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They Will Know You By Your Love
We have been using these pastoral letters over the last two months to examine many of the different “one another” passages in the New Testament. I hope it has been an encouragement to you; it has certainly encouraged me as I have watched you live out these commands from God in the life of our church. As we conclude this topic with this pastoral letter, I want to return to a quote I shared in the first pastoral letter in this series: “Holiness is not a mystical condition experienced in relation to God but in isolation from human beings. You cannot be good in a vacuum, but only in the real…
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Five Blessings of Hospitality
This week in our pastoral letter, we’re going to think about a topic that is vital for life in the church: hospitality. We will look at several New Testament exhortations to hospitality in this letter, but I want to focus on 1 Peter 4:9: “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” Life in the early church to whom Peter wrote these words was exceedingly difficult. Internally, there were the pressures of theological controversy, division, and relational strife. Outwardly, there was the reality of increasing persecution from the Roman government. There was nothing easy about being a Christian in the first or second century. If ever a group of people had…
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Build One Another Up
This is our sixth installment in this series on the “one another” statements in Scripture. Thus far, our focus has been on how we are to treat one another, particularly in times of conflict or controversy that could harm the church. This week, I’d like for us to look at how we are called to intentionally and proactively build one another up in Jesus Christ. I have been a believer for 24 years, and in that time I have had the privilege of being mentored by some of my pastoral heroes, including Douglas Kelly, Bill Barcley, and Terry Johnson. Each of those relationships has left an indelible imprint on my…
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Thoughts on Covenant Baptism
This Lord’s Day, we will have the great privilege of receiving a precious covenant child into the body of Christ through the sign of baptism. There are some in our congregation who have not been exposed to infant baptism in the past and may have questions about what we mean when we baptize a baby. My hope is that this letter will help clarify what we believe infant baptism to be in contrast with what we know infant baptism is not. We don’t believe infant baptism guarantees the salvation of the child: Some churches believe in “presumptive regeneration,” which is the idea that when a child is baptized, that child…
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Count Others More Significant Than Yourselves
This week, I received a very sweet email from a young lady in our congregation who said something that absolutely overwhelmed me with joy. Speaking of the family at First Scots, she said, “the way y’all treat the people in that building is probably one of the most heaven-like things I’ve ever seen.” She’s right: in the divisive, selfish world in which we live, a church that treats one another well is a foretaste of heaven. I have read and re-read that email about 50 times this week, every time praising God for His work in this body. Her words also made me cry out to the Lord again and…
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The “One Another” Passages in the New Testament
The phrase “one another” is frequently used in the New Testament to govern how we as believers are to treat one another within the context of the church. God emphasizes this because, after loving God with our whole hearts, love for one another is the most important evidence of true spiritual vitality (Matthew 22:38-39). In the following, I have categorized 52 “one another” passages from the New Testament to help us think about how we are to treat one another. Love one another: This is the most common of all “one anothers”, especially from the lips of Jesus in the Gospels. Our attitudes toward one another: Love for one another…
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Forgiving One Another
Our Pastoral Letters are presently looking at the various “one-another” passages in Scripture (see parts one and two here). This week, we’re going to look at perhaps the most difficult of the one another passages so far: forgiving one another. Ephesians 4:31-32 says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Forgiveness In Real Life Louis Silvie Zamperini lived an extraordinary life. In 1936, he competed in the Berlin Olympics, setting a lap record in the 5,000 meter race. Upon his return to…
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Singing in the Key of Christ Alone
For a few weeks in these pastoral letters, we’re looking at the topic of life together in the church, and we’re focusing on some of the “one another” passages in Scripture. Last week, I introduced this series by saying that it’s only when the church learns to put these “one anothers” into practice that the church acts like the church. This week, I would like to think about how we handle conflict with one another by looking at Paul’s words in Romans 15:5-6, where he instructs us to live in harmony with one another: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one…
