Love and Don’t Meddle

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 (ESV)

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, [10] for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, [11] and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, [12] so that you may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 

This portion of scripture asks us to do things, to love one another and to mind your own business. We are told to do this so that we may live properly before those who don’t know Christ and that we are not a burden.

This seems simple and straightforward, but think about some major criticisms of Christians. If we don’t love one another, even through the tough times – we don’t show Christ, and we are no different than those without Christ. If we are “busybodies” and “gossips” how do we show Christ in our lives? If we have the ability to work and become a dependant on society – how do we show Christ in our lives? We are showing that we like a free ride.

Be separate! Be a new creature in Christ! Don’t be like everyone else in society, because you are not like everyone else. God has called you to be holy. It is only through Him that we can be holy, but we still need to choose to obey Him. And the obedience that we called to in this scripture is to love and not to meddle.

Unity, An Annointing

Psalm 133:1-2 ESV
1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

Look at Exodus 29:21; Leviticus 8:2-12 and Leviticus 8:30. Why was there oil on Aaron's head? Not only was it to anoint him as a priest, but as Lev 8:12 puts it, it was to sanctify him as well.

Now when Christians live in unity it is likened to that same anointing and sanctification. Remember, you are a priest (1 Pet 2:9). Also, look at the importance that our Lord put on loving others: Matthew 22:37-40; John 13:34; John 15:12, 17. Jesus said that loving God and loving others summed up all the law and prophets. The epistles, especially 1 John echo how important it is to love the brethren. And the first letter to the Corinthians also speaks of the importance of unity.

How do you achieve unity? I've already given you the first clue on that - loving your brother. Yes, we've addressed this. But we have an enemy who knows how to trip us up. If everything seems to be going great in your walk with the Lord, be on your guard - you probably aren't too far from a word being spoken that will be misunderstood or taken out of context. It could be with your spouse, it could be in your family, it can even be within the body of Christ. Look at how special the Lord portrays unity. Our enemy is wanting to destroy it.

Love, pray, live the Word and pursue unity even in the face of adversity. Don't worry about yourself - you don't need to get revenge; you don't have to exact justice. You have to let the Lord take care of you and your brother (or sister) in Christ. You don't need to worry about yourself because you died to self when you accepted Jesus into your life. Your task is found in Philippians 2:3-4.

Try that and see if unity increases around you.

You Can't Force Them to Love the Lord

1 Samuel 8:1-3
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.

It seems like someone like Samuel would have sons that followed after the Lord, and whose ways would be pleasing to the Lord. Samuel became a priest because Eli's sons did the same thing (1 Sam 2) - they extorted people instead of serving the Lord.

So what does that mean to the Christian parent? Is it hopeless? What do you do when your child desires the world more than the Lord? This is a two-edged sword; though you cannot force your child to love the Lord... Because only God draws people to Him. (John 14:6; Romans 1:6; Col 3:15; Jude 1:1). We need to be established in the fact that this task is the Lord's. But we have our task, this child needs to know about the Lord (Pr 22:6; Rom 10:13-14).

How do you train your child? Are you one way at church, then another way at home? Do you talk about people's "shortcomings" around your child? Is your life and your attitude enough to be desired by your child? Remember, training the child the Bible without you living it is pointless - your child needs to see Jesus in you before he/she will see the Lord as real. Okay, it is possible for you to be a horrible parent and your child can come to the Lord, but as we said before you need to do your task.

The Proper Love

Matthew 20:1-16
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Many times we see this passage talking about folks that accepted Jesus late in life as opposed to those that have spent a good bit of their lives following the Lord. So, it comes down that the ones following the Lord for the longer time don't find it fair because the "newer" Christians got to enjoy life longer before they had to submit to rules and regulations.

There is a flaw in that thinking though - it’s as though the thought is that the world has more to offer for the here and now than Jesus does. It also takes grace out of the picture. Plain and simple, if an "older" Christian is envious of a "new" Christian who was able to spend his life in debauchery, the "older" Christian pretty much has a love of the world and has let that love of the world hinder the fulfillment of the love of Christ.

1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Don't get blinded by what the world system tells us what is desirable and fun, but look to the Lord for your fulfillment and joy.

Love Your Neighbor

Romans 13:8-10
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

I would like to approach today's devotional by taking the last verse first and finishing up with the first verse.

We first see that LOVE fulfills the law. Jesus taught this in Matthew 22:37-40, where all the law and prophets hang on loving God and loving others.

We also see that love does no wrong to a neighbor. This seems like an obvious statement. But we find that this is not always true among the saints. Often times there is backbiting, gossip and indifference to others among Christians. If we are backbiting, gossiping, complaining or just plain ignoring our brothers in Christ we are not only flat out disobeying Christ (John 13:34-35) we are showing our true FRUIT (Gal. 5:22-23; Matt. 7:15-20).

Finally (or firstly - depending on how you look at it) we are told not to owe anybody anything except love. We are to have no debt to others except to love them. I see this as a debt that can never be paid - we are to love the brothers every day. Jesus Christ freed us from the debt of sin to replace it with a debt of love.

Your challenge is to think of the Christians around you who you are indifferent towards or just don't like ("I love them but don't like them" is a cop-out so don't use it) and make a list. Lift them up in prayer; pray that God gives you a genuine love for them; and pray for opportunity to show this love in actions.