Episode 1572: Let Mutual Love Continue

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,572 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Valerie Howe: Hey, I'm Valerie Howe and I'm challenging you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find the way to love yourself is key, and one way to be inspired to do just that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer,

Scott Maderer: out on behalf of those who can't speak out. Those who are mistreated or ostracized or pushed out, opening the doors to them as well. That's what mutual love is, and that is what [00:01:00] we are called to do within the community of Christ. As well as welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Hebrews chapter 13, verses one through eight and 15 through 16. I talk about how mutual love and hospitality are about ethics, and I also share how we are called to be the sign that there is love in the world, but we are all in it together. Hebrews chapter [00:02:00] 13 verses one through eight, 15 through 16 says, let mutual affection continue.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that, some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them. Those who are being tortured as though you yourself are being tortured. Let marriage be held in honor by all and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have for. He himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. So we can say with confidence, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Through him, then let us [00:03:00] continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good, and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

So over the last several spiritual episodes, I've been talking from Hebrews about this letter or sermon or message or poetry or whatever it is, and we've been studying through it. We've talked about art and poetry and how these descriptions or words trying to find. How to describe what we can't describe and understand that is not able to be understood or touch the untouchable.

And in this week we're touching on another subject that is probably not one that we generally talk about all that often or think about all that often that of ethics. Ethics is often thought of [00:04:00] as this dry academic thought process, but really it simply. Answering a basic question, think back to the preaching of John the Baptist.

When he comes out of the wilderness and proclaims a call to repentance and warns of a coming wrath, and the crowds ask him, what then should we do? That's an example of an ethical question, an ethical inquiry. What should we do? How should we act? What should we do? In light of all that we've talked about what are the patterns of behavior, the rules of interactions, the priorities that we might have, because the truth of faith has come to us.

But let's be clear, this ethical standard, this list of behaviors and priorities isn't the key to getting access. To the city on the hill, to the party that's taking [00:05:00] place to the eternal life. Whatever name you wanna give it. This isn't an argument for earning your way through, works into heaven.

Instead, turn it around. This list, this set of rules, this set of things, it comes out of. It comes from what? Has come before. It is a response to faith, not a key to earning faith. It's inevitable, it's required. It's a response that naturally comes when we truly encounter Christ. Welcome message. When we hear that we have grace and are receiving that unshakeable inheritance through faith.

That conviction that we have and that thing that we cannot see. It's a response to joy, not fear. [00:06:00] It's not about being afraid that if you don't do the right things, you won't get the gift. It's about knowing that you have the gift and out of joy responding to that gift. It's not. Required it's not commanded.

Instead, it's having so much love poured into us that it can't help but pour out of us into the world and into others. It's making us see the world in a different way because we are different. Things are more rich, the colors are deeper, the music is more beautiful. And the people shine with the blessing of God, even when they don't realize it.

In this new vision, we see the kingdom before the kingdom is even real. And out of a response to that, [00:07:00] this is what Hebrews here is talking about. And it starts right there in the first sentence. In fact, that's the beginning and the end of the whole message. It says, let Mutual love continue.

That's the explanation. That's the blueprint for living in faith. Let Mutual love continue. And yes, there's more. The writer goes on and starts describing images of what that might look like. It, trying to draw a picture of how we would see it, what would happen, what would be the responses that we would see.

But it really just boils down to that simple sentence, let mutual love continue and continue because this isn't a new thing. This isn't invented by us. It didn't start with us and it won't end with us. It is a long tradition of things that have gone before, people that have gone before, examples that have [00:08:00] gone before to show us the way, look around.

There's probably people around you that have never ever felt that love or known that they were loved. This is a tragedy of the human existence. People sometimes feel like an island all by themselves and they've never really experienced a love like this. But it was there all along. It was there coming from the creator of all and hopefully it is echoed by a church that wrestles with loving, that has wrestled with loving from the very beginning of existence.

Every now and then we manage to stumble into it and get it right and show love to those who are resent to love, which is everyone. Let it continue in us. Let [00:09:00] us be a sign that there is love in the world, that even the most broken, the most estranged, the most fearful, the most hurting, the loneliest. Those that say that they are not worthy of love because of everything that they have done or thought, or been, or shown up in the world.

No matter what. They are still loved because the creator has determined and deemed them worthy of love and it's mutual love because it's too much for us to do alone. It's too much for any one individual. We can't keep it up all the time. None of us is capable of letting this love continue on our own. So mutual love has to continue.

Mutual love means love is about gatherings and community and partnerships and relationships. That is the body of the church. We practice loving inside the body so that we can carry that love [00:10:00] outside of the body. We need to love one another. Not so that we can circle up and just keep ourselves together, but so that we can then go out and love others.

That's why we need to experience the love within the church so that we can carry it out of the church. We have to not draw circles that close everyone out, but circles that open and include others. That's why hospitality is the immediate next message. That idea of welcoming angels, it's not really talking about it in terms of you earning something it's this idea of all of the ways that we show up for the world Prison ministry, covenant keeping, avoiding greed, not honoring money is our savior, but honoring each others honoring leaders who [00:11:00] lead in various ways.

All of these are part of loving each other and loving the world. Also calling out injustice and speaking out on behalf of those who can't speak out, those who are mistreated or ostracized, or push out opening the doors to them as well. That's what mutual love is, and that is what we are called to do within the community of Christ as well as outside of it.

Thanks for listening.

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