Month: February 2015

Even several hundred years ago, Martin Luther knew that all Christians were to be workplace pastors to those around them (in other words, you are to be a minister where you work):

It is pure invention that bishops, priests, and monks are to be called the “spiritual estate”; while princes, artisans, and farmers are the “temporal estate.” That is indeed a fine bit of lying and hypocrisy…. All Christians are truly of the “spiritual estate,” and there is among them no difference at all but that of office….. There is really no difference between laymen and priests, princes and bishops, “spirituals” and “temporals,” as they call them, except that of office and work…. A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops, and everyone by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other, that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, even as all the members of the body serve one another.
–Martin Luther

Jesus is the only “pattern” we must follow. And because He really lives His life in us, we too can “walk even as He walked” (1 John 2.6), and “do as He has done” (John 13.15), “love as He has loved” (Eph. 5.1-2), “forgive as He forgave” (Col. 3.13), “have this mind, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2.5), and therefore we are able to follow the example He has left us (1 Pet. 2.21), lay down our lives for the brethren as He did (1 John 3.16). It is only because He became like us that we can become like Him.
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony — spiritual even more than physical — that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich. The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity — hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory — because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.
–J. I. Packer

Why we need to love people –
We let our lights shine for a purpose greater than high attendance at Sunday School or maximum participation in the church cleanup day. Those are by-products. Loving people unconditionally and serving them like Jesus will cause them to look to the Father. Then, transformation can occur in their lives.
–Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer