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January 13, 2013 |
| Love in the Supermarket Aisle | ||
If the title of the message sounds like a title you might find on a cheap paperback novel, we're not going to be talking about that kind of love. You'll come to understand as we go through this message that we're talking about something different.
We understand the foundation of Christianity is faith, which is a belief in not only the existence of Jesus but in everything that he said and everything that he was. As part of that, he talked about very practical matters, how God's people should live in the world around them, how they should live their lives, how they should treat other people, things they should do and shouldn't do. Christianity begins with faith, and then it continues on with living a godly life. That pattern has been set for us by Jesus.
The apostles also talked about living the Christian life. They talked about a transformative Christianity, one that changed the person and the person's perspective on everything. It changed the way you lived, the way you acted, and how you dealt with people and things in your life. It also made you a person who desired to do good works.
So we're going to be talking about living a godly life in a practical way in this message. It's easy to say, "Love your neighbor," but how, exactly, do we do that?
There are a lot of examples, positive and negative, in the Bible, but our society is much different from theirs. Their practical examples usually don't relate to our lives in any way, shape, or form. We might ask, "How do we love someone when we're gassing up our oxcarts?" Well of course we don't gas up our oxcarts. Oxcarts were a common thing then; they're not a thing for us now. And how do we help victims of highway robberies on I-35? Well that doesn't relate because we don't have highway robberies anymore. So a lot of the examples that we have in the Bible don't relate to us.
That brings us to the question of how we show God's love in the supermarket aisle and everywhere else? How do we live that life that God wants us to live?
We are going to look at a few verses in this study, but this is the key passage that sets the theme for the study. This is the love passage that you've heard many times before. I'm showing it in two translations.
4 Love is patient and sweet; love does not envy; love is not upset neither puffed up. 5 Love does not commit what is shameful, neither does it seek its own; it is not provoked, neither does it entertain evil thoughts, 6 rejoices not in evil, but rejoices in the truth, 7 endures all things, believes all things, hopes all, bears all. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - ANT1)
The NIV translation says it almost the same way, but uses a couple of words that are different enough to bring up to see both of them.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - NIV2)
We might think these verses only apply to the big things, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and so on, or the great big things, like giving big money to the church or giving big money to people who need it. One point in this study is that this is true of not just the big things, but also of the little things. The big things happen rarely in our lives, but the little things we do every day happen many times a day.
Through all of those things that we do, big and little, we're expected to show God's love. We're going to start looking at some of the different examples of them. The idea here is if you take care of the pennies, the small things, then the pounds or the dollars will take care of themselves. If you make a practice of showing love in the little things, it will be easier to show love when the big things come around.
A supermarket may not seem like a place to show God's love. It's more of a chore, and we want to get in, do the shopping, and get out … or maybe that's just the male perspective 😊.
During the time that I was preparing this lesson, I went to do some shopping. I was still thinking about the study and what I might use for examples. It's easy to find lots of examples of people who are not doing a good job of showing God's love.
Parking
Sometimes you see people in the parking lot who are blocking a driving lane while they wait for the best spot. That's not an act of love. It's an act of arrogance, thinking it is OK to cause trouble for other people so your life can be convenient.
I'll qualify all of this right away. Sometimes, of course, it's necessary to do some of the things that we are talking about. Sometimes these things have to be done, but as a general practice, they shouldn't be done.
Sometimes people will say they are sorry for doing it. They are in a hurry or something, and that makes it OK. If you were really sorry, you wouldn't have done it … with the benefit of not having to be sorry.
I remember when we lived in Pittsburgh, people would actually drive around the parking lot slowly following people who had just left the store, just to get their parking spot, if it was a good one. I haven't seen that much in Texas.
People like that are only thinking of themselves, not other people, and they're not showing God's love. It's no excuse to say, "Everybody does it." First it isn't true; most people don't do that, even in Pittsburgh. Second, it is coming from a selfish place in a person who shouldn't be there.
