a The Importance Of Mutual Love In End Times Living - Part 1

So we're going to start in verse 7 of chapter 4. So this section I entitled, Importance of Mutual Love in the End Times, and there's actually two weeks involved here, this week and next week. So let's go to the next slide. Okay, actually, I like my colleagues' outlines, so I'll just cut to the quick here.

So we've been going along in Chapter 3, and Andrew started in Chapter 4 the last two weeks about the attitude and suffering. What's happening here with the The people that Peter's writing to, they're undergoing persecution and suffering, and so Peter's trying to address that, and he's gone through all these things in chapter 3. And then in 4, he got into the attitude of suffering, which it really, in essence, talks about what's our mindset to be. And then as we get into the verse seven here, he really kind of, he kind of does a change up on us here.

He kind of says, well, let's look at our future. What does our future hold? So he's gonna look at our future and he labels it 7a as kind of a statement about what we're gonna see for quite a while here, at least the next two weeks. It's basically living in the light of the shortness of life. He's gonna address the shortness of life in verse 7a, and he's going to talk about how we are to act in reference to that. So these are the verses today we're going to talk about. I'll just read them. The end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound judgment, sober spirit, for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint.

So those are really interesting, especially the first A part of verse 7 is really interesting. We're going to talk about it quite a bit. And then next week we're going to cover verses 10 and 11, and that's going to talk about our spiritual gifts and how those are to fit in to the shortness of life and how we're to use those for God's glory in encouraging one another. So we're just going to cover 7 through 9 today. Okay, so let's jump into it here.

The end of all things is near. So, interlinear has that. Actually, there's a word that the New American Standard didn't bring across. The King James brings it across. There's actually a now or a contrast word. Now, in contrast to what's gone before, the end of all things has drawn near.

So, we want to understand what this is saying. The verb draw near is in the perfect tense in the original language, Greek language. And I try to capture it here. Perfect tense is an interesting tense. So here's kind of in words what it's saying. The end of all things was near in the past, in Peter's time. and continues to be near, up into the present, our time, and into the future. So it denotes a state of permanence. So we're, if you will, we're in a permanent state of the end of all things being near, which seems maybe kind of strange, maybe confusing. So let's think about that for a second. It's basically saying that the end of all things can happen at any moment, And then we kind of renders it.

I'm not sure this is helpful as I thought it was but of all things the end has come near So what does the end of all things mean? I thought was important to try to you know to understand that so let's let's first of all what it does not mean and it does not mean that things are going to cease to exist. You know, if you're into Star Wars and into all these wild science fiction things, you know, worlds collide and all of a sudden, poof, everything ceased to exist.

Man, planet ceased to exist. Well, he's not talking about that. What he's talking about, and also in light of that, God does have a really radical plan in mind. He has a plan for a new heaven and a new earth. And that's actually, we're going to study that later in the year in 2 Peter 3.13. It says, So God does have a radical plan. But that's not what's being talked about here. So what I believe Peter is focusing on here And this word, in, helps us. Teleos, in the original, it says it's an end, a termination of time or purpose. And it's kind of the idea of the end goal or end design. What's the end goal or end design? What's God's end goal or end design?

And I listened to some Merriman tapes and he kind of, he covered this. I thought he did a really great job. He said, Peter's talking about God's game plan. So the end of all things, this is, what is God's game? This is God's game plan. the goal is right in sight it's near it's right here right before us this is a statement about the imminent return of Christ so it can happen at any moment so he's really speaking of the the sureness and interesting the the early church from the time Christ was ascended to heaven you know we see that in Acts he ascended up into heaven You know, they expected his soon return.

You know, it could happen any time. And this is trying to capture that. And there's a parallel verse that will really help us in seeing that. So let's move on to those verses here. So Christ's return can happen at any moment. So we have several scriptures that speak about that. Probably the best one here, if you take this verse, James 5, 8, and lay it next to this statement we have in 1 Peter 4, 7, you'll see it has a very similar structure.

