Transcript

1 Corinthians chapter 16, and the apostle Paul, superintended by the holy spirit, therefore he was writing sacred scripture as he wrote this letter, the letter was destined for the church at Corinth. And for the last time, at least probably in a while, let me remind you this was a church in a big, big mess. Name the problem, they had it. Carnality, immaturity, jealousies, strife, fightings, vain glory, sexual perversion in the church, all kinds of things, perversions of spiritual gifts and Paul has just dealt with one issue after another as he’s tirelessly reproved them and rebuked them and corrected them and advised them and now we come to Paul’s final word, to the church at Corinth. We’ll see it there beginning in verse 13, we’ll look at verses 13 and 14, and then pick up in verse 19 and go through verse 24. Now we skipped a few verses because we covered those last time when we were together.

Verse 13, 1 Corinthians, chapter 16. “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” Verse 19. “The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The greeting is in my own hand—Paul. If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

Paul’s final word to the church at Corinth is also a very important word to all of us believers today. The first main point is the final exhortation, the final exhortation. We see that in verses 13 and 14. And actually what we have is a five fold explanation here. The apostle Paul is going to summarize all the specific teachings and exhortations, corrections, rebukes, reproofs, etc., that he’s put in this entire letter, and he is going to somewhat summarize those now in verses 13 and 14. And what he’s doing and what the word exhortation means, its an urgent request. He’s going to urge them, exhort them, to develop the qualities in which they were so sadly deficient. So Paul concluding his letter says, let me hit some things one more time. Before he closes. Sounds like a Baptist preacher, doesn’t he? Let’s hit that again, let’s look at that again. That’s what Paul is going to do.

Now let’s look at this five fold exhortation, the first one, A on our outline is be on the alert. He exhorts the believers at the church at Corinth, be on the alert. You could say, you could just put the word “watch” right there. A watchfulness. It means to give strict attention to, to be cautious, to be actively looking out for yourself. One of the scholars said it this way. Take heed lest through remissness and indolence, some destructive calamity suddenly overtake you. Now he’s not talking about some destructive calamity like an earthquake or a flood, he’s talking about immoralities, false doctrines, false leaders get advantage of you. Be alert, watch what’s going on. A cross reference would be Matthew 26:41. “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Jesus speaking to his Apostles before he was to be crucified knew that the spiritual warfare was very intense. So Jesus said, watch and pray, stay alert, be cautious, keep your eyes open, be sober. Don’t allow yourself to be overtaken by something quickly when you least expect it.

Now, this is the kind of thing again that was throughout the letter. As a matter of fact, look over a page or two to 1 Corinthians 15:33. In chapter 15, verse 33, he says, “Do not be deceived;” which means be careful, be cautious, or stay alert. “bad company corrupts good morals.” Now the context there was the fact that they were becoming much too close to their pagan neighbors. And in Corinth, under Greek culture, the popular thing to do was to always be discussing and debating different philosophies and different viewpoints. And so the Corinthians wanting to be acceptable in their culture, had drifted too far into this thing and had begun to start questioning some of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. And so his point was, be careful, be alert, be cautious, don’t let that thing happen. Because if you start fellowshipping, running with that kind of person, bad company will corrupt good morals and more specific application there, bad company in that case corrupts good theology.

Well, Paul says there, be alert. Be alert, watch out. Teachings, philosophies, lifestyles, viewpoints or swirling around out there in the world, if you’re not careful, you’ll get sucked in before you even now you had an enemy upon you. Hodge, the great theologian said this about this statement. He says, “don’t allow enemies to gain an advantage before you’re even aware of the danger”. How many Baptists have found themselves in a stronghold of sin and rebellion and they never even saw the train coming that ran over them. Paul says be alert.

Now further, second part of this five fold exhortation, stand firm in the faith. Stand firm in the faith. Now once again the faith here means the body of teaching or doctrine concerning Christ. There are some essential fundamental teachings that we hold to, that’s the faith. Now other places, faith means our lifestyle trust in the Lord. But here chiefly the emphasis is on that body of teaching that Paul had delivered to them, Paul had preached to them, that body of teaching that saved them, and then there were all sorts of false Judiasers, and from the Greek culture, false gnostic heresies, coming into the church and so Paul says, man, stand firm on the faith I gave you, the teaching I gave you.

