After still another interesting evening of debate over theological differences, I opened my bible to the 1st epistle of John. There you know 1 John 3,4 & 5 you will get your lesson plans for God's love. What I would like to highlight is 1st John 3: 16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."
Now here is a thorough test we can all take as Christians because it examines our total reaction to the truth we claim to believe..... Do you love the brethren? Can you honestly say that you would sooner be with the brethren than with anybody else, that you have found the people whom you do not like by nature but you can love as Christians because they are, with you, children of God.
Considering the actions of many (including myself) lately; This is interesting Scripture to ponder.
Blessings to all. :love2:
Do We Love the Brethren?
Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Earth Wind and Fire, Jan 18, 2011.
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Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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:thumbsup::love2: and this is how we know, if we know him. if we love one another. the Apostle John possibly lived to be over 100 years old. it is recorded that he would walk through the congregations with one command. that we love one another. wise words indeed and a very good thread EWF.:applause:
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Indeed! :thumbsup:
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pinoybaptist Active MemberSite Supporter
looks like only the Reformeds agree, out of a little less than 20 views.
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When we forget about what the Scriptures say -- to all of us -- we also forget God. -
Do We Love the Brethren? Only if...
Alongside your essential question and calvin's corollary,we should also keep this in mind:
" By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another"--Jesus [John 13]
THIS is our essential witness before the world.
My 'only if...' assessment is that too often amoungst Christians the answer depends on whether or not they, the Brethren, are star-bellied sneetches like us.
The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss
Now, the Star-Bell Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.
Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small.
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.
When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,
Could a Plain Belly get in the game? Not at all.
You only could play if your bellies had stars
And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.... -
I tried to get folks to see the same thing in a thread I started see http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=69598
I hope this works better than mine did. We are all in this to hold up the blood stained banner of the cross and the grace it bestowed.
Peace and prayers
Jeff -
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pinoybaptist Active MemberSite Supporter
Me, I love my brethren - the Primitive Baptists. Some more than the others, only because I know them personally, have sat at meat with them in their houses and they with me at my table, have commiserated with them and they with me, and celebrated together with them.
I would rather be in the company of any Primitive Baptist anytime because we agree in practice and in doctrine. Now, there are other Primitive Baptists I might stay away from for bringing in modern things that are not native to the brethren such as Preachers' Conferences, Preachers' School, Tithes, or "missions", but I still love them and would prefer their company over others if I needed to make a choice.
Others ?
I will try to live peaceably with, and I do not have to endeavor to like.
If I find myself, of necessity, attending a church whose soteriology is different than mine, then I will not "stir the waters and rock the boat", I will leave quietly, and if I stay, neither will I inject my doctrine and cause a division amongst them.
I think, in a way, that is also loving them. -
A happy ending
By the way, the Sneetches story has a happy [blessed] ending:
http://tribes.tribe.net/star-belliedsneetches/thread/a1b7d512-9130-4680-8630-9cd9044728cc
...But McBean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say.
That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day.
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches.
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether
They had one, or not, upon thars. -
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It is easy to say we love other Christians, as long as we are not called upon to actually sacrifice. It is easy for me to exclaim that I will lay down my life for my bothers in Christ, of course I have never had to do anything even remotely associated with this kind of sacrifice. I can only pray that God would give me the grace to actually do so if the opportunity ever presented itself.
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Iconoclast Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
18But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
19And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20But now are they many members, yet but one body.
21And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: 23And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. 24For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.
Easier said than done,but it is necessary. -
pinoybaptist Active MemberSite Supporter
I can live peaceably with you, but please don't ask me to love you.
I don't ask you to love me.
These Scriptures where Christ is quoted as commanding His disciples to love one another, did He mean love others who call me Lord, Lord, too, even if He Himself said there will come a day when He shall tell those who professed Him and professed to do good things in His Name that He never knew them ?
All commands to love one another have been given to those who belong to a local, visible church, and I will not go out of those boundaries. If I do, then what will happen is just pure hypocrisy like what's going on in these boards where words dripping with acid and contempt are thrown at one another all because one doesn't buy into election and the other doesn't buy into freewill. -
pinoybaptist Active MemberSite Supporter
except they were spoken to a visible, local congregation of believers living amongst a crooked generation.
no different from what Jehovah told the Israelites.
Don't do as the heathen around you do, that they may know there is a God in Israel. Not verbatim but that's the thought.
How can we profess to want to love others in other churches when we can't even do that on this board ?
can't even discuss anything without the innuendoes and the sarcasm ? -
Yes, of course we should love the brethren. It shouldn’t be forced nor faked either, nor graded by our level of tolerance, which is not Biblical love, but a social-gospelesque love. No where is tolerance of sin and error told to be love within Scriptures. Intolerance of sin, to the contrary, is considered true biblical love.
But the whole thing lies in what we consider “not loving” hence we have some get on another for “not being loving” or “you weren’t loving” because you rebuke one, stand for proper interpretation, get on them for error/name-calling, and the list goes on.
So does that mean God doesn’t love too, when He rebukes, disciplines us? It certainly is used against those who do the same toward another. Maybe Paul didn’t love Peter?
Nope, it is not unloving to do the above. If you think love is love by the world’s definition, then you won’t see it. But we sure like to use that against a brother standing for truth or rebuking a brother for calling those arrogant, condescending, or when one comes against misinterpretations of Scripture, attacking the Omniscience of God, misapplication of Scripture, and general un-Christian behavior. Stand against that and you’ll get an open rebuke for not being “loving” and/or a PM stating you’re not and how the author of the PM is loving because, well, he says he is and you’re just not because your stand is different. The latter here is not biblical love. It’s sentimentality. It’s the worlds tolerance. It is not biblical love in any way shape nor form.
The problem is, love is even used as a weapon against others in order to make the one using it, look, uh, more loving.
By the way, this forum isn’t church. I happen to like pinoybaptists’ take on it (the love issue) He should counter the one who questions his love with does the other love cal-brethren. I think the answer to that is rather apparent. If you are on here and spend most of your time posting to counter cals and call names such as condescending, arrogant, and other hate-filled remarks constantly, such ones will probably get some good old fashioned love from yours truly, regardless of their/ his “age.” When you act like this, age doesn’t matter and you aren’t setting an example for the younger at all. Again, this isn’t church, so not all the pastoral rules apply in here.
I also want to say that the cals on here don’t do the name-calling thing. It is very rare in comparison to the free- willers, and the interpretations of Scripture and theology is much more concise in the cal-camp.
That’s all. To all my brethren, love, mercy and grace to you from Him above. -
Luke 10:29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
Luke 10:36-37 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
To be sure, not loving our brethren proves we are not of Christ, but Christ commands us to also love our neighbor, not just fellow church members. That is what He was rebuking the Pharisees for. They had no love, in fact they had hatred for anyone who wasn't a Jew.
And Christian love isn't what the world defines as that warm, fuzzy feeling we have for others. It's love in action.
Love is:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, Does not behave itself rudely, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, keeps no record of evil; Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
There's nothing there about "feelings". -
I was going to try to use phileo and agape to express my thoughts on this but methinks I'm better off to just stick with what Pinoy says here.
(but most of the time I really am a big soft hearted dummy; I been used a whole lot in the past, and mostly by 'family' and 'brethren', but so be it) -
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Romans 1:7-15 (ESV)
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
I think the command of Christ to love each other is much broader than our local church context or even our theology. In fact, I would completely expect that should any two or three of us get together for a face-to-face meeting, that we would first and foremost magnify Christ, despite our differences when arguing difficult theology. Let me be first to buy the coffee! :1_grouphug:
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