Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3.16
admonish
verb
1. to reprove firmly but not harshly
2. to advise to do or against doing something; warn; caution
We admonish each other often in Christian circles. Some feel compelled to be the full time bringers of admonishment, and no, this is not a reference to a Swedish Christian black metal band. Too often the words of caution move from firm to harsh. We feel the need to warn others, caution the true believers. These are the keepers of orthodoxy who hold their dogma in a clenched fist. These are the apologists and the heresy hunters seeing only the deviance from belief while ignoring the life of love. We tend to shoot our own wounded.
If we see a sister or brother in Christ going down a path that does not embody divine love, by all means, bring the warning. Remember, the warning must be in love, not harsh, angry or full of pride. My advice, read 1 Corinthians 13 before bringing any such warning. Let that temper your concern for your sister or brother. Be gentle, understanding, willing to listen and hear their story. She may have questions. He might have doubts. They both might have been damaged by the words or actions of another believer.
If a warning is necessary, and this is a big if, do so with the utmost love and patience. Show your concern without self-righteous judgment. Love them and remind them of who they are in Christ. All too often, we forget the grace, mercy and love bestowed on us, so remind them, God loves them passionately and unconditionally, even in the midst of screw ups and despair, God’s love never fails….
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Philippians 2.5-8
I have often thought that I would be willing to bleed and die for my brothers and sisters in Christ. This would be an extreme case today in North America yet the reality may be much further removed than I realize. I imagine such a situation would be the highest form of selflessness, yet it is only the end of it. The greater form is embracing such selflessness everyday.
We often think ‘sacrifice’ but in reality it is only inconvenience. Sacrifice means blood and death. Not much of that happening in America, if at all. So let’s drop the talk of sacrificing this or that (when it really is only an inconvenience). Let’s embrace service to one another instead. The path of love and service may or may not lead to sacrifice in its most final sense. We may receive some bumps and bruises to our ego and possibly our body along the way. We need to look beyond ourselves to serve others and be for them.
This path of loving service is the way of Christ. This way of Christ will also make us more human. Jesus became like us by taking on flesh and being a servant. Let’s embrace our humanity in its fullness in Christ and remember, it’s not about “me” but God and our neighbor.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Philippians 2.3
This passage precedes one of the great spiritual songs of the early church. The humility of our Redeemer poetically expressed to remind us of our brokenness and our privilege to participate in the very love of God. This is a privilege we can easily overlook.
So often we do whatever we can to get ahead in the rat race of life. We do whatever we can to increase our value or appearance in the world system. This ‘way of the world’ is subtle and insidious. It creeps in without our awareness and leaves the scent of death and decay. It is the ‘powers that be’ that seeks to dehumanize and enslave, treat what is good and meant for freedom as means to an end, a bottom line. We live in the midst of Babylon but we are not of the ways of Babylon. We who follow Christ are of a different Way.
Through the work of the cross of Christ for us, we can begin to share in the humility of Christ. Through the work of the cross of Christ in us, this humility can grow. The blinders of our vanity and selfishness slowly start to come down. We begin to see a world of others beyond our little self-enclosed world. A big world that allows us to love and serve our sisters and brothers in Christ.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2.4
Living in the highly individualistic West with the strong influence of capitalism, most of our concern is often our own interests. Corporations seek the larger bottom line while we try to increase our paycheck so we can get more stuff. Add to this the “social media” and “connected-ness” it brings, our interests can now be broadcast to the world. Those interests can be selfish, self-promoting and self-serving or it can be our passion. That, my friends, is a fine line.
I’ve been married for over ten years now (which is a personal best). Even if your young and ignorant, you quickly learn, it’s not all about you any more. It’s about her interests and our interests together. Bring children into the mix and things quickly get complicated. All it takes is one little word, action or glance to realize what a selfish jerk I am. When it comes to those outside of immediate family, we can easily gloss over that realization of selfishness.
Our sisters and brothers in Christ may often bear the brunt of our unrealized self-interest. We may cut them off in conversation because our concerns are more important. We get all needy, emotionally dump on them and don’t take the time to be quiet and listen. We consider out interests important because they are ours, we take some ownership of them. Yet when it comes to the Body of Christ that ownership is not entirely ours, we can share it if we choose. Our connection in the Body of Christ allows us to share in the interests of others, giving others priority over our petty selfish interests, sort of like being married….In the end, there will be no church only a Bride….