It says, to you be patient, strengthen your hearts. Actually, my thing is covering up the rest of the verse, so I can't see it. I can't read it here. There we go. OK. uh... for the coming of the lord is near so basically the coming of the leader lord is near mirrors the end of all things is near and happens uh... i think not this is not by accident by god's design is near is also a perfect tense so with this this kind of explains if you will our verse it says for the lord's coming is near so if you have any doubt about them the meaning of this passage that james passage just really kind nails it down for the Lord's coming is near. It's eminent. It can happen at any time.

Okay, let's look at 1 Thessalonians 1.9. Here's another verse. There's also another aspect of this. It also can happen at any moment, but also our waiting is in line with that.

I was thinking about like a serviceman. If you have a loved one, maybe who's in the military, and they're gone for a long time, and you know they're coming home, but you're not sure when they're going to arrive, exact moment, you know the return can happen at any time. So that's kind of a similar picture, you know it, and that's what our Lord says about his return, it can happen at any moment.

Roger? Yes, go ahead. What does all things pertain to? all things. Well, and that's a good question. I did not go down that path. I didn't, because I wanted to, once I discovered what end meant and what near, I think it means the order that, you know, God has a different plan. When Christ returns, He has a plan. He has a plan for the rest of our time, right? He has a plan for the seven years. So all things actually is used in a lot of different contexts.

So I couldn't, I didn't find any easy way to That helped me. What I found helped me dramatically was knowing what N meant, teleos. Once I nailed down teleos, and once I knew this comparison was near, that's what really helped me. So I hope that's kind of avoiding the question, I realize, because I don't really have an answer for the all things.

All I can say is it looks like he's talking about the order that we have, and God has a new game plan, if you will, a new order that he's going to carry out when Christ returns. Is that somewhat helpful? Kind of. OK, well, we can talk about some life. That's OK.

I could not trace all things back. Many contexts, like in Colossians, I really like you can kind of trace back the all things there. In this situation, I couldn't really nail it down. If someone else can do it, I'm happy to hear it. So anyway. Well, my perspective there may help a little, but it's not going to be complete, okay?

I've looked at that as being the goal or the end, the purpose, the plan of God for each and every thing that is a thing, because it includes him, his purposes, and all of that is near. That's sort of the way I've been looking at that. Okay, well thanks, Roy, that's good, that's good. What's important, I think, by discovering what Ann meant, like I said, that really helped me tremendously. I said, well, this is his, he has a plan, God has a plan, we know he has a plan, but this verse helps me to understand how he's trying to express it here.

His plan is gonna kick off here at any moment when Christ returns. There's an eminent doctrine, too, that might be encompassed in that. Right, right. So I have a few more of the verses that people use for that doctrine. So this is one of the ones that most people use.

1 Thess 1 9, to serve a living and true God and to wait for, this is present tense, so we're waiting for presently, right now, his son from heaven. who he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. So we're waiting presently, continuously, right now, just like I was thinking of waiting for the serviceman to come home. The loved ones are waiting for that serviceman or woman to come home. Okay, and there's another verse, somewhat similar. For our citizenship, Philippians 320, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait, present tense, continuous action, for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isn't it interesting our focus is on Him and His coming? Exactly. So this, the end of all things is near, really sounds scary, right? And you look at that and you say, wow, I'm scared. But then you look at the James passage and you say, well, I'm waiting for a person, for my Savior. Right. And it's near. It's as near as it can be. It can't be any nearer. He's not like He's You know, so it's, it's pretty cool.

And then yes, I remember Vern, what he would tell us, you know, so, amen, amen. Okay. So then Titus two 13, looking for another present tense, continuous action. So we're not looking for something tomorrow. Next day, we're looking for presently right now, continuously the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Christ Jesus. So as Roy was saying, there's a doctrine of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. And this is a key passage in that whole structure there. So we're going to keep going here. I want to finish up a couple more. So actually, this verse kind of divides at the semicolon there. So we're going to cover the second part of this verse.

