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Grace-giving & Growth
Ephesians 4:29 – Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
Grace-withholding
Suggested: Galatians 5:13-17; James 4:1-3
In many of the previous battleplans, we have discussed how the bible emphasizes unity among believers. Unity is a characteristic of the relationships between the Members of the Trinity, and so it is also God’s will that it would be a characteristic of our relationships with Him, and our relationships with each other. God always calls us toward unity, and the devil is always working against God’s will, seeking a “foothold” so that he can drive us into discord.
Last week, we paid particular attention to our susceptibility to the enemy’s work when we are in conflict with one another. In these moments, we are even more likely to act out of our selfish desires, seeking to protect what we believe to be ours by any number of defensive strategies. When we persist in acting toward one another in this way, we allow division, and we see a break in the fellowship God would have us enjoy with Himself and with others.
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Intimacy Interrupted
Genesis 2:22-3:1a – The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made…
Unity & Division
Suggested: Genesis 1:26-29; Genesis 2:22-3:1; Genesis 3:6-13; Genesis 4:6-8; Ephesians 4:26-27
In the story of the bible, things have only just begun for the first man and woman, and yet there is already trouble in paradise. First, we do get a picture of how things should be and how things were. In line with the unity which has already been demonstrated within the Godhead during creation, God makes the man and woman in His own image, and He calls them to be as one. The man and woman respond to one another as they were created to. When he first lays eyes on her, the man launches into a psalm. From those four glorious lines of poetry, we learn that it was obvious to him that they were made for one another. They are living out the unity that God has created them for and called them to. They know nothing else. They can conceive of nothing else.
Cherish One Another
Song of Solomon 4:1a
“How beautiful you are, my darling,
How beautiful you are!”
Customizing our love
What does it mean to cherish someone? Cherish is a word that we use during wedding ceremonies, but is it a word that we use in our daily lives? Sometimes it has a kind of antiquated or sentimental feel, and it might not seem relevant to how we actually live. Sometimes it never becomes anything more than part of the decorations for a ceremony. On the other hand, we might be cherishing our wives daily, just using different language to describe what we are doing.
Honor & Faithful Service
Romans 13:10-11 – Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
Revisiting the great commandment
Suggested: Deuteronomy 6:1-6; Romans 13:1-14
For the last two weeks, our battleplan has drawn applications from the principle often referred to as the “Great Commandment,” the teaching that Jesus revealed to be the fundamental command on which all of Scripture is based, that we are to love God and others with everything we have. In Romans 13, we find another application of this same commandment, one drawn by the apostle Paul. Let’s take a quick look at this chapter as one of many examples found in Scripture.
Following an exhortation to give due service and honor to anyone in authority, recognizing that they hold their positions by appointment from God, Paul moves on to a more general exhortation to “owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Paul moves from a specific teaching, that we are to pay what is owed to those who represent the authority of government, to the broader teaching that we are to treat everyone lovingly, which will result in owing nothing. Giving due service and honor to those in authority over us is an application of the Great Commandment. Rather than starting with the command, then drawing an application, Paul starts with the application and then brings us back to the command that undergirds his exhortation.
Every Part of the Whole
Psalm 37:3-5
Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
Every piece of your heart
Suggested: Review Deuteronomy 6:1-6; Psalm 50
Last week’s battleplan spent a fair amount of time discussing the central biblical teaching that God wants us to love Him with all that we have, and in turn, He wants us to love others with all that we have. God has taught these specific truths through the commandments, through the clarifying teaching of Christ found in the gospels, and Christ also taught these principles by living them out to perfection among us. All of this serves to reveal who God is and how He always lives. There is no other legitimate way to live. The only other choice is to turn toward selfishness, which is a turn toward destruction and away from abundance.
We are always tempted toward selfishness, and our “flesh” (or our tendency to govern our own lives rather than to submit to God) always finds the temptation appealing. Herein lies our conflict with God, because His Spirit always guides us toward selfless, uncompromised love toward Himself and other people. We are often called to do what we do not want to do.
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Something Personal
Ephesians 5:28-31 – So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.
FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.
If you are working through Every Man’s Battle, review pp.196-197.
The heart of the matter
Suggested: Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:1-6; Matthew 22:35-40
Take a few minutes and reflect on these few lines of dialogue recorded in the gospel of Matthew. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus the following question:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Waging War or Sowing in Peace
James 3:16-4:1 – For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?
Conditional or unconditional
Page 191 of EMB discusses some of the problems that arise when we treat our relationships like contractual agreements. This is an easy mindset to fall into. In a contract with another person, we have a set of expectations and the other party is obligated to fulfill their end. When they don’t, we remind them that they signed a contract and we demand they comply, or we sue, or threaten to withhold our end, or threaten to terminate the contract, and maybe even seek revenge.
We are prone to treat our most important relationships (especially marriages) this way as well. As Fred Stoeker points out in EMB, we bring a set of expectations into a relationship, and yet we may not even define our expectations as clearly as we would in a legal contract, or worse, our expectations can change without warning. We may even expect another person to know what our needs are and to meet them when we can’t even identify them ourselves. Have you ever thought something like, “Aren’t I entitled to get my needs met? Isn’t that what a relationship is for? If it doesn’t meet my needs, why bother? Who needs the headache?”
A Healthy Appetite
Isaiah 55:1-2
“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;And you who have no money come, buy and eat
Come, buy wine and milkWithout money and without cost.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,And delight yourself in abundance.”
An invitation to feast
This passage from Isaiah serves to vividly illustrate both God’s invitation to us, to live an abundant life, and also our striving against that invitation, electing instead to try to satisfy ourselves in our own way. He desires to bless us with abundance, and He is grieved to see us chase after things that will not truly satisfy us. When we follow our own way, we strive after things that leave us empty. We “spend money for what is not bread” and our “wages for what does not satisfy,” yet God offers us things that truly satisfy, that are “free” or that come without independent striving.
A Surpassing Peace
Philippians 4:6-7 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
A lack of peace
Following last week’s discussion on joy, this week’s battleplan will examine another part of the fruit of the Spirit, peace. Anxiety is something that most of us experience on a daily basis. Some of us only wrestle with it part of the time, feeling it when a major stressor comes into the picture. Others suffer under intense feelings of anxiety continuously, even for no apparent reason. Wherever you find yourself, you are probably familiar with this feeling, and you might have some sense of how you typically try to cope with it. Paul’s letter to the Philippians offers a solution, and it comes through means we may not typically think to pursue.
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Strength in Joy
Hebrews 12:1-3 – Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Quality of life
Part of the tension in our Christian walk is the tension between our will and the Father’s will. It is an understatement to say that, often times, these are at odds. We are full of passions, we want to enjoy life, and even God has promised the Christian abundance. How do we balance all of this against the obvious reality of suffering and loss? What does it mean that He came so that we may have abundant life, while we are to continually submit our will to His? Is this like not being able to have our cake and eat it too? How can all of these things coexist, and how are we to live this out?
Not my will, but yours
Suggested: Matthew 26:36-46
There is no more profound illustration of this point than the anguish of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here, Christ knew (at least some of) what the Father’s will was. A few verses before, we see Christ telling His disciples that He will die, that He will be raised again, and that the disciples will desert Him in the interim (Matthew 26:31-32). That is the plan, Christ knows the Father and of course He knows the prophecy of Scripture. He knows His mission, He is to suffer and then to be sacrificed for the world. But was there any possibility that this could unfold in some other way? Maybe an unexpected twist, like the one that spared Isaac?
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