John Launchbury - Class 5: Faith Expressing Itself Through Love

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   You are listening to a Bible Talk recorded at the 2011 Western Christadelphian Bible School at Minooka. The speaker is John Lodgebury, and this is the fifth class in this series, The Transformed Mind. This address is entitled, Faith Expressing Itself Through Love, and was recorded on July 29, 2011.

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   We're going to be talking about actions this morning, but not as a kind of, you must do this, you must do that, a sort of externally imposed mandate. I'm going to be approaching it a little differently. One of my dear brothers, Jay, Jay Phillips, says there's two kinds of Bible talks that really get him irritated.

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   One is about money, and the other is about love. And I think there's great wisdom in that, that often the way that we talk about love, and that's the subject of today's session. Often when we talk about love, we talk about it as you have to love, like an externally imposed regulation. Look at Galatians 5.

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   We're going to read verse 6, but as we're heading there, I'm going to read a couple of verses leading up to it, and you'll see echoes of some of the things that we've been talking about this week. Verse 1, it's for freedom that Christ has set us free. This is Galatians 5. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

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   Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words. I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, that is, if you take on the rules and regulations, if that's your approach to your religion, if you let yourself be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

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   Astonishing language that he's saying. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he's required to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law, that is, by the external regulations imposed on you from wherever, those of you who are trying to be justified by law, have actually been alienated from Christ, and you've fallen away from the gift, from grace.

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   It's astonishing language. This isn't just casual stuff that we're talking about here. In contrast, he says, but by faith, we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope, that righteousness that grows within us, that is manifest within us as we open ourselves up in faith. And now here's the verse that we were heading to, verse 6.

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   For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. It doesn't matter whether you keep those regulations or whether you don't keep the regulations. It's neither here nor there. I love the NIV here. It's exquisite. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. What a wonderful expression of the gospel.

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   The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. So as I say, we're going to talk about actions, but not in the form of, I am telling you as an externally imposed regulation, you have to do this, you mustn't do that, and so on. I think it's quite useful to notice, this is kind of a cute little thing, that we're human beings.

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    We're not human doings. It's actually all about the character that we bring. The character that we bring to a particular situation is far more important than the particular skills or the particular deeds because the deeds are a manifestation, they're an outworking of the character that we bring. They manifest the spirit that is within.

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    Look at Luke 6 and what Jesus says about this. Luke chapter 6. He gives one example of it. He's talking about good trees and bad trees, and this is just verse 45 where he says, the good man brings the good things out of the good stored in his heart, the evil man brings the evil things out of the evil stored in his heart.

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    This is the phrase I'm interested in. The last phrase of Luke 6, verse 45. For out of the overflow of his heart, the mouth speaks.

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    Whatever is allowed to have grown within you is what wells up and comes out. That's the natural manifestation. So I think the way to look at our actions is that they allow us to get insight in what our spirit is like because they're manifestations of what is going on inside. So if there's a situation where we do not do an action that we perhaps ought to have done given the circumstance, it shows us something about ourselves.

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    Or if we engage in some kind of inappropriate action, again, it shows us something about ourselves. It's a manifestation. And it seems to me that the appropriate response is not to will ourselves to do better the next time, to force ourselves to step in and do an action or to do an appropriate action.

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    Because again, that's sort of externally imposed regulation by a different route. The solution is not to force ourselves to do, but to change who we be.

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    And then we're in line with what Jesus says. That if we actually are different inside, then out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, the hand acts. It's a manifestation of what's inside.

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    You see, doing without being leads to resentment. If we do something because we ought to, and yet it's not a manifestation of the Spirit of Christ within us, then it starts to build up resentment, and that actually starts to damage us and continues to damage us as that resentment grows. And so we may be doing a little bit of good in the immediate time, but unless, and until it's actually a natural welling of the growth of Christ within us, the form of Christ, the Spirit of Christ within us, then we're doing harm to ourselves and actually we're likely to be doing harm in the situation itself.

