Colossians 3:11, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26ff: Hate: the Division; Love: the Unity.

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 29 August 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

• Colossians 3:11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 

• 1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 

• Galatians 3:26ff So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

It is election season again. Is it me or are these things coming around way too frequently these years? It seems like only yesterday, or last year anyway that we just had a provincial election, and I am sure that next year we are having another municipal election and now we are in the middle of the second federal election since we have lived in this riding, and we have only been here for three years. That seems like a lot of elections. 

 

There are some very positive things about elections. We do get to see and chat with our Members of Parliament and interview their rivals. Both our incumbent MP, and his most competitive challenger, have helped on the Salvation Army food truck in the previous two weeks. This is great because they have an opportunity to meet those in most need in their prospective riding and those of us on the truck are able to have their ear and speak to the issues that matter most to the people the Salvation Army serves. 

 

Susan, the kids and I have lived across the country. We have lived on NDP Orange Vancouver Island, the Tory Blue Prairies, and in Liberal Red Toronto and here we are again back on the ‘left coast’. I have learned some very important things from this. One thing I have learned is that not every Liberal/ Tory/ Green /NDP (pick your least favourite party) is evil. It is true. There was a time when I thought that if you supported a particular political party, you must be either an idiot or a very bad person. I was wrong.

  

In Swift Current, I had the opportunity to get to know our Conservative MP a bit – he was, I believe, a good solid Christian. He came to speak at the Swift Current Salvation Army’s Centennial celebrations, and I had a lot of respect for him.  

 

In Toronto we worked very closely with the staff of the Liberal Cabinet Minister who represented our 'work' riding – I didn’t get to know him well, but we did work with his office and his assistants. One of his key people, Roz, I believe, even worked for the Salvation Army before she worked for his office. She and his other staff were a great help with some immigration issues that faced a number of our people, as well as various other things.  

 

Since we have been back on Vancouver Island, our NDP MP has been a great advocate for some of our initiatives. And, of course, he and I went to high school together in Victoria many years ago and this riding is also Susan’s dad’s old riding; so, we have a few points of connection. 

 

Honestly, it has been a much greater revelation than it should have been that there are great people who are members of all the political parties - even whatever party you may dislike the most. There are many great people in politics who we have gotten to know over the years. In Swift Current, the mayor’s grandma was part of our corps. And, of course, here the mayor’s husband is part of our team. There are many great people running for each of the parties. And I don’t think that God (or conversely the devil) has more influence over one party than the next so please don’t let the devil trick you into thinking he does and thus gain some measure of control over you. 

 

Christians, people who honestly serve Jesus, people who regularly read their Bibles, people who pray every day – even more than we or you do, they will vote for a member of that political party that you cannot stand or even understand! And they may even be a member of said party.

 

On election day, you are of course able to vote for whomever you want, for whatever reason you want to vote for them – but please don’t become a victim of the present campaign. Don’t become collateral damage. Don’t let yourself be manipulated by being worked up into a rage or worked down into helplessness. Don’t let the devil mess with your mind and your emotions. He wants to mess you up. MLK jr said, “don’t let any man drag you so low as to make you hate him.”  The devil wants to make you hate Trudeau, O’Toole, Singh, or your local MP. Don’t do it! Genesis 4:7b “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Once we are divided by hating others, the devil can make us do all kinds of things that drag us into self-destruction and the destruction of others. Ephesians 4:27, “do not let the devil get a foothold.” He can divide us and destroy us.  

Therefore, we need to remember that in the Christian Church, Colossians 3:11 paraphrased: there is no Liberal or Conservative, NDP or Green, Libertarian, People’s Party, Bloc, separatist or nationalist but Christ is all, and is in all. 

 

Paul wrote in the 1st Century:

• To the Colossians, 3:11, “...there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” and,  

• To the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” and, 

• To the Galatians, 3:26, 28,29, So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ...There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 

Why did Paul write this same thing to different people in different congregations in different cities? Paul wrote this because among his friends and colleagues, there were divisions that were threatening to tear them and the whole church apart. People in Paul’s group, Paul’s friends, were letting the devil into their churches. 

 

How were they letting the devil into their churches? They were holding the door open by identifying first as Jews or Gentiles, circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, men or women and only later as Christians – and then they would inevitably wind up fighting amongst themselves about these important things. So, you would have people who were previously united in the purpose of telling others the Good News of how Jesus can save them in and from their struggles who were now focusing INSTEAD on the election type issues that were important in the first century.  That is not to say that the issues aren’t important; it is to say that we need to solve the issues as members of the same team, God’s team. And God’s team is unified in loving Him and others and trying to serve Him and others – even if we have different ideas about how to do that, we need to work together as a team united under His leadership. That is what the Church is.

 

People invited the devil into the churches in the First Century by caring more about the issues that divide them than about the only real solution, which unites them – the love of God and Jesus Christ. This division threatened to destroy the whole First Century Church before it even had its footing. As Jesus said, recorded in Mark, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:25; also Matthew 12:25, and cf. Luke 11:17) and Matthew, “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). This is what the devil was trying to do – he was trying to make them care more about an issue (as important as it may be) than about God and their neighbour so as to divide them. Divide and conquer. 