Carts
Returning shopping carts from the parking lot is another good example. Some people will just leave their cart where it's sitting and block a parking spot. Obviously, that's not showing love either.
It's also not a way to make other people respect you for the Christian you are. Truly, that kind of action will cause people to blaspheme God. They'll say, "Oh, he says he's a Christian, but look what he's done here. He's caused a bunch of trouble for people he doesn't care about."
What we do is visible to others as an example of how to live a godly life, a life of God's love. Even if we don't think we're being watched, sometimes we are, and we don't know when.
Another example of carts is not blocking the aisles when you're inside the store with your carts. When I was shopping and looking for examples for the study, I saw some examples of blocking aisles with carts. A few people were so distracted by looking for something that they would turn their cart sideways in the aisle and block off the aisle.
We are starting to see that we can show God's love in a lot of different ways, very small ways, throughout our everyday lives. We're also seeing that these little things are, in fact, not so little. They fail to show God's love in us, and instead, they show something rotten in us.
A guiding principle here is the golden rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do you want people blocking the aisles on you? Well, then you wouldn't block the aisles.
It's important to understand that this study is not about criticizing things that other people do. It's about looking into ourselves. I can only give a few examples. You need to look to see if you are doing something different but still failing to show God's love.
Kids
Some parents inflict their kids on others in the supermarket by letting them run wild or scream and fuss. Those same parents probably wouldn't appreciate other parents doing that.
I know if you're a parent, sometimes you have to get the shopping done, and the kids don't cooperate. You can only do your best, but be sure you are doing that. I've seen some parents hustle a screaming child out of the store.
Other Shoppers
With other shoppers, we can shift our focus from not doing bad things to doing good things. Sometimes you can actually be a benefit to other people in the supermarket. You can live like God would have you live and be a blessing to other people. There are people who are too short or too old or in wheelchairs who sometimes need assistance.
I have a story about a lady who was too short. Sometimes the products, like milk or juice, don't slide down those freezer shelves, so a carton of something can be way up on an already tall shelf. As I walked into the freezer area, I saw a short lady who was trying to get a carton of orange juice that had stuck. She had stuffed herself into the freezer as far as she could, but still wasn't able to reach it. So I said, "Well, I'm a little taller, let me try." I wasn't a whole lot taller, but I was able to force a big part of my body into that shelf and reach to the very back and get the orange juice out.
In a whole bunch of little ways, we can show God's love to the world generally and be seen doing that. We're talking about living a godly life in little ways, and there are lots of different ways to help others.
Probably by now you're wondering, does God really care about parking spots, shopping carts, screaming kids, and things like that? Does God care about things that are so small, such trivial things?
Well, no, not so much. God is really much more interested in what's in you that would do these things. God cares about the spiritual realm. God is always much more interested in why you do the things that you do. So, in that sense, God does care about the shopping carts and other stuff. Through that fruit, others see what is in you, and you see too.
God does care about the fruit that you produce as a Christian. If you claim to be a Christian, but produce bad fruit, it reflects badly on him. Are you producing fruit that brings a blessing to him, as people see you as a Christian doing the things that you should be doing, living the way that you should be? Yes, he cares about that.
All of these little things that might seem too small to bother with should become our nature. Without thinking about it, without considering who is watching, or who we can tell, we should do them. They should just become part of how we live our lives.
The fruit that we should be producing, that is talked about so many times in the Bible, consists of Blueberries, Apples, and Jackfruit, but mostly Blueberries.
But everyone who will give you only a cup of water to drink in the name that you are one who belongs to the Messiah, amen, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward. (Mark 9:41)
God is saying those little things count. Not only that, but they will be rewarded.
Look carefully at the wording. It speaks of a Christian who is in need, and someone, likely not a Christian, gives the Christian some water because he is known as a Christian … that person will be rewarded.
Little things do matter to God as well as the big things.