And once again let me exhort you church, that this modern teaching going around that says throw doctrine out, doctrine’s not important, doctrine just divides us, that’s a wrong teaching. Doctrine is important, doctrine is essential, doctrine is fundamental, or Paul would have never said stand firm in the faith. The doctrines you’ve been taught about Christ. Don’t swerve, don’t move, don’t toy with them, don’t debate them friend, there are some things that we believe that are not open to debate and there are some things that we believe that are not up for question. They’re settled forever. Now we’re not talking about whether or not a lady should wear makeup. Alright, we’re not talking about that stuff. We can debate that, amen. We can get down at the, the church factory or, or rather the, the factory where we work, or an office where we work, we can debate that and have fun, alright. As a matter of fact, I don’t think makeup is bad for a woman to wear. Little paint would help any old barn. But I don’t have a problem with that. And there’s a lot of other things, should a woman wear dresses, or should a woman wear pants, and a thousand, should a person go to movie pictures, most of you shouldn’t go to most of them that you go to. But, but those kind of things we can debate a little bit.

We’re talking about the essential fundamental doctrines of the faith, as a matter of fact, Paul had done hit on this emphasis earlier, once again he’s just summarizing now. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:12 and we’ll just jump back and briefly look at some of these. 1 Corinthians 10:12 he says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” Now the context there means some of you think you’re alright, there’s no way these false teachers are going to get to you, there’s no way the false philosophies of your culture, are going to get to you and water down your convictions about the true teachings of Christ. But he said, you’d better be careful, the very one of you that thinks you can’t be pulled away are the one that will fall. Stand firm in the faith was, is his emphasis. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 11. He says, “Whether then it was I” that means another one of the teachers that came with Paul, “or they, so we preach and so you believed.” What is he saying. We preach those essential, cardinal, fundamental doctrines concerning Christ, don’t move off of those. Stand firm on those.

Brother Jeff, what are some of those. Some of those would be the absolute authority and complete sufficiency of the word of God. That’s not up for debate. Now I may debate with somebody in the sense of trying to convince them, but I’m not going to say well, let’s be open minded and see if these Bible really is authoritative, inerrant and sufficient for life today. That’s not up for debate, that’s not up for question in my mind, that’s settled. I’m over with that one, amen. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, when a so called liberal Christian or liberal theologian comes along and says you know, we can’t really be for certain, if Jesus really taught that he was God incarnate, he was really just a man who wanted to do good, who wanted all the world to love one another, and selflessly live for other people and we can all hold hands and have one global community around the world. My friend, I want to tell you, that’s false, Jesus was God incarnate, God a very God, he was so much God, as if he was not man at all, and at the same time he was so much man as if he were not even God at all, he’s the God-man, that’s settled. The deity of Jesus Christ. That was not up for debate.

The substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. When Jesus went to the cross, I want to tell you, the liberal theologian was wrong, he didn’t just die as an example, he wasn’t just making the highest statement of humanity, he was God, in human flesh, dying on a cross, taking the literal sin and then the literal judgement that man deserves for man in man’s place. He died, he was buried and then he rose on the third day, that is not up for debate. That’s settled. I don’t care who you call yourself, it doesn’t matter to me, which Baptist seminary you teach in, if you teach against that truth, you are teaching heresy, that’s settled. That’s settled.

The personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that somehow, some day Christians are just going to all start loving everybody and we’re going to so influence the world, the world will just fall in love with everybody, everything will just be good, and then somehow, this as the Bahai heretical cult teaches, the Bahai heretical cult, which has a chapter in our area, says we’re all just going to, the spirit of Jesus comes upon us and all the world will just be loving and good finally. My friend, this Bible tells me all the world is going to get worse and worse and worse and more and more and more depraved and more and more and more ungodly and more and more and more evil, and would you have ever thought, how many grandparents do I have out there. Raise your hands, grandparents raise your hand. Would you have ever thought when you were 18 or 19 or 20 years of age, the Presbyterian churches and the Methodist churches would have to debate whether or not a homosexual could pastor one of their churches. Are you hearing me. How many of you would have ever thought that. The Bible says its going to keep on and keep on and keep on and keep on and then one day the eastern sky will split and God’s precious Son, the darling of heaven, the head of the church will return and set everything back straight, judge the ungodly and establish his kingdom on planet earth. My friend, that doctrine’s not up for debate. That question is settled in my mind.