 

The devil is doing the same thing today. You can actually see him prey upon good, solid people, trapping them in their own hatred for others who hold opposing ideas. We Christians invite the devil into our lives and our churches by fighting with each other instead of praying for each other and serving together. And friends this is a tragedy.

 

God has used you who are here in this room and others who are part of our group (as we are part of His Church) to do some great things for others and for the Kingdom during Covid; and friends God has used you and those who have come before you to do some amazing things in this community for over 70 years. Don’t let the devil mess things up by dividing us! 

 

• 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” 

• Galatians 3:26, 28,29, So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ...28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise

• Colossians, 3:11, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” 

 

So Friends I implore us today to put our differences aside. If the devil has got a hold of our lives in anyway by making us hate one another, we can pray now and God will deliver us from that hate.  The Enemy is trying to divide us. For when we are divided we will fall but when we are united in Christ we will stand firm and we will stand forever. So rather than hate the world into destruction, let us love the world into salvation. And then the world will know we are Christians by our love. 

 

Let us pray.

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[1] Martin Luther King Jr, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr (Ed. James M. Washington (HaperCollins: New York, NY, 1986)

[2] Cf. NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Louisville, Kentucky, USA.: John Knox Press, 2004), 179.

[3] Samuel Ngewa, Galatians 3:26-4:11: Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya:Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1448: All categories have become one because they are united in Christ.

 

1 Peter 3:7-13: The Earth is on Fire

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 15 August 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

The earth is on fire. Rena and Tim’s son’s family and some friends of Mary Anne and others are in and around Vernon. There is a massive fire burning between Vernon and Kamloops (more than 557 km2 have been on fire there at one time this week alone). Susan, Sarah-Grace, Heather and I were just up there during our furlough. We saw helicopters carrying buckets almost every day, dropping chemicals on the ground (while the water bombers sit quietly by the Lake here). Roads were blocked due to the fire.

 

There were places we couldn’t go. We checked the news every day to see if we would need to be evacuated (like we needed to flee while on our previous holiday; when the plague of coronavirus hit the world, we scrambled to try to get safely home). This recent trip we stayed in Salmon Arm for a week.

 

There was smoke everywhere. We went kayaking, as well as tourist-ing: sometimes you couldn’t even see across the lake it was so smoky and the sun was a strange orange-y-red ball of fire, itself covered by the haze of the smoke. It looked like the heavens were on fire - just like the earth.

 

The earth is on fire. We just finished the Olympics. All around Athens is on fire. The home of the original Olympics is on fire. California is on fire. Australia is on fire. BC is on fire. Lytton burned to the ground. I have some great memories around Lytton. I have gone there with great friends. I have met close friends on trips there. More than once we went white-water rafting there. We have camped there. We have played paintball there. When I was a young adult, maybe about the ages of my oldest two daughters, I had a lot of fun making memories there. Now Lytton itself is just a memory. It has been burned to the ground.

 

There is talk about global warming and talk of climate change. Some climate scientists and others are saying that this is the consequence of our sin of not taking care of the earth – which was one of the very first commands God gave humanity (Gen 1:26-28). The earth is right now cursed because of our sin (Gen 3:17). Many are calling for us to repent of our sins and to take care of the earth.

 

The earth was first cursed because of the sins of Adam and Eve and they fled Eden. The earth was later cursed (different word in Hebrew) with a flood because of the sins of humanity leading up to the time of Noah. God created the earth from water, through water; and then, Genesis 6-9, it was drowned in water and destroyed by water.[1]   

 

2 Peter 3 tells of a time when the heavens and the earth will both be on fire and the earth will be destroyed by fire. Today the earth is on fire. The fire that is consuming the earth at the present time may not be the ultimate fire or even the penultimate fire. It should ultimately however be a reminder of warnings of 2 Peter 3, Genesis 6-9, and so much more.

 

Peter tells us that there are scoffers and mockers; people who just do what they want with no mind to others. Peter (2:3) says that they follow their own evil desires. How many of us in our world today are scoffers and mockers; people who just do what they want with no mind to others? How many of us are following our own desires and scoffing; denying, ignoring God, others, and our responsibilities or pretending that we can do nothing? How many of us are ignoring the warning of the burning fires?

 

The environmental aspect of this passage cannot be ignored. As Genesis (15) and Leviticus (25) tell us, if humanity declines its responsibility to tend for the earth, we will be removed from it just as Adam and Eve, the Amorites and the Israelites were (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:20-21). [2]  We cannot ignore God’s commission to care for the earth and expect the earth to be cared for all at the same time.

 

There is more. Peter knows that every day since the resurrection of the Christ is the last days. Peter was in the last days. We are in the last days. Peter warns us that the end is coming soon– today’s fires should be a reminder of that – and Peter explains how he hopes we will respond to this warning.

