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The End of the Age: Part 3–On Your Guard

Be on your guard! For they will repeatedly hand you over to the ruling councils, and you will be beaten in public gatherings. And you will stand trial before kings and high-ranking governmental leaders as an opportunity to testify to them on my behalf. But prior to the end of the age, the hope of the gospel must first be preached to all nations. (Mark 13:9-10 TPT)

In verse 9, Jesus gives another warning, this one more personal. “Be on your guard!” He then tells His inner circle of the personal persecutions they will face in His name, and the purposes thereof.

But He is not warning them to be on guard against their persecutors. He is warning them against looking for big-picture signs of The End. This practice would take their focus from their individual missions. They need to be ready to witness to the authorities before whom they will be brought. They will need to remember the Great Commission that Jesus will give them to preach the Gospel to all nations. Most of all, they need to prepare their spirits to receive wisdom and comfort from the Holy Spirit amid their persecution. It is their faith that will see them through what is coming, not their ability to read the signs of the times.

This warning is for us as well. Most of us Americans have not faced the danger of arrest or public beatings for professing our faith, but this does happen daily in many areas of the world. I doubt that many of the people who are persecuted find themselves in that situation for interpreting the signs of the times. They are jailed, tortured, and martyred for the Name of Jesus.

But since, as Americans we have not previously faced these troubles, we tend to get spiritually lazy. We lose our sense of urgency about preaching the gospel and instead turn our attentions to the news, fake or otherwise, about the state of our nation. We look at the spreading degeneracy of our culture, in our media, our schools, our government, etc., and say something religious-sounding like, “Come Lord Jesus.” But what are we doing to prepare for that coming?

More importantly, what are we saying or doing to get the world ready?

Until the Whole World Hears

In verse 10, Jesus says that the Gospel must first be preached to all nations before The End comes. I have often wondered if that’s why it has been 2000 years and we’re still waiting? I can’t know this for certain, but it seems to make sense for this reason. (I’m going to lose some of the Calvinists on this one.)

God offers salvation from Sin and Death as a free gift. The way to receive this gift is to believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is, did what the Bible says He did, and to trust and rely completely on that Truth, following Christ in obedience. In other words, a person must exercise a conscious and deliberate act of the will.

But a choice can not be made where there is no awareness of the choice that needs to be made. This is what the preaching is for:

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news.” But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” Consequently, faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ. (Romans 10:13-17 NET)

For this reason, I do not believe that anyone who has never heard of Jesus could be condemned for not choosing Him. Some theologians would disagree with me on that, but it’s the story I’m going with, because if God would send some lost African tribe to hell because they didn’t make a decision for Christ, then all those who die in infancy would go along with them. Therefore, I call shenanigans on that theology.

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Every tribe, tongue and nation…

So, about those lost African tribes (or wherever they may be). I believe that Jesus hasn’t come back yet because we haven’t reached everyone with the Gospel yet. Whether it’s because the Church has been lazy about missions, or the world’s population is simply growing at a rate that the Church can’t keep up with, they haven’t all had a chance to make their choice yet.

Therefore, the point is to stop looking at the sky and to start looking for opportunities to share the Good News, both near and far, until the whole world hears. Because until we reach the whole world with the Gospel, it doesn’t matter what ELSE is going on in the world.

(To be continued in Part 4—Stand Firm)

February 13, 2021
The End of the Age: Part 2–What Sign?

As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple area, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be when all these things are about to come to an end?” (Mark 13:3-4 NABRE)

This scene immediately follows Jesus’ public prediction that the temple would be destroyed. Jesus’ inner circle is trying to get the inside scoop on what’s coming next.

We’re all kind of like that, aren’t we? We like to be the first ones to know. Sometimes it’s just for the knowledge itself. Sometimes it’s for the attention we get in the short term. Or it might be about having the reputation for being a source of reliable information.

But there is a warning that comes along with this thirst for knowledge. The sense of pride that comes from being first to know can overwhelm the significance of the actual knowledge that you are conveying. To avoid succumbing to that, check your motivation for obtaining the knowledge in the first place. Is it to help others, to help yourself, or just to be first?

