracefully brought into the communion of God. And the product is joy. We have become family in Him. People united by Jesus the King and turned into kin. Brothers and sisters not by our choosing but by His. Our usual lens for such non-familial relationships would be friendship, but here’s the thing: we choose our friends. When I see the church I see a family I was born into by the will of God.

Restore Gently

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1Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  Galatians 6:1-2

 

Have you noticed how guilt, shame, and fear generate violence?

 

The guilty one must be punished.

 

The shameful one must be removed.

 

The the one who produces fear must be controlled.

 

In the fellowship of the church spiritual maturity has its wisdom that avoids  violent and dominating expressions in the pursuit of change.

 

Thus Paul who once subscribed to violence (Acts 9) as a way to effect change, now avoids it in the grace of Jesus.

 

If in your close circle of friendship you see one caught in a sin, seek to restore them gently.

 

Restoration occurs first to Jesus, and then toward self and others.

Restoration creates space to discover what one truly wants.

Restoration sheds light on the nature of the trap created by sin.

Restoration creates availability for company under this burden.

Restoration continually celebrates the love of Jesus in the Gospel simultaneously showing how He bears the weight of our guilt, shame, and fear at the Cross.

Exhausting Lies

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19When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT)

 

The “old me” is hanging around. It seeks to rule me and is in conflict with the “new me” created by the Spirit of God. Paul gives us a short list evidencing the old nature, but he admits the list is not exhaustive.

However, it must be said, the old nature is exhausting! That’s the surprising and enslaving feature of the old nature. Sin wears us out. And all the while it keeps feeding us the lie that we are “really living” or will be really living when we follow the desires of our sinful nature.

This kind of life truly keeps us from inheriting and enjoying the freedom and joy of the Kingdom of God made ours through faith in Jesus. Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Consuming Community

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14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. 16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh…

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

 

How is your family (organizational) culture today?

Fussy? Filled with fights?

Does jealousy lurk just below the surface?

Do your structures promote pride and leverage selfish ambition?

Community that consumes is common.

 

Such dysfunction abounds when fear, shame, and guilt have their way among us.

 

In Christ Jesus we have been given another way.

 

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatian churches, is concerned. He knows what happens when we our old nature runs into the old nature of another person. Unchecked by the Spirit of God, the old natures rises up and shows its conceit, its ungodly joy at provocation, and its festering envy over another’s good fortune. This kind of community is the kind that devours people and spits them out. Its always looking for the top of the pile. Its a consuming community.

The community that consumes has nothing to do with the Spirit of God and the fruit that is borne of a community surrendered to Jesus. Spiritual leadership in Jesus’ name will yearn for and create the environments that seek maturity that displays Jesus’ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Then we will catch glorious glimpses of The Communing Community of God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit.