Living the Impossible

All scripture quoted is from the New Living Translation. Quotations are from Ellen White, unless otherwise credited.

It is easy over time for a Christian to know so much about God they think of His character more in terms of general principles rather than specific life style actions.

1. In reality it is of course both, general heavenly principles that manifest themselves in specific actions.
2. For the disciples, as with most Jews of Jesus day, they were specific rule oriented and unaware of the principles behind the rules. This led to a life of constant fear of failure, and a life of ungodly attitudes.
3. Jesus constantly tried to explain the thinking of God in terms of principles of His character and how it looked to live by those principles.
4. The early church also had a struggle to put life in a proper balance between rules and principles. That is why Paul sent a letter to the church in Corinth with a clear explanation of what it looked like to live like God.
5. Here, he explains what Gods character looks like in everyday Christian living. Everything revolves around the principle of love:

1 Cor 13:1-13 – If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

In Paul’s description of love, he leaves no room for it to be anything less than attending to the needs of others. The gifts of the Spirit, as useful as they were for the gathered community, were meaningless when performed for personal glory or selfish ambition.

Christ’s Object Lessons 67 – There can be no growth or fruitfulness in the life that is centered in self. If you have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, you are to forget yourself, and try to help others. Talk of the love of Christ, tell of His goodness. Do every duty that presents itself. Carry the burden of souls upon your heart, and by every means in your power seek to save the lost. As you receive the Spirit of Christ—the Spirit of unselfish love and labor for others—you will grow and bring forth fruit. The graces of the Spirit will ripen in your character. Your faith will increase, your convictions deepen, your love be made perfect. More and more you will reflect the likeness of Christ in all that is pure, noble, and lovely.

Review and Herald, October 14, 1884 – We are not placed in this world merely to receive and gather that we may be benefited; we must give as we receive. We must not seek to be served, and to be treated generously ourselves; but we must be ready to serve, and to treat others kindly, exercising toward them the love that Jesus has manifested toward us, whether they treat us kindly or unkindly. With a heart overflowing with love, we should ask, “What can I do to help others?”

• Paul’s description of the character of love begins by his mentioning two positive attributes: patience and kindness.
• Paul follows that by contrasting love to negative attributes; he argues that it is not “envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful” (1Cor 13:4-5).
• In the end, Paul states positively that love “rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1Cor 13:6-7). Paul makes it clear that love begins when someone else’s need supersedes one’s own.
• It seems clear enough where our priorities should be and how we are to live. Yet how many people do you know that meet this description? The concept is one thing, living it is another.
• Our personal families and church family are both caught in a situation where the ideal and reality are not the same. As a result, we see no end of problems.
  • One of the great disappointments for parents is to see their children, in whom they have invested so many years of time, energy, and money, turn from the values and priorities of their parents, to other ways of their own choosing.
  • It often starts when the children are young in various forms of rebellion. Stress over various disobedient actions can lead to battles and harsh words, and separate parents from children along the way.
  • Failure to agree on the seven key aspects of marriage can also pull husbands and wives in different directions, sometimes to the point of divorce.
  • When you put drinking, drugs, and health issues into the mix, the ideal of an agreeable family atmosphere can be difficult to achieve. Then we read the words of Jesus and find He raises the bar so high it seems impossible:

John 17:20-21 – I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

SO, HOW DO WE ACHIEVE UNITY WITH FAMILY AND OTHERS AT HOME AND IN THE CHURCH.

QUESTION: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ONE?

1. He desired to see a deep connection between those who were connected to him. The unity of which he spoke was clearly a reference to his earlier command to “love one another” John 13:34-35 – So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
2. In Jesus’ words, both unity and love have the same purpose: “to let the world know” (17:23) or so that “all men will know” (13:35).
3. Barnes’ Notes – It is not the union of nature which is referred to, but the union of plan, of counsel, of purpose seeking the same objects, and manifesting attachment to the same things, and a desire to promote the same ends.
4. Christian unity is based on shared life in Christ; is a major source for witness to the world; and is expressed through common love, purpose, and mission.

QUESTION: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITY AND  UNIFORMITY?

Manuscript 111, 1903 – The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. In mind, in purpose, in character, they are one, but not in person. By partaking of the Spirit of God, conforming to the law of God, man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ brings His disciples into a living union with Himself and with the Father. Through the working of the Holy Spirit upon the human mind, man is made complete in Christ Jesus. Unity with Christ establishes a bond of unity with one another. This unity is the most convincing proof to the world of the majesty and virtue of Christ, and of His power to take away sin

Sons and Daughters of God 286 – We seldom find two persons exactly alike. Among human beings as well as among the things of the natural world, there is diversity. Unity in diversity among God’s children—the manifestation of love and forbearance in spite of difference of disposition—this is the testimony that God sent His Son into the world to save sinners.

QUESTION: IS UNITY A ONE TIME THING WHEN WE CONNECT TO JESUS,  OR AN ONGOING PROCESS?  (Both)

Jesus prays that those who believe in Him would be one, even as He and the Father are one. That prayer was answered when the Holy Spirit baptized all believers into the one body of Christ:

 1 Cor 12:12-13 – The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So, it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

Yet Jesus also prays that believers may be “perfected in unity” which implies a process of growth. So, it’s much like sanctification: We are sanctified in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11); yet, we must grow in sanctification (2 Cor. 7:1).

