Dear Friends,

Last week’s message (1/24/16) evoked the most enthusiastic responses in the seventeen plus years I’ve been writing the Word of Grace. Readers from all walks of life and parts of the country wrote or called me with affirmation of the need for truthful communication in our institutions and relationships.

Readers are hungry for the truth to be spoken in their workplaces, congregations, denominational assemblies and political institutions. They are disappointed that an opaque fog of self-interest and self-protection has descended over tangled fences of theological and political barbed wire, estranging people from their leaders and institutions.

Authority which depends on the attractiveness of our values, the authenticity of our example, the credibility of our commitments, our willingness to work with and stand by others is on the wane in a culture that prizes quick results, expedience, instant gratification, selfishness, and moral ambiguity and eschews the existence of absolute truth and moral obligation.

In such a culture, power is the cheap and easy substitute for authority. “Might” takes on moral suasion in the service of what the political and religious elites deem to be “correct”, and the rest of us are compelled, often by force of law, to change what we believe or forgo its expression except in private.

The authority vs. power conflict in the Christian community always involves a tension between the need for order and leadership (1 Cor 14:40; 1 Tim 3) and love “which does not insist on its own way” (1 Cor 13:5). Jesus instructed his followers to deal with the temptations of power by regarding leadership as a servant role, putting others first in care and support (Luke 22:26).

Servant leadership is much more than an attitude. A leader engaged in service is in the model of Christ who came to serve, not to coerce or lord his power over the people (Luke 22:27). The servant leader must remain constantly in prayer, seeking to maintain discerning authority in the balance between truth and love.

Achieving that balance proved difficult in the church at Ephesus. False teachers plagued that congregation with what Paul described as “myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith” (Eph 1:4). The Ephesian believers struggled to attain order in worship and to receive sound gospel teaching. The aging Paul asked his protege Timothy to remain in Ephesus to help the church community to attain stability (1 Tim 1:3).

Community, a social condition in which people are bonded by common interests, is something to which people of faith aspire. The second chapter of Acts describes the early Christian church as a community where believers spent much time together, sharing their possessions, caring for those in need, praising God, and dining together “with glad and generous hearts” (Verses 44-47).

Christians speak longingly and positively about community, but few wish to sacrifice the personal independence and possessions necessary to achieve it. Those who do are often despised as “communists” and radicals.

What did Jesus mean when he told his followers, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35)?  The identifying mark of Christ-followers is the essential element of community–agape love–the kind of Spirit-inspired deep affection that puts the interests and well-being of others first.

Paul told Timothy that the Ephesians needed “the divine training that is known by faith” to counter the false teachers’ manipulative fables and insistence on purity of ancestry that left the people with far more questions about God than answers (1 Tim 1:4). In other words, the important point was Who one believes, rather than what one believes.

“The aim of such instruction,” wrote Paul, “is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith.'(1 Tim 1:5). The love emphasized by Paul is the same deep and caring love that Jesus said would identify his disciples.

A pure heart is a devoted heart gifted to us by God (Ps 51:10). It is a heart instructed by God and focused on worship of God (Ps 86:11). It is a heart filled with gratitude to God (Ps 86:12). The 19th Century theologian Soren Kierkergaard said, “Purity of heart is to will one thing . . . to know God.”

The more we look at God, and place our hope in him, his purity purifies us (1 John 3:3-4). When we look at God. and nothing but God, we become changed into God’s likeness (2 Cor 3:18).

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt 22:36-37). He went on to say the second greatest commandment is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:38-39). The love of God leads to the love of God’s children as love for the parent leads to love for the child (1 John 4:21-5:1). And thus community is formed in the likeness and love of God.

Paul said a good conscience was another element of agape love. Conscience is the inner voice helping us distinguish right from wrong. It was God’s intention at creation he would be the voice leading us to distinguish good from evil (Gen 2:17).Adam and Eve sinned when they chose to be their own conscience rather than depend upon God’s voice in matters of good and evil (Gen 3:1-7).

Jesus came to earth to lead us back to reliance on the voice of God for our salvation and life (John 10:1-18). He said to know him was to know his voice and to follow his commands (v.14). In fact the very definition of eternal life is “to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he sent” (John 17:3).

The glory of the cross is Jesus dying to remove any reason and any obstacle of guilt and shame between God and us so we could live a new life supplied by him (Rom 6:4-11, Gal 2:19-20). To live that God-life is to live in peace and mercy (Gal 6:14-16).

The good conscience is the fruit of a pure heart which is a heart focused on God and filled with God. “Only God is good,” Jesus told a young leader who was looking for a formula for living that would qualify him to inherit eternal life (Luke 18:19).  It makes sense then that a good conscience is one informed by God.

And if guilt and shame continue to lurk in the crevices of the heart, we need to turn toward God and not away from him “whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts” and he loves us (1 John 3:20-21). He commands us to believe in Jesus Christ for our salvation and love one another (1 John 3:23). That is his antidote for condemnation–believe that Jesus has us covered and love each other without fear.

But there are many temptations of comparison and envy threatening to destroy love within the community. Paul’s third element of agape love — a sincere faith — redirects our hearts away from those temptations.

Faith is famously defined in Scripture as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). An honest faith involves a realistic assessment of a fallen, broken world with conflict, doubt and pain caused by humans, every one of us, who choose evil, doing things our own way, rather than obeying God.

There is a choice to be made, a question to be answered, after that assessment — Is exploiting each other for survival, competing for the finite resources of this earth, and struggling and failing to transcend the physical and moral weaknesses of the human condition, all there is for us? Or is there someone or something more for us beyond the confines of this earth? You can hear this question in Paul’s anguished wail, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death” (Rom 7:24).

Those who follow their longing for something more and accept with honesty that it isn’t to be found on this earth are nearer than they realize to our God who is looking for us as revealed in Scripture, in Jesus, the Living Word, and in the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts (See e.g., Luke 15).

As I am fond of quoting, “We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:16). Looking for that God of love is what faith is all about and our faith will lead us to love.

I walk through Christian bookstore aisles filled with books on how to lead others and how to build the community within congregations, and hear sermons on how to prepare to leave earth when Christ returns. I see, read, and hear precious little on Paul’s point that the kingdom of God is manifest in a community whose members love one another with the kind of love only God can supply.

Community starts with me and you as we look to our God in devotion and worship, letting nothing of selfishness come between God and us, and looking to God for strength and wisdom to make it through today and for hope for tomorrow and eternity. A loving relationship with our God will yield a loving relationship with one another.

This takes trust and faith because we can see each other but we can’t see God. John, who recognized the love of Jesus in a very unique and precious way, wrote, “No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

Last week’s message observed our problem of lacking honesty with each other in the places where we serve, worship and live regarding what matters most. Of course, we are disappointed with ourselves and each other in the shabby way we treat the truth and each other. But the cure is to stop trying to fix each other and ask God to have his way with us completely, trusting him to inspire our thoughts and our actions with love.

“We have met the enemy and he is us” is the famous quip of the cartoon character, Pogo. Let’s let our loving God heal our broken hearts and reconcile ourselves to him. People who know they are loved find it possible and easy to love. Please allow the Lord to love you and let his voice alone be heard in your heart. You’ll be amazed at what he can do to transform you and your relationships.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.