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    James, very well-known verse, James chapter 2. James says, someone will say, this is verse 18, you have faith, I have deeds. He says, show me your faith without deeds. It's kind of rhetorical, you know, you can't sort of, show me your faith without deeds. I will show you my faith by what I do.

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    It's the same idea. It's the manifestation of the connection we have with God is then manifest in the things that we do. James here goes on to discuss Abraham and Isaac, how when God says to Abraham, you're going to have a son, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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    You remember that phrase? And it's an important verse, it's quoted a number of times in the New Testament as a critical picture, way back there in Genesis. Abraham faithed God. Abraham trusted in God and God saw that as an act of righteousness. He hadn't done anything at that point. What James said is that that change that had gone inside where he had truly had this connection with God, it wasn't just a casual, well God, if you say it, I believe it, you know, but no real change inside.

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    Deep trust of God God says, it's like money in the bank. It's like righteousness because it will outflow in acts of righteousness. And indeed it did at the point when God needed Abraham to come to this great challenge of his life. And he said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and offer him as a sacrifice.

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    Abraham demonstrated the depth of faith not by forcing himself to do it, I don't think. It was a natural welling up of the faith. I'm not saying it was necessarily easy for him to do it, but it was an outworking of that faith that was there deep within it. You see, this kind of faith isn't intellectual.

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    This isn't about a set of beliefs. It's a shame that we call our set of doctrines, that we call it a statement of faith. Because faith is something that is living and active and trust. In social sciences, sometimes the set of doctrines like we have it is described as facticity. This is your facticity.

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    These are like the facts that you hold to, that you understand for your model of the world. And I think that's useful to think of that. It gives the sort of shape of the world that we think of in terms of the facticity that we bring to the world. What our faith is is something that's living and active and dynamic and it grows and it swells and it connects with God and it's about trust.

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    It's a deep trust in God that has grown over time. What else could account for Abraham here? Willpower isn't enough. You couldn't offer Isaac through a force of will. I'm going to make myself do it. I mean, we know that, don't we? Just in terms of overcoming straightforward temptation. Willpower is not enough.

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    Oh, it will work once or twice or three or four times but then that time will hit us because we're sort of imposing it kind of from the wrong level of our being.

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    There's a book Rachel has about trying to overcome addiction which actually has that as a title. Willpower is not enough. Fear is not enough. If God said to Abraham, I am going to kill you if you don't do it. I'm going to torture you. I mean, which of the fathers here would kill their son rather than face death themselves?

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    Not one of us. Not one of us. Fear is not enough. The only thing that could have brought Abraham to that is his deep trust and confidence in God's love. That reflective love he had for God. That faithful love. And it's the same with Joseph as he goes through all the trauma of his life.

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    How could he possibly be so generous to his brothers who had used him so despitefully? Or Jesus as they nail those nails in? The compassion that he has for them. The realization that they are creating deeper pain for themselves than they are creating for him. His heart goes out to them.

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    It comes from so deep within him and the natural manifestation is Father forgive them. They have no idea what they are doing. They have no idea the damage that they are doing to themselves in this moment. I wish I could rescue them. of Stephen.

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    I came across a great story a while ago of a Tibetan monk who in their tradition put a lot of effort into efforts may be the wrong word a lot of importance into loving kindness and compassion and he was being tortured by his captors and each day when he went back to his cell after a day of pain and suffering he would see that as opportunity that had been given to him to grow in compassion for those who are inflicting this kind of pain upon himself.

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    It's an opportunity to deepen the sense of compassion for these other people who are actually at some level trapped in their own hell that they would do this to someone else. He saw it as an opportunity to work on unfinished work and I find that very inspiring. This kind of radical love and compassion that we see with Abraham and with Jesus it can't be commanded or willed or forced.

