Love Came At Christmas

Text: 1 John 4:7-12

Focus: Love

Function: To help people stop fighting here.

Form: GOK.

Intro:

God is Love.

That is the simplest and easiest way for God to describe Himself and us to describe God.

When I think of the way people vilify the so called Illegal alien, I remember: God is love.

When I think of the sinner, lost in his or her own way, I remember: God is love.

When I think of the person who is angry with me, maybe for a cause, or without a cause, I remember: God is love.

Historic legislation was passed this week when Don't Ask Don't Tell was overturned.

For some, it was perceived as a lessening of the standards of righteousness. For others, it was the Christian virtue of being just on behalf of others.

When I think of that issue. I remember that who ever is involved. Those who are upset, and those who need justice. I, as a Christian need to remember this: God, the one I represent, is Love.

God is love.

We are also dealing with the question of Homosexuality in our denomination. It is a bitter and divisive issue.

But the neat thing about us is what is happening in the district hearings. We are taking time to share stories and attitudes about people that we know who are affected the most by the issue. And it seems this way to me, the families that are directly connected to the issue have a more cautious outlook.

The hearings are designed to help us see that whatever decision we make, we have to first acknowledge Jesus' statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

That doesn't mean that our concept of the cross of Christ, His birth, life, death and atoning sacrifice has changed. Jesus died to save humanity from its sinfulness.

But we take the clue from Jesus. To the woman caught in adultery, He said, “Neither do I condemn you.” But He didn't leave it there. He also said: “Go and sin no more.”

That is why this concept, God is love is the beginning of the statement.

The family member with a person who is in that lifestyle knows the person. They know the person is worth loving. They know that God loves them. And they know that God loves the other.

And here are the words of Jesus. Love your enemy. Pray for those who despitefully use you. Bless those who curse you; bless and curse not.

Listen to these words from Luke 6:27-30 in The Message: ^27-30"To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.”

And the John's interpretation of it is this: if you know God, you will be able to do this.

If you can't do this, you do not know God.

You WILL love your enemies.

You will.

If you are not able to do this, then there is something wrong with your faith.

Something wrong.

It truly is that simple.

But at the same time, it is hard.

Forgiveness, getting along, loving our enemy can only happen one way. And that is when we let God's nature take us over.

When we became Christians, when Jesus came into our hearts, when the promised Holy Spirit began to dwell in us, the Bible says that He came inside of us and changed our nature.

He made us into new creatures. Ezekiel says: “He takes the hard heart and makes it soft.”

Any time we choose to live in unforgiveness. Any time we choose to hate. Any time we choose to harbor resentment. Any time we choose to gossip. Any time we choose to gloat over the fall of an enemy. Any time we choose to make someone else our enemy, we are not living God's nature inside of us.

Every time we do that, we are following the god of this world, Satan.

My dad had an heart attack when I was 10. So for the next 7 years, he gave up his pastorate. We attended a beautiful little church in the inner city. Dad served on the board. And they had had a board member who was that cranky sort of believer. He was always mad, he was always upset about something. And you had to know my dad. He was just an happy man. And finally one day, he confronted the guy in one of the meetings and asked him why he was so angry.

And the man replied: “This isn't anger, it is righteous indignation!”

The point was, the man hid his unforgiveness behind what he called Christian righteousness.

I love what a good friend, a mentor of mine used to say to me: A religious person has little or no tolerance for those who differ from him. A spiritual person knows that God is able to love even the one he believes is the least lovable.

I try to imagine the look of Jesus, as He gazes intently into Judas Iscariot's eyes right at the end. Jesus has just said: “Tonight, one of you will betray me.” They all panic. They ALL see the possibility of betrayal inside themselves and they all ask Jesus if it is them.

Judas, in his hypocrisy asks the question himself. He wants to know if God knows the deliberate act of rebellion that is in his own heart.

“Is it I?” He asks. And Jesus says, “it is the one who I dip a piece of bread into the broth and hand it to.” And then He hands the bread to Judas.

I can imagine the look in Jesus' eyes. He knows that Judas is His enemy. But Jesus isn't his.

Judas resents everything that Jesus is doing. But Jesus doesn't feel that way about Judas.

Judas has become His enemy. But Jesus, even though Judas has treated Him so, doesn't go down to that level. In Judas' mind, Jesus was his enemy, but in Jesus' mind, it wasn't so.

Has that ever happened to you?

Someone disliked you, resented your actions and you were not aware? That person mis-interprets what you do as an attack, but your own motives were good.

Maybe I am naïve. I keep on trusting.

But when I find out that they don't like me, I become wary, but that is never an excuse to stop liking them, loving them, and treating them with respect.

But Jesus wasn't naïve. And he still entrusts Himself to Judas. He is kind, loving, generous and giving to Judas.

I picture those eyes when He is handing him that piece of bread. Are they sad? Are they compassionate? Are they pleading? Are they hoping that even though the entire plan of salvation rests at this point on Judas' selfishness, does Jesus look at him with a look that says, if you don't do this, we will find another way?

Jesus would never gloat in the fall of one of His enemies.

And so, He feeds his enemy.

Even though Judas broke the covenant between them, Jesus still keeps His covenant with Judas.

God will never break His covenant to love us.

The reason, the passage says is this: God is love.

Repeat it with me: God is Love.

Have you ever replaced the Word Love, with the name God when reading 1 Corinthians 13? God is not hate. God is not bitterness. God is not jealous. God is not unforgiving. God is tender, God is kind, God is slow to anger, God is patient, God never seeks His own way, God never rejoices in failure, God always hopes, always believes the best. God never fails.

God is love.

Love, is the purest expression of God.