So that’s what Paul is saying. Stand firm in the faith. And they’re going to call us radical, right wing, fundamentalists. All I’ve got to say is, I’m going to stay with Paul and this old book. Let the culture swing this way, let the culture swing that way, let the culture swerve to the left, let the culture swerve to the right, I’m just going to stay on this book. Kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall, but I want you to know that this Bible is an anvil that has worn out many of a skeptics hammer. We just stay with this old book. That’s where we’re going to stay, standing firm in the faith.

Well, summarizing his exhortations, the Apostle Paul gives a third part there. He says there in chapter 16 verse 13, be on the alert, that was number one. Stand firm in the faith, that was number two. Act like men. Bless God, do you know what the church of Jesus Christ needs. Just a good dose of manhood. Just a few men with a heart of devoted genuine sincere love for Jesus Christ. And a backbone like a saw log and a resolve that will not budge to be men of God in a perverse and ungodly generation. I’m so tired of shifty, mickey mouse, backbone like a jelly fish, mamby pamby emotionally based fickle men. Can’t count on them, can’t depend on them, can’t trust them, they’ll sway over here and follow this fad, they’ll sway over there and follow that fad, then if the church stands for what’s right, they’ll just pick up their toys and go home, because you didn’t pet their ego just right, God help us have some men in the church of Jesus Christ.

Act like men. Men. I plan on keeping preaching. We need some men in the church today. And boy, when I’m preaching like this I just have to pause and thank God for the men of this church. Oh we’ve got some mamby pamby mickey mouse, casper milk toasts, pussy footing around guys, but we’ve got some men here too. I’m telling you, we’ve got some men. You don’t believe that, you just get you about, you just have you a home committee. And say we, we don’t think this church is running right and you violate the word of God and say, we’re going to start a movement to hurt this church. You’ll have men knocking your door down saying, listen buddy, we love you, and you’re welcome, if you’re going to cause trouble, we’re going to be on your case. We’ve got men like that, they’re men. We’ve got men in this church, notice what Paul says, he says, act like men. Really that has the connotation of bravery. The brave, to stand for what’s right.

Now listen. This doesn’t mean a fleshly egotistical macho worldly thing. We’ve seen enough of that in Baptist churches. This means men that when they are wrong they will be the first to stand before anybody and say God help me, I’m wrong. Amen, that’s a man. That’s a man, that will go to his wife or his little daughters or his sons when he’s done wrong and say, I want to tell ya’ll, daddy’s wrong and I need you to forgive me. That’s a man. But when he’s right, because he’s agreeing with God, not trying to get God to agree with him, but when he’s agreeing with God, he ain’t moving, doesn’t matter what happens. He’s going to stand. He’s not one of these guys, you know what, let me tell you, I’m just, I’m just going to get down to where the rubber meets the road and just lay it out.

Alright. You want me to tell you what the problem in most Baptists churches is, you listening to me. Its men who are honoring their wives. Now here’s what I mean. Their wives get over here, get over there, feel this and feel that, and a little old pussy footing man is not the head of the household, he just follows mama and stands for whatever mama stands for. Oh honey, what’s next, we’ll stand there. Be a man of God, open that book, set your foot down and say I love you baby, I’ll listen to you, I’ll fight for you, I’ll defend you, but I’m going to stand for what’s right. When your emotions go over there, I’m standing on the word, when your emotions go over here, I’m standing on the word, when you get through being emotional, I’m right here baby, let’s go on for God. Why do you think God called men to be head of the household. Now ladies, I’m not down on you. You’re the champions of the church, but if the man of God that’s got to be swerved and swayed by emotions, he’s got to be rock solid on truth and while the women sway with the emotions, the men are standing for God, marching forward with the ladies giving that nurturing, emotional, caring, loving touch that only God can, empowered you to give.

Act, you know none of this is in my notes. Act like men. I might need these notes in a minute, I don’t want to lose them. This thing just got ahold of me, I just can’t get over it. Act like men. You could amplify that Greek phrase there and literally it means play the man. Play the role a man would play. Show yourself to be brave. Now, this had real application in the church at Corinth. Because they were so childish. They were such babies about things. They were so childishly immature. And so Paul has to hit this one more time.

