Love One Another

July 13, 2004

This Sunday’s timely text focuses on a problem every parent (and pastor) understands all too well. Brothers and sisters do not get along with each other as well as one would hope. Mary and Martha were sisters. They both loved Jesus, and were considered among his closest friends. But they were as different as daylight and dark, and served him in radically different ways. Martha became upset with her sister because Mary was not helping in the kitchen. We all have our ideas of how we and others should behave. Jesus may see things a bit differently than we do. I am amazed at how two people, born of the same parents and reared in the same environment, can turn out to be so different. Yet, my younger brother, Louis, whom I love dearly, and I are a classic example. From church polity to politics, we are poles apart. Yet we resolved to not allow our personal convictions to destroy something more precious, our brotherly love.

The Apostle John, in his old age, pleaded with the young church. “My little ones, love one another.” It distressed the Old Pastor to see the infant church members saying and doing things that hurt and offended each other. This should not be so. The Apostle James warned us to guard our tongues, and that failure to do so is an indication of spiritual immaturity, and worse, sin. On the other side, we are warned to be slow to take offense. “He who is slow to anger is stronger than the mighty!” I still laugh at myself when I remember a sermon critique from a seven year old boy at my church in Kentucky many years ago. “How did you like the service today?” I asked. “To be honest, preacher,” he said, “let’s try and watch it next time. You hurt my ears!” Then there was the lady in Mississippi who was in the hospital and needed rest. She requested tapes of my sermons. I was delighted until I learned she reported, “Nothing puts me to sleep like one of Brother Bill’s sermons.” Don’t allow Satan to “get to you” with words misspoken. Have a forgiving heart and a tough hide!

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