The importance of mutual love in end-times living - part 1

Well, today we're going to start. Actually, it's going to be a two part series on that. I labeled it. And like I mentioned before, Bob's always making fun, making fun, jousting me, spurring me out. He doesn't he doesn't always, you know, the titles are just something that. I'm fine. I'm back there. I was not inspired. Basically, we're going to see this passage in first Peter four. So we're going to see basically the portion of loving one another.

And also it's going to be in light of the fact that the end of all things is near. And that's kind of a really interesting expression. We're going to kind of dig into that about the end of all times is near. It sounds kind of promoting, but actually for the believer, it's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing to know that the Lord's program is going to come to completion. And also, it's going to be interesting to know that the phraseology, that phraseology in the verb tense there is very interesting. And we'll look into that. So actually, I'd like to get someone to read These verses, where's my little thing here. So it would be 1 Peter 4, 7-11. Read it from over here on the overhead or on your paper.

The end of all things is near, therefore we have sound judgment and 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, as each one has received a special gift. Employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

If you notice in here, we're just going to cover the top two verses here, the top three verses, seven through nine, and then Bob's going to cover the ten to eleven next week. But basically you'll notice this expression, love one another, hospital to one another, serving one another so there's going to be a statement and I'm going to look at Macaulay's outline here shortly but there's a statement at the first part of verse 7 about the end of all times is near and then based upon that there's a therefore therefore the Lord has something for us to do in light of the fact that the end of all things are near and it's interesting it's a it's a relationship issue it's something it's in the body of Christ with one another we're We are to be engaged in these activities, loving one another, hospitable to one another, serving one another. As we see the day approaching, as we see the end of all things is near, there are activities for us to do. sitting there waiting, oh the Lord's coming, I'm just going to go off in my little cave here and wait for him to come. No, we're going to be busy. Busy in the body of Christ, loving one another, being hospitable to one another, serving one another.

And then last part, 11 talks about the gifts the believer has. So we're just going to concentrate on the top three verses. So what I did, I I like Macaulay's outline, I've been using it on and off, and so he kind of divides the verses we'll cover in the next two weeks this way. He has living in the light of the shortness of life, so the part A of that verse is the end of all things is near, and that's a basic statement. And then what falls out of that, how to live in light of the Lord's return. And that's all this interaction in the body, loving one another, serving one another, and so on.

And then in the following weeks we're going to have, I'm actually not going to go through this right now, we're going to have three areas of emphasis regarding suffering, the facts of suffering, the applications of suffering, conclusions of suffering. That's going to come in the weeks to come. But today we're just going to concentrate on the top, actually, seven through nine. So, that's from Macaulay. So basically, let's look at this phrase, the end of all things is near.

What's interesting is, does someone have a King James Bible? I have a new King James. How does a part of that verse read? Do you have another word there by chance? Like a but maybe? But the end of all things is at hand. What's interesting is, For whatever reason, I read through and read about this. There's actually a conjunction in there. That conjunction can be translated but, or maybe now, or moreover. For whatever reason, they didn't bring that across into the English. That's one of the neat things about studying and looking. We have lots of aids. It's worth your time. If you have those aids to look, look at different translations.

American Standard, even though we think highly of it, didn't bring that across into the English. And Jimmy had the HCJB for HCSB has now. OK. OK. So actually, it's a conjunction in this. And the Greek is the day or day. OK. So it's now or moreover. So actually, in the scope of things, it's not a biggie. I mean, if you had to say, well, I'm going to get upset over the American Center not having that word in there.

It's pointing back to the previous verses, because it talks about the since now or morever or but. It says it's been talking about, in the previous verses, it talked about something about the end times a little bit back in verse five, I think it was. Look at 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4, 5 I think it is. It says, but they shall give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. So there was an allusion to the time coming when the Lord is coming and he is going to judge people.