We need to be careful that our motivation doesn't get cross-wired. We should do these things because we want to do good, not to be seen doing good. Even when no one could possibly see what we do, even when no one will ever hear about it, we do it because the love of God is inside of us. Will we feel good for having done something good? Yes, likely we will, but that is also not the reason we do good.
When you go shopping, most of the people don't leave their carts in the middle of a parking spot. Even for non-Christians, most of them don't drive slowly around the parking lot looking for the very best parking spot. There really isn't a difference between how most of them act and how we act.
You might ask, if we act like most of the rest of the world, how are we in any way different that matters? The difference is on the inside, and it comes in levels, with each level being deeper within you. These levels are the reason you do things. What's the motivation?
Beggars
Another opportunity to show God's love is with beggars. In Jesus' time, beggars were a common thing, and giving to them was encouraged. The situation was different though.
We often think that we should be a blessing to everyone, so perhaps every beggar should be given money. That isn't correct. That is level 2 thinking.
In our time, there are sometimes beggars who are not poor. There have been lots of stories about these people. Begging is just their lazy way of earning an income. So not all beggars need money. We also know that sometimes the money given to them isn't put towards their needs, but toward their addictions.
When we're dealing with beggars, we need to follow the Holy Spirit. I've known this in my own life. I expect all of us have run into people who are panhandling for money. For each such person that I meet, generally, I don't feel anything from the Holy Spirit directing me to give to the person. But there have been very special cases where I did. I knew that I needed to give generously to that person, and I did that.
I don't know what the Holy Spirit is doing in each case. Is this a person who really, truly needs the money, or is this another person who doesn't need the money, but the Holy Spirit is giving it to him anyway? I'm not here to tell God his business. If someone were to tell me that they knew that guy and that he is a fraud, I would be indifferent. I'm giving because that's what the Spirit wants
God could be giving to him so he can perhaps do something evil and realize how evil he is and work his way back to God. It's also possible that this will be that person's last chance, and may lead to his death. The Holy Spirit can do things for a lot of different reasons and with a bigger picture view that we don't understand. We do it because that's the Holy Spirit leading us.
In the end, all of the things that we do should be done because the Holy Spirit is leading us to do those things.
How can we know that we're following the Holy Spirit in every decision in our lives? That actually turns out to be the wrong question to ask. There are hundreds of decisions that we make every day. How can the Holy Spirit be part of every one of those decisions?
We understand that we can't stop and pray every time we need to make a decision. Some of those decisions are made while we're traveling in a car, and praying might not be a safe thing to do. Other times it just isn't possible for other reasons.
The answer to the question, surprisingly, comes from the Old Testament, where you wouldn't expect an answer about the Holy Spirit. It comes from something Samuel tells Saul, as Saul was becoming king, and was about to be given the Holy Spirit. Samuel is telling him what's going to happen to Saul when that happens, and how Saul will work with the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. 7 Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you. (1 Samuel 10:6-7)
Remember that the Holy Spirit wasn't commonly available in the Old Testament. Generally only the top leaders and prophets had it. When kings started to be chosen by God, beginning with Saul, the kings received the Holy Spirit to guide them. The average person didn't receive the Holy Spirit.
Samuel is telling Saul what his experiences are going to be, and also how to live under the Holy Spirit's direction. I think that's a good thing for us to see as well.
If the Holy Spirit is in you, you are a different person. The implications of that are important. We are not like the world, even though it sometimes seems like we are. We think, here I am, ten fingers, ten toes, I look like them. The only thing that's different between us is that I believe in God, and they don't believe in God.
But there's much more to it than that.
There is an exception to the above. Sometimes there is a problem in the relationship. Because of this problem, God will let you make a wrong choice to experience failure and correct the problem.
What does this mean for us?
The phrase "do whatever your hand finds to do" is idiomatic. It means "do what seems right to do."
Samuel is saying to Saul that he needs to do what seems right. Because he has been changed inside, he's a different person, and what seems right to him now will be what is right.