Fake News

I don’t need to remind anybody in this age of disinformation how much garbage there is on the interwebs masquerading as knowledge. Any post or clickbait that triggers somebody’s offense mechanism has the potential to go viral before a single fact has been checked. And now, social media itself, under the guise of “fact checking,” is censoring voices that dissent with its political agenda, making even the real news look like fake news.

But our urge to be able to say, “You heard it here first” is so strong that people have gone so far as to create new social media networks, just so they can have an outlet to forward the latest “breaking news” without fear of recrimination by the “tech lords.” So, under the guise of free speech, all we have done is relocated and refined our echo chamber.

Another thing to be wary of with a thirst for knowledge is that sometimes when you ask questions, you might get more than you bargained for with the answer. Consider how Jesus responded in Mark 13:5-31 to the question posed by His inner circle at the top of this post.

He begins with a warning. “Watch out that no one deceives you.” Fake news was a thing even 2000 years ago. Jesus knows the hearts of His disciples, so He knows their motivation for asking. Although we can’t really tell from the context, Jesus’ warning is useful regardless. He wants them to have correct information from the Source, both for their own knowledge and to share with others who might ask.

Getting the Scoop

There is also a sort of secondhand knowledge that people thirst for. If you aren’t in the “you heard it here first” club, then maybe at least you can be the first to report a sign predicted by those who were. Jesus knows that even though He is telling his inner circle directly about the signs of the end, since these signs will be unprecedented, they could easily be misinterpreted.

What I mean is that our individual perceptions color our worldview. When we see a war, a certain political alliance or a natural or humanitarian disaster, we might be tempted to point and say, “See? The end is near!” But Jesus specifically said this 2000 years ago:

When you hear of wars and reports of wars, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen, but this isn’t the end yet. Nations and kingdoms will fight against each other, and there will be earthquakes and famines in all sorts of places. These things are just the beginning of the sufferings associated with the end. (Mark 13:7-8 CEB)

To a woman going through childbirth for the first time, labor pains are an unprecedented calamity. There is no pain quite like it (so I have been told). But the labor pains themselves are not the main event. They are the prelude to a birth.

Likewise, these signs of worldwide calamities, which have been going on throughout the ages, are not the main event themselves. It might be accurate to call them “the beginning of The End,” but since we don’t know when The End will be, we also have no idea how long the Beginning of The End will be. It seems kind of pointless to even try to measure such a thing as it is happening. Perhaps this is also a symptom of our wanting either to know more or to at least make sense of the knowledge we have.

(To be continued in Part 3: On Your Guard)

February 6, 2021
Antichrist

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. 1 John 4:1-3 (NIV)

2020 has been a rough year for everybody so far, but especially for Truthseekers. The media has degenerated from fake news to absolute lunacy. A pandemic, or at least the fear of one, has gripped the world, but the scientists can’t seem to get their stories straight. Worst of all, opportunists of the lowest caliber have used fear and racial prejudice to turn us against each other.

Why do I say that one is worst of all? Because if we create enemies for ourselves along the lines of racial differences, we will forget that we have a common enemy. Which is exactly what our real enemy wants.

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So, what does John mean when he talks about “testing the spirits?” Some people get a little froke out by this, but it’s not all that weird.

Three years ago, we covered this extensively in the Overcoming the World series. In Part 8, we discussed that when a thought “pops into your head,” it is likely a message from God if it is in line with scripture, illuminates the solution to a problem and leads to a good result for all concerned. If this out-of-the-blue thought does not meet those criteria, it did not come from God. So where did it come from?

The passage above makes clear that deceptive messages are from the spirit of the antichrist. Now this is the spirit of antichrist with a lower-case A, not the big baddie of Revelation (more on that later). John uses this term literally to mean a spirit that opposes Jesus. You can see from this passage that this is the spirit that controls false prophets.

However, the wording above appears at first to be too simplistic. Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that doesn’t, isn’t. If discerning the spirits were that easy, then why would we need to test them?