So we've established that Christ can come at any moment. And so what do we do in light of that? So the rest of what Peter's going to talk about is what do we do in light of the fact that Jesus Christ could return at any moment? And just for, you know, you guys all know this, but you know, the Christ's return, you know, there's his, the rapture, which is he's coming. I like to think about, I think it was Chafer, You know chaffer in his book talks about Christ coming for his Saints That's a rapture and Christ coming with his Saints when he comes in power and great glory. So there's a There's a details of his coming But the next event on the calendar as we like to say is his coming for his Saints the rapture So now with that in mind, so Peter says keep that in mind People he's writing to here's how here's what I want you to think about he says therefore I Based on the impending return of Christ, be of sound judgment.

And this is a word that is used, sound judgment, moderation, self-disciplined, Vine says. It's an imperative mood, it's a command. Macaulay calls this a balanced mind. And what I notice here as we go through, there's about, you know, as we count, depending on how you count them, there's four or five imperatives, commands for us based upon his impending return. He wants us to be at rest about this. He doesn't want us to be agitated.

So he brings, he describes our mental state in terms of not being flying off the handle, so to speak, not being, you know, Unhinged so so we'll see that so this word is used in Romans 12 3b I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought But to think so as to have sound judgment. That's our word right there that mr. Transcend be a sound mind as God has allotted to each a measure of faith and Then we have in Titus Titus 2, 6-7a, the young men likewise be exhorting to be exercising self-control concerning all things. And I was just thinking this is a typical exhortation to young people, right? Not only young people, young men, but sometimes they don't exercise self-control.

Anyway. That was interesting. OK, so then we go on to, that's the first one there. Then the second part, after the and, is sober spirit. And sober spirit is not in the original, it's just supplied. And this is the idea to be sober over against being drunk. And it has the additional idea, according to Macaulay, of cool, calm, and collected. I like that. So you see all this, the sound mind and cool, calm, and collected, it's all about being deliberate in your waiting for our Savior.

So here's a verse that uses this in 2 Timothy 4-5, but you be sober in all things, that's our word, enduring hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry, And then we saw this verse earlier in 1st Peter, 1st Peter 1.13, therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, that's our word again, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So, and it's interesting, you know, the first admonition was be of sound judgment or sound mind, and the second admonition, he has it, it's there for a purpose. He says, I want you to be sober, but he has a purpose in mind, and it kind of, and I had not thought about this a whole lot, but I think it's true. So now we're going to see why we are to be sober, cool, calm, and collected.

And he says it's for, it's literally in your prayers in the inner linear. The American Standard has four for the purpose of prayer, but it's literally in your prayers. So it's prayer to God, that word always means prayer to God. And it's actually plural, the word is plural in the original, with a view to prayer, brings it across. So the gospel says, the Greek word Peter uses here for prayer, or prayers, is the general word for prayer, and indicate Peter had all kinds of prayer in mind.

So I thought, and this is kind of me talking here, the Lord's desire for us in this verse is that we would be at rest when we are praying, trusting him with the results. And I was trying to find some examples. I wasn't successful. Maybe there are some where people were praying, you know, kind of in a, what do I want to say, out of control state. And this is, you know, I don't think the Lord is saying you never pray, you have to always be sitting at your couch, peaceful and collected. You may be driving, you may be any number of activities, and maybe you pray for that moment you know, Lord protect me or whatever.

But I think it's more attitude of your heart. The circumstances may vary widely. And maybe you guys have some thoughts about this too. I'm kind of blabbing on here. If you have some thoughts about praying and this is, the admonition here is to be cool, calm, and collected in your prayer life. And it's easy not to be that way.