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    it can only grow from within. That's the only way that we can have it manifest in our lives. And some of the frustrations we have with exhortations about love one another is it's coming from the outside somehow. And if instead we see those as exhortations to have ways for love to grow within us then maybe it will come over a little differently.

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    And that's what I'm hoping to do in today's talk. See love I mean without a doubt that has to be the primary message of the gospel. It's more important than every doctrine that we have. I mean Paul says the same thing in Corinthians 13 we've already referred to it this week. if I understood all doctrines and all ministry and could go out and work all sorts of miracles I'm nothing without love.

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    There's at least 50 injunctions in the New Testament in different places to love one another. It's profound. God is love. You want to see God? Look at love. love can only grow from within. It can't be commanded or willed or forced and it can only grow from within in an atmosphere of loving and compassionate acceptance.

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    Love cannot grow in a space of fear or in a space of condemnation. And so it's no surprise that the thing that God extends to us is loving and compassionate acceptance. I have a fancy word for it. We call it forgiveness. But that's what it is. I know where you are today and I accept you.

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    So now let's look at some of the most challenging words in the New Testament in Matthew. These are the words of Jesus. You can always tell when words are challenging because I have this strong desire to water them down, to find caveats, to box them around a little bit so that I actually don't have to take them at face value.

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    As we read from verse 38 to the end of the chapter, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 from verse 38 to the end of the chapter.

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    Read this without watering it down in your mind. Notice as we read it if there are moments where you find yourself resisting it like, I can't do that or it's unreasonable to ask me to do that or anything like that. Those are reactions of externally imposed regulation. Think of this as we read it, like Jesus is showing us an image, a picture, an aspiration.

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    He's describing an aspiration for us to look at in wonder with the idea that through his work that could be us one day. Just look at it that way.

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    You've heard that it was said eye for eye and tooth for tooth but I tell you don't resist. Don't resist an evil person. Someone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other one.

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    If someone wants to sue you and take your cloak or take your tunic let him have your cloak as well. someone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles. Can you just imagine Jesus when the Roman soldier comes up to him as they had the right to do and say you carry this equipment for a mile.

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    He says okay. He picks it up and he starts carrying it. Just chatting to the soldier and it's a mile. It's two miles. It's three miles. It's four miles. The soldier starts hey I'd better take this back. I mean isn't that beautiful? That kind of image. And for Jesus it's just this natural outwelling of where he is.

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    Of where he was. He had no external purpose that he was trying to accomplish that this soldier is now interfering with. He was so about the inner purpose that the externalities were just not important. This is what Jesus is showing us this kind of picture and again don't take it on like a rule like a regulation of go out and do this tomorrow or any just have a look at this as a vision for what is possible for each one of us as it grows within us.

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    Give to the one who asks you. Don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You've heard that it was said love your neighbor hate your enemy. I tell you love your enemies pray for those who persecute you that you may be the sons of your father in heaven. He causes his son to rise on the evil and good sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

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    If you love those who love you what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And don't think reward in terms of well I did it so now I've earned something. It's in terms of if you love those who love you what is that growing within you? What consequences that have?

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    It's not accomplishing anything. Even those who are willing to oppress others do that. It accomplishes nothing. And if you greet only your brothers verse 47 what are you doing more than others? Don't even pagans do that? be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect.

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    Don't resist an evil person. If someone wants to sue you let them have it. Love your enemies. love your enemies. Sometimes I think we have this conversation that you have to love them you don't have to like them. I actually don't find that a very helpful distinction. I'd like to as we go on give a couple of other ways of thinking about the idea of love that I think is more helpful than love versus like.

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    As I say I don't find that a particularly helpful kind of duality to explore. Love your enemies he says whatever that means. And in fact be like God says Jesus. Just be like God.

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    As I say I have to work to not water these down. To let them rest simply as the statements that Jesus say. And I look at them with wonder. And when I do that then I know that I can't save myself. I can't achieve this. I can't achieve this. What I can do is open myself to being transformed.