As long as you're right with God, the things that seem right to do will be in His will. To back that up, he says, "God is with you"; God is leading you to do those things and to make those decisions.
If you are aligned with the Holy Spirit, if you're reading your Bible, praying, doing those things that are necessary to keep yourself aligned with God, the decisions that you make will be the right decisions.
It can be a struggle for us to constantly keep that alignment. There are many times when there are things that are pulling at me, my own desires generally, my own desire to have something, to be something, or to do something. Those things pull at all of us very strongly.
If we can empty ourselves of all of those desires, then we can make a decision that is right and godly, and it will be because the Holy Spirit is guiding us in that decision.
Trusting that God is working through us can also be a struggle. It's all about faith. Faith that God is with us, that he is in control of everything, that he is helping us to make the right decisions, and that we are a different person because of the Holy Spirit's changes in us.
My first question was, "How can we know that we're following the Holy Spirit in every decision in our lives?" I said that was the wrong question, but it is absolutely everyone's question. We would like to know. We can't know. We walk by faith.
Sometimes, though, we get glimpses of what God has done through us. Maybe something came easily but turned out better than expected. Maybe pieces you didn't know existed came together to produce a beautiful result. Maybe, when you look back on a success, you realize that the pieces were coming together before you were involved. In these ways, we get a peek at how God has used us.
There are other situations where we can live a godly life that shows God's love to everyone. Many of those come from driving around on the road, which most people do frequently.
Many of these are obvious, so I won't spend much time on them.
Paying attention
You may not have thought of it this way, but paying attention to your driving is showing love to the people around you.
We've been talking about little ways to show love. Paying attention to what you're doing, keeping your mind on the road, are some things you should be doing anyway, but now we see it is also showing love to the others around you.
Bad drivers
Watching out for bad drivers and not being a bad driver are also ways of showing love on the road as you drive around.
When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet (fence or short wall) for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it. (Deuteronomy 22:8)
This commandment isn't about building a parapet. It's about caring for other people. More than that, it declares that there is a responsibility to care for other people. It isn't sufficient to say, "He should have known better."
Merging
Even how you merge into traffic or treat people who are merging into traffic can show God's love.
Overly nice - not taking your turn at a 4-way stop
You can be overly nice though. Some people think they are being nice by letting you go first at a 4-way stop, when they were clearly there first. Following the rules of the road is the right thing to do. So not taking your turn at a four-way stop is not showing God's love; it's just confusing people.
So sometimes you can try to be nice to people and be seen by them as not showing God's love.
I have a good story for that. I lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a year. They have a driving practice there called the "quick left". It has to do with the situation where two cars arrive at opposite sides of a stop sign-controlled intersection at about the same time. If one car is signalling a left turn and the other is going straight, the person who is signaling left is supposed to go first, crossing in front of the car going straight. A "thank you" wave seems to be part of it. If there are two cars turning left, only the first car can go ahead. The traffic laws don't say that, nor do their driver manuals, but this is their standard practice.
This is their way of being nice to people who are trying to turn left. But if you don't know what's going on, you're not going to do that because that's not a safe move by any driver's handbook. Even though I was warned about it by coworkers on my first day, it caught me the first time I encountered it, but it still never felt good.
But here's the point, if you don't make that quick left when you're signaling, then the other person gets mad at you because you haven't done the local custom. So you can do wrong things when meaning to do right things.
I referred to three levels of righteousness before. We are going to apply them here as well.
You can do what is right, obeying the traffic laws in this case, because you fear the punishment. You don't want the traffic fine. You don't want to smash your car.
Better than that, at level two, you can do it because God told us we should. God has, in fact, said that we should obey the laws of man except where they conflict with the laws of God.
Best of all, you can do it because you have been changed by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit guides us in all things and helps us to do the right thing, if we will follow the Holy Spirit, of course.
