Mentoring Minutes

“Be hospitable to one another without complaint.”  (1 Peter 4:9)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Evidently being truly loving, hospitable and caring for one another can be burdensome. Of course it can because we still must abide in our fleshly bodies and therefore any act of sacrificial love, showing the Love of God in and through us, will come up against what my (our) selfish flesh would rather do for me (us).

Peter continues with a very interesting “one another” in 1 Peter 4:9 after telling us to love each other deeply, he calls us by The Holy Spirit to “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” I thought every Christian naturally gives hospitality with graciousness and love.

Only as we surrender to Christ as His disciples and learn to love according to His Word and by His Spirit can we love in this way… being hospitable toward others and doing so without grumbling or complaining. Love causes us to be cheerful givers and servers. If we are doing so with any spite then we need to re-evaluate and go deeper in The Lord allowing His Love to flow in and through us.

This is why we must spend time with Him, in His Word, in prayer and listening to Him daily and moment-by-moment so that it is His Love that fills us and overflows in cheerful, joyful, hospitable love for others.

How are you doing when it comes to hospitality to others? Are you gracious or grumbling? Let The Lord have His way and you will be hospitable without being frustrated or burdened because it is Him in and through you. This is the only way this kind of love can have its way…by Christ!

This “one another” command hearkens back to one we’ve talked about previously in Paul’s exhortation and encouragement in Philippians 2:12-14 where he tells us that we’re supposed to work out the free gift of salvation that we’ve been given in Christ in “fear and trembling” in order for The Lord “to will and act according to His good pleasure.” And how are we to do this? With no “grumbling or complaining,” so that His light will shine through us to a dark world!

I pray that The Lord will help us to first see the need and then reach out in hospitality to help whenever we can and to do so with a joyful heart and no grumbling or complaining. Let others see Jesus in me.

Food for Thought…Three things we find as Christ followers in line with this “one another” command…1) Be hospitable…put others above self; 2) Do it without grumbling, complaining, murmuring and certainly not begrudgingly…in other words, with joyous and cheerful hearts, and; 3) We are then to be shining His light in a dark world!

Love in Action…

1. Spend time with God and in His Word, prayer and listening every day…begin with the Scriptures in this message.
2. Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
3. When it comes to being hospitable what makes it difficult for you and how are you doing?   
4. Figure out what needs to change for you to have an attitude and action that makes you a hospitable person regardless of others…then do so.  

Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, when others are hospitable to me it is such and encouragement and I rarely think about the time and effort they put into being hospitable. Help me to be grateful and learn to be hospitable myself so more can see the love of Christ.  In His Name. Amen.

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.” (1 Peter 1:22)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Much to the dismay of our nature and even more so to that of our fallen culture, it’s an amazing Truth that obedience and love go hand in hand!

The Greek word from where we get our word and response of confession literally means, “to agree with.” That’s powerful if you think about it. I’ve recognized that my sin(s) or fault(s) have come against God’s Truth and I’m now willing to admit them and turn in agreement with His Truth rather than my “truth” that was wrong. This is the first step in true heart change if it is Godly and sincere as we found is needed in the Corinthians passage earlier. This is true confession!

As we near the end of these “one anothers” and how we’re called and commanded to treat and not treat one another in love, we find that Peter and John, the 2 disciples that were closest to Jesus have a couple of repeated “one anothers.” However, the most repeated command is the one that sums all of these up and we touch on it today.

Peter had a lot to learn about how to truly Love…and by all indications he got the message. In his first letter to the church he writes, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.” (1 Peter 1:22) It began with obedience and we know that he had some tough lessons when it came to this but under The Lord’s gracious leading, Peter was restored…and learned to love!

In 1 Peter 3:8 and 4:8 we are commanded to “…Love one another deeply, from the heart” (3:8) for “love covers a multitude of sins” (4:8). Remember Peter was the disciple who ultimately became the leader or spokesperson for the group in beginning the Church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). This was the same Peter who was brash and often impulsive in his responses to Christ and others. Today we’d call Peter a “type A” personality… maybe even a AA or A+!

He was the one who proclaimed he would never forsake Christ and then denied him 3 times in the most trying time of Christ’s life. In shame he ran away and wept bitterly.

This was the same Peter that Christ restored with 3 probing questions that were essentially the same but the last one slighty different in the Greek. We find these questions in John 21:15-17 where Jesus gets to the heart of the matter for Peter…and all of us.

The first 2 times that Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” the word “love” in the Greek is “agapao” which means preferring God above all other (fulfilling the 1st and greatest command) and the only way we can truly love others. Peter’s response was all he knew at that time, and especially after denying Christ, “you know that I love (phileo – brotherly, human love) you.”

