Love |
And
may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to
all,
just as we do to
you |
1
Thessalonians 3:12 is
a Bible Verse and prayer by Paul for increase
and harmony for the relationships in the church.
I
once
saw a Christmas play called, “Dysfunctional Family,” which was about
the family
dynamic during Christmas season. In the play, there was one family
member who
wouldn’t work and was always borrowing money from other family members,
and
then another who always
saw the
worst in
situations and had
a bit of a drinking problem.
Isn’t
that
a reflection of our own families to some degree? We may not be
labeled as
“dysfunctional,” but
that’s what all of us are. It’s been that way since Adam and Eve sinned
in the
Garden of Eden.
When
sin
entered the picture, serenity and harmony departed. The perfect family
model deteriorated
when Adam and Eve chose to follow the serpent’s tempting and deceitful
proposal instead of enjoying what they already had in the Garden of
Eden with God.
Instead
of
being content with the perfect and holy matrimony they shared with God
and with
one another in paradise, they chose to believe
the lie that there was
something
better and bigger than what they had.
They
turned
their back on God and what He had established for them, which was
perfect
harmony. There was no dysfunction before sin.
We
also see
and experience dysfunction in the family of God in the church body.
Every one
of us has some kind of painful experience from our past that has caused
“issues”
in how we see and deal with other people, whether we’re aware of it or
not.
We
see
people through the lenses of our own shortcomings, and chances are it
is not
completely accurate. Imagine instead, if we saw our brothers and
sisters in
Christ the
way God sees them.
He
sees
each one of us through the filter of Jesus’ blood, which means He is
pleased
with us and sees us as clean and beautiful, just as He sees Jesus.
That’s the
power of the blood of Christ.
God
sees us
through the filter of mercy, which is the power of the cross, but we
see others
through the cloudiness and confusion of deception, which the devil
planted in
our minds.
The
clarity
of the truth is there, but we have a difficult time looking at others
through
the filter
of mercy, like God does. If we could see like
God sees, the
cloudiness and confusion would disappear.
In
1 Thessalonians
3:12, Paul is praying that the Lord would make them increase, and make
them
abound in love to one another and to all.
In
Jesus
Christ, there is no dysfunction.
In
Jesus
Christ, there are no judgments or suspicions.
In
Jesus
Christ, there is no
condemnation.
Because
of
Him, we can increase and abound in love toward one another.
Because
Jesus Christ bridged the gap between us and the Heavenly Father,
perfect
harmony can be re-established--the family of God in the church and in
our own personal
families.
We
can have
“thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” just
as Jesus
taught us to pray.
Let’s
join
Paul and pray that the Lord would make
us increase and abound in love
to one
another and to all.
Study
the
Bible verse of 1 Thessalonians 3:12, and enjoy the increase of perfect
harmony
in the love of Christ.
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