But it makes it even more forceful if you have a conjunction there that says now or moreover or but. Some people, but is not the preferred translation, either now or moreover seems to be more preferred. So now or moreover, the end of all things is near. So the verb is near is really in the perfect tense. Does anyone, you guys ever, I know when my brother Hal was here, he would spend a lot of time on this, and Vern does too, and so does Mike. Does anyone remember what the perfect tense is about? Just if you happen to. If you don't, that's fine too.

It's basically past completed action with abiding results up into the present and on into the future. Sounds like a lot of words, right? It's not just present, not just past. Past completed action with abiding results up into the present and on into the future.

Vern will always say, if you listen to Vern when he talks in the pulpit, he'll say... I'm going to have a pulpit, don't I? he'll say that indicates a permanence. So what I did was I just took that definition of the verb tense and put in our end of all things. So you could say with that verb tense, the end of all things was near in the past, continues to be near up into the present, and on into the future. Denotes a state of permanence. So what that's telling us is, what does that tell us? What does that tell you? If it's true then, it's true now. How near is it? How near was it in Peter's time? Was it any more near in Peter's time than it is now?

This is one of the mind-boggling things about scripture, and I think it maybe indicates that God is beyond time. He looks at this event and he says, is it near in the past? It was near in the past. This is man's time, don't forget that. He says the end of all things was near in Peter's time, and it's near in our time. Just by that verb tense. So some have translated it, has drawn near, and I don't know, maybe you don't like that. It's near right now, it's not going to be any, it was near in the past, it's near in the present, it's near in the future. It's going to come, it's going to come, we don't know when.

The end of all things is going to come. Actually, we're going to see the end of all things is a process, right? We're going to have the tribulation period, you have the new earth, so that's going to be a time period in man's time that that's going to culminate.

I think it's really cool that the end of all things is near is a truth that we're to remember. Peter was to remember it back then, we're to remember it now. It's near right now. That kind of hurts your head a little bit. So how are we to live in light of the fact that the end of all things is near? Leave it. Trust in it.

Well actually in this verse it tells us, right? It says therefore, right? The Lord doesn't leave us without information. He says therefore, right? He says the end of all things is near. It was near in the past. It's up in the present, on in the future. He says, in light of that, therefore, that's what we're going to go to next. Therefore, actually, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but let's keep going with the end of all things a little bit more. The end is teleos termination.

Maybe this is all things, none excluded. And the other thing is that, and this is something we mentioned in other classes before, All things in the Greeks, what they did is in their sentences, they didn't have a way of putting quotation marks and emphasis in their sentences on words that we might do might make it metallics. So they would they would take the important part of the they wanted to emphasize. They put it in the first part of the set, then move it to the first part of the text. So this word all things is is the very first the beginning of the Greek text.

Before we get to the therefore, what is Peter's emphasis? I have two things on there. What do you think is Peter's emphasis about thinking about the times we have now? his emphasis in terms of that the end has drawn near, is drawing near. We're going to see those shortly. A couple of things that occurred, and this is the process we're going to see. The end of all time is going to culminate And this verse right here, we're going to read here, is going to talk about the world order.

So let's turn to 2 Peter 3.10. Can someone read that?

2 Peter 3.10.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. So that's speaking of the fact that yes, the end of the earth as we see it is going to happen. And this day of the Lord, if you study through that you'll find out in scripture the day of the Lord is actually not just a single event, it's a time period. It starts at the rapture. the rapture of the saints, we go to be with the Lord, and it extends all the way through the new heavens and the new earth. And that's what this is talking about, right? The elements are burned up, so it's a time period. So it says the day of the Lord will come.

So you could argue, you could say, the day of the Lord will begin like a thief in the night, and it will continue on through the tribulation period, and then end with this burning up of the of the earth and its works. So that's one thing I think that Peter, and we won't see that until we get into 2 Peter, but probably the most prominent thing that you see Peter talking about is suffering. And Peter, if you look at 1 Peter, go back to 1 Peter, 1 Peter 5 and verse 10, and this is something that is wonderful but may be hard to It's hard when you're going through it, but this is how the Lord wants us to view it. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in himself will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. So God calls this time period that we're engaged in, trials and suffering, as a little while.