For judges are not a fear to the good doer, but to the wicked. Do you wish, therefore, to be unafraid of the authority? Do good, and you shall have praise from him. 4 For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you have done evil, be afraid, for he does not wear the sword for nothing, for he is the minister of God and a furious avenger to those who do evil. 5 Therefore it is urgent for us to be subject, not for the sake of wrath only, but also for the sake of conscience. (Romans 13:3-5)
He doesn't describe it as levels, but he is saying the same thing. Don't only do the righteous thing because you're afraid of the wrath of the judge, who will punish you. He says live at the level where you do it because of your conscience. One thing the Holy Spirit does when we are changed is to renew our conscience, our built-in God-given understanding of right and wrong. With it functioning correctly, we will choose to do what is right.
The home is a place where we definitely need to be able to show God's love. You'd think that we should be able to do that all the time, but sometimes it can be a struggle.
Homework
This is more for students. The levels of righteousness apply here as well. You can do the homework because you don't want an F for the course, and you have to repeat it. You can do it because the teacher said to do the homework. Or you can do it because it is the right thing to do. Also, this homework is a blessing to you, and it is going to be something that you can take with you and use in your future.
Chores
When I was a child, I complained about the chores I was given to do. I begrudgingly did my chores. I wasn't claiming any sort of a Christian life at the time, but as I look back, I realize what a poor child I was.
Chores are one of those things that need to be done. Our parents distribute them the best way they can. These chores are merely a reflection of what our lives will always be. There will always be things that need to be done when we would rather be doing something else. We'll talk about love in the workplace in a little bit.
As Christians who have been changed, we do them with an attitude that shows the love of God within us. We don't only do them because we fear punishment or the consequences of not doing them. We don't only do them because we've been told to do them.
Sibling Rivalry / Getting Along
You'd think that at home, where we are loved the most, we would be able to get along with the people the easiest, but very often that's one of the places where we have the biggest challenge of showing God's love.
You've probably heard lots of stories of sisters and brothers who no longer speak to each other, ever. They don't see each other, don't speak to each other, and aren't friends on Facebook. These animosities have grown out of problems in the family, commonly sibling rivalry.
We need to be careful about our home life as well, so that we show God's love in all of the things that we do at home.
Repay no person evil for evil but be concerned with doing good before all people. 18 And if it is possible, according to what is within you, make peace with every person. (Romans 12:17-18)
It says, "be concerned with doing good before all people." We already said this doesn't mean you should make sure that people see the good you do. It means we should make sure that everyone who sees us sees that everything we are doing is good. Again we see the idea of all the little things we do being opportunities to show the love of God within us.
If you have a bad relationship, make sure you aren't the one who keeps it bad. It isn't always possible to fix a relationship, but if the opportunity arises, make sure you aren't in the way.
I've heard Christians say things like, "If she would only do this, then we would be OK. But until then, I don't want to have anything to do with her." Sometimes we can set such a high standard for someone that we are the ones in the way. We need to remember that Jesus didn't set such a high standard for us.
As at home, your workplace is a place where you show the love of God in you by how you do things, and how you view things.
And do all that you do with all your soul, as for our Lord, and not as for the children of men. 24 And know that you will receive from our Lord a reward in the inheritance, for you serve the lord Yahweh the Messiah. (Colossians 3:23-24)
If I haven't made the point enough times yet, we can do our work because we are afraid of starving. We can do our work because the boss says we need to do it. Or, we can do it as if for our Lord. We don't do it only for the Earthly reward, and we don't do it for the Heavenly reward, although there will be one. We do it because it is right to do.
Job / Pay Envy
Most employers hide the amount that they are paying each employee, but often the employees find out anyway. Job envy and pay envy can be a problem at work, but Christians shouldn't be in that situation. We should always be content with what we have.
If we are not content with what we have, we can become covetous. A covetous person is a person who is never content with what they have. Even if they get what they wanted, at that time, they'll find something else that they don't have, and they'll want that next.
We need to understand something that seems to conflict with contentment. How can we be content and at the same time try to improve ourselves? Are we not trying to improve ourselves because we aren't content?