We look at today's world, and you can get, after you watch about five minutes of any news program, you certainly are cool, calm, and collected. There's a verse somewhere that says, praying always. And it really impresses me when I think about that, that our attitude is in communion with God continually. And we're just thinking and talking with him, no matter what the situation. Right. That's good, Roy.

And Vonnie, you can't hear, unfortunately, she talked about Hannah. And I remember, oh yeah, actually, Vonnie reminds me about Hannah. She prayed so hard that people thought, Eli thought she was drunk. So, I don't know, there's, and I really didn't go down this path.

I could have spent, you know, this is a rabbit trail you could go down trying to map out. The injunction here is to be cool, calm, and collected in your prayer life, but we see instances where you don't have that opportunity. So somebody had a question?

Yeah, Roger, when you think of our position, seated with Christ in the heavenlies, that's a communication that goes on all the time. So we're there, and that's what's exciting to me. No, I agree. I think that's what struck me about what he was trying to convey here, that this is really talking about us remembering who we are in Christ and what we have. And remembering that the Lord is, you know, He's coming. It can happen at any moment. So we should be at rest about that because His purposes are going to be carried out.

So that's great. Roger, I think sound judgment relates to the purpose of prayer also. Yes, yes. But it seems, you know, I looked at the, I've been able to get, and Roy knows about this too, I've been able to get some sentence diagrams. Remember Hal's favorite tool he would use? Look at the sentence diagram of this verse.

For the purpose of prayer, modify sober. And that's, of course, somebody's judgment. You could, you know, change that. But for this gentleman who did it, He had, for the purpose of prayer, modified sober. So, anyway, not to say you shouldn't have sound judgment, too, but anyway.

Okay, so let's see here. Okay, that's going to wrap up verse 7. Any last thoughts about verse 7? Yeah, thanks, Bob, about the all things. I didn't apologize. I didn't really, you know, go down too much on that all things, but I do think it really is wonderful that the Lord's return is near, and we have so many verses that tell us that and how we're to wait for that. Roger? Yes.

I mean, all things could just kind of mean the world as we know it. And that's true, but yeah, and you could argue, sure, all things could be the way things are today, because God's game plan is going to make it different, right? We're going to be out of here, right? We're going with the Lord, and then we've got seven years of tribulation. So things are going to change radically in our world.

So you can look at it that way. That's a good point. And then I was thinking with the purpose of, you know, the being of sound judgment and sober spirit and cool, calm and collected. You know, there's a couple of places where he talks about like the Pharisees that are, you know, crying loudly and in public and, you know, for, for recognition and, you know, kind of against that. And also when he talks about, you know, the people who are kind of, uh, frenzied and in doing, you know, whirling dervishes and, you know, all that kind of very emotional stuff that I, that a lot of times is again for show, you know, it's not really, um, Okay, good, thanks.

So actually, verse 8 kind of picks up on, has some more, the list expands here in verse 8. So let's go to verse 8. It says, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. This is interesting. Some interesting verses today. Above all, keep fervent in your prayers for one another.

Above all is, he says, this is the first thing. It's before all things in order of importance. It's the top of your list. We're not supposed to make lists, but this is at the top of the list. Above all means before all, before in the sense of preeminence and importance.

Macaulay says that. And so the idea here is to keep fervent in your love for one another. Okay, so let's look at some definitions here. Fervent is the idea, and this is cool. I really like this. Fervent, I can't pronounce the Greek word, but it's stretched out, continually intense. And the picture here is from Vine.

This word is used to describe a horse at full gallop. Imagine one of those racetrack scenes, where those horses are really, they're giving up their all. And a runner's straining for the tape at the finish line of a race. You watch those sprinters, I think a Usain Bolt, you know, he's just stretching, you know, to make, to cross the finish line first.

Of course, he doesn't have to do that most of the time. But anyway, that stretched us. This is stretched out love. This is giving it your all. So obviously, We have to be careful here. If we give it our all, that's not what the Lord desires, that we give our all as he works through us. So how does that work out? Okay.