1 Cor 1:30 – God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

1 Cor 6:11 – But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

John 17:22-23 – I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

2 Cor 7:1 – Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

QUESTION: WHY DOES IT SEEM SO IMPOSSIBLE TO LIVE THE CHARACTER OF GOD WHICH BRINGS UNITY?

The only possible way to have unity among believers is for all of them to find unity first with God in Christ.

Sons and Daughters of God 286 – The closer our union with Christ, the closer will be our union with one another. Variance and disaffection, selfishness and conceit, are striving for supremacy. These are the fruits of a divided heart, open to the suggestions of the enemy of souls. Satan exults when he can sow seeds of dissension.

The powers of darkness stand a poor chance against believers who love one another as Christ has loved them, who refuse to create alienation and strife, who stand together, who are kind, courteous, and tender-hearted, cherishing the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. We must have the Spirit of Christ, or we are none of His.

1. The reason unity is so hard to live is because we often try to live like God with Satan’s mind. It is impossible to have unity when everything is about me. Only when Jesus through the Holy Spirit takes control of my mind can I develop an unselfish attitude that cares more for others than myself.
2. When linked with someone selfish I can’t change their attitude, but I can continue to reach to bless them. The God controlled mind does not find their joy in receiving from another, but in giving. So, the non-believer need never dictate my response or shut down my caring.
3. My great challenge will forever be the temptation to live in both worlds. But none of Gods traits are ever demonstrated in the self-model.

QUESTION: HOW DO I DEVELOP THIS UNITY THAT COMES FROM CONNECTING WITH JESUS?

2 Cor 3:18 – And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

2 Cor 5:16-17 – At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Rom 8:9 – But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

Reflecting Christ 200 – He who seeks to serve others by self-denial and self-sacrifice will be given the attributes of character that commend themselves to God, and develop wisdom, true patience, forbearance, kindness, compassion.

Reflecting Christ 303 – To be pardoned in the way that Christ pardons is not only to be forgiven, but to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The Lord says, “A new heart will I give unto thee.” The image of Christ is to be stamped upon the very mind, and heart, and soul. The apostle says, “And we have the mind of Christ.” Without the transforming process which can come alone through divine power, the original propensities to sin are left in the heart in all their strength, to forge new chains, to impose a slavery that can never be broken by human power.…

That I May Know Him 109 – When the sinner accepts Christ and lives in Him, Jesus takes his sins and weaknesses and then grafts the repentant soul into Himself, so that he sustains the relation to Christ that the branch does to the vine. We have nothing, we are nothing, unless we receive virtue from Jesus Christ.

The Upward Look 271 – By our unity we are to bear strong, indisputable evidence that Christ came to this world to save sinners. Satan works with all his ingenuity to prevent human beings from bearing this evidence. He wants them to develop an unsanctified individuality so that they shall not love one another. Too often professing Christians yield to him, and then the merest trifle causes a difference to spring up among them.

Reflecting Christ 17 – Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, a new principle of mental and spiritual power was to be brought to man, who, through association with divinity, was to become one with God. Christ, the redeemer and restorer, was to sanctify and purify man’s mind, making it a power that would draw other minds to Himself. It is His purpose, by the elevating, sanctifying power of the truth, to give men nobility and dignity. He desires His children to reveal His character, to exert His influence, that other minds may be drawn into harmony with His mind….

QUESTION: HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN WHAT JESUS MEANT IN MATTHEW 10 IN LIGHT OF WHAT WE HAVE JUST STUDIED?

Matt 10:34-39 – Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. 35 ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Your enemies will be right in your own household!’  37 “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

• Jesus Himself said that He came not bearing peace but a sword. What He meant was that the truth of God can never be neutral, but it divides truth from that which is false by its very nature. Jesus’ plea for unity has to do more with the petty controversies and bitter divisions that often plague relationships. The love that binds Christians together should overcome all such grievances, demonstrating to the world that the people of God are unique and unprecedented in their fellowship, drawing the nonbelieving world to faith in Christ. Holman Bible Handbook

Our High Calling 329 – Jesus prayed that His followers might be one; but we are not to sacrifice the truth in order to secure this union, for we are to be sanctified through the truth. Here is the foundation of all true peace. Human wisdom would change all this, pronouncing this basis too narrow. Men would try to effect unity through concession to popular opinion, through compromise with the world, a sacrifice of vital godliness. But truth is God’s basis for the unity of His people.

Our High Calling 170 – Those who are truly connected with God will not be at variance with one another…. His Spirit ruling in their hearts will create harmony, love, and unity. The opposite of this works in the children of Satan; there is with them a continual contradiction. Strife and envy and jealousy are the ruling elements. The characteristic of the Christian is the meekness of Christ. Benevolence, kindness, mercy, and love originate from Infinite Wisdom, while the opposite is the unholy fruit of a heart that is not in harmony with Jesus Christ….In union there is strength. In division there is weakness and defeat.

Hebrews 13:20-21 – 20 Now may the God of peace—who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—21 may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.

Our High Calling 185 – The efficiency of Satan’s kingdom is found in the blending together of satanic forces to extend the contagion of evil; but the Lord Jesus has devised a plan whereby He may work counter to the work of Satan. He designs to imbue His human agents, the subjects of His kingdom, with the principles of love and unity. With sanctified heart they are to build one another up and strengthen and extend that which is good. Reciprocating Christ’s love, they are to deal in the goods of heaven. His church is to bear His superscription, and thus testify to the world that God has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world…. Love is to be interwoven as threads of gold in all their actions.