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    and through the transformation of Christ then what is created within me this is a natural outworking of that that is being created within us. So let's explore some different dimensions of love and I found these quite helpful ways. We're going to look at four different dimensions of love. Characteristics if you like or aspects.

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    And the first one is quite straightforward. It's the idea of loving kindness and by loving kindness I mean the willingness to do good to someone else and to have good things happen to them. So that's loving kindness where you wish for the best for someone else whether it's through you actually participating in that or other circumstances participating in that.

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    So that's the idea of loving kindness. We'll run through these quickly and then we'll see examples of them. Another dimension of love and Mark has talked about this a lot in his classes is compassion. It's slightly different. They're obviously all related. Compassion is passion is about feeling. Okay. Depth of feeling. Compassion is about fellow feeling.

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    Feeling with you. Your pain hurts me too. Your joy lifts me too. Because my heart is resonating with yours. I feel along with you. I have compassion.

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    So we have loving kindness. We have compassion. Another dimension of love is joy. It's a natural outworking of love. It's delight in the other. love. You have seen the thing of maybe an old couple who have been married for 50 years. Just very much at peace with one another. The wife is maybe chatting away.

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    You catch the husband who is just watching her. You see just the quiet joy in his eyes. Do you know what I'm describing? You go, that is there's just something special about that manifestation of delight in the other. So that's another dimension of joy.

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    And this last one is slightly surprising. It's freedom. It's to make no demands on the other. To love them as they are today. To let them be truly themselves. It's sort of what we aspire to with our grown children. That we can truly let them be themselves without demanding that they are one thing or another.

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    Do you see what I'm saying? It's that opening of the birdcage because you have so much love for that one that you want it to find its path.

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    It's in contrast with the I spent ten years changing my husband but he's no longer the man I married. So let's look at some of these. We're in Matthew 5 the love of the enemies. I think that dimension is a very powerful one when we think about loving kindness. At the very least what Jesus is calling upon us when he says love your enemies is actually desire good for these people.

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    Even though they despitefully use you. Even though they're hurting you. Desire their good. Maybe that you have opportunity to bring it about. It may be that you have opportunity to be happy when something good happens to them. The opposite of that of wishing them ill is by no means a manifestation of love.

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    If these words of Jesus mean anything at the very least they mean this. And again if you find yourself thinking I can't do that then just relax. Relax. I'm not commanding you. I'm not saying you have to go out and do this tomorrow. You have to beat yourself up as a failure every time you don't manage to do this.

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    This is aspiration. This is Jesus painting a picture for us to say this is what love is. And if we allow ourselves the freedom just to look at that picture and say it would be wonderful if I were like that then we've actually started that process of transformation.

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    Compassion. favorite example of compassion is in Luke seven. Luke chapter seven. New It says, this is verse 11. Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

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    A large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her. And he said, don't cry.

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    I think what is so powerful about this situation, and maybe one of the reasons why it evokes such compassion, that Jesus' heart went out to her, is he could see his mother in this.

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    I mean, we don't know for sure, but it seems as though Joseph was dead at this point. So his mother was a widow, and her firstborn son was soon to be murdered. And he sees this woman, who is, for the second time, burying a man that she loves. And his heart goes out to her.

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    This is compassion. Again, I'm not giving this to you as a command, or an instruction. I'm showing this picture that the scripture is painting for us. I also think that this is what Jesus felt for those who were driving in the nails. This is compassion. This is compassion.

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    Or Stephen, for those who were so blind that they always resisted the Holy Spirit, so much so that they threw stones at him. And his heart goes out to them. Lord, don't lay this sin against their charge.

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    For joy, let's dip across to Philippians 4, and verse 1. It was actually a little hard for me to find great scriptures which talk about, with great color, which talk about the joy as part of love. But here's one brief example. Therefore, my brothers, he says, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown.