It always seems like it's in comparison with eternity. Eternity is unbounded, right? Infinite. Eternity is unbounded. Our time period here, even though it seems like a long time, he calls it a little while. He's always telling us, don't let your mind get overwhelmed by this trial. Look at the big picture. The big picture is that we're with him for eternity. Don't let this time period now, this little while, rule your life, control your thought process. Look at the long, the big period, the long time period.

And that reminded me of another verse. Let's look at Romans 8. This idea of comparing Romans 8 and verse 18. Can someone read that, Romans 8.18?

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So now, rather than saying, look at the magnitude of eternity, he's saying, look at the glory, glory speaks of God's character, look at the glory, look at what you're going to have, in comparison, I have all of who God is, his glory, and I'm experiencing that 24-7 with what I have right now.

And there's just no comparison. It may seem impossible to think, well right now I think of our brother Norm with his pain. He has that all the time. The Lord is asking him, he's asking us to compare. whatever that is with eternity. And also the length of it and also the beauty and the glory and the magnificence of our Savior. It's not worthy to be compared. There's no comparison. Peter is doing that a lot in 1 Peter and 2 Peter.

Making this comparison with eternity versus our situation that we're having right now. And that's where we're to be. Because otherwise we kind of get wrapped up in where we are and what's going on. Any other thoughts? I was trying to think of capturing what's happening as thinking about the end of all things is near. What's leading up to that? Those are two of the things that I found in my study. And then the verse in Romans there as well. So now we're going to get to the therefore.

So based upon the fact that the end of all things is imminent, therefore he tells us to do a couple of things and it has a purpose. Be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. So he's going to tell us two things about how we think, how our mind is working on this. One's called sound judgment, one's called sober spirit. And it's for the purpose of prayer. And I personally have found this very helpful. Because I think sometimes, and I'm right there with you, sometimes, and this may not be a criticism, sometimes in the heat of battle, so to speak, we pray We pray fearfully.

I'm not saying that we're going to stop doing that. Not until the Lord takes us home. But what this is offering is, this is saying step back a moment. Think about who God is and think about who you're talking to. And not to say that I'm never going to pray an anxious prayer or a prayer in a moment in a flash. I am. But it says you're having a dialogue with the God who made you. And to my mind this is honoring to him that you're a sound mind and sober spirit for the purpose of the prayer. You're deliberate about it. We're not in a tizzy. Not to say we're not in a tizzy, we shouldn't pray.

If a car is coming toward me and I say, Lord, am I going home now? Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I'm going to pray. Help me prevent this from happening. I'm probably going to say that. I think he's giving us information that is to be helpful to us and to settle us down and calm us down and say, think about who you're talking to and what you're talking about. We're going to look at both of those phrases. OK. So therefore, it's based on the end time being near. Be of sound judgment.

The idea of this word is by implication to be of sober mind, to think and act soberly, discreetly, to use sound judgment and moderation, to be self-disciplined. And what's interesting is this verb, and we've seen this before, The Lord gives us information about who we are in Christ. In many of the epistles, like in Paul's epistle, he says, this is who you are in Christ. And then he gives us some things to do. He tells us to be of sound judgment. And it has kind of what we talked about, self-discipline, discreet. And he tells us that that's a command.

So the question is, how am I to execute that command? We have a popular saying here at Holly Hills, you put it on your refrigerator, Roger, be of sound judgment today. Go ahead. The H.C.J.S.P. says, Holman Christian Standard Bible says, be serious and disciplined, instead of sober spirit. Sound judgment, it says be serious. And sober spirit, it means discipline. So get serious. Don't be playing around with sand or whatever you're doing. Get serious about God.

Actually I like this a little bit. Macaulay calls it a balanced mind. I really like that. I like that because it tells me that that life situations can get me unbalanced. I can be like our brother Norm. He could get unbalanced, but his pain is just too much.

