LOVING AND SERVING EACH OTHER

LOVING AND SERVING ONE ANOTHER (Declaration  # 12)

                Declaration of faith # 12 says this:

                We Believe in: The Lord’s supper and washing of the saint’s feet.”

                I have seen it done both ways. Some church groups actually go through the ceremony of washing each other’s feet, while others do not.  Either way we are being obedient to the Lord, for in His summary Jesus said: As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do it in remembrance of Me.” Mt. 26:26-29. Foot washing is representative of a much higher principle.

                In a quick review of foot washing only in the book of John and Paul didn’t mention it in connection with the Passover service. So it is obviously not a part of the covenant in Christ’s blood… at least not as a ceremony. However there is a great deal said about loving and serving one another and like many ceremonies, foot washing can be done and then we can walk away and ignore the needs of the brethren and the beggar at the door and we think we have fulfilled the commandments because we have spent 5 minutes washing someone’s feet.

                I have not seen actual foot washing done at our church, but I have seen a whole lot of loving and serving one another. We are family, and when anyone is hurting we help them out. Foot washing, represents a way of life. Much like circumcision, which was an absolute and eternal law for the Jews) circumcision is now fulfilled in us by the circumcision of our hearts. We have been cut off from the flesh and from Satan’s Kingdom and we have been born again into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Likewise, foot washing is fulfilled by us in our loving and serving each other on a daily basis.

                Mind you, there is nothing wrong with the actual ceremony, but I would ask this question: If you were in desperate need, your cupboards were empty and your children were  going to sleep hungry… would you rather someone wash your feet, or to give you a boat load of groceries and some assistance in meeting the immediate needs?

                So it is that the Law is fulfilled with genuine love… the kind of love that gives… that serves.

                In the final judgment nothing is mentioned about foot washing, but Jesus does say: “I was hungry and you fed me, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to Me. And so, when it comes to compassion we can’t walk by the needy saying to ourselves: “I washed someone’s feet four weeks ago, so I’m covered.

                One of the things that God taught Bonnie and me, when we left behind the mega church where we didn’t know anybody and did not engage: He told us to go to the smaller church ( in this case the Messianic Fellowship) and there to go not for what you can get, but what you can give. So our theme became loving and serving and living by divine appointment and those two things have revolutionized our lives.

                You would be amazed at how wonderful church can be when you go there to serve rather than to be a mere spectator. The same has been true here in Clinton, Tennessee. Here the Lord directed Bonnie and me to the exact place where they were praying for the very things that we do. And so, rather than being strangers, we quickly fit in to the positions they had been praying about and we feel very much a part of the family, because we are involved in the very ministries that the Lord appointed us to.

                If you have found church attending to be less than inspiring… turn it around. Go there to bless as many people as you can. Go to make people feel welcomed and loved. Learn people’s names… share in the burdens of the church. Love and serve as if doing everything for Jesus Himself and you will soon stop worrying about the color of the paint in the foyer, or the carpet in the sanctuary and you will become a part of the flow of God’s love.

                Too often we have made the church into a repository of information and doctrine, rather than a family, with hearts that beat with the love of God.  We strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel so to speak and we forget that Jesus commanded us to love one another. In fact Jesus said: If you love Me, you will keep My commandments even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and then He said: “And this is my commandment that you love one another even as I have loved you.”

                Herein was Jesus beginning to preach the New Covenant for as Paul says in Romans 8:4: The Law is fulfilled in those who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” He also said that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. So if we put two and two together, we will see that loving and serving one another is much more than a suggestion. It is not an option in the Christian life. *It is the core of it.

                So go out there and love somebody with the love of Christ.