If

we are trying to live the Christian life and we fill it with

Christian things—Christian books, conferences, music, movies—there

may be something missing. If we leave no room in our life to be

inconvenienced by service to others, we are missing a vital part of

Christlike living. What we do, how we live, and how we treat others

comes down to a matter of love. Paul notes this in our passage today,

describing it as a permanent debt we owe—a debt owed every day.

Love

involves more than an action shown to another person. Love consists

of an underlying attitude and mindset that motivates our actions

toward others. It’s not an attitude reserved only for fellow

believers; it’s also for everyone who is not part of the community

of believers. It is an ongoing theme that Paul continues to talk

about in many of his ­letters.

Pursue

love today. Let it guide the way you think. Let it be evident in your

patience and kindness. Let it lead you toward forgiveness,

truthfulness, and endurance. In everything you think about today, and

everything you say and do today, let love be the motivation. Filled

with God’s love, we can’t help overflowing with love and care for

others.

For

many of the people Jesus was speaking to in this passage, generosity

and righteousness were considered the same. And it was not uncommon

that people publicized their giving.

That

happens today too. We see it when a famously wealthy person gives

part of their fortune to a charity—along with a press release and

media interviews.

Public

recognition can feel good. It can be nice to hear praise when you can

provide something that would otherwise not be possible. But Jesus

says there is an even greater reward for people who give quietly. Who

do you want keep­ing the records when it comes to your

generosity? Is the applause of the world better than the reward of

blessing from God?

When

it comes to giving generously, three principles come to mind. First,

no one is too poor to give. Even if you are struggling to get by, God

will bless your generosity. Second, generous giving should be

sacrificial. C. S. Lewis said that the safest rule for giving is

to give more than you can spare. Finally, the amount you give ought

to be decided in your own heart and not given out of compulsion. It

is a private matter between you and God.

The

purpose of your giving should not be to impress ­others. Instead,

it is a discipline that should increase your faith in God to provide

for you and to draw you closer to him.

Some

of Jesus’ sayings seem to contradict other things he has said.

Today’s text is one of those. Why would the Prince of Peace say

that he did not come to bring peace? Doesn’t Jesus say in other

verses that he came to give us peace? Did Jesus ­really come to

turn us against members of our own families?

Well,

not necessarily, but he is pointing out here that conflicts, even

with family members, could happen because we follow him. That’s

because Jesus calls us to live a new life, putting our old ways of

sin behind us. But the people around us might not like that change.

Following

Jesus can cause rifts in families, friendships, and other

relationships. He demands full allegiance over ­every other human

relationship or earthly pursuit. It is really about changing our

priorities. There are many competing loyalties that we must give an

answer to in life. The devoted Christ-follower knows that at the end

of the day, only one love matters. Our loyalty to and love for Christ

must take first place. That commitment will change not only your life

but also the lives of the people around you and the generations to

come.

Following

Jesus is not just a commitment of a few hours of your time or a few

dollars from your paycheck. Following Jesus requires all of you—all

that you have and are, and all that you will be. And this is life as

it’s meant to be—full life that will last forever.

Jesus,

who fulfilled the Word of God and is himself called the Word (John

1:1), set the standard for Christian living. Comparing yourself to

anyone else will never give an accurate picture of who God wants you

to be.

James

uses the example of looking into a mirror but doing nothing to

improve our appearance. The kind of mirror James is talking about was

not made of glass like our mirrors today. It would have been a highly

polished piece of metal, and to get a clear image, you would have to

look intently, holding it at just the right angle with just the right

amount of light. James explains that we have to look intently into

the law of God to see what God wants us to be. Notice that the focus

is not on looking at oneself or at anyone else. The ­focus is on

God’s law—the image of the person God wants you to become.

With

God’s Word as the standard, says James, we must be doers of the

Word, and that means putting God first in all we do and showing

Christlike love to everyone around us. It means looking out and

caring for people whom everyone else forgets: the most vulnerable,

such as widows and ­orphans, who don’t have ­others to lean

on. It means caring for those who cannot care for themselves.

Who

are those people in your community? How can you be a Christlike

influence in the world instead of being influenced by the world?

If we follow Christ, we have a relationship with God that is bound to be expressed in our relationships with other people. But we often forget that. We can easily create barriers in the name of race, religion, gender, churches, communities, families, friend groups, and more. While these differences can help us think about who we are, our sinful nature distorts them in such a way that we put up walls that divide us. We should celebrate diversity, but it should not lead to division.

The apostle Paul says we can find unity in the foundation that has already been laid in Christ. Being connected to one another increases our effec­tiveness as God’s people. It increases our strength as well as our worth. In the ultimate act of hospitality, God sent his Son, Jesus, making reconciliation possible between us and God.

Through Christ’s work on the cross, we are united as his peo­ple once and for all. Unless this is the case, there is no good news. Unless this is the case, we are lost in our sin — excluded from the kingdom and separate from Christ.

We celebrate that the dividing wall has come down. Paul urges us to remember that we were once excluded but that God drew us near to himself so that we can become "one new humanity," inviting everyone to join God’s household in Christ.