Okay, so here's some verses about fervent love. So actually, I found the word fervent in other places when love was part of it. Okay, since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. And then Luke, this is interesting, this is not talking about love, but I'm talking about the intensity of this word, and talking about our Savior, being in agony, he was praying very fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground.

So remember, love is the fruit of the spirit, right? And, you know, fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. It's a package deal, right? As we pointed out, it's fruit singular of the Spirit, so love is part of that package. And we're told in that passage in Galatians, as we walk by the Spirit, His love can be manifest in our lives. And our part in that, the whole equation of this, our part is exercising faith. We're not trying to, I'm going to fervently love today. I'm going to fervently love, you know, Bonnie today. She said, okay. You missed some of the dynamics of not being in the classroom here. Okay, here we go. So our part is faith, okay?

And then interestingly here, and we're going to notice it here, Peter is addressing believers here. So it's important to realize that he's addressing believers, not to say unbelievers are not important, but he is addressing the body of Christ. And it's for one another, or actually the interlinear has, makes it a little bit clearer, among yourselves, among believers. He's talking to, he's encouraging believers here, so it's among yourselves. And what follows will tell us the motivation for this fervent love. And this is really interesting.

Love covers a multitude of sins. So before I start, I didn't send you the charts. I know in some ways that was intentional. And Bob, teachers like this because we can ask questions and you don't see what our answer is. So how does love cover a multitude of sins? We don't have a whole lot of time here, but I think we have enough time. How does love cover a multitude of sins?

I think it's identification. I mean, when we are receiving the command of the Lord to love others as ourselves, ultimately, I mean, he says, no, you're to love others as I have loved you, right? So that's cross based, right? So, absolutely. So here's one another, if you're thinking about loving your neighbor, how you guys doing at that? I'm not sure how good the neighbor is, right?

But when we think of the cross and his crucifixion resurrection and our new life in Christ, that allows that love to be unequivocal. In other words, it's not easy in the flesh. In fact, it's impossible, but it's only his love that covers a multitude of sins.

So anyway, I'll leave it at that. Yeah, no, that's good. That's good. Just a little addition, Roger. One of the contrasts between the law and grace between the age of the law and the age of grace or the time, is this love is Christ's love, not the love of ourselves, which was in the law, are we to love ourselves, each other, but it's the love like Christ has. Right, that's good, excellent, and we're gonna see that, that's excellent. You guys, we're on the same page here, great. So this tells us about the importance of love for one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

That's the focus here. And covers is an interesting word. It's to envelop, wrap around as bark with a shell or plaster to cover up. And James tells us in 520, Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Sins, plural. I was thinking about that.

So I was thinking how, how does that work? How does, how does he, so he, when we share the Lord Jesus Christ, we wonder, you know, and a person comes to trust him, he's saved from, you know, his soul is saved, which is wonderful. But this also says there's an additional benefit that will cover a multitude of sins. So how does that work? I have a thought about that. How does that work with this person who was an unbeliever but became a believer? How does it cover a multitude of their sins? Is that to deal with the propitiation work of Christ on the cross? Okay, I didn't get that deep.

Here's my thought. Maybe this man has a flaw. We'll see. Think about this. When an unbeliever turns to the Lord, think about the potential of the reduced... This sounds kind of... Where did I pick this up at? If you're counting up the sins that he has the potential to commit, he comes to the Lord, you would expect that he would spend more time with the Lord, hence not sinning as much. Therefore, it's preventing those sins from being committed. Happening.

I don't know that's uh, I actually had a connection which i've forgotten now to this but uh, so that's my my thought was that Wonderfully when a person comes to the lord sin is no longer should no longer be attractive. It is attractive sometimes but So so less less sin is committed Hey roger. I don't I'm thinking it has more to do with The lord doesn't even see his sin anymore because then he's in christ. He doesn't Even if he's sinning, even if we sin, the Lord doesn't see that sin because we're in him.

