jstefan posted on September 25, 2009 09:09
When I was teaching the Sabbath School lesson a few weeks ago, it suddenly dawned on me the reality that I was experiencing with my brother Timothy, was recorded right in 1 John 3:11-16.
Many of you will recall that shortly after my mother died in March 2007, a strange turn of events thrust me into a co-executor relationship with my brother Tim, in the probating of our mother’s Last Will and Testament.
Our relationship was difficult to disgusting from the get go! His foul mouth and arrogant attitude made working with him nearly impossible. I even privately spent $1000 of my own money to inquire of a lawyer what my recourse was with this impasse. Somehow the Lord restrained me from breaking the back of the problem by appealing to the probate court in Georgia.
Fortunately, I found all the cancelled checks necessary to confirm the wishes of our mother in the Will. Tim and my sister were treating the Will as optional until these checks surfaced. Needless to say, this did not make me any more popular with either one of them. My sister still will not directly speak to me.
But wonder of wonders something miraculously has happened to Timothy! He read over time that verse in 1 John 4:20: (I might add it changed me as well)!!
“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Then again he read: chapter 3 verse 14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”
The way Tim had been treated and was treating his biological family, not to speak of how he often felt toward the community family, struck Tim squarely in the heart. It all came to a head when he was laid off from his job of 26 years for mistreating employees under his supervision.
Any return to the Lord requires a response to the love of God in our love for one another. The stark fact is that we dwell in death if we do otherwise. Let’s not kid ourselves on this vital entry level principle of Christian growth!
Once Tim discovered this, a sense of repentance, a desire for reformation took hold. And now when he prays with me and talks on the phone his attitude and spirit are heavenly music. Tim is currently preparing for baptism. A wish that his mother had in her dying breath!
Where do we stand with our families and the wider church and community family? Do they know we are Christians by our love for one another? Just think what would happen evangelistically if we were revived just this way as Tim is becoming! It is predictable and a simple principled process right from the Holy Bible!
No wonder the 11th commandment John 15:17 given to us by our Savior is a word for our today!