We should be trying to make ourselves better, but not for the reason that we're unhappy with what we have. We should be trying to make ourselves better so we can achieve more. We should want to improve ourselves, to grow, to get better, only for the reason that being better is better.
I've known people who've had a lot of trouble understanding that. The business world sometimes teaches that, to get something better, you have to really want it. Moving up the ladder at your job becomes an aggressive, covetous affair where you won't be happy until you get what someone else has.
You should want a position because you think you could do a good job there - that you have the right combination of training and experience. If you get that position, and it comes with better pay, great. If you don't get that position, you should find yourself content where you are and continue doing a good job there.
Again, we're talking about an attitude towards your work life that shows God in you.
Difficult co-workers
There are difficult people at work. I haven't known any job that didn't have some difficult people, those who are always going to make your life a challenge, people you have to deal with every day. You could say that God has put them there to test you so you can see how you are doing at dealing with difficult people.
When I wrote this study, the company I worked for had been bought out by a company that had a completely different corporate philosophy. All of our people found them difficult to deal with. I presume they found us that way also. It's easy to let every little thing be one more irritant to add to the pile, and to become spiteful or angry.
Difficult bosses
Of course the difficult person in your life could be your boss. Perhaps your boss is driving you crazy with his demands. Maybe you aren't given enough time to do good work.
Difficult group members
Of course, if you're the boss, it can be the members of your group that are driving you crazy.
Summary
I didn't go into detail on these difficult people because the problems they create are so situational. Keep in mind always that the little things that you do in all these places tell the world what's inside of you.
If we glance back at the verse for this section, we see that it says, "do all that you do with all your soul." It doesn't say to do your work with all your soul. It refers to everything in life that you do; do it as though you're doing it for our Lord.
The difficult people in our lives could be members of our own families. They may be people that we're associated with for other reasons, like neighbors or groups that we might belong to. There are always going to be some difficult people, and you're going to have to work through that, guided by the Holy Spirit, to be an opportunity to show God's love in little ways, time after time.
Sometimes you show God's love just by shutting your mouth. There are lots of ways to show God's love.
The school situation isn't all that different from the work-life situation.
Do everything at school with integrity. Do it the right way, do it honestly, don't cheat. For example, don't use other people's work unless you are allowed to, and then use references. We sometimes think that stealing only involves physical property, but using the ideas and thoughts of others as though they were your own is also theft. These are some more ways that the life you live will show God's love.
You can help other people, too. If you have a better understanding of a subject, you can sometimes be a help to other people. In tutoring situations, we need to be careful to teach so that the person will learn. Helping another person cheat makes you a cheater too, and the person isn't really helped.
I got dragged into this situation once, before I was a Christian. A friend asked me to help her with a programming class she was taking. I was programming professionally at the time. After starting the course, she realized it wasn't her career path, but she wanted the credits for the course.
I tried to teach her, but it was obvious that the exercise she was given was beyond her. In the end, I did the exercise and explained to her what I was doing. When the teacher saw it, he said it was the fastest solution he had ever seen … and was suspicious.
School is a good place to pick up bad habits and practices. The majority of the people there are not Christian, and many of the people who claim to be Christian are not. It's very easy to get caught up in worldly matters that will carry you away from the faith. I know that when I went to post-secondary education, I turned even further away from God than I had previously.
That can be a difficult life for a young person. The pressure to do what everyone else does is immense. That can be true of the work situation, too. For example, sometimes there are people on the job who swear a lot. It's natural to repeat what you hear. Those words can get into your own language if you aren't careful. That includes dirty jokes, sexual slurs, and much more.
Get away from it if you have to. In doing that, and not letting them affect you. Yes, staying away from bad people shows God's love in you.
If it's not at work or school, it can be in the rest of our lives. Wherever you are, you can show God's love by showing a few basic principles.
Show the love of God in you through the mercy, justice, and patience you show because sometimes we need them as well, from mankind and from God.
1 Aramaic New Testament
2 New International Version