As a matter of fact, let’s look at a couple of places, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Now once again, where was the place where their childishness and acting like a baby seemed to be most prominently displayed. Well, in the use of spiritual gifts. And in the church at Corinth, the most, the gifts that they seemed to be most childish about were the signs, wonders and miracles gifts. They paraded around like I’ve got my right to give my word of knowledge, everybody else ought to hush and hear me. I’ve got my old right to give my word of prophecy, everybody else ought to listen to me and look to me. Well, I’ve got my right to give my word of prophecy, everybody ought to be quiet and listen to me. I’ve got my right to give my word of teaching that God, everybody ought to listen to me. And this thing of I’ve got my right to exercise my gift, I ought to get the credit, I ought to get the attention, I ought to have the platform, I ought to be in leadership. That’s the way a baby does. Have you ever gone to the nursery, that’s the way babies fight.

A man, a spiritual man says, you just let me clean the toilets, I’ll be happy. Amen. If you just give me the lowest job in the kingdom, if you just give me the lowest, smallest thing, I ought to be in hell frying like sausage, I’m unworthy to even walk in the doors of a church house, I’m an ungodly depraved man, if God will just let me serve behind the scenes, and never get attention, hallelujah, I’m satisfied. That’s a man. You know what will happen, listen to me. When you’ve got that attitude, you’re probably going to be, end up in leadership. But it will be God that gets you there, not your manipulation and not your climbing the ladder, not your brown nosing, and scheming. But the Corinthians weren’t like that, they, they were being babies about it. Everybody wanting their rights, and everybody wanting to do it their way, and if I don’t get to exercise my gift in my way when i want to, then I’ll just take my toys and go home.

1 Corinthians 13:11. In the context of their misuse of spiritual gifts. He says “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” Chapter 14, verse 20. “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.” He’s saying, act like men. Be strong. Don’t selfishly think about your rights and your role in the church, unselfishly think about serving and someone else getting the credit and the glory. Act like men. Also, obviously in this culture, they were constantly going to be ridiculed and laughed at by the learned of the community. And they were going to be persecuted by the powerful in the community. And it was going to require some men to be brave.

Well, let’s go back to our chief text, 1 Corinthians 16 and let’s look at the next, the fourth of the five fold exhortation. First one was be on the alert. Second one, stand firm in the faith. Third, act like men, and then the fourth one, be strong. Of course these overlap significantly. But this means just show yourself strong. Show yourself strong. They were so prone to be weak. They would walk out of their churches and like a lot of baby Christians are who perhaps haven’t had time to mature, and that’s not their fault, it takes time to mature spiritually. Perhaps they have, because of some of their own fault, they haven’t matured, but for whatever reason they would go out into the world and they, the we’ll not look back there, my time’s running away, but he dealt with this thing when they were not strong, 1 Corinthians 10:7. They weren’t strong and what they were doing was when this idolatry thing that dominated their culture invited them back some of they were toying again with idolatry. And some of them when a weaker brother would not eat meat sacrificed to an idol and the stronger more mature brother knew that there’s nothing wrong with meat sacrificed to an idol, its just God’s meat, and that’s true, the Bible says that’s true, but nevertheless, God says, be strong and don’t eat the meat because it will offend the weaker brother. That’s being strong. He says, you need to be strong like that. And then, in, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 8, they were prone to fall back into fornication and immoralities. He’s saying be strong, don’t let that thing happen in your life again.

And now the fifth of the five fold exhortation. Its in verse 14. “Let all that you do be done in love.” You know, this will remedy all the other problems. Properly defined and understood, that exhortation will cure all the rest of them. Let all that you do be done in love. Now of course, the word love here is the word agape. And agape is that love that you can’t produce, you can’t manufacture, you can’t grit your teeth and be committed and try to live that love, its totally impossible. That love is totally supernatural, it can only be produced by the Holy Spirit through you. So what he’s saying is, walk under the control of the Holy Spirit. Walk the spirit filled life. And as you do that, do everything out of the feeling and the controlling of the spirit and you’ll find out that you’ll do everything right, because listen to me, when you’re spirit filled, your chief concern is, what is biblical. See, you’ll do everything right when you’re spirit filled, because spirit filled man won’t, listen, who wrote this Bible? The Holy Spirit. He superintended it through men. And when you’re filled with that spirit, I’ve never known an author who didn’t want you to read his writings. You’re filled with the spirit, he’ll drive you to follow this book. So you’ll always do right, and where does agape come from, the spirit filled life. Its the same difference. Walking in agape love, living the spirit filled life. When you do that everything takes care of itself.

