When you open your Bible particularly the Book of Ephesians, you’ll
find a lot of ways the church is called and
compared to. It is interesting to know the different images
that portray the New Testament Church. In
Ephesians 1:23 & 4:16, the church is called the body of Christ.
In 2:19, the church is called God’s people and members of God’s household.
In 2:20, the church is described as a holy temple or a spiritual temple.
In 2:21, the church is compared to a building. In 5:8, the
church is pictured as the children of light. In 5:23, the church
is portrayed as the bride of Christ. You may be wondering why we
are given this kind of images of the church. I think the very purpose
of these images is to describe what the church is all about.
B. If you will ask me personally how I will describe or picture
the church, I’ll compare it to a hospital. This is based on the fact
that sin makes us guilty that is, we were found breaking the law of God
and sins makes us sick that is, our capacity to do the right thing is weakened
because of the effect of sin. The problem of guilt has been solved
by the death of Christ when He, through His death, satisfied the wrath
of God. Christ took our sins. Then by grace through faith in
His blood, we were declared righteous or right with God at the time we
were buried with Christ at baptism. Justification is the solution
to our problem of guilt. But there’s one more trouble. We don’t always
do what a new creature is supposed to be doing. We struggle and continue
to struggle with the old nature. Sometimes, we’re overcomers.
But there are times that we fail our new Master. However, this is
the essence of sanctification. It’s a process of becoming more like
Christ day by day.
This is the main reason why I call or compare the church to a
hospital. We are all forgiven but we’re not perfect. We continue
to allow the Greatest Physician to diagnose us and to find out the things
that keep us spiritually weak and unhealthy.
Having greatly considered our true position and condition that
is, forgiven but not perfect, we did three things in the first quarter
of 1998. Just like the physical sicknesses, we did three things in
three months: we assess/observe the manifestation of the problem/sickness,
we define or diagnose the problem/sickness, we solve the problem or prescribe
the best cure. Let’s wrap up or summarize our series by going through
the principles of curing a disease. First,
I. Assessing or observing the sickness
You won’t trust a physician who will give you or handed down to
you a prescription before you are ever seen or examined, will you?
Of course not! I will assume also that that will be your last visit
to that doctor. Anyway, no true or licensed doctor will ever do that.
Last January, we did assess and observe the spiritual sicknesses
that cause us more spiritually weak. Motivation is one of the major
things that make us spiritually sick. We made a distinction between
a driven person and a called person. We asked ourselves whether we’re a
driven or called person. We said that a driven person is most often
gratified only by accomplishment and is preoccupied with the symbols of
accomplishment. A driven person tend to have a limited regard for
integrity and lastly, he has the tendency to be highly competitive.
We looked at King Saul who was our example of a driven man in the Old Testament.
Remember how King Saul became very highly competitive because he got very
jealous to David. Let’s read I Samuel 18:6-9. If there was
an example of a driven man, we have an example of a called person, John
the Baptizer. We know very well how he forfeited his role as the
best man and how he considered it foolishness to draw attention to himself.
The manner by which a person uses his time is another major thing
that makes us spiritually sick. We mentioned the fact that our Lord
Jesus Christ is such an organized person in the aspect of time management
because He clearly understood His mission and priorities. He clearly
understood His limitations and lastly, He understood the difference between
what is urgent and what is important.
It won’t take a long observation to know that a person is physically
ill when he doesn’t have an appetite. Whether we accept it or not,
a spiritually well rounded person knows we grow by becoming listeners,
through reading and through disciplined study. Order to private world
will not happen unless the renewing of mind is taking place in one’s life.
If we lose our appetite for Bible study and prayer, you’ll surely loose
your weight and that will make us susceptible to all kinds of infections
and disease. Knowing the symptoms of our sicknesses, we’ll proceed
to the next step.
II. Defining or diagnosing the sickness
Love was the essence of our discussion last February. We
did not talk about love last February simple because it was a Love Month.
We talked about it because the most endangered character quality is love.
In I Corinthians 13, Paul tells us why love is the most important value.
Verse 1 -- This means that if we don’t have love, all that we
say is ineffective.
Verse 2a -- This means that if we don’t have love, all
we know is incomplete.
Verse 2b -- This means that if we don’t have love, all
we believe is insufficient.