So I think he wants us to have a balanced mind, remembering who he is and who we are in him. And not to concentrate solely on this, but to live your life also. You've got to be sociable and stuff like that. So he calls it sound judgment, balanced mind, however you want to render that discipline. It's all wrapped up in that word.

So what I was trying to point out here is that God gives us these commands and we find out that as we look at the totality of scripture, there's really only one thing he asks us to do. It's a faith operation. He asks us by faith. So we're going to accomplish this sound judgment by knowing him, by trusting him, by relying upon him. That's going to be an aspect of who we are in Christ.

Because the sound judgment needs to come from Christ. It can't be our sound judgment. My sound judgment isn't very sound. It's very unsound many times. I'll take situations and I'll take my impression and my feelings and I'll have all these kinds of things and that will be my I'll think, well this sounds like the best thing.

I kind of got this wobbly thing, whereas the Lord wants us to have the mind of Christ. He wants who we are in Christ, that's our focus, so we have this balanced mind. Putting it in perspective that we have the life of Christ. Also, that we have a sin nature too. And so that we realize that we are tempted sometimes to that sin nature. So he wants to have this balanced mind. So that's the first part of the therefore. As we see that the end of all things is near. Therefore be a sound judgment. So that's the first one. Now I have some verses here.

If you look at, let's look at Mark, someone turn to Mark 5.15, read that, 5.15. And it's used kind of, you know, as many times, words are, you know, single original words are used in a variety of contexts. And this is used kind of in a different kind of context than our verse here. 5.15 in Mark.

They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon possessed, sitting down, clothed in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion, and they became frightened. The word right mind is our word right here being a sound judgment. He's in his right mind. I think what Jim was alluding to, this is not just necessarily, this is just having a mind that you engage life with. This guy is back and he now can think. He's not overwhelmed by these demons or whatever. He can think rightly. He can think as a person, as a human being. This sound judgment is a totality. It's a person. That's kind of interesting.

Let's have a look in Romans chapter 12. So I found this really very helpful because it kind of said, OK, settle down. If I'm going to come before the God of the universe, I'm going to pray. I'm going to come before him with a balance. I'm not going to be all over the road, so to speak.

Romans 12.3. For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think, Instead, think sensibly as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.

I think sensibly is your translation. That's the same word. In mine, I have, in New American Standard, it has sound judgment. It's the same idea. Think as if I have sound judgment. And then the Titus verse is a very slimmer use of the words. It translates it sensible. Think sensibly. So we see a variety of translations depending upon the context. But the idea is this balanced mind, sober, Acting soberly, discreetly, self-disciplined.

And that mind can't be our mind. It has to be Christ's mind. It can't be ours. If it's ours, it's going to be... Well, I think it comes through the knowledge and wisdom from searching scriptures. Right. It comes as we immerse ourselves in God's word. We know His mind. We call His word and His mind.

So what should I do here? Oh, I remember this verse. This tells me this piece of information. This settles me down. I'm a new creation in Christ. I have this, and you remember His word, and that's going to settle you down. It's like Mike said. He talks about the rest in Christ. We can rest because of the knowledge and the wisdom we've gained. And it gives us a balanced mind. Ok, so that's the first word.

Now the second phrase is sober, or actually better, is literally self-controlled. So they're kind of close words, you know, you've got sound judgment and self-control. This kind of focuses more, the antonym of this word, the opposite of this word is being inebriate, being drunk. So this is saying, means to be sober over against being drunk. Further carries the idea of a cool, calm, and collected mind. I like the last part, I really like. Because that, being kind of calm about this, cool about this. And then, let me just go down here. I'm jumping way down here because Macaulay combined these together.

He has a cool head, which is this word up here, sober, cool head and a balanced mind. So those go together. You've got the balanced mind and the cool head. We're going to look at the self-control or the cool head. There's several verses here that talk about that. They all use the word sober. That's a translation. So 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 6. Could someone read that? 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 6.