Now let me give you a simple definition of agape, and I’ve given you two or three different ones, but they all say the same thing. Listen to this one. Agape is a selfless love that always follows scripture, to the end of glorifying God and serving my brothers and sisters in Christ. A selfless love that always follows scripture, that means biblical teaching and how its manifested and how its expressed. To the end of bringing glory to my Father and my Lord Jesus Christ, and to the end of serving our brother and sister in Christ.

Now the, the missing of that kind of love was the radical fault that was the radical missing link in the church at Corinth. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, once again, the lack of that love and that some Corinthian brothers and sisters were going out into the culture. And they understood that they can eat at a lost person’s home, and if there was meat served there, sacrificed to an idol, that stronger Christian knew that God didn’t care about that. But then a weaker Christian that had just gotten saved out of pagan idolatry, they couldn’t eat that meat, and the stronger Christian was putting the weaker Christian down. That wasn’t love. The stronger Christian should have said, I’ll never eat that meat if that hurts you or offends you. You give them time to grow in the Lord. And get that thing settled before you do something that will offend or discourage or dishearten them.

1 Corinthians 13, remember that great chapter on love. Now you remember what the context of 1 Corinthians 13 is. The context of 1 Corinthians 13 is not love, even though its called the great love chapter, its really not the great love chapter. You know what it is, its the great spiritual gifts chapter. That’s right in the middle of his teachings on spiritual gifts, chapter 12, 13, 14, all about spiritual gifts, what is he saying. He’s saying you exercising your gifts in the flesh for your glory and to be seen of men and to get the applause of men. Then he throws chapter 13 in there to say no, you’re to have, have agape love controlling when, if and how you use your spiritual gift. So what would agape love do with the spiritual gift, it would only exercise that gift if it honored scriptural teaching and if it glorifies God and serves others. Your spiritual gifts were never ever, never have been, never will be given for you. Your spiritual gift is given for other brothers and sisters. So he’s saying, man, if you’ll just do all that you do in love, it will take care of everything. Let all that you do be done in love. So Holy Spirit produced agape love is to be the motivations for all of my actions in the church, and its to define the manner or the method of the way I live out my actions in the church. Now when I say in the church, I mean the church members, it could be outside the doors of the church building obviously. Well, Paul says, I want to give you a final word, of exhortation.

Secondly he says, let me give you a final word of affirmation. And because I’ve about screamed my voice out I’ll end here, alright. A final word of affirmation. Now if you’ve been with us very long, you know Paul has from time to time stopped his rebuking, his reproving, his correcting, and even sometimes his condemning, he thrown in a word of loving sweet affirmation. Boy don’t you like those. You know I believe you’ll see that balance in a man of God. I believe you’ll see that, and a man will unapologetically and boldly proclaim you God’s truth no matter how bad it stings, no matter how bad it hurts, no matter how deeply it corrects, sometimes its like rubbing salt in the wound, a man of God’s got to do that. But a man of God will also look for that time when he can say God bless you for a good job. I affirm you for being the people of God you are. He tries to find those good things. Now I, I would say its pretty good challenge if you’re apostle Paul and writing the church at Corinth to find a whole lot to affirm. But he does. Look at verses 19 and 20. Notice Paul’s loving affirming spirit.

First of all he says, “The churches of Asia greet you.” Now here’s what Paul is saying. He’s saying, you guys at Corinth, you’ve got a lot of problems. You’ve got a lot of messes, I’ve had to really be tough with you guys. He said, I want you to know, there’s a lot of you who are genuine believers. You love Jesus. And all the other churches of the province of Asia in the Roman empire send you their greetings. What he’s saying is, they affirm you, they accept you, you’re one with them, you’re children of God just like they’re the children of God. What a precious affirming thing that was. Then he continues there in verse 19 and says, “Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord,” Now this was a very dear affirmation to hear from Aquila and Prisca because Aquila, Prisca was there living in Corinth, when the church was started. And so now they’re in Ephesus, Aquila and Prisca are, helping Paul and Paul says, hey, by the way, your dear brothers and sisters in Christ who were leaders there with me for a season on Corinth they are over here in Ephesus now and they also want to tell you that they greet you heartily. What’s that mean. We love you guys. We’re praying for you guys. We believe in you. You’re going to make it. God’s going to sustain you, you’re going to get through these problems.

