Faithbase

Good morning, we're thinking about the Bible, thinking about love, and yesterday we talked about love does not rejoice about injustice or evil, and we talked about either on a personal level or even on a global level, we don't rejoice when bad things happen to folks, and don't ever think, well, they got what they deserve. Instead, rejoicing whenever the truth wins out, we rejoice in truth, to be loving. And again, that can be at the very personal, local level, or on a global basis. We want to see truth win out, and ultimately what we're hoping for there, what we do if we are loving, is want to see the gospel of truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ always win out, and the implications of that in the lives of people. Now again, let's bring it back to the personal. So if we want truth to win out, and we want the gospel truth to be evident in the lives of people, Paul says to the church of Philippi that they should work hard to show the results of their salvation, that they should do so in the strength and the, both the will and the desire, excuse me, the will and the power to do that comes from God himself, and so if we want the truth to win out in people, what we are wanting is to see God's own truth, the gospel truth, begin to express itself to be flowering in the lives of people. We rejoice in that. That's something we want to see. Even if it's someone that we don't particularly like, and we think, you know, wow, they're not getting what they deserve, stop and think about that for a moment, you aren't either. I'm not getting what I deserve. The Lord Jesus Christ, by grace I have been saved. By grace you've been saved. So we don't deserve the love of God, and we don't deserve his kindness. We don't deserve to be let off the hook, so to speak, but we are, and so we should be the same way. We should be loving toward others, not rejoicing in injustice or evil, but instead rejoicing in truth, and ultimately the best way that that can be manifest is as the gospel of Jesus Christ is brought to bear in their life as they receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and begin to work hard to show the results of that salvation, work hard to show that they are, in fact, a new creation, and that's what we should be rejoicing in. That's what we should be encouraging as we are people who think about the Bible and think about love. I'll see you again tomorrow. God bless you.