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    That is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. So, Paul here has this sense of the love for these brothers that he has in Philippi. And one of the manifestations of that is the joy in the other, in the love that he has for them. I also love, it's not quite as clear, but I think it's a similar idea.

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    In Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 18, talks about the joy that Christ has in us as the ones that he loves. What it says here, Paul says to them, Ephesians 1, 18, I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

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    It's Jesus' glorious inheritance in the people in this room. You are the glorious inheritance of Christ. That evokes the joy that he has in you. Not the, oh, that lot? You know, that's not a glorious inheritance. Do you see what I'm pointing at? The joy that Jesus has in each of us as we come to him, as we devote our lives to his service, as we resonate with his Father,

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    he gains a tremendous inheritance in us. And it seems to me it takes great pleasure in us. And then as we think about the freedom that we need to extend to those that we love, the opposite of that is the idea of possession of the one who is loved. And you can see that sometimes in romantic relationships where one is very possessive of the other in some constraining way.

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    And of course, that's how those, that couple happens to work out their relationship. But you know, as you watch it from the outside, that there's something not quite beautiful about that. There's something actually missing, there's something distorted about the purity of love there. there. We might almost say it's not healthy. And again, don't take this as commands or judgments in any condemnatory kind of way.

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    Trying to just paint these dimensions that I think are here in Scripture. Love, we're told, is patient. And patience is about giving space to the other.

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    Love is patient. God gives us free will. He loves us so much that part of that manifestation of love is that he doesn't force us to respond to him or to do this or not do that. he extends this free will to us.

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    He has no desire that anyone should perish. God loves everybody. Jesus has just been telling us that. Love your enemies that way you'll be like your father who sends rain, he sends his gifts on everybody. It's a manifestation of God's love. And that love extends regardless of how the person is responding. It's a very challenging teaching I think.

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    But I don't think I'm making this up. I think this is present there in Scripture. This freedom that is actually an expression of even deeper love than when the other one is behaving in exactly the way we would hope that they behave. love.

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    Let's go to 2 Peter chapter 1. He's not love. He's not use the word love here, but I think it's not hard to read into this, that love is about sharing in the divine nature. This is what he calls us to, and we'll read from verse 3. It talks about God. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, and those aren't just for the future. They're promises that apply to the present too. Don't just think of promises as things for the future. He has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature. What is God? God is love.

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    Through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. And it's that last part which leads me to believe that at least there's a significant present portion to this. It's the choice that we make now. Do we get into the corruption of our spirits and our being that happens by engaging in all the things that the world engages in? And I'm not talking necessarily even about the explicitly destructive things, but also the quietly destructive things that are grasping or seeking or all of those kinds of things. That's one choice. We either get to do that or we get to escape from that and participate in the divine nature. It's another way of saying stepping into the reign of God. God planted a seed of love and of divinity within each of us.

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    The word of God is planted in our hearts and it grows. And the word of God isn't facts. The word of God is the resonant mind of God, as it were. It sometimes gets expressed in actual spoken words like when God says, let there be light. It sometimes gets manifest in a human being when the word of God was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, showing us incidentally what is possible with each one of us. Sometimes it gets manifest in paper as the word of God gets written down.

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    But for each of us, God has planted a seed within each of us. This love, this profound, radical love that we aspire to, that Jesus shows us is possible, that he calls us to, it doesn't come naturally. But through the encouragement of Christ, we provide the opportunity for it to grow within us.

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    We encourage each other. Jesus inspires us by his example. And as it grows within us, it starts to manifest itself in our lives. And we see ourselves doing things and we realize this isn't John acting naturally. This is John acting in a transformed way. And it doesn't feel like work. It's not heavy.