So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. Okay, that's good. So we're not to be asleep at the wheel, right? We're to be sober. And sober has You know, in that context, it's not necessarily meaning that we're free from drink. It just means we're attentive, we're with it, we're not distracted.

And then in 2 Timothy 4, 5, But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So this is talking about what a teacher does, be sober in all things, enduring hardship. So being sober, being cool-headed is an attitude that God desires in us. And once again, it's something that comes from who we are in Christ.

And then Peter has it, 1 Peter 1.13. Did someone read that? Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end. Upon the grace that is to be brought unto you at revelation of Jesus Christ. OK. So being sober or being cool-headed allows us to take in more of God's word, more of his truth, and become more of our life. So it's good to have this. So once again, how do we have sound judgment and self-control? It has to be Christ's life working in us. It can't be our life. It has to be his life.

Actually, it's a plural. For the purpose of prayers, The word is in the plural tense, but it's not brought across in the English, in the plural. I'm not sure why, but whatever it is, it's plural. So basically, Constable says, the Greek word Peter uses here for prayer is literally prayers, and he gives a Greek word, is a general word for prayer, and indicates that Peter has all kinds of praying in mind. And that's what I kind of think, too.

Prayer is a dialogue with God. And what this is giving is instructions instructions for how to have a more effective and more appropriate prayer life. We're honoring God. If we're so agitated, I don't think we can pray rightly. Not that sometimes we pray at the spur of the moment, you know, Lord help me or whatever it might be, ask the Lord to help you, that's another whole topic that Mike kind of gets on you about, because he's already helped you, right?

We're trying to say that, but I think the Lord wants us to be, you know, we have a need. He knows a need before you mask it, so he wants us to come to it with a sound mind and self-control and say, here it is Lord, I like the picture in the Old Testament.

The enemies were before him. He spread out his petition. He was before God in the altar. He spread it out. Here it is, Lord. Here's my issue. I've got troubles. The enemy's outside and they're coming. And here it is. Here's the problem. He just spread it out. So I kind of think, that's kind of a cool... Lord, here's my problem. And you spread out before him, Lord.

I don't know what to do about it. A lot of times I say, I don't know what to do about it. Or help me to trust you through this. Whatever it might be. Then I just have what Macaulay says about the combination of those two, the balanced mind we covered first, and now we cover the cool head. That's helped me in this time period.

Settle down, Roger. What's my prayer to God right now? What's my prayer? Think about this. Lord, here's where it is. Thank you, Lord, that you heard me. Is that Chester McCall you're talking about? Yes, I am. Cool head and a balanced mind is just resting in what God is going to do. Absolutely. Trying not to worry.

We are our worst enemy. Our own nature is our worst enemy. Our worst enemy is ourselves. Think about that. That's our worst enemy. Because that's how we take in all the things that we don't need. We don't need to worry. All the things, the temptations of the world, the flesh, the devil, all those things come in through that. But what the Lord says, I want you to focus on who you are in Christ. That's what he wants us to focus on.

I'll make her say, Roger, I don't think I'll get it. That's why. Get your facts straight. She'll tell me, I don't get it. Alright, that's good. I just think this is just so powerful. I'm not saying this is guaranteed to get your prayers answered. I'm not claiming that. I'm just saying that this is appropriate for who you're talking to. This is appropriate to talk to the God of the universe.

He's saying, Come to me and come let us reason together. I think of that verse. Come let us reason. He wants us to be reasoned. Come and talk with him. Hey, this is what it is. Don't be all over the map. Until you study it, it doesn't really hit you. You think, wow, that's really cool. That's really powerful stuff. We've had this statement about the end of all things is near, therefore be of sound judgment, sober's fear, for the purpose of prayer.

Now we're going to switch gears here. Now we're going to talk about our relationship with our brother in Christ. He's going to give us some instruction there. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. This is another really cool verse. Above all, this is a primary importance and before all things in order of importance. He's going to tell us that love, love for one another is really at the top of the queue. It's right up there. Especially love.

