Pastoral Letter 242
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and Peace to you all.
As we come closer with great anticipation to Christmas Day and to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we are once again reminded of the themes of the Advent, Hope, Peace, Joy and Love and we pray filling our hearts with the expectation that God will show great love for us as we look for the fulfilment of His promise in Jesus Christ.
Last Sunday we had our tradition Carols’ Service. We sang several Carols, as David Cant joined our organist Mark with his trumpets and we lit the Candle of Joy, which gives the flame of joy to be a sign to us of the joy that springs forth from the wells of salvation and guides us in the way of Christ.
All Christmas gifts and food for the Bill Crews Foundation were in last Sunday, 15 December 2024. A full carload was delivered to Ashfield last Tuesday and they were accepted with great thanks. We gave generously as much as we could to help the needy and we did that for the glory of God. Thanks to all who donated.
On Tuesday 24 December, we will have our Christmas Eve Service at 7:00 pm, hopefully on the lawn weather permitting, and on Wednesday Morning 25 December Christmas Service at 9:00 am. Our final service of the year will be next Sunday 29 December, when we will farewell the year 2024 and prepare to welcome the New Year, 2025, with the hope that God will be with us as we soldier on expecting more challenges with the many blessings of God. Let us remember to pray for one another and for those who need God’s help, as well as to have a peaceful year by His grace.
Tomorrow we will have our Advent 4 Service with the theme of Love. If you are not able to join us for worship, please light a candle and worship with us following the attached Order of Service.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for people of Middle East and Armenia, as well as the region, where the situation is uncertain.
- Pray for the displaced people, the homeless who need shelter, the hungry, the sick, the poor and those who are less fortunate.
- Pray for the sick and those who are not well. Continue to pray for Virginia.
- Pray for the victims of natural disasters, such as the recent earthquake in Vanuatu.
- Pray for blessed a peaceful time during the Christmas and New Year festivities.
- Pray for a blessed Advent, Christmas and a New Year season full of joy and peace in the world.
In Christ
Krikor
MESSAGE
Unconditional Love
1 Peter 4:1-11 and 2 Peter 1:3-11
Today we look into the fourth theme of Advent – Love.
Love is not just a noun. It is more of a verb. It is not just an emotion. It calls for action.
This morning, we will look into the deeper meaning of Love. Peter wrote: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Brotherly affection transforms life and leads to transformed relationships. We are to love with a pure and passionate love. As we study “love”, we will dig deeper into the verses “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
In the Greek, the word “love” in 2 Peter 1:7 is “agape”. The Greek word for “brotherly affection” is “phileo”. So, we are to add “agape” or “love” to “phileo” or “brotherly affection”. Actually, there is not much difference between “agape” and “phileo”. These words are synonymous or really close in meaning. It’s like “huge” and “large” or “tiny” and “small”. But since Peter wrote that we are to add “agape” to “phileo”, he must be emphasizing a key difference in meaning. “When we have brotherly love, we love because of our likenesses to others; but with agape love, we love in spite of the differences we have.” Phileo love is reciprocal. It is a mutual love. I love you because you love me. I love you because I like you. But agape love is sacrificial. It is a unilateral love. I love you even if you don’t love me in return. I love even if I don’t like you. “Whereas brotherly kindness is concern for others’ needs, love is desiring the highest good for others.” Someone pointed out that we were never commanded to phileo one another, but we are commanded to ‘agape’ each other. With that in mind, let us read 1 Peter 4:8. “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” We are to love all-out. We are to give it our best shot or our best effort. In short, our love must be passionate.
How do we know if we love passionately?
1. Priority
First, passionate love must be a Priority. Circle the phrase “above all” in 1 Peter 4:8. If we are passionate about loving a person, we make that person our priority. Note that it says, “keep loving”. It is in the present tense. That means it must be our lifestyle to love. It is a commitment to love. That means we must be intentional in loving one another. It is never accidental. It is a choice to love.
Love must colour everything we say or do. That’s why it is possible to serve in the church and not love the Lord and the people we are serving. Without love, service becomes a duty. It is possible also to attend worship services and not love the Lord and even the people who are attending with us. Without love, attendance becomes a burden. Love must be the reason why we do what we do or why we say what we say. Passionate love must be a priority.