He only sees us in Christ. That's right. That would be the same thing with anyone else who comes to the Lord. The Lord doesn't even see that sin. A multitude includes eons of sin, right? Yeah, we'll cover it. Right, absolutely. The Lord doesn't even see that sin because If we have to worry about, oh my gosh, now I've become a believer, and I'm still sinning, oh no. No, we're in Christ, and anyone else is in Christ. I mean, who's a believer? Good point. Good point. Yeah. Done deal. All right, see what you think about this.

I'm going to go to one of my favorite verses. So how does love cover a multitude of sins? So this is kind of the global picture, if you will. So I'm gonna turn to one of my favorite passages in scripture. I'm gonna turn to 1 Corinthians 13. And remember, I really like replacing, Brother Hal showed us this many times, replacing love as patience.

Christ's love is patient. And this only happens as we walk by him and his love, his love is patient. Christ's love is kind and not jealous. Christ's love does not brag and is not arrogant. Christ's love does not act unbecomingly. Christ's love does not seek its own. Christ's love is not provoked and does not take into account a wrong suffered.

Well, here's something that occurred to me. The idea of covering a multitude of sins, and this particular aspect in 1 Corinthians 13, Christ's love is not provoked and does not take into account a wrong suffered. we're able to look at a sinning brother or sister and not condemn them, because we could have been there, we could have committed that sin, and we know that that sin is paid for. These attributes of Christ's love kind of show us the attitude, and the next one kind of fits it, too.

Christ's love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. So we don't, if a brother or sister sins, and we know about that, we don't, we rejoice for the truth, not unrighteousness. And then, and we bear, love bears all things. We may have to bear a sinning brother or sister, bears all things, but we, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

And lastly, Christ's love never fails. So I think looking at Christ's love in 1 Corinthians 13 kind of shows us how his love does not excuse sin, but it bears up with the sinning brother or sister. And then actually, I didn't write it down, but Macaulay says, love does not make public Christ's love does not make public a person's sins, necessarily, unless there's a reason to. You don't go about broadcasting, and we're told not to do that, but we're not, Christ's love does not broadcast publicly a person's sins. Could I add one little thing? Go ahead. Got 80 years of experience, huh? Okay. Go ahead.

My dad exemplified this kind of love many times in the church in Phoenix. We had pastors that were sinned against the congregation quite a few times, and he was on the board, and he never had a bad word to say about them. He always focused on, you know, they're growing in Christ, too, guys. Let's focus on God's work in their lives and be thankful for that. Well, that's great, Roy. That's kind of the thing about coming alongside our brothers and sisters and being there for them.

And it's not to see that we could, in fact, I've forgotten the verse, to see that we could have fallen into the sin that they may have fallen into. We could have been there. And looking to ourselves, I've forgotten how the verse goes, we look to ourselves and not condemning them. We love them and care for them. First Corinthians 13 really shows the whole attitude of Christ's love. It also shows the impossibility that I can do this on my own strength and ability. It shows that I have to be totally depending upon the Lord to carry out any of those.

Yeah. Roger, one more look at this, is this love is another life? It's another life. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's spirit-led, but another life, not our own. Right. Absolutely. Okay, so, all right, this will work out perfect. We got five minutes to go. We got one chart, one chart. Okay, so now, this is good. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. So, okay, what's hospitality? What do you think of when you think of hospitality or hospitable?

Margaret. Yeah, Margaret, that's good. I crossed my mind. That's exactly what I said, Roy. And she's sitting right next to me. Well, how about we said, how about on the male side, how about Courtney? How about Ingrid? I mean, they're, you know. Yeah. So we're not putting gold and white ribbons on people, are we? Well, fortunately, they're in the other class, right? I want to go on Sue Ellen and my book. Yeah, Sue Ellen too.

