Believe it or not, we have reached the end of our journey into the One Anothers! It has certainly not been an exhaustive study, but we have been diligent and the Lord has used it to convict us, and unify us, as we move forward by His grace to plant Highlands Bible Church! Ready to finish this up? #LetsGo
- Speak not against one another. “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” (James 4:11 ESV)
- To speak evil against someone else is to slander them, to speak of them in a degrading way, to speak against them. This doesn’t mean that we never address issues with each other, because we need to do that (Matthew 18) but our speech at all times should be filled with grace. Look at Ephesians 4:29 – “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29 ESV). We can build up with our words, or tear down and those that hear (or overhear) should be filled with grace by our words.
- Grumble not against one another. “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.” (James 5:9 ESV).
- The Greek word for grumble here has the meaning of groaning, or sighing (inwardly…or softly…or not so softly) to ourselves. You see how this command, and the previous ones are tied to judgment? As believers, we will not be judged for our sins – through faith in Jesus we are completely forgiven of all sins – past, present, and future. (Romans 5 anyone?) This is the essence of our justification. (BBW alert!) So what will we be judged for? Well, we always go to Scripture first to help us interpret Scripture – Matthew 12:36 is a very scary verse – “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,” (Matthew 12:36 ESV). Everything we have or own is a gift from God, we were bought at a price and so now everything, even our very words, are to be redeemed for God’s use and glory. If we are speaking against one another or grumbling against one another we are literally wasting our breath. God will want an account for how well you used your words with each other. Did you waste them or intentionally use them to build up others in God’s church? Also, in a gospel sense, think about Jesus, and how – if we have surrendered our lives to him by faith – he speaks truth to the Father about who we are in Him. Paul Tripp put it well in his book War of Words – “My acceptance with God is based on what Jesus speaks to God on my behalf and he speaks perfectly.” Let’s build that kind of culture at Highlands Bible!
- Confess sin to one another. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16 ESV)
- This sounds scary, and let’s face it…it sometimes is, but it really shouldn’t be. To confess literally means to “say the same thing” – in this case we are agreeing with God that what we have done is sin, we aren’t informing God of our sin – he already knows! We need to agree that it is sin, repent, claim the forgiveness that is ours by faith and grow and change. To do this, we need each other. Sin thrives in the dark, when we drag it out into the light, it dies. I have blogged about this previously, but frankly we all need to do better at this. It’s not that we are blabbing our dirt all over to anyone and everyone, but instead we need to confess to God, and anyone else directly involved (like those we have sinned against…) and then pray for repentance and change! Again, think about how a culture at HBC will look with regular confession. Keep very short accounts with each other – tying this back to our words, what if each time we had a harsh word, or were grumbling against one another we confessed and cleared the air. How much grace would that give to others to hear, and go and do likewise – all because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross! We confess and seek forgiveness because we have been forgiven much – for another scary verse check out Matthew 18:35…go ahead…
- Be hospitable to one another. “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:9 ESV)
- Before we jump in, let’s understand – hospitality is different than entertaining…for a great read on the difference between the two, click here. Biblical hospitality means the expression of kindness and gospel-fueled intentionality to strangers. It’s always nice to have our squad over for drinks and hang time, but biblical hospitality is not the same thing. What does this look like at HBC? Welp, we should be quick to get together with people who are new to the church. Get together with them, invite them over, befriend them – even if they are sort of scary and out of your comfort zone. Our mission is to make and mature disciples of Jesus – we need relationships to do this! Remember – we were orphans and rebels and God reached out to us and made us part of his family by faith in Jesus, we are called to reach out to the community of HBC in the love of Jesus.
Interested in knowing more about how you can be involved in Highlands Bible Church? Our next meeting is Friday, Oct 9th at 7pm as we transition to discussion of ministry teams. Contact Pastor Mike for details!