Verse 3a -- This means that if we don’t have love, all
we give is insignificant.
Verse 3b -- This means that if we don’t have love,
all we accomplish is inadequate.
If you will ask me to define or diagnose the root cause of all
these spiritual sicknesses, I would say self-protective lifestyle.
That’s why Romans 13:10 says, “love is the fulfillment of the law.”
We are commanded to love God and our neighbor. We are expected to
look for the interest of others before our own interest. People of
character don’t love the lovable only. They teach themselves to love
the unlovable also.
As tender lover, we are expected to see people like God sees
people; we are to identify with other people’s problems; we treat people
like Jesus treats us. Tenderhearted people do these things because
omitting to do these things will create so much relational problems.
But it is not all tenderheartedness that we need to demonstrate.
There are occasions that we should practice tough love because truth-telling
is important to God. We were admonished to put off falsehood and
speak truthfully to his neighbor. (Eph. 4:25) We said we need to
practice tough love because other person’s well being is important to God.
We need people, friends, church leaders and members who will be willing
to take the risk of leaving the comfort level of their relationships for
the sake of truth and the well-being of the people they love and care for.
We are protecting too much ourself when we are not practicing tough love
especially when we see it necessary for the sake of truth and the well-being
of others. The best demonstration, however, of a deeper love is when
we are practicing sacrificial love. Sacrificial love is when you
are called to give up your plans, your independence, and your privacy for
the sake of someone you love.
It is not impossible that God is seeing hostility and retaliation
in many hearts, especially in the hearts of His people right now.
Many of the problems and pain we bear will be solved if only we are willing
to break the hostility cycle by a radical, non-retaliatory, second-mile
love. After we have known how to call our sickness, we, then, proceed
to
III. Solving or prescribing the best cure
The best cure to any kind of sicknesses is to admit or acknowledge
that pain exists; that we’re sick. Instead of burying or denying
our pains, it would be healthy if we would admit them. Admitting
that you have a problem is emotionally healthy. Not only that but
it is spiritually empowering and relationally attractive. The more
and the longer we keep the pain, the more the problem will be harder to
solve. Just by mere complaining about the pain and problem you feel
inside will not help solve the problem or cure the disease. Demandingness
will never shorten nor alleviate our problems or sicknesses. It gives
complication. The only thing that we should do is to trust God that
He knows what He’s doing.
Because medicine is easily and readily available here in our
country, there are times that I buy and take medicine without being seen
by a physician or a specialist. There are times that I got it right
but there were times that I know I need to be seen by a doctor. And
rightly so, after I’ve been checked up and diagnosed, I found myself taking
the wrong prescription. My solution to the problem does not match
with the sickness I am experiencing. I was looking in all wrong spots
and directions, that’s why I was not cured at all.
Let me illustrate how we can identify the problem areas in order
that we may prescribe the best cure. One woman confessed that she’s
married to a weak, uninvolved husband. This is what basically brings
problems in her world--a weak and uninvolved husband (a man who always
keeps quite especially on many major decision in the house).
That makes her feel disappointed, empty and angry. She also feels
guilty because she feels attracted to a man whom she thinks to be
a very responsible, cooperative, and involved man. What she experiences
here is basically pain in her heart. That attitude of her husband
made her to be very cold to her husband and that coldness and shallowness
of communication and relationship are not helping the situation.
The relationship is deteriorating. Believing she is so close to moral
compromise, she asked for help. She approaches her pastor asking
him to talk to her husband. She went to see a professional counselor
also to work through her internal emotions--rage, disappointment, emptiness,
etc. The counselor was able to identify the unresolved anger she
had in the past because her father was weak and uninvolved, too.
She was just preventing the experiences she had already experienced in
the past. In the end that problem in her behavior was solved because
that pain in her heart has been cured (unresolved anger to her father).
As fallen creatures (or victims), it is true that we’re vulnerable
to react and sometimes we react wrongly. We need to understand that
as “agents”, we are responsible to every reaction we make and many times,
our reactions are coming from the sin in the heart that cause sin in our
behavior. May it not happen.
Conclusion: Let’s read again Matthew 23:23-27. If
change is going to come from inside out, we’ll be released from our golden
cages; they are things or situations we thought will bring us fulfillment
but actually they bring emptiness.