Happy Fourth of July Eve 2022!

This “eve” falls on the Lord’s Day.  Our personal freedoms as card-carrying citizens of the USA are such a blessing to us.  They are only blitzed by the eternal freedoms available to us through the sinless life, the substitutionary death, the Sunday morning resurrection, the seen-by-so-many ascension to Heaven and the soon coming return of our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.  We have SO much for which to be thankful on this celebratory weekend.  Fireworks will explode in the skies all around us.  In Acts chapter two, Jesus showed us through the wind and flames of Pentecost that fire WORKS!  God the Holy Spirit burns IN us!

For this particular lesson, our theme has veered a bit from our current study of The Holy Spirit.  After this short commercial break, we will resume that study next week.  As I write this lesson preview, we have just been given word that our Supreme Court justices have rendered their decision in the case of Roe versus Wade and in the follow-up Casey case.  Both cases have been reversed as unconstitutional.  The decision about abortion has been returned to the states.  As of this writing, there are 26 of 50 states that will not allow abortion within their borders.  Our free exercise of justice continues to stand. 

We all have personal liberty.  We must never forget that along with these liberties comes our personal responsibility to use them well.  Even in societal realms, we must seek the good of others as a priority.  Oh, if only this were the case in every HOME in America!  Our nation would be in a very different place.  

Additionally, as believers, we have spiritual liberty in Christ.  However, we must never seek to exercise that liberty at the expense of others.  The main quote from our lesson materials fits here:  “All believers should put limits on their independence in Christ for the benefit of others.” 

In Philippians 2:3, Paul wrote that we are to… “do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.”  In a nutshell, that is how we should make decisions daily among believers AND among lost people.  Love starts right there.  How much is my own “agenda” worth compared to the offense given to a lost person?  That would be ZERO.

I have had the privilege of traveling to Greece and Rome to trace the journeys of Paul.  One of his toughest assignments was in the city of Corinth.  Our passage of scripture today closes with its most valuable point:  Verses 32-33 of First Corinthians 10 say:    “Give no offense to either Jews or Greeks or to the church of God, just as I (Paul) also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.”

Our daily goal as believers is not to demand our rights.  Not to seek our own profit.  Not to use our belief in Christ to hammer truth into people we encounter on our daily path.  Our daily goal is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and demonstrate that by our love FIRST for God in all things.  This kind of love will not seek to offend fellow brothers (Jews to Paul) or lost nations (Gentiles) or even Christian brethren and “sistren.” If for some reason our actions DO offend others, we are to seek to make things right between us for the sake of sharing Christ with all people which is the most important responsibility we have. 

We are to seek to build up other believers but especially to do all we can to build up those who do NOT believe.  The word “edify” means to build up.  It is related to the building or construction of a house or home (oikos).  People need our affirmation and encouragement and partnership in helping them find a firm foundation in Christ on which to build their lives. 

Know the truth.  Stand for truth.  Share the truth.  Love people.  Walk with them.  Jesus did.