Then he jumps down in verse 20 and says, “All the brethren greet you.” Now he just says I want to throw in all my other coworkers, all my other associates, all the other churches that know about you, I want to tell you, everybody that knows about you, wants to send their greeting. Greeting wasn’t just a shallow hi, it was a sincere genuine affirmation to them. That you’re one with us. We’re all pilgrims down here in foreign territory. We’re all sojourners, citizens of a higher heavenly kingdom, but right now we’re in a foreign, pagan earthly kingdom, and we’re all going through this thing together, we greet you, we affirm you. Well sometimes don’t you need a loving affirmation. Boy we do, don’t we.

Now then he continues in verse 20 and he says something that’s culturally awkward for us, but not for their day. Last part of verse 20 he says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Now this was a common thing in this culture and it became even more common among Jews, among the church of this age. And they would greet one another in the church family, the men kissed men, the women kissed the women, there’s no record of it ever going cross sexes. But the men would kiss another man on the cheek or another man on the forehead just to say I love you, we’re brothers in Christ, and when they made that holy kiss it was this kind of a statement. I want you to know I am devoted to serve you, for my God’s glory and for your good. You’re my brother. I don’t know if we have anything like that today, do we. I think sometimes I’ve had a man hug me, some of the older men of God, some of the old preachers, they still kiss me. You know that. I’ve had them just, just had tears in their eyes and just kiss me on the cheek. I’m going to tell you, its an overwhelming thing. Because they are saying, I’m with you. I believe what you believe. I love the Lord that you love. I’m dedicated and devoted to serve you as my brother in Christ. One day we’ll all be home in our true home in heaven serving our Lord forever and we’ll be out of this corrupt, fallen, crooked, perverse persecuting hateful evil world we’re in. That was a beautiful affirmation of one another that Paul exhorts them to greet one another with the holy kiss. Now the word holy there, the word holy means there’s no hidden agenda. There’s no behind the scenes deception, there’s no hidden manipulation in this, I don’t have any gain in this. I’m devoted to you, I want to serve you for the glory of my God. And for your good.

Now just to show you how strongly Paul lovingly affirmed them and wanted them to be affirming one to another. Let’s look at two or three of the passages where Paul calls them his beloved. Look back at chapter 4, verse 14. 1 Corinthians 4:4. Paul has been very strongly correcting them, and then he says in verse 14, chapter 4, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” Is that not a loving affirmation. How many of you have ever, I mean, really give your children not a whipping, but a whopping. If you’re any kind of a parent, that was one of the greatest expressions of your love you ever showed them. That’s what Paul is saying. He’s saying, I want you to know, I love you so much, you’re my beloved children in the faith. That why I’ve had to be so strong on you, so hard on you. And so firm with you when you drift off into sin.

Chapter 10 verse 14, look at that text. Again having to be very strong in his correction and his rebuke and then he ends that with saying, verse 14 of chapter 10, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” In other words, you’re not my slaves, even though you are to honor and submit to my authority. Paul made that clear, they were to do that, but he said, you’re not my slaves. You’re not people that are lesser than me or anybody else, we’re all sinners saved by grace. And I’ve given you these firm, strict corrections and warnings because you’re my beloved. I love you so dearly. What a precious tender affirmation he gives them.

Chapter 15, this will be our last one, verse 58. Chapter 15 verse 58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” When you call someone in the Christian community your beloved, it means the love that saved us. And the love that’s manifested through us, I want to express that to you. The love that saved us. We have that in common. And then there’s a love that lives in us because he lives in us. And think about it. You can’t do that with anybody else. Only another true regenerate child of God can share that with you. Its beyond words, I think that’s why Paul says a holy kiss will just do it. You can’t verbalize the love he’s shown us. You can only be overwhelmed by it. And you can’t even verbalize the love you have for a fellow believer because its so rich and royal and divine and wonderful. And so Paul says in a way of affirming that love that only we in the Christian community can share, greet one another with a holy kiss. Brother Jeff, are you suggesting we men start kissing each other on the cheek and women kissing one another, no, I’m not saying that, culturally that wouldn’t fit. But maybe there’s ways with a handshake or pat on the back or a hug around the neck, that that kind of beloved affirmation can still take place.

So just getting warmed up on Paul’s final word, Paul says, I want to give you a final word of exhortation. And a final word of affirmation.