Well, have you seen what’s going on in the Church lately? It mirrors what’s going on in our country. Just as America’s greatest enemy has proven to be from within, so it is with the Church. Atheists are the least of our problems, annoying though they may be. They are a mosquito bite compared to the cancer that is eating away at the Body of Christ from within.

In the Flesh

To understand what it truly means to test the spirits, it is important to know that John snuck a coded message into verse 2 above. “Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”   Pretty much every church identifying as Christian acknowledges that Jesus was an actual human born into this world. Yet sharp division remains on what the Church’s role in the world ought to be. So, there must be something more to it than that.

There is. It’s hiding in plain sight at the beginning of John’s Gospel:

In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.

And the Word (Christ) became flesh, and lived among us; and we [actually] saw His glory, glory as belongs to the [One and] only begotten Son of the Father, [the Son who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, who is] full of grace and truth (absolutely free of deception). John 1:1, 14 (AMP)

Jesus is the Word of God in human form. He is one with God Himself, which means that the Word is one with God Himself. Jesus is absolutely free of deception, which means the Word is absolutely free of deception.

Are you seeing where I’m going with this? Remember, the first criteria to judge whether a message is from God is if it lines up with scripture, logos, THE WORD, God Himself. Therefore, anyone who claims to speak on behalf of God but says something different than what God has already said—this is the spirit of the antichrist at work.

And we let it right in the front door. Because we didn’t want to be “judgmental.”

God’s righteous judgment

Wake up Truthseekers! Put on the armor of God and report for duty. John has already told us what comes next:

Next I saw heaven opened, and there before me was a white horse. Sitting on it was the one called Faithful and True, and it is in righteousness that he passes judgment and goes to battle. His eyes were like a fiery flame, and on his head were many royal crowns. And he had a name written which no one knew but himself. He was wearing a robe that had been soaked in blood, and the name by which he is called is, “THE WORD OF GOD.” The armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. And out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down nations — “He will rule them with a staff of iron.” It is he who treads the winepress from which flows the wine of the furious rage of Adonai, God of heaven’s armies.  And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written:

KING OF KINGS

AND

LORD OF LORDS.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds that fly about in mid-heaven, “Come, gather together for the great feast God is giving, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of generals, the flesh of important men, the flesh of horses and their riders and the flesh of all kinds of people, free and slave, small and great!” I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to do battle with the rider of the horse and his army.  But the beast was taken captive, and with it the false prophet who, in its presence, had done the miracles which he had used to deceive those who had received the mark of the beast and those who had worshipped his image. The beast and the false prophet were both thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. The rest were killed with the sword that goes out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. Revelation 19:11-21 (CJB)

Can you see now why the spirit of antichrist is so intent on dividing us in terms of race? Because the devil knows well that when The Word Made Flesh returns, there will only be two kinds of people. The Army of Heaven, and Bird Food.

Now, I promised that I would get back to the Capital-A Antichrist.

What I did not promise was to reveal who I think it might be, because that is pointless speculation. Just as trying to figure out when Jesus is going to return is a distraction, trying to make news headlines line up with Biblical prophecy is also disruptive to the work we are supposed to be doing.

Trust God and His Word this much—when the Antichrist reveals himself, if you’re still here to see it, you’ll know.

June 13, 2020
The End of the Age: Part 1–In the Last Days
You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it is going to be very difficult to be a Christian. 2 Timothy 3:1 (TLB)

Christians are well acquainted with the concept of “The Last Days,” the very end of the age leading up to Christ’s triumphant return. It is no mystery to us that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.

Even many non-Christians are at least aware of this concept. If you have a social media account, the concept is kind of hard to avoid.

The first five months of 2020 certainly haven’t given us any reason to doubt that the end of all things is near. Nevertheless, there are a couple of things that we need to understand about “The Last Days.”

When are the Last Days?

Most Christians, as I stated above, think of the Last Days as being the very end of this age leading up to Judgment Day. The prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation speak of a Great Tribulation lasting seven years that will mark the end of the age.

