Church is a Band of Natural Enemies

Just a few scratchings from one of my many listenings of Pastor Tim Keller’s sermon, The Community of Jesus (taken from Luke 6:12-36). This is a sermon that is worth listening to more than once …

Why do we have the law of God?
To find law and be saved? NO.

Exodus shows that is impossible.
God does not give them the law and then save them from slavery.
He saves them and then gives them the law.

So, if God has already saved them from slavery, why did he give them the law?
Because He is going to make us into a people; a true human community. A new human community.

(It’s as though God is saying …) The reason why human community has unraveled everywhere; the reason individuals are at war with individuals and families are at war with families and nations are at war with nations; the reason all of that is happening is because when your relationship with me unraveled, all other relationships unraveled. And when a relationship with me is restored, that restores all other human relationships. And therefore, I am creating a community in which we show the world that if you restore relationship with me, all of the unraveling is woven again together into a fabric.

I’m going to show that when you relate with me you are brought into a new human community …

… So …

BE PATIENT

The reason there are so many exhortations in the New Testament for Christians to love other other Christians is because the church is not made up of natural friends, but natural enemies.

What binds us together is not common—race, accents, nationality, job, education, etc.
Christians come together not because they form a natural convocation; but because Jesus died for them.

Church is a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.

Be patient.
We need it.
Jesus gives us the power for it.