IN CHRIST ALONE!: FROM OUR BRETHREN... A CHRISTIAN DENOMINATION THAT IS IN UNION WITH US IN OPPOSING THE FALLACIES OF THE RH/RP "LAW": "The People of God Given Love"

"The People of God Given Love"

April 28, 2013

THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE CHRISTIAN SEASON OF THE PASSOVER

Acts 13: 44 – 52/Psalm 145: 1 – 9/Revelation 19: 1; 4 – 9/John 13: 31 – 35

His Eminence

The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.

Archbishop of Manila

and

Primate

of the

National Church in the Philippines

and

the Territorial Church of Asia

International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church

Easter is the Season wherein we celebrate the love of God. How that out of love, He sent His Son, as in John 3:16, to redeem the world unto Him, to take away the sin that which had separated man from God and hindered man from living out the character of God in his life. God sent His Son to redeem us and to restore us because that is His character, that of restoration, not destruction.

Most of the time, we refer to God giving us love. I would just put a different thought in your mind: how can One give love when He is love? Everything He does is love. The context of God giving love is as though He has choices. He can give anger, bitterness, and other things but occasionally, He gives love. No, He is love. So therefore, all that comes forth out of His life is love.

Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. In our own lives, there is something that we must begin to comprehend, to understand, and to accept. New creation – all things passed away, behold, all things are new; and all of these are from God. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus.

In Acts 13, as Paul was teaching about Christ, there is a portion in 46^th verse which says something to us that I believe you and I need to pay attention to. It says that the Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the religious leaders judged themselves unworthy of eternal life. They rejected or repudiated it. In other words, they said, “No. We are human beings. This cannot be for us.” Paul tells them that the reason God turned to the Gentiles was because the Jews rejected the gift of God.

I would challenge us to be cautious and careful in our attitudes that we do not reject what God has done for us. We see ourselves made worthy because of Christ and because of His work in our lives. We see Him bringing us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Ephesians 1 says that He has set us for holiness and blamelessness before God. Ephesians 5 says that He presented the Church holy and blameless before the Father. Colossians 1:22 says, “He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”

This is the work of Christ, what He did for us. We can reject it if we want. We can say, “No, this is not me. I am a sinner. I am something else.” No, this is what Christ did in our behalf.

This is why in the gospel Jesus confronts us. He says, “Love as I have loved you.” We might think this is impossible. We might think this is not what we can do; but if we have been created in the image and likeness of God, if God is love, is that not the foundation of our creation? Were we not created in love? Were we not created out of love? Were we not created to demonstrate love?

Love can only be known by the actions that it prompts – our thoughts; our actions; our deeds. This is why we can look at God and we can have confidence in Him because all that He does, He does out of love. He doesn’t give love. Love is the very essence, the very foundation, the very force behind everything that He does. It motivates Him. It controls Him. It sets standards.

Love is seen perhaps in the most vivid way when He sent His only Son. He did not send His Son out of affection. He did send His Son out of feelings, but it was a divine, deliberate choice. He chose to send His Son because He is love and He loves His creation. Without cause, other than the nature with which originates out of Him, therefore, what comes forth is love.

2Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ controls us; as one died, we all died.” The love of God sent Christ to die and because of His death, it changes our lives. It changes the very essence of who we are. We have been delivered out of the sin, out of the darkness into new life because of the love of God. It controls us. I am not saying that we cannot reject it or we have no choice, but I am sharing what the Scriptures says that it controls us. He forgave us. It was His choice and He did this in our behalf.

Ephesians 2:4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love which with He loved us.” Mercy comes out of His love. Everything that He does comes forth out of love. In Ephesians, it also says that to know the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. When we know that God is love, all the other things will fit into that pattern. Knowledge, perhaps, is knowing that we have failed; knowing that we have done wrong, but yet love overcomes that.

It is like a parent with a child. The child may have done something wrong. The child may have violated something that we can consider very serious, but yet love for that child overcomes that wrong. It causes a parent not to deny the child, but to come to his aide, to come to his help – not happy, not pleased, but at the same time not rejecting and not denying. That love comes because we are created like God. It comes because we were given that character because it is His character. Many times we have changed that character. We have adulterated it because we have allowed hatred or bitterness and other things to come into our lives.

Love is the very character that God has lived in and has given to us. Maybe, this is why the Scriptures says, “Forgive.” This is why it says, “Don’t hold bitterness in your heart.” Maybe it is why it says, “Don’t remember the wrongs.” This is contrary to the character that God has created us to be. Perhaps, it causes there to be friction between what He made us to be in what we are doing. Perhaps, this is why we find sickness and disease because we have not followed who we are. We have not live out the character that God has given to us.

That love surpasses knowledge. We know the wrongs, the failures, the deceits, but love is greater than these. Love conquers, overcomes, and wipes away the things that separate to bring back together the unity.

In the gospel, Jesus said, ‘A new commandment I give to you.” The first thing that I would think of, “In the Old Testament law, it said, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’” He had already commanded us to love. What is this that He says that is now a new commandment? When the Scriptures talk about something new, it means fulfillment, bringing it to its completeness. If you look at it very carefully, He explains why this is a new law.

The Old Testament law was based on the self being the foundation – self is the standard. But in the new Law, it is not “me” that is the standard; it is now Christ: “Love as I have loved you.” It is a self-sacrificing love. It is a self-emptying love as Christ emptied Himself in order to redeem us. He did not take care of Himself first. He did not provide for Himself first. He gave of Himself in order that we might be freed.