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    It's not tedious. I've forgotten that some sections of Christadelphians have traditionally used the word probation for this time. I think that's a very unhelpful word. Probation, at least in the legal system of Christophilic, the word of God. And the Bible says, you're not going to be able to do it. That is not what our time here is about. Our time here is about a time of growth. It's a time of transformation. It's a time of taking the opportunity for that seed that is planted within us to grow and become something tremendously different. Here's what Jesus says in the prayer in John 17 that we went to earlier in the week. This used to confuse me for a long time because I was thinking kingdom, future, all of that kind of thing. John chapter 17 and verse, we're going to verse 2.

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    Talking about the Son, you God granted the Son authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life, he says in verse 3, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. He's actually here not talking explicitly about the resurrection and the resurrection body and the everlasting kingdom. What he's talking about is the nature of life that is being created within us.

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    It's the life of the ages. It's the quality of eternalness, if I can say that, of that life that is being formed within us. What is it? It's to resonate with God. It's not to know about God, to have 17 facts that you can write down. It's not knowing about God. It's to know God, to resonate with him.

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    Paul says elsewhere, I want to know Christ. It's not I want to know about Christ. I want facts. No. I want to resonate with Christ. I want to be on the same wavelength as Christ. So this manifestation of love, one of the challenges for us is recognizing when we're not tuning to God's agenda, but rather co-opting him to ours. This is what the Jewish rulers tried to do early on, where they saw that Jesus was a powerful teacher. And it seems to me that they were a couple of times coming to him and said, look, Jesus, you're a great teacher. How about you join us and work within our system? And then we'll be able to sort of accomplish great things?

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    And he says, no, that's actually not God's agenda. That would be co-opting me to your agenda. And I think if you look at the sort of sections of Christianity that make it into the news, what's often happening is that people have their own agenda and they pull Jesus in as a flag waver, as it were, for their own agenda. And the challenge that we all face day by day is how do we actually take on Christ's agenda rather than co-opting him to ours?

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    Here's a challenge for us ecclesially. It seems to me that while the mantra of our community is separation is separation, we cannot focus on unity and love.

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    Love is about tuning to God's agenda. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I'd like to wrap things up. Galatians chapter 5.

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    You may be wondering why I hadn't gone here long ago, because after all this is saying all the kinds of things that we've been saying. It's talking about the manifestation of the natural compared with the manifestation of the spiritual. I think it's really important to think of it that way. The natural things manifest themselves in natural and destructive ways. The spiritual things manifest themselves in beautiful and unifying ways.

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    Verse 19. The acts of the flesh are obvious. Stop reading there. We often read from the beginning to the end, as one naturally does. But the first few have us think, Oh yeah, aren't those bad? Not me. So what I'm going to do, somebody did this once, and I found it really powerful.

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    I'm going to read it. I'm going to read verse 20 first, in reverse order. So here are manifestations of the flesh. Factions. Dissensions. Selfish ambition.

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    Fits of rage. Jealousy. Discord. Hatred. Not trying to guilt anybody individually. Not even trying to guilt us as a community. This is a doctor diagnosing.

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    Treat this as a diagnosis. Manifestations. The fruit of the spirit. The things that the spirit grows. It's not the forced actions of the spirit. The things that the spirit naturally grows as it is able to grow within us. Come out as love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.

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    Treat it again as a diagnosis. And as you learn about yourself bring it to God. Prayerful meditation. This is nurtured by God. The word is planted within us. And I don't mean the facts. I mean the spark of divinity is within us. It has the opportunity to grow in our fertile hearts. It's nurtured by God.

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    It manifests itself in our daily lives. It's not hard work. It's not hard work. It's simply a willingness to let God in. Why do I say it's not hard work? Just listen to what Jesus says about this. I'll just read this to you as a final reference. Come to me. Come to me he says all you who are weary and burdened.

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    I'll give you rest. This is what the walk in Christ is like. It is rest. We were weary. We were burdened. We were carrying our guilt. We were carrying our rules and regulations. And he says when you're so burdened come to me. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me.

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    For I am gentle. I'm humble in heart. And you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Amen.