We're going to read 1 Corinthians 13 and it talks about the importance of love. He's going to say that love doesn't like to see sin in a brother, but it doesn't make it a big deal. Just like you love your wife, you overlook some things because you love them, because you care for them.

You don't point at every little single thing. Of course, I've done that. I've been there, Bob. I've done that. So I've done that when I've been a nitpicker and I shouldn't have been. This is telling us that love can overlook some of the things. Sins basically. It's important, above all things, order of importance. Keep fervent in your love for one another.

Fervent is the idea, this is kind of a cool word. It has that idea of stretched out or intense. It was the word they used for a horse. You know how a horse, watch the photo finishes. His nose is way out there like that. His nose crosses the face line. Or how about when there are runners that are leaning forward to make sure they get across to the guy next to them. So that's kind of the idea. It's a stretching out. Going to the max. You're stretching yourself out. So that's kind of the idea of keeping firm in your love.

And a parallel verse is in 1 Peter 1.22.

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for the sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. So this kind of adds the idea that it's from the heart. So we see a very similar thing, fervently love one another because love covers the multitude of sins. Now it's going to tell us to fervently love one another from the heart. And just a kind of reminder, back to the fact that this can't be our life but Christ's life. Remember that love is the fruit of the Spirit. So this love Once again, it's not going to be something we gin up.

I'm going to try to love each one of you. I'll love Tom for five minutes, and I'm going to love Cheryl for five. I'm going to ship my love around. I love all you guys. I'm a really great fellow. I'll tell you when five minutes is up. It's not like I'm going to try to gin up this love. If Wade and Roger are a wonderful person, he can love each one of us.

This is Christ's love being loved out through you. That you're not necessarily conscious of, you don't know, you're not keeping track of that. Because if you do, then you're keeping a metric on it and it's not going to be right. It's Christ living his life through his love through you. That's the kind of love he's talking about. It has to be a fruit of the Spirit. If it's not, then it's you kind of getting in there and stirring the pot. Here's something I was thinking about. Was Christ's love perfect? I think you'll agree. His love, just so many cases in his ministry where he went to the cross, I think about Lazarus, his love for Lazarus. He wept, even though they raised him from the dead, he wept at the fact that Lazarus was dead.

And then one that actually, Bonnie helped me with this one. Let's turn to Romans chapter 9. This is Paul. Paul had a love for his brethren. This one is just beyond comprehension. And actually it's something we cannot do, so don't think you can do this. I'm going to read Romans chapter 9 verses 1 through 3. I'm telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were a curse, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

So Paul's love was so intense, so fervent, for his brothers. In this case, you might argue, this is sort of his fellow Israelites, that are unsaved. So you can argue, we're kind of mixing a little bit of apples and oranges, because we're talking about fellow believers in the first Peter context, but now we're talking about his brother in the flesh.

But he was so intense. Talk about fervency. If Paul could, and he can't, he would give up his salvation. He would exchange his salvation for his brother's salvation. That is pretty fervent. To me that really spoke to fervency. The thing is, can I do that? First of all, he saved you. You can't unsave yourself. You can try, but you can't. He says, I saved you, I'm maintaining it. It's a done deal. But I thought this was a really cool example of that fervency of what we're talking about here. And then a couple of other thoughts here. A couple of verses.

There's also a thought process. that goes through here that says, also love is to be sincere, and we do not do it in our own strength. So in Romans 12, 9 it says love is to be without hypocrisy, it's to be genuine love, truthful love, just like I was alluding to by loving each five minutes, that's hypocritical love. And then 2 Corinthians 6, 4 through 6, He talks about genuine love. So our love is to be sincere, genuine, and in a sense we don't have to worry about this.

As we walk with the Lord, and trust Him, and allow His life to live through us, His love will come out through us and people will see that. They will see His love through you. Now we have to go to the last part. Because love covers a multitude of sins. So this is going to tell us about the importance of our love for one another. So cover, the idea is to envelop, to wrap, to cover over. And I thought about a couple of things here. First of all, in Proverbs, it talks about Proverbs 10, 10-12.