Some believe that God’s people will be “raptured,” or whisked up into heaven before the Tribulation begins, so as not to have to suffer through it. Some believe, according to Daniel 9:27, that this rapture will occur in the middle of the Tribulation when the “Man of Lawlessness” (a.k.a. the Antichrist) is revealed. And some believe that there will be no rapture at all, but rather that God will protect His people and help them to stand firm throughout the Tribulation.

However, none of these views acknowledge that the Last Days have actually been going on for quite some time.

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!  No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke. Acts 2:14-19 (NIV)

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV)

But, beloved, remember the words that were previously spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.  They said to you, “In the last days there will be scoffers who will walk after their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who cause divisions, sensual, devoid of the Spirit. Jude 1:17-19 (MEV)

In the above verses, I have highlighted the words that show the Last Days as being present tense, not future tense. A question I get from a lot of my Christian friends is, “Do you think we’re living in the Last Days?” Absolutely we are.

The Last Days began when the Church began, at Pentecost. We have been in the last days for nearly 2,000 years now. That’s a lot of days!

For this reason, I would submit to you that anyone who is trying to decipher scripture or read the signs of the times to figure out when the end is coming, or when (or if) the Rapture will happen, have completely missed the point. The point is that instead of looking up at the sky for signs, we should be looking inward.

What should we be doing in the Last Days?

2020 has presented us with many challenges so far. Some of them are new (COVID-19), and some of them are ongoing problems that are bubbling to the surface again, such as the current racial unrest over the George Floyd incident. These are the kinds of things that light up the social media accounts of Christians with public calls to repent, for the end is near.

A call for repentance is always good advice, but there’s an elephant in the room that we need to put the spotlight on.

With the understanding that the Last Days are present tense, not future, let’s go back to the quote at the top of this post. Paul’s warning to Timothy is also a warning to us, because we are in the same last days now as the world was when this letter was written. It was difficult to be a Christian then, and it is difficult now.

“Oh, I know,” you might say. “Just look at how we’re portrayed in the media and by the government. They destroy our economy, but glorify abortion and drug use,” etc.

True, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now. And it’s not what Paul was talking about then either. He goes on in the next eight verses to describe the people Timothy ought not to associate with, and the methods that they use. But here’s the kicker…

He was talking about people INSIDE the church!

via GIPHY

It is no news flash that Christians are opposed in today’s culture. The ignorance of outsiders has never torn down the church, and it won’t now. Our greatest enemy comes from within. And here is what they look like:
1. 1. Narcissists
    
    The greedy and stingy
    
    People who draw attention to themselves
    
    People who look down on others
    
    People who take advantage of others
    
    People who dishonor their parents
    
    People with an entitlement mentality
    
    Those who conform to the pattern of this world
    
    Those who won’t help others
    
    Those who hold grudges
    
    Those who tear down other people verbally
    
    The undisciplined
    
    The physically violent
    
    Those who glorify evil
    
    Back-stabbers
    
    The impulsive
    
    The self-centered
    
    Hedonists
    
    Religious Legalists
That’s quite a list. Except there’s a problem. I said “they.”

And as of this writing, if I am going to be completely transparent, I believe that I fit six of these categories myself. So, it’s not “them.” It’s “us.”

This is why I say that we don’t have time to waste looking up at the sky, watching for a sign of Jesus’ return. The thing is, YOU DON’T KNOW when He’s coming back. The Great Tribulation may have already started. Or not. The Rapture may be tomorrow. Or 10 years from now. Or never.

Here is what we do know:

For the Son of Man will come in his Father’s glory, with his angels; and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. Matthew 16:27 (CJB)

God has given us all gifts and wired our personalities to do the work He had planned for us to do before we were ever born. To be able to do that work effectively and leave a legacy in the world for Jesus, our hearts must COMPLETELY belong to Him. The only way that will happen is if we take an honest look at that list above and figure out what we need to repent of in our own lives. Then take a radical step of faith and DO that repenting.

Because in these last days, ain’t nothing gonna be easy for us. Let’s not make it any harder for ourselves than it needs to be.

