Pastor Pusch

… were to love one another.

Have you ever been challenged to look up or to study the “one another” passages of the Bible? Over the last several weeks, I have been challenged to seek them out. The crazy thing is that I have been reminded of the challenge by 4 or 5 people in separate conversations and all on different days (I just thought that part was interesting).

 The other day I was doing some research on biblegateway.com, a great resource where you can search for keywords in scripture (I frequent this site often). After finishing up what I was doing, I wanted to do a quick search on the “one another” passages, and WOW… is there a lot we need to do to/for one another. The challenge is definitely there.

After reading through several passages you will find that of all the “one another” passages you come across, the command to “Love One Another” is mentioned several times. “To love one another” just continued to stare me dead in the face. I decided just to search the phrase “love one another” ( be sure to put it in quotes) to see how many times in appeared in scripture. (By the way, I told the system to search in the NKJV New Testament. You will find the results below.) I was amazed to see how often this command reoccurs throughout the NT within different conversations and different contexts.

Imagine if all the people (Christian people especially) were to love one another. Imagine if all were to love one another as we have been loved by Christ (John 13:34) or with fervor as Peter tells us (I Peter 1:22). Imagine. What would our relationships look like? What would our churches look like? Better yet, what would some of our church business meetings look like? (Just has to throw that in there.) What would our relationship to the world look like (we haven’t even dealt with the “love your enemies” passage)? Or let’s just say the other relational commands (i.e. honoring one another, perfering one another, or esteeming others more that ourselves) were never mentioned in scripture (they are by the way), would not our love for one another produce a natural outflow of honoring, perfering, and the esteeming of others?

The challenge is there. Are we hearing or are we doing?

Just a Thought (or two),
PastorPusch

John 13:34 – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 15:12 – This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:17 – These things I command you, that you love one another.

Romans 13:8 – Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

1 Thessalonians 4:9 – But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

1 Peter 1:22 – Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

1 John 3:11 – For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,

1 John 3:23 – And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

1 John 4:7 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:11 – Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:12 – No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

2 John 1:5 – And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.

The disciples heard his teaching. He taught them how to love, not just the Father, but also their neighbor. He also commanded that their love stretch beyond to their enemies and to judge not. They even learned that it is ok to do good unto others, even in the face of cultural differences. They listened as He explained the difference between a tree that bears fruit and one that simply looks good and what happens when seed is planted in all the wrong places.

The disciples gazed at His many miracles. They watched as He healed people of their diseases and as He cast out evil. They witnessed the over abundance of food that came from 2 loaves and 5 fishes when He fed the five thousand. At His voice, the disciples watched as the raging sea became restful. They marveled as He made the lame walk and the dumb speak. In amazement, they watch as He even rose up the dead.

All these things and more, the disciples experienced as they followed after Jesus. Yet, in all these things, they asked of Him one question. ”Lord, teach us to pray.” They did not ask Him how to walk of water. They did not ask Him to teach them how to make the lame walk or how to cast out demons or how to feed the five thousand? They did not ask Him how to heal the sick or to raise the dead. No! They asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. (Luke 5-11)

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Throughout Jesus ministry, it is clear that He came to be about His Father’s business and often you would find Him alone, praying to His Father. Prayer to His Father was not only the source of His power, but also the strength of His perseverance. Jesus found His source of power through prayer as He moved from city to city performing miracle after miracle. I think the disciples knew this, so instead of asking Jesus to teach them how to perform miracles, they asked Him how to get to the source, and that was only found through the power of prayer. The Garden of Gethsemane is one  great example of perseverance where Jesus prayed that the will of the Father be done. Three times Jesus prayed that God’s will be done even if it meant that He were to drink from the bitter cup of death. That was the strength of perseverance that came through prayer.

Lord, teach me to pray!

Being in constant communion with His Father was the source of our Lord’s power and the strength of His perseverance. Lord, teach me to pray. Apart from you, I can do nothing. Ministry cannot happen alone (though it can be a very lonely place), it must happen in communion with our Father in Heaven. I think many times burnout is not always the result of being too involved, but rather being too involved without God.

Learning to Follow,

PastorPusch

By random, I mean random. I have a binder packed with notes. These were interesting quotes I scratched down.

“If the largest ministry in the church isn’t Great Commission focused, the church itself is not Great Commissioned focused.”

“If you only go to church 1 hour a week, go to Sunday School and get connected.”

“If Jesus were to come back today, would He find a church like the one He started?”

“In the Greek it’s called lying!” (It was hilarious in it’s context)

“Sunday School is not dead, old, or stale, just neglected.”

“There is an over-infatuation with filling the big room (worship service).”

“[As pastors], we need to champion the cause of Sunday School.”

“Teach for the sake of obedience, not knowledge.”

“We need to be a congregation of small churches.”

“We need to get back to intentional witnessing.”

“Pastors need to emulate our exhortation.”

“What’s important to pastor is important to the church.”

“By the time you are sick of talking about it (SS/Outreach/Ministry), they (the people) are just getting it.”

“If you are not working Sunday School, you cannot say it doesn’t work.”

In regards to finding teachers: “A need does not constitute a call.”

“Watch out for ’suddenly appearing leaders’.”