 

Peter exhorts us to, 2 Peter 1:5-8, make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with perseverance or steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with kinship or brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For when these qualities are in our lives, we will not be ineffective and we will fulfil our responsibilities to God, our neighbour, the earth, and our world.

 

Peter warns us that there will always be temptations, Chapter 2, to sensuality, greed, much more - and even blasphemy. Peter warns us that even when we get free, the many terrible things in our lives that interfere with our wholeness, holiness, happiness and peace; they will try to grab us and pull us back to misery and enslavement.

 

Even just judging by Facebook and other social media, some of us here have probably struggled with hate in one form or another: either of a person, a political party, an idea, a movement, a pet peeve, or something else. Judging even just by Facebook and other social media, the sins of self-righteous anger, un-forgiveness, and hatred are reaching out like smoke from a fire to choke the life and love out of many people. Greed and self-indulgence also try pull us away from peace, healing, holiness, and wholeness as well. Sin can be like an addiction: just when we think we are free of it, it reaches out to try to pull us into a self-destruction that is accompanied by as much collateral damage as possible. When we are captured by a sin that we had previously escaped, Peter says, Chapter 2:22, we are like a sow which, having just been washed clean, heads directly to the pig sty – rejecting that cleansing that is so freely offered and so effectively applied.

 

But this letter that we call 2 Peter isn’t a lecture telling us that we must be good and we mustn’t be bad. That will come.[3]  This letter is a promise. This letter promises that we can be delivered from the things that are trying to separate us from our peace and our sanity. This letter tells us that we can be delivered from our addictions, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, and greed. We can be restored to wholeness and holiness and God will not give up on us until we all have had our chance. [4]  God is patient. He is perseverance personified.

 

If there is some sin or addiction trying to drag your life away from you, don’t give up. Keep keeping on. God wants you to succeed and to be free from it. He is patient with you (3:9). He does not wish that any of us should perish in our struggles. He desires that we should all turn away from and be free of that which is trying to destroy us.

 

God won’t destroy the earth by fire prematurely. Just like the Amorites were given four hundred years grace before He eventually removed them from His land; and just like the Israelites were given the same warnings in the same land, generation after generation, before He eventually removed them from His land; and just like the people of Noah’s generation were not removed from the land until every inclination of their heart was only towards evil all the time, so too in these last times. When everything else had been done, God finally cleansed the earth with floodwaters. [5] Only when everything else has been done, will He cleanse the earth with fire. The Lord is not slow in bringing this concluding fire and resulting renewal. He will give us every opportunity to be free of all that tries to enslave us before He scrunches up, like a paper, this world of sin that tries to ensnare us, and tosses it in the bin, into the fireplace. God will not end any of our time here before we have all the time and every opportunity to experience the freedom that only comes from serving God. He doesn’t want any of us to miss out on His peace, His love and forgiveness.

 

Peter encourages all of us. As sure as the fires are burning across our world today, people are perishing in many ways – help them. People are struggling with many things – help them.

 

When the world does eventually get so bad that there is nothing left in it but only evil inclinations all the time and God does cleanse it with fire, He promises that even then He will create the world anew: new heavens and a new earth. He promises that in these new heavens and on this new earth there will be no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more suffering, and no more death (Rev 24:4). This is something to look forward to - but don’t worry. The Lord is not being slow in bringing these new heavens and the new earth; He loves us all so much that He wants to make sure that everyone who wants to be present in the new heavens and on the new earth, He wants to make sure that everyone who desires to be a part of His eternal kingdom of love and forgiveness can and will be a part of His eternal kingdom of love and forgiveness. All the same, He is not slow to come. He is coming soon.

 

It is to this end that I really encourage each of us today: if you know someone who is struggling, reach out to them. If you see someone who is suffering, reach out to them. If you are struggling, as it is possible, reach out to someone; if you are suffering, reach out to the Lord. For as we come to Lord and as we bring each other to the Lord, He will transform us, making each of us anew, even before He makes the whole world anew, so that even now - in the midst of the very real challenges of our lives - we can start to live new whole, holy and peaceful lives that will continue on in love and peace for now and eternity - even unto the new heavens and the new earth.

 

Let us pray.

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[1] Doug Oss and Thomas R. Schreiner, 2 Peter3:4-6, in ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, Illinois: Good News Publishers, 2008), 2422.

[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, The Nipawin Journal, "What is My Responsibility to the Environment?" (September 2008) Available on-line: http://sheepspeak.com/sasknews.htm#environment And cf. Laird Harris, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Leviticus/Exposition of Leviticus/IX. Laws of Land Use (25:1-55), Book Version: 4.0.2

[3] Tokunboh Adeyemo, Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1554: By the Yoruba of Western Nigeria, “Faith is regarded as a gift that brings salvation. But accepting this gift has consequences...We do not receive faith without it taking something away from us. It will take away sorcery, idolatry, adultery, witchcraft, and the like.”

[4] Cf. Duane F. Watson, 2 Peter, (NIB XII: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1998), p. 353

[5] The story of Noah demonstrates God’s ability and desire to deliver the righteous even in the most extreme circumstances. Cf. Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1995), 183.