THE MYSTERY REVEALED
LOVE IS THE WAY HOME
This paper has to do with God’s promise is to give His disciples that heavenly home and what must we do in order for us to receive that promise. We will look for an answer to that question in this paper.
We will see scripture telling us that God wants His people to offer their sacrifices of love at His house in order for us to receive that promise. Paul says of our sacrificial worship at God’s house that we must, "present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1).
He says of how we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, that we must “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” (Verses 10-13)
I must offer my sacrifice of love at God’s house (His temple), the place where God's Spirit dwells. His Spirit dwells in the bodies of Christ's church brethren. That is the house where I am to lay down my body as a living sacrifice.
Speaking of our bodies are God’s temple, Paul says that we must flee immorality because “- -Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
Jesus gave us an example of how we should do that when He washed His disciple’s feet. Scripture says, “So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?” (John 13:12) They knew that He had washed their feet, but they had no idea of why He did it for them.
He told them that “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” He was telling them how they ought to obey the new commandment that He will give them a little later. Jesus tells them that “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)
Jesus loved us enough to give up heaven and come to this earth so that He could offer Himself as a living sacrifice for our sins. We must love our brethren enough to lay down our bodies as a living sacrifice for them. All men will know that we are Christ’s disciples when they see us doing that.
John is speaking of that spiritual service of worship when he says, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16) He then speaks of how we lay down our lives for the brethren when he says that we are to take care of those who are in need; “But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth."
I must show true love for the brethren with my deeds of love. My brother’s body is God’s house and when I serve the brethren who are in need, I will be offering my sacrifices of love at the doorway of God’s house.
For those who show that kind of love for the church brethren, the Hebrew writer says, “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.” (Hebrews 6:10) God will remember the work and love that we have shown when we stand before the Judgment seat of Christ.
Paul says that we must try to be pleasing to God, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
Speaking of our deeds of love, Paul says that “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth- -.” (1 Cor. 13:4-6) He ends that chapter, "But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." We are saved through our faith, but love is greater than faith.
That would fit with John saying that “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” (1 John 3:14)
We heard John tell us that “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” When he says that “we ought" to lay down our lives for the brethren, he is telling us how that is a debt that we “owe" to Jesus.
The word "ought" in that verse comes from the Greek word "Opheilo". Strongs definitions tells us that it means to, "be in debt for." Jesus laid down His life to pay my debt for sin and He tells me to pay that debt to His church brethren. I "ought" to pay my debt of love to them by becoming their servant and helping them in their time of need.
John then tells us, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:10-11) Again, we “ought” to love one another and pay our debt of love.
As Paul says, “while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” (Galatians 6:10) We must show love for all people with deeds of love, but priority number one is to do deeds of love for those who are of the household of faith.
Speaking of how the church in Jerusalem doing good for their brethren we see where there were no needy ones among them. Scripture says that some who had land sold it and gave the money to the apostles so that it could be used to provide for those who were in need.
Luke also tells us, “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.” (Acts 4:32)
They had enough possessions to make sure that no one’s needs would be overlooked by appointing deacons and assigning them the task of making sure that was done. However, in the years that followed, the saints in Judea and Jerusalem sank into poverty and needed assistance from their brethren in other places.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and encouraged them to help those poor saints in Jerusalem. He tells them, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)
In his next letter to that church he told them how he was sending some brethren to you “- -and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift and not affected by covetousness.” (2 Corinthians 9:5)
Of their gift He told them, “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart- -.”
Our ministering to the brethren includes our helping to support those who carry the good news to others. Paul received support from the Philippians (Philippians 4:15 -19) and he told them that he did not seek that gift itself, “but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.”
When they supported Paul’s work they were laying up treasure in heaven. Their gifts were “increasing” profit to their account depending on how much they gave of their means. Paul told them that what they had given was “a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God”.
If we obey God and show our love for one another as He has shown His love for us, then we will be more considerate and tolerant of our brother and there will be less dissention and division in His holy place.
We must treat Him as holy in His holy place. We must worship God and not man, but we must worship Him at the place where His Spirit dwells and where He has placed His name. His Holy Spirit dwells in my brother. I must offer my sacrifice of love at that holy place.
Remember, final judgment of the nations will be based on what deeds of love that people have done for Christ’s brethren. Jesus tells us about that judgment in Matthew, chapter 25.
He will gather the nations before Him and separate them to the right and to the left, like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will tell those on the right they are blessed of God, "For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in- -." (Verses 31-35) When they can’t remember having done those things for Jesus, He will tell them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me".
Those on the left will be cursed for not having done those works of love for Him, meaning they did not do them for His brothers who were in need. He says that “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46)
One of the top priorities in our church budgets should be to do the required maintenance to God’s house. His house is not an earthly building made up of bricks and stone. It is found in Christ’s church body. Above all else we must take care of our needy brethren, both at home and throughout the world.
Many of our brethren in central and south America and Africa are living in poverty. We should be more concerned about helping them in their time of need rather than building and helping to maintain earthly structures like grand meeting halls and assembly rooms.
We may need some shelter and air conditioning in order to provide a degree of comfort for the feeble among us and for our visitors but that could be done in a large and much cheaper prefab building. When we take up our collections we will be able to do a better job of maintaining and adding to God’s true house of God.
Paul speaks of the day when “- -the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power- -.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)
He says that it will happen to those who do not know God and have not obeyed the gospel. Speaking of those who know God, John says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)
God will deal out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who have not obeyed the gospel and we heard how God is love, so we must know love in order for us to know God. Speaking of how one obeys the gospel, Paul tells us that the saving gospel message that he preached is how Christ died for our sins and that He was buried and then resurrected from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
We must obey that gospel with our spiritual death, burial, and resurrection, meaning that we must take up our cross and follow Jesus by laying down our lives for the brethren.
Remember, we heard John say, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” We ought to do that so that we can be given that home in glory.
Our goal is that home in glory, the Most Holy Place of God’s tabernacle. The only way to get there is to follow Jesus through the outer room Holy Place of God’s true tabernacle, which is the church on earth. We must follow Him and offer our worship in that holy place just as Jesus offered His worship there. We must lay down our lives for the brethren and serve them with deeds of love because love is the only way home.
"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org )
Johnny Rogers 7-26-06 Revised 11-22-23