Skip to main content

Thoughts From Ray Ortlund

Dear Friends,

Last week I sent out a “thought” having to do with knowing the heart of God by a man named Dane Ortlund. This week I pass one along from Dane’s father, Ray Ortlund, which has to do with the Gospel and what happens in us when we really believe it.

This was posted on ‘The Gospel Coalition’ blog site on March 30, 2017. I share it because it resonates with what my home group has recently discovered as we’ve been going through a book on the “31 Ways to be a “One-Another Christian” – Loving Others with the Love of Jesus.” We’ve come to the same conclusion as Mr. Ortlund. Enjoy.

“The beautiful 'one another' commands of the New Testament are famous. But it is also striking to notice the ‘one another’s’ that do not appear there. For example, sanctify one another, humble one another, scrutinize one another, pressure one another, embarrass one another, corner one another, interrupt one another, defeat one another, sacrifice one another, shame one another, marginalize one another, exclude one another, judge one another, run one another’s lives, confess one another’s sins...


The kind of God we really believe in is revealed in how we treat one another. The lovely gospel of Jesus positions us to treat one another like royalty, and every ‘non-gospel’ positions us to treat one another like dirt. But we will follow through horizontally (in our lives) on whatever we really believe vertically.

Our relationships with one another reveal to us what we really believe as opposed to what we think we believe – our convictions as opposed to our opinions. It is possible for the gospel to remain at the shallow level of opinion, even sincere opinion, without penetrating to the deeper level of conviction. But when the gospel grips us down in our convictions, we embrace its implications wholeheartedly. Therefore, when we mistreat one another, our problem is not a lack of surface niceness, but a lack of gospel depth. What we need is not only better manners but, far more, true faith.


Then the watching world might start feeling that Jesus himself has come to town: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).”

We can often forget that the world doesn’t simply examine what Christians do outside the church, but how they treat each other inside the church. Both convey a message to them regarding the Jesus we follow. In the early days of the church, Tertullian (155-220 A.D.) records for us that even the enemies of Christianity would say, “See how they love each other.” If we took a poll today, I wonder if unbelievers would still say the same?

Likewise, Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) described the early church this way: “We who used to value the acquisition of wealth and possessions more than anything else now bring what we have into a common fund and share it with anyone who needs it. We used to hate and destroy one another and refused to associate with people of another race or country. Now, because of Christ, we live together with such people and pray for our enemies.” In a day when we can see a lot of anger (and even hatred) of our moral or political enemies being vented by Christians on social media, it makes one wonder if we realize that Jesus’ still calls us to the same radical other-worldly love and to earnest prayer for our enemies, whom He calls us to bless and not curse (Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:9-21).


When one considers the relatively short time it took for the Christian faith to spread throughout the Roman Empire (by its pre-300 A.D. attractiveness and appeal, and not its post-325 A.D. use of power and political maneuvering) maybe it’s time for us to reconsider how they lived out the faith. Because in a short time they were able to win over, by their love and generosity and meekness, a culture that was more immoral than our own.

Looking to Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our Faith, Pastor Jeff

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts From Horatius Bonar

Dear Friends, If you are like me, you may have had a bad experience in the past with churches that stressed “holiness.” Not because churches shouldn’t, but because the focus was placed on outward conformity to externalisms, or a prescribed set of moralism’s that sucked the atmosphere of grace out of the church. In fact, the more effort-based versions of “holiness” are stressed, the more grace disappears – and the vacuum left in its wake is filled with even more rigid standards of morality and law-based duties – driving all who truly struggle with sin into hiding or pretending. And of all the books I have ever read on holiness (or godliness) none (in my opinion) hold a candle to “God’s Way of Holiness” by the Scottish minister Horatius Bonar (1808-1889). A book I have given to numerous people to read. If you were one who was turned off, or wounded, by a form of holiness based on what Bonar calls, “constrained externalism” or self-effort, I offer you this selection as a taste of w...

Thoughts From Thomas Wilcox

Dear Friends, Every once in a while, you come across an individual who can say a lot in a very little space. I don’t possess that ability, but Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687) did. Below are some of his profound insights on the Gospel found in the only tract he wrote, originally entitled, “A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ.” And don’t think that because it’s about the Gospel, you can just brush it aside because you already know it. Jerry Bridges (one of my profs at seminary and a prolific author who passed in 2016) once played us a recording in class of the responses given by best-selling Christian authors at a Bookseller’s Conference in response to the question, “What is the Gospel?” The responses were lacking at best and a couple of them made us wonder if could even be Christian at all. So, read these excerpts from his tract and see if you get what he means and if you agree. (I have updated the language where possible.) Enjoy. “When you believe and come to Christ, you...

Thoughts On Lent from Jeremy Linneman

Dear Friends, As we have entered the time of the church year traditionally called “Lent” (from the Old English word “lencten” referring to the season of Spring) there is always the common idea floating around that, “I should probably give up something for Lent.” The question is “Why?” Why give something up or practice self-denial? And the only good answer is: God in Scripture calls his people to do so, it actually benefits us, is intended to benefit others, and brings glory to God. We find this idea stated explicitly in Isaiah 58:6-9. There God says to his people who are fasting simply to deprive themselves of something (to prove their earnestness?) or in an attempt to be, “heard on high” (trying to manipulate God into answering our often self-focused prayers?) “This is the real reason he wants His people to fast: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is i...