There are many major themes which help weave all of the Bible together. One of them includes significant meals in history which help us understand the role and importance of Christian communion. M e a l 1 : F o r b i d de n F r u i t In Genesis 3 our first parents, Adam and Eve, committed the original sin when they ate a meal without God in disobedience to him. Sin, the fall, and the... Read more
As a young pastor, I will never forget the day that a new Christian approached me after church to complain. They could not understand why we had such a small snack and long lines to get it. What they were talking about was communion. Apparently, I had failed to explain what we were doing and they could not make sense of what we were doing. What is communion? The second sacrament that constitutes the Christian church (in addition to baptism)... Read more
At church recently, a sincere young woman began chatting with me. She was struggling to know whether or not she was a Christian. She had asked various Christian friends who offered a variety of opinions which left her confused. One of the great debates among various denominations and theological traditions is how we can distinguish between Christians and non-Christians. Various answers such as being baptized, taking communion, asking Jesus into your heart, going to church, and living a good life... Read more
Are you more prone to think of Jesus as a man, or as God? Liberal and progressive Christians more easily see the fully humanity of Jesus Christ than His divinity. The result is that they can, tragically, see him as a good man rather than the God-man. He then takes his place among the moral examples of good people who have walked the earth, rather than the sole sinless and saving God. Conversely, conservative and fundamental Christians more easily see... Read more
When someone wrongs you, it can be really hard to recover. Hurtful things people have said and done stay with you. You can become angry, broken, even bitter. But God wants to heal and restore you so you can live a life of love in Him. Watch above as I share practical tips on how you can open up to His healing – and find forgiveness, peace, and closure. Got a question for Pastor Mark? Send it to him at [email protected] today! Read more
A new Christian recently explained to me that they were struggling mightily with the temptation do sin. This confused them, since they now belong to Jesus. So, we had a good conversation about what “the world” means in the Bible. “The world” refers to our external enemy that tempts us to sin against God. What is meant by the term “world” in its negative sense? The world is an organized system in opposition and rebellion against God. The world is... Read more
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” –1 John 4:11 The practical implication of being reconciled to the source of love is that the Christian is not only loved but is also enabled to love. Romans 5:5 says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Because the Holy Spirit puts the love of God into the root of our new nature, we can bear fruit that begins with love. As Galatians 5:22 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” In addition to being the source of all love, God has also defined love for us: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.11 Jesus himself said that this kind of supernatural Trinitarian love would be among the chief marks of a Christian church. In John 13:35 he said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” According to the Bible, the mark of Christian maturity and true spirituality is love. And, the more we understand and experience the love of God the more loving we become toward God and others. Is there any area in the definition of love above that you need to focus on improving in? 11 1 Cor. 13:4–8. Read more
When is the last time that you were really tempted to sin? Did it feel like gravity was pulling you toward doing something that we wrong? Did it feel like Paul’s words in Romans 7:15-20: For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it... Read more
“…this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” –1 John 4:10 The most loving person who has ever walked the earth is Jesus Christ. The most loving act the world has ever seen is Jesus’ death on the cross in place of sinners, reconciling them into loving relationship with God. Indeed, Romans 5:8 gloriously declares, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus, who is declared repeatedly to be the Son of God,8 did this work of salvation in love. For those who turn from sin and trust in Jesus, the Bible declares that we are now adopted into the family of God; God is our Father and we are sons of God.9 While the language that both men and women are sons of God may seem curious to modern ears, it was a reflection of God’s deep love to those who first heard it. Paul was saying that believers are like sons who have full legal standing in the family with all the inherent blessings of that status, as was the case in ancient culture. Similarly, Christians are blessed to have God as their Father, the church as their family, fellow Christians as their brothers and sisters, God’s provision as their sustenance, and God’s full inheritance for their eternity. Furthermore, as sons, God’s people have a duty to obey God the Father by following the humble example of love set by God the Son by the power of God the Spirit. In sum, God the Father through God the Son by God the Spirit has made it possible for sinners not only to enter into the loving relational community of the church, but, incredibly, to live in the very life of the Trinity. Jesus prays that believers of all times “may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”10 According to Jesus, the incredibly important big idea is that we share in the life of the Trinity itself and the very love of God. Is there anyone in your life that could really benefit from your love right now? 8 Rom. 1:3, 4, cf. Gal. 4:4; John 1:1–14; 5:18–25; 10:30–38. 9 Rom. 8:14, Gal. 3:26; Heb. 12:7. 10 John 17:21. Read more
“…God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness.” –Genesis 1:26 God’s love compelled him to make us in his image and likeness to be in loving relationship with him and with one another. God did not make us because he was lonely, or because he wanted someone to talk to, and certainly not because he was relationally needy. He has experienced relationship perfectly within the Trinity. However, God did make us to worship, to pour ourselves out in love to him in a relationship of self-giving adoration and action patterned after the community of the Trinity. Speaking of creation, in general, which also applies to the creation of mankind, in particular, the Orthodox theologian Kallistos Ware says: The world was not created unintentionally or out of necessity; it is not an automatic emanation or overflowing from God, but the consequence of divine choice. We should think, not of God the Manufacturer or God the Craftsman, but of God the Lover. By voluntary choice God created the world in “ecstatic” love, so that there might be besides himself other beings to participate in the life and the love that are his.4 Furthermore, because men and women are made in God’s image and likeness, we too are created for loving relationship with God and one another. This need for relationship and love explains why, prior to sin even entering the world, the one thing declared to be “not good” was “that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”5 Tragically, because of sin, our love and worship are marred. As sinners separated from God, we are prone to love people, things, and experiences as gods rather than God. Too many people worship angelic beings who pretend to be god.6 As worshipers, we pour ourselves out in adoration and action for the spirits/demons, people, things, and experiences that we love in place of God. In love, however, the Trinitarian community of God enacted a plan through which we sinners might be saved from our sin and reconciled to God and one another in loving relationship. The Bible reveals that God’s loving plan was that God the Father would send God the Son into human history as Immanuel, God with us in flesh. The God-man, Jesus Christ, lived as a perfectly Spirit-filled human, a perfect example of our life of love for God and others. He died on a cross in the place of sinners and then resurrected to bodily life to bring us newness of life so that God the Spirit would indwell lost sinners, regenerating them and sealing them as God’s possession.7 Make no mistake, Jesus mission was one of love. Who has most reflected God’s love to you? What can you do to thank them today? 4 Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1995), 44. 5 Gen. 2:18. 6 Deut. 12:1–3; 1 Kings 11:1–10; Ps. 106:37–39; 1 Cor. 8:5; 10:20. 7 Eph. 1:3–14. Read more
Pastor Mark Driscoll
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