The final time Jesus asked He used “phileo” for love impressing upon Peter that there was a greater love for him to still know and grow in…and that’s what Christ came to give us so we could give to others.

Peter in writing his letters to the churches is now describing the kind of Godly love, known only in Christ, that we are to extend and selflessly give to our brothers and sisters in Christ. In the first reference (1 Peter 3:8), he describes phileo for fellow believers. However, in 1 Peter 4:8, the command reveals to us that this can only be done in “agape” or Godly Love, preferring God above all others, so that we can love them no matter what!

I think Peter has learned the lesson Christ was questioning him about in John 21 and is the perfect person for the Holy Spirit to help us more fully understand this kind of Love that conceals many sins and help us grow together in the Love of Christ.

How do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? How about those in your own family…spouse, children, extended family? How does your love for others reflect on Christ and His Love?

We are called by The Holy Spirit through Peter who learned what love actually is in direct intimate relationship with Jesus as to how to love deeply as we are loved in Christ and in all things. May this kind of love be evidence of Christ’s Love in and through us so many more will come to know Him, His salvation and Love in and through us.

Food for Thought…God’s Word is crystal clear that we can’t love apart for Him in Christ. What is your love for Him and others based on…your feelings, hormones and circumstances? Or do you deeply love from the well of God’s Word and Truth…just as He has loved you in Christ and through His Cross?

Love in Action…

1. Spend time with God and in His Word, prayer and listening every day…begin with the Scriptures in this message.
2. Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
3. Check the “fruit” of your relationships…with God and with others…to see if they are producing a love in keeping with His Word and will.  
4. Take time to either continue to grow in His love in and through you or change from your fleshly emotions to His Truth in Love…whichever is called for.  

Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, the world teaches that love is a feeling and my flesh tends to run after that. Help me to understand that to love as you love…deeply…that it begins and ends with showing you that love by my obedience.  In Jesus Name. Amen.

“…pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16b-d)

Love and Lordship in Focus…Are you noticing that as we go through these “one anothers” that while the ultimate “one another” is to “Love one another” there are many different expressions of this love found in the way we treat and care for each other…and in what we avoid so that we do not treat each other wrongly.

As with all the “one anothers” this requires discipline even as we are in Christ to be disciplined in The Holy Spirit…the new man or woman…and move away from walking in the flesh…old man or woman apart from Christ. Discipline…that’s why it’s called discipleship and we are to be disciples and make disciples of Christ. I (we) can’t do that in our own strength, only in His!

With that said, we find James wrapping up his “one anothers” with a very powerful one found in the same text as our previous command to “confess our sins to one another.” He continues in James 5:16 with “…Pray for each other.” He doesn’t stop there but finishes with this encouraging truth…”the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” That’s awesome but remember we are only made righteous in Christ and our power is only found in Him and His Holy Spirit.

Jesus taught us to go so far as to even love our enemies and pray for those who would persecute and harm us (Matthew 5:44). That takes a love much greater than the emotionally driven love that most people, even those in our churches, define love by. It’s a deliberate, disciplined choice…not a feeling. This kind of praying for others with effective power and results is only done in the discipline of love and I (we) only have that as I (we) accept Christ as our Savior and Lord and then by the indwelling power of The Holy Spirit!

How are you doing when it comes to praying for others? How about praying for your enemies? What about humbling yourself to ask for prayer for yourself?

We all must admit that apart from Christ our prayers are not powerful and effective. Only as we walk in the discipline of The Holy Spirit, His Word and Love can we truly pray for others, including our enemies and those that would seek to harm us.

Food for Thought…I pray that we know Christ more so and that we can pray in earnest according to Your Word, Spirit and power in love for all others that they may know and desire to come to Him as Savior and Lord. May we also pray in this powerful faith for others and, as we confess our own sins, see the powerful moving of Your Spirit and healing and may God be glorified in all things.

Love in Action…

1. Spend time with God and in His Word, prayer and listening every day…begin with the Scriptures in this message.
2. Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you.
3. Take a personal inventory of your prayer life…is it preceded by confession that places you before His Throne? 
4. What fruit are you seeing in your prayer life? What, if anything, needs to change?

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest, states that “Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work.” How do you see prayer and how it is impacting your life and others?  

Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.

Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, thank You for hearing all my prayers and pleas but help me to understand that when confession precedes my prayers, my prayers are more powerful and effective. Help me to follow through so my prayers accomplish all that you desire. In Jesus Name. Amen.