SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/28/2018
9:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Praise for Their Love”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 1:15c
Message of the
verses: “and you love for all the
saints”
In today’s SD we will look at the second sub-section
under the main section “Praise for Believers,” and in that Paul praises the
believers before he begins his rather lengthy prayer that he will pray for
those believers, and in both sections they have great meaning for believers
today as after all they are from the Word of God.
When a person becomes a believer he will begin to have
love for all the saints. I realize that
as we look through some of Paul’s letters that there are sometimes difficulties
between different believers, but since all believers have been given new life
in Christ and are forgiven for all their sins then we should love one
another. I am not saying that we have to
have everyone who is a believer that perhaps we have some difficulties with
over for lunch, but we should love them with the love that Christ loves us. John MacArthur adds “To truly love a person
in the Lord is to love him as the Lord loves him—genuinely and sacrificially.” As difficult as this may seem and do it is a
true statement to follow. If God can
speak and the planets are made then He can help us to love our brothers in the
Lord.
1 John 3:14 says “We know that
we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who
does not love abides in death.”
MacArthur goes on to write “Important as it is, sound theology is no
substitute for love. Without love the
best doctrine is like ‘a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal’ (1 Cor. 13:1). True salvation goes from the head and heart
of the believer out to other believers and out to the world to touch
unbelievers in Christ’s name. True
salvation produces true love, and true love does ‘not love with word or with tongue,
but in deed with truth’ (1 John 3:18).
Always in the New Testament true spiritual love is defined as an attitude
of selfless sacrifice that results in generous acts of kindness done to
others. It is far more than a feeling,
an attraction or emotion. When the Lord
had washed the feet of the proud and self-seeking disciples, He told them that
what He had done for them was the example of how they were to love each other
(John 13:24). John emphasizes the same
truth: ‘We know love by this, that He
laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and
beholds his brother in need and closes his heat against him, how does the love
of God abide in him? Little children,
let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:16-18).’”
As we look at this kind of love we
can see that this is the kind of love that the Ephesian church had, but when we
look at the book of Revelation we can see that this did not last, for John says
in Revelation chapter two that the Ephesians left their first love and this is
the first step in what can be seen as a downward spiral that can be seen by
five of the seven churches that are mentioned in the second and third chapters
of Revelation. It starts with leaving
their first love to having to have the Lord actually knock on the outside door
of the church of Laodicea.
One of the things that true
believers need to do is to keep their faith and love in balance. We have heard of monks or hermits and
countless others in church history hiding away in order not to sin against the
Lord, but in doing that they are not spreading the good news of the gospel to
others, not keeping their faith and love in balance.
MacArthur concludes this sub-section
by writing “The Christians to whom Paul wrote his Ephesian letter had the right
balance, and it was for their great faith and their great love that the apostle
assured them, ‘I…do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of
you in my prayers.’”
In our next SD we will begin the
longest part of this section from the last half of the first chapter of
Ephesians chapter one and that is all about the prayer that Paul prayed for
them. Looking at Paul’s prayers for the
saints in the New Testament letters he wrote is, I believe going to be a
wonderful study, even though we are now only looking at once such prayer.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have to
believe that the Lord is doing a work in my heart about love as certain
circumstances have happened to make me focus more on loving.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To listen to
the Lord as He teaches me more about love.
Answer to
yesterday’s Bible question: “They showed
God’s approval upon Him” (Acts 2:22). “"Men
of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by
God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your
midst, just as you yourselves know.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘For I knew that
thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness’?”
Answer in our
next SD.
11/28/2018
11:12 AM
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