2. Protective
Second, passionate love must be Protective. Look at the explanatory clause at the end of the verse: “since love covers a multitude of sins.” Peter here quoted Proverbs 10:12. “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” Note how hatred and love coloured everything. People stir up trouble because they have hatred in their hearts. They cover the offense because they have love in their hearts. The Contemporary English Version goes like this: “Hatred stirs up trouble; love overlooks the wrongs that others do.”
What does it mean to cover an offense or to overlook the wrongs that others do? It does not say cover up an offense. It says cover all offenses. It does not say that we ignore the wrongs that others do. It says that we overlook it. That doesn’t mean that we turn a blind eye towards the sin. It means that we don’t make an issue about just about everything.
According to the Bible Exposition Commentary, “Love does not condone sin; for, if we love somebody, we will be grieved to see him sin and hurt himself and others. Rather, love covers sin in that love motivates us to hide the sin from others and not spread it abroad.” We will not cover up. We will confront. We will just control who gets to know what.
That’s the wisdom behind the instructions in Matthew 18 on how we confront a brother who sins. The number of people who get to know about the problem depends on the response of the one being confronted. That’s why it is wrong to gossip. We don’t have control on who gets to know what when we gossip. It actually does more damage than good when we spread rumours. But we really help the person recover from his/her error when we limit the number of people who gets involved in the confrontation. That’s why passionate love must be protective.
3. Practical
Lastly, passionate love must be Practical. Look at the next verses: “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace”. I believe they are connected because of the phrase “one another”. Verse 8, “keep loving one another”. Verse 9, “Show hospitality to one another”. Verse 10, “use it to serve one another”. Verse 8 gives us the motive, that is, love. Verse 9 gives us the manner, that is, meeting people’s needs. Verse 10 gives us the means, that is, using our gifts to serve others.
During those times there was a great persecution. So, just allowing persecuted people in your house posed a great risk. During times of persecution, hospitality was especially welcomed by Christians who were forced to journey to new areas. The verse 9 commands us, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” That took a lot of guts because even those who are hosting them were also persecuted. They themselves needed help.
So, how can we apply verse 9 nowadays? One way is to find a practical need. And then we meet that need even if we ourselves needed help in meeting our own needs. We don’t need to wait until we are capable of helping before we actually help. If we can’t help people now even if we are needy, then we can’t help then even if we already have the capacity to do so. What we need is not a bigger budget but a bigger heart to meet people’s needs.
Verse 10 gives us another way to love practically. “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace”. This verse is talking about spiritual gifts. Yet, we can also say that since we received from God our talents, skills and gifts, we are to use them to serve others. God already equipped us to meet the needs of one another. Out of love, we must seek to meet people’s needs with the gifts that God gave us. When we do that, we love not only through words but also through works.
Brothers and sisters, passionate love must be our priority. It must be protective and practical.
Love means we are to love as God loves. Paul said that we can possess many spiritual gifts but if we lack love, we have nothing. Peter says we are to love others deeply. John said that love is a sign that we are born of God, we belong to God, and we have passed from death unto life. Jesus, the very Word of God, said love is the evidence that we are His followers.
We know that conditional love has an “if” with it. “If you keep yourself beautiful then I will keep loving you” It is based on a decision that follows an emotion. When I feel love then I will love you.
Love lets us to be free from conditional love. Agape means unconditional love and Agape love works differently.
It says, “I will love and therefore I will feel love.” It chooses to love and loves in the face of betrayal, when we are rejected, when we have been misrepresented. When our circumstances would make us respond in irritation or resentment or get back at you when I have the chance, we choose to love anyway. This love seeks to give out to those who would never expect it to come, never had it coming or never sought to get it. This love is given without announcement, when it is unexpected and undeserved. It does not come because one has good manners or conduct or are worthy of having it.
Love (Agape) helps us overturn our natural character, laziness, dullness; coldness and apathy to bring us out of our section of comfort and security that we want to stay in. When we love as this, we can no longer live just for self. It makes us want to care for others. It helps us love those who have been avoided and are lonely.
As we prepare during this Advent season to celebrate, let us remember that the Love of God has come to us through Jesus Christ our Lord and should stay with us to share with others. Amen!