(Nevertheless, there will be signs. To learn more about those, please come back for Part 2–What Sign?)
May 31, 2020
Reasonable: Part 4–The Best of Your Ability
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(Originally published 5/10/2020 during the lockdown)
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If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people. (Romans 12:18 CEB)

Back in Part 3, we gave some examples of the characteristics we ought to be manifesting as we cling to what is good. Here are some more practical tips from Romans 12 on how to walk this out.

14 Bless people who harass you—bless and don’t curse them.

Most people know that Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. That notion was just as counter-intuitive 2,000 years ago as it is today. If we have the capacity for hatred, who better to bear the brunt of it but our enemies? Isn’t that what enemies are for?

Not so much, as it turns out. Even as Jesus was hanging on the cross, He forgave the people that put Him there.

Christians all around the world experience persecution at many levels. Since Truth Mission has readers all over the world, what you are going through as you read this could be quite different than my experience.

Some of you may be harassed on social media. Some of you may be feeling heat from the government. Some of you may actually have been beaten, fired from a job, or had loved ones tortured and killed for their faith.

There are two things we need to remember though. The first is that the people who persecute us are not our real enemies. We have one Enemy who seeks our destruction.

The second thing is that we have no control whatsoever over how other people respond to the promptings of the Enemy. We do, however have control over how we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, to the best of our ability, we need to follow the example set in Proverbs 25:21-22:

If your enemies are starving, feed them some bread; if they are thirsty, give them water to drink. By doing this, you will heap burning coals on their heads, and the Lord will reward you.

The “burning coals” bit may refer to an Egyptian custom where people would carry a pan of hot coals on their heads as a sign of repentance. So the idea here is that if someone is harassing you, and you respond with a blessing instead of a curse, they may take note of that and see you, and God THROUGH you, in a different way.

Now will that happen every time? No, of course not. But if it doesn’t, that’s not your problem. To the best of your ability, you have followed Christ’s command. By your actions, you have shared the Gospel and offered a tacit invitation for your “enemies” to turn from their ways and join in the freedom that you enjoy. But it is up to them to RSVP to your invitation.

15 Be happy with those who are happy, and cry with those who are crying.

A healthy church functions as a family, so we always need to be aware of and involved with one another’s lives.

We celebrate together at weddings, graduations and baby showers. We also walk alongside each other at funerals, during illnesses, or when children go astray.

This unity has never been more important than it is right now. As I type this, we have been on COVID-19 lockdown for about eight weeks. The Enemy has used this “pandemic” as an opportunity to scatter the body of Christ by influencing our State government to keep the churches closed for far longer than necessary.

However, to the best of our ability, we must rise up inside this. We need to get over our technophobia and learn how to do Zoom meetings and participate in online church. Yes, it’s not the same as meeting in person, but a connection is a connection. We can’t afford to just float away from each other just because meeting virtually is inconvenient.

We must stay in the habit of gathering, not just for our own sakes, but for the sakes of those who do not have a church community. Think about it. If you are feeling lonely and disconnected right now, and you HAVE a church family, how do you think the people feel who have no one to do life with? These are the people we need to be reaching out to. They are more open than ever right now for conversations. So have some.

16 Consider everyone as equal, and don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. Instead, associate with people who have no status. Don’t think that you’re so smart.

And while you’re planning those conversations, which may be out of your comfort zone anyway, I would like to challenge you further to have conversations with people who aren’t like you. If God’s invitation is open to everyone, and he uses us to extend that invitation, then we should be doing this anyway.

By all means, we should talk to the people we’re around every day. However, we must also remember that someone who doesn’t live in our neighborhood or work in our office or walk in our social circle also has a gift and a passion that God gave them to build His Church. We need that person just as much as he or she needs us.

Are you educated? Think of the uneducated people you know. Do you see how hard many of them work, because they haven’t had the occupational privileges that come with a college degree? Don’t you think your church needs someone with that work ethic using spiritual gifts they may not even be aware of until you invite them in?

Are you financially well-off? Try walking your Labradoodle on the other side of the tracks today and wave to everybody you see. (Or go shake hands once we’re done with social distancing.) That act by itself won’t save many souls, but you have to start somewhere.