Proverbs 10.12 says, hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. So this is going to talk about the fact that our love, and love itself, in terms of the fruit of the Spirit, that's one of the focal points of who a believer is. So with that in mind, the passage that comes to mind is 1 Corinthians 13. And it's just a beautiful passage.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but I do not have love as opportunity. Love is patient, love is kind, and it's not jealous. Love does not brag, and it's not arrogant. It does not act as uncommon. comingly, it does not seek his own, is not revoked, and does not take into account a wrong suffered, but does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails, but there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away, of their tongues they will cease.

If there's knowledge it will be done away. But we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes the partial will be done away. When I was a child I used to speak like a child. It's all good, it's all good. But don't you just really, isn't it just magnificent about the preeminence of love?

A thing that's helped me here, a thing that's helped me here, is that you look right here and you think about, and I like to put it in verse 4, Christ's love is patient, Christ's love is kind, Christ's love is not jealous, Christ's love does not brag. pointing back to the fact that we don't get confused by trying to put our efforts into that. Because you read through this, and your love cannot do that. One of those points, or maybe many of those points, you're going to slip up. You're not going to be able to accomplish that.

And it's such a beautiful passage, and it shows that love is supreme. And this context here is showing that because love covers a multitude of sins, We're going to have the right attitude. I keep borrowing from Chester McCauley. I apologize. It says, this means that genuine love does not use the word publish or maybe make known nor desire to publish another's sin.

You don't say, well, he's a pretty good brother, but, and then you tell all the things that you think he has a problem with. You love him unconditionally. and you accept, unless there's something that needs to be brought to the front, you leave alone. Just like what it talks about, that bears all things, believes all things. That's why love is so powerful and so incredible. You protect your brother's integrity too. Right, exactly. And you try to protect it.

If it's not something that... If it's a crime or something, it's not a magnitude thing, it's a different issue. But if he doesn't shake your hand in the morning, you can say, well, he should have shook my hand on Sunday morning. My brother should have shook my hand. He didn't shake my hand. Well, he must have a problem. Maybe you have a problem. Maybe you want to shake everybody's hand. They don't want to shake your hand. I don't know. OK. All right. So that's verse 8. Now verse 9, be hostile to one another without complaint.

Hospital is the idea, actually the core word of hospitable is the idea of the love of strangers and it comes from the word phileas, which is brotherly love. So it's basically loving other believers that are strangers to you. Seems like a good that's what hospitality is. And those verses that I have up there kind of talk about some talk about basically the right that down strangers. Well let's just look. Anyway, both those verses talk about performing hospitality. Some talk about basically leaders of the church performing hospitality, being ready to perform hospitality.

But it focuses on the fact that it's strangers, it's people that are unknown to you, that are brothers. OK, so complaint is the idea of murmuring and muttering, talking against. Just like with the love aspect, hospitality is not to be, I give hospitality, but then I talk behind their back. I say, come over for dinner, but then I complain about some aspect. They weren't dressed right. They weren't dressed for the occasion, or whatever it might be. You give hospitality, you love them as a brother, and don't talk about it. And then I have another Macaulay thing. In other words, don't extend hospitality and whisper gripes about it when company can't hear it. So is it okay if they can't hear it? Well, maybe if you have a problem with a brother, a sister, tell them.

That's actually probably the best way. It would be nice if you shook my hand this morning. I hope this has been helpful. For me it has been very helpful. Next week, Bob is going to continue on with verses 10 and 11. Let's close. Dear Father, we thank you so much Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. Lord, just for your marvelous grace and your marvelous love, Father. And also, Lord, for just how you want us to talk with you and interchange with you, and just that you want us to be relaxed about that, that we're talking with and have a cool head, just that we're talking with the God of the universe who made us and loves us, and we thank you so much for that. In Christ's name, Amen.