Jesus, demanding this love, requires us to die. Love requires death. It is not physical death as we think of death but dying of self. Scripture very clearly brings this out to us: “It is no longer I who lives.” Many times we have quoted the Scripture but when it comes to protecting our own feelings, our own emotions, this is not something that we follow quickly. Dying to self brings new life. It did with Christ. It set the pattern for us. He went to the cross. He died that we might be freed from sin, and that we might become the righteousness of God because of His death for us.

This dying transforms the world. The dying to self brings glory to God and brings new life to all. It brings that honor to Him which gives security to us. We are not intimidated. We are not threatened and we need not defend ourselves or our thoughts because we are secure in Him. We have peace and confidence. It brings about dynamic results when we die to self. Eventually, it brings a new heaven, a new earth and even a New Jerusalem. Scripture tells us that all things become new. It comes because of death in love.

The dying of self-centeredness, the dying of pride, the dying of arrogance; the security that comes in knowing that we are like God and He is operating in that character of love in our behalf. We can only do this by the power that God gives to us. The grace comes from Him, but it is a grace that He has established within us. This is not an impossibility. All things are possible with God and Christ commands us, “A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another even as I have loved you.”

How important is this? How valuable is this? We have all been taught that one of the greatest things that we can do is our giving to God – honoring Him and blessing Him. But in Matthew 5:23-24, it says, “If you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering at the altar and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”

The thought that is presented to us: is not the unity more important than our giving? Is not the unity, the separation of the differences more important than our offerings? Our offerings cannot go beyond the very character that we are living out. We see this in the treasury when Christ was there and the wealthy were bringing big offerings. He did not recognize those offerings, but a widow brought just a small gift and God said, “Her gift was the greatest.” It wasn’t the amount of the offering, but the heart attitude. It was the completeness of forgiveness in life.

This is very important for us in the world that we live in today. Today, we are pushed into self-centeredness. We are told, “Do the things which pleases you. Do the things which you want to do. Don’t be involved in things that require your attention or your own sacrifice.” We find it more and more that marriage is becoming something that is in the back burner. Many of the condominiums that are being built are basically studios – for one person – I just don’t know the percentage. People don’t want responsibility – “It is only me. Because it is only me, I can do many things for myself. I don’t have to worry about children. I don’t have to worry about a wife or a husband. I can do what I want. I can spend my money for me.”

This is exactly what the Scriptures is opening up to us – the necessity of dying to self. We live in a world today where that, “What I want to do is more important than anyone else. What I need to do is more important even than my relationship with God or my commitment to ministry of God. I don’t have time because I want to do this. I don’t have time because of ‘I’.” How many things separate us when the Scriptures talks to us about dying to self?

This is love that reflects the greatness of God’s commission to us. It is love that speaks of our attitude and our commitment to others. How that we forget our own comforts in order to reach out to others. Galatians 6 says, “Let us do good to all men and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” In Romans, it says to please your neighbor for his good, to his edification. It is not for your good. It is not for that which wants him to look at you and say, “You are very kind. You are nice.” No, it is for him and to help him and to bring him to that point where He can know that He is loved, that He is appreciated.

This is life that Christianity is. It is what God has given to us. It is love. He is love and therefore, we have been created in His image and likeness, the very roots of that is also in our creation.

This is why with children, parents can forgive. Parents can overlook weaknesses because that is who they are. It has to go beyond just family. It must also reach the world. It must reach to all those around us. This is what Christ speaks to us, “A new commandment that I give unto you that you shall love even as I have loved you; also, you love one another.”

This is the value of Easter. Here is the witness of Christianity. Scriptures says, “They will know that you are My disciples because you love one another.” This is why in the midst of the liturgy there is a time when we give peace to one another. It is a time for correcting or healing divisions. Before we come to the altar with our gifts, there is a necessity of making certain that we have no bitterness or anger toward any, and our gift will be received by God, and it will be recorded in our name.

May we as God’s people recognize the gift that He has given to us. It came out of love; that love gave us new life. It restored us to our creation. It caused us to be who God made us to be because it took away the oppression of sin. It held us back. Now, we need to live out the character of our lives. We need to set aside the schizophrenic attitude of the world that says, “No, I can take care of me. I don’t need to be worried about others.” We need to live out what God made us to be – love, compassion, gentleness, mercy. All these things are the character of God in our lives. They have been given to us. They are part of our character. We need to develop them. We need to let them be in our lives what God intended them to be.

God is love. Thank God for Him being love because if it was not love, He would have destroyed us rather than restore us. If He was not love, He would not have gone to help the Body of Christ and redeem those who have died prior to the cross. This is love. They did not have a chance to repent, as we know repentance, and yet He went to save them. He went to give them also a new life.

Here is love like we do not understand love. Love that is greater than the failures and the wrongs. It is the love that is greater than the sin and the rebellion. It is love which is God. He has given that love to us. In our lives, we are not also asked by Christ, but as a commandment. A commandment is not asking, but it is more like the standard, the commitment that we live out. “Love as I have loved you.” Being willing to forgive. More concerned about reconciliation than destruction. More concerned about life, rather than death. More concerned that we be like Christ.

LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION

WITH

HIS EMINENCE, THE MOST REVEREND LUIS ANTONIO "CHITO" GOKIM TAGLE D.D.

ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA,

CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH

AND

VENERABLE PRIMATE

OF THE PHILIPPINES

THROUGH

THE WORD EXPOSED