By

the time Luke’s gospel was written (after A.D. 60), the church had

entered into a new generation of believers. They had limited memories

of its start and development. Memories of Jerusalem, Antioch, and

Paul’s missionary journeys were fading. Much had changed. Many of

the believers wondered what God was up to now, and why Jesus hadn’t

returned yet in their lifetime (see 2 Peter 3). They wondered

what it meant to be the church now.

Many

generations of people since then have asked similar questions. In the

story about Jesus sending out 72 followers, we gain some insight into

what it means to be the church. We discover the answer when we go

into the neighborhoods and communities where we live. We discover the

genius of what God has been about since the very beginning—God is

at work in the everyday, ordinary places where his people live.

Still

today, we are invited to live out and to share the love of God as a

community committed to love and peace and justice. We exist not just

for ourselves but to practice what it looks like to be the body of

Christ, as people being formed into the image of the Son. We live out

the story as God’s missionary people—serving as a demonstration

of what God plans to do in and for all creation in Christ Jesus.

In

the first-century Roman world of the Ephesians, being adopted meant

receiving a new identify and a new name. No matter what had happened

in your past, you were given a clean slate on adoption day. It was

irrevocable. There was no going back to the way it was before. It was

once and for all—a permanent arrangement.

When

the apostle Paul compares our life in God to adoption, he is saying,

“You are part of the family now.” It’s an invitation to get

comfortable and to settle into this new relationship. We need not

live in fear anymore because we belong to the Father. He has claimed

us as his own. God invites us to relate to him as his cherished

children.

No

matter what has happened in your past, God sees the person you are

becoming. So don’t live like an orphan. Recognize who you are in

Christ. You have been preapproved by God. He has adopted you and

blessed you, and he is ready for you to join in the work and

livelihood of his kingdom. You have been redeemed and forgiven. Your

sin is paid for.

Christian

faith is about more than believing certain facts; it means living

into the lordship of Christ and letting that reality permeate every

aspect of life. You are a child of the King, a recipient of the

ultimate act of hospitality—God’s hospitality. Everything has

changed. Thanks be to God!

We

learn a lot about what community looked like in the early church. It

included things like sharing meals, caring for one another,

worshiping together, and praying together. The early church took

community seriously. It wasn’t just an occa­sional event or

gathering. It was regular and ongoing. They valued spending quality

time together, and they did it often.

We

see in the early church a focus on what matters—the Word of God,

fellowship, worship, and prayer. We see who matters—the body of

Christ doing life together. And we see that it isn’t just a

once-a-week event. It also isn’t about being a church in one place

or even in a building. The Bible says the Lord added to their number

every day. There was room for others—more and more.

In

our culture of focusing so much on individual desires, biblical

community can seem a bit strange to us. But it’s all about

relationships, and that is something we can grasp even in this “me

first” world. Relationships always involve sharing—time,

experiences, material goods, and more—and sharing requires an

ongoing personal investment. It endures through joys and struggles

over the long haul. Doing life together is one of the strengths of

biblical community. The gift we share

always has room for others, even when it is messy.

In

what ways can you invest more in your relationships with God and

others today?

In

our culture today, we don’t have an automatic equivalent to Jesus’

instruction to wash one another’s feet. But we can figure out that

it’s mainly about showing hospitality and serving one another.

The

roads of Palestine were unpaved, and with sandals as the common

footwear, people’s feet would get really dirty—sometimes caked

with dust and mud. As a result, before you entered someone’s home,

a servant would come with a pitcher of water and a towel and wash

your feet. It was a customary act of hospitality—like someone

offering to hang up your coat and scarf on a cold day as you entered

their warm home.

On

the night of the last supper, Jesus took the role of a servant as he

got up from the meal and began washing his disciple’s feet. In

doing this, Jesus was teaching his disciples an important spiritual

principle. We come to Jesus with nothing of our own, and we must

receive from him and be ministered to by him before we have anything

to give. Then, having been served, we go and do the same, sharing

with others the fullness that God has poured into our hearts.

In

this example, Jesus provided a profound symbol of his call to

servanthood. Following him is not about position, power, or prestige.

We serve because Christ has served us first.

God

has called you for a mission, and he has equipped you with everything

you need to carry it out.

When

Jesus called the disciples, he gave them all they needed to minister

on his behalf in the towns and villages. He enabled them to preach

the kingdom of God and heal people every­where. There was no need

to bring anything else along to complete that mission. He sent them

with instructions to accept people’s hospitality as God’s

provision for them. They were to stay with people who received them,

developing relationships and being content with what they were given.

But if rejection happened, they were to move on, warning people about

rejecting the truth. They had to move on because time was short and

the mission was great.

Jesus’

ministry is still about word and deed. We have been empowered to

serve in these critical areas. The message is powerful, and our words

must be spoken with acts of compassion for a world that needs to hear

the good news. But to teach that God loves sinners means little if we

do not also show God’s love by helping to meet human needs.

We

have all that we need to fulfill our calling as Christ-fol­lowers.

Let’s be faithful in sharing his message with words and actions.

And let’s trust the results to the powerful work of the Holy

Spirit.