I think it's one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be hospitable though. Exactly. Absolutely. Okay, so let's see what the Greek says here. This word is hospitable, loving strangers from phileos, brotherly love, but it's interesting here. This is actually, I didn't, let's see, do I have, I quoted those verses, but I didn't, the one that I wanted to read was in Hebrews 13, one and two, it says, Let the love of the brethren continue. Remember, this is still the love of the brethren. Let the love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.

And the rest, it goes on to say, because you might entertain angels. So the focus here, again, is on the body of Christ, on the fellow brothers and sisters. We're to show hospitality, and they may be, quote, strangers in the sense that we don't know these believers firsthand. And I was reading a commentator talking about the environment that Peter's writing to, and they said, and I believe it, all these different places he talks about.

There were no church buildings. There were, you know, the churches were in people's homes. And you can imagine if you had a church service in your home and a brother or sister comes in and maybe they're not, you know. Maybe they have kind of ragged clothes, and maybe they're not the coolest people in town. And maybe you're not.

And this verse is to warn you about that. So let's go on. It's to warn you about the situation where you might have a brother or sister. And we're to do it without complaining. So let's see what the rest of it says. Complain here is murmuring, muttering. displeasing or complaining more privately than in public. And this is an example there in Acts. I didn't write it down, unfortunately. In Acts 6-1, it's where they were serving among factions of the Jews, the Grecian Jews and the Hellenistic Jews. There was controversy over serving tables and that kind of stuff. So what I like here, and then Philippians 2 talks about do all things without grumbling or complaining. And I like here, Macaulay had a really, that was just really cool.

In other words, don't extend hospitality and whisper gripes about it when the company can't hear you. And I might say I probably have done that. You know, sometimes people can rub you the wrong way, but this is an admonition not to do that. Be hospitable, but don't complain behind their back. This is pretty darn practical, right? You're getting down into personal here, right?

And maybe my brother and sister didn't clean their shoes when they came into the house, or whatever it might be. So, anyway. Well, any last thoughts or comments? You know, one of the things that strikes me when I read that over and over is thinking about our Lord Jesus and the 12 disciples, and one of them would betray him, including Judas, in the group of men that he ministered through.

Yeah, mute. You know, another thing to think about Roger too is that, you know, this is a call to a new life that we have, you know, without complaining, the flesh complains all the time. But all that aside, you know, this enters into the concept of personality to some extent to people are different. Um, you know personalities don't change when you're saved clearly ultimately your relationship to the lord changes in a major way and your life changes in a major way, but some people are kind of quiet and not really, you know, very outward and really are awkward and You know engaging guests. I I think you know, there's that aspect too. I I think you can't dismiss You know, I agree with you bob.

I mean we have people that are very You know, they they talk a lot they talk, you know And maybe just they're talking a lot might get to you, too And so I mean, you know, they're all kinds of people and so the Lord says, you know Roger I can hear you And Peter was heard a lot too, wasn't he I So, so we all, you know, we all deal with our brothers and sisters and, but, um, I always liked the statement that I'm not sure who, you know, we're, we're to remember that Christ died for every brother and sister out there as, as well as the whole world. But, and what's cool is the brothers and sisters have accepted that they've accepted that, that free gift and they've accepted him even more to, to, to, um, to not be complaining. Roger yes.

Okay. Go ahead. Well one last question. I'm like I shut it down here. Go ahead To me it's kind of like, you know Focus on focus on who they are in Christ that you're there your brother or sister or not there, you know their personality you know, the good things are bad things about the person at their personality, but That they're you know, your brother or sister in Christ Which is easy to say Right Well, yeah, good Carol, thank you. Well, thanks everybody. This is kind of a little bit new ground for me and it's a little bit not as comfortable as just up here with the overheads, but it worked. Hopefully it worked well for you guys. So I'm gonna shut it down here and we'll see you at 1030, either on Zoom or in person.