Are you well-versed in scripture? Instead of correcting people who misinterpret the Bible in your Facebook feed, maybe you could start an online Bible study group with them and ask them to invite friends that have questions.

Bottom line—if we are all equal in the eyes of God, then we should be all equal in one another’s eyes as well.

17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. (NLT)

This one is a challenge for all of us. Our first instinct when someone wrongs us is to get even with our harasser. Some people just repress that instinct better than others.

Nevertheless, repress it we must. To the best of our ability, we must leave room for God to deal with our accusers.

Revenge is a control issue. When we are wronged, we feel that we must take control of the situation by restoring balance to the equation. If we take an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, then we feel that we are restoring the equilibrium of justice.

But if that were our job, then what would be the purpose of Judgment Day?

A reasonable assumption for those who have put their trust in Jesus is that God is in control. And if God is in control, then the only control we need to be concerned with is self-control.

Therefore, to the best of our ability, we use this self-control to resist conforming to the pattern of this world. We use it to restrain ourselves from following our own understanding when discerning what is evil from what is good. Finally, we exercise our self-control to avoid being conquered by evil, but rather to conquer evil by doing good.

That sounds reasonable, right?
May 10, 2020
Reasonable: Part 3–What is Good

Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. (Romans 12:9 NIRV)

Back in Part 2, we discussed how God gives various spiritual gifts to individuals, so that we can build up the Church, with each member doing its part, just like the parts of our body.

So what does it look like when the Church is functioning this way? It’s a lot more detailed than making sure the Wednesday night potluck goes off without a hitch!

First, we must remember that these are SPIRITUAL gifts, which means that there must have been a spiritual transformation that has taken place already. The greatest evidence of this is love.

Not feelings, but actions. There is no room in the body of Christ for hypocrisy or two-faced gossiping. We have to get this part right before we can move on with the rest of verse 9.

Hate what is evil

If this sounds familiar, it is because we covered this verse thoroughly in the Necessity of Being Intolerant series.

I feel like I should reiterate, though, that the Bible clearly states to hate WHAT is evil, not WHO. There are still too many people misinterpreting this verse to justify judgmentalism. We are not talking about hating people here. We are talking about behaviors and habits.

For more details regarding “what is evil,” I would encourage you to review the Necessity of Being Intolerant series, especially part 1. But for now, I want to focus on the rest of Romans 12:9.

Hold on to What is Good

Verses 10-12 contain several examples of what is good, the things that we should hold on to. Let’s break this down verse by verse.

10 Love one another deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.

What is good in this verse is humility. C.S. Lewis once said that humility is not so much about thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. When the members of the Church body are focused where they should be, they don’t just use “brother” and “sister” as honorary titles, but truly do treat everyone else in the Church as family.

Remember, false humility makes a show of itself to build up the person showing it, but real humility builds up others, and is not self-seeking.

11 Stay excited about your faith as you serve the Lord.

When you know your calling, your work should be a joy, not a grind. God’s part is to prepare the work for us and equip us to do it. Our part is to have a zeal to meet God where He’s already working and join Him in that work.

12 When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient. When you pray, be faithful.

Hope does not mean the kind of hope that is desperation mixed with doubt. This is a joyful expectation. You’re not wishing that something might happen; you’re eagerly awaiting something good that you are certain is coming.

Yet while we are hoping and waiting, sometimes we are suffering. When I first wrote this on 12/12/2020, many were suffering from the financial fallout of COVID-19. Many still are today.

Regardless of our gifts, one of the fruits of the Spirit that all believers receive is patience. Some older English translations actually use the word “longsuffering.” If we have joyful hope that what is good is on the way, this helps us to endure what is not so good.

And we endure these things by being faithful in prayer. No matter how grim our circumstances get, we always have the ability to exercise this discipline. God can handle our anger and our disappointment, but He also wants us to remember that what is good comes from Him, and always at exactly the right time.

(For more of what is good, come back for Part 4—The Best of Your Ability)

April 5, 2020