I had a pastor once who said: “I am waiting to be baptized in love, then I will be able to forgive so and so.” I had another brother tell me once, “I will forgive this other person when God gives me the strength to do it.”

But the fruit of the Spirit is love. That is what happens when we get saved.

When the pastor said: “Baptized in Love,” his understanding of the difference between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit was off.

There are varieties of gifts of the Spirit. Some prophecy, some speak in tongues, some have great faith, some have the ability to preach and teach, some have the ability to provide supernatural help, some have the ability to provide wisdom, or a word of knowledge.

Not every gift is given to every believer.

But every believer has the Holy Spirit inside of them. Every believer has the ability to fulfill their covenant of love for one another.

That guy was waiting for something that was already there. He was using God as an excuse not to love. He was reflecting not only the “me first” selfishness of our culture, but also the “me only” selfish nature of our culture. He refused to obey God. He was in direct rebellion of God and God's nature when He said it was up to God, and not him, to love and forgive someone else.

It is our choice.

Our love is tested. Jesus, at the garden pleaded for another way. But His great love took Him through that ordeal. Because of love, He was willing.

If the tests are easy, then we would not have much to accomplish. No matter what. Let love be your guide.

When God Heals the Land

Text: Isaiah 35:1-10

Focus: Peace

Function: Preaching good news at Christmas.

Form: GOK

Intro:

Bishop Tom Wright writes some great stuff about evangelism in the 21^st Century. In England, where Christianity became a thing of the past. England, where registered Spiritualists, Mediums, Psychics and Palm Readers outnumbered Ordained clergy 80,000 to 30,000. He has lost no hope about the possibilities of people coming to Jesus Christ for their salvation, healing and restoration.

He says, in this post-Christian culture, instead of different denominations fighting over whose doctrine is the most pure, instead of political factions arguing whose platforms are the most just, instead of races, economic classes or nations arguing about who is the best, we have all come to the place where we confess our own sinfulness and call out to God that we need a Savior.

Evangelism isn't proving to others who is more right in their doctrine, or who knows God's word the most. Nope. Evangelism depends on not what we say we know, what we have heard and can repeat about God's word, but the way that we do it. The way that Jesus is presented to a sin-sick world.

He says, there are 4 great longings inside of every human being. The longing for beauty, the longing for peace and justice, the longing for God, and the longing for community.

He says, that when the Church gets off of its own self-importance and again, begins calling humanity back to God who created these longings, the God who satisfies these longings, evangelism will come out naturally.

And the word LONGING adequately describes our needs.

The teachings of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the way He came to earth as a baby, the way He loved sinners, the way He tried to get the religious to abandon their religious control for the greater good of bringing people back to God are all the things we long for, that we try to re-create during the Christmas season.

I love this Cross (point to cross on chest). Pat Shepard gave it to me this Christmas. I love this tie as well, Jill Randolf gave it to me this Christmas.

I love driving around and seeing the lights, and the beautiful Christmas decorations. I love this sanctuary. I have sometimes wondered about the extravagance of all the energy and time spent at Christmas. But I realize that it touches us inside, in that spot where we all need beauty.

When I read our passage, especially the last verse, The redeemed of the Lord will come with singing and dancing into God's own city and there will never again be sorrow or tears, I see the hope that God wants us to have.

More than anything, this verse explains the promise of God. The promise that Jesus will come again and set everything right. Or, as the English say, “To the Rights.”

He will indeed provide justice for the oppressed and satisfy the longings of those who suffer.

What joy! These verses remind me of the last few chapters of Revelation. The tree of life that heals the nations. The river of God bringing refreshing. The city of God that accepts everyone.

I love this verse about the highway of holiness. When I first read that verse. I didn't quite understand it.

At the time, the highway of holiness meant to me that this was the straight and narrow road that leads to life.

You know Jesus teaching: “Wide is the path that leads to destruction, and many are those who walk on it. Narrow is the path that leads to eternal life, and few there are that walk on it.”

I was pretty sure that I was on the straight and narrow. And I was proud of the fact.

I remember sermons about the straight and narrow. I remember the illustration about how a little bit off may not seem like a big deal immediately, but over time, the distance becomes greater.

For example, If Dan is standing at the back of the sanctuary, and I want to bump in to him and I aim myself at him and I am off by just one degree, I will still bump into him at the back of the sanctuary, maybe just a little bit off center.

But if Dan is standing in China and I aim at him and my aim is off by one degree, by the time I get there, I will be about 450 miles off my target. Even though it is one degree off course, it is a big miss.

I remember hearing that what seems small now, in sin, will do nothing more than lead us farther and farther off of course, the more we permit it.

It was all up to us to keep on the straight and narrow, and if we miss it, then too bad for us.

And I am not mocking the straight and narrow. It is a true teaching, straight from Jesus' own mouth.

But I like the way the straight and narrow is described better than that sermon illustration.

This road reminds me of a bowling alley with bumpers in the gutter so that the ball has to hit at least something.

It takes a lot less skill to hit something. I am not saying that we shouldn't be knowledgeable about God's word and what the right path is. God's word corrects us and keeps us right.

What I am saying is that we who have received Christ are on that road, and we have a shepherd who promises to get us there.

Except for direct rebellion from God, Sin, which God promises to correct us from if we are His, the job of getting there is up to Him.

That is why Isaiah paints the narrow road as such a great place of love, help, strength and healing.

That is the hope, that is the promise, that is what our faith will indeed bring us.

This is the promise that God has given to humankind.

And it is all described in this song that Isaiah the prophet sings to God's people.

Eugene Peterson titles the passage as “The voiceless break into song.” Jesus comes for the entire world. Rich, wise scholars worshiped Him and gave Him gifts of the finest of the land. Shepherds, the outcasts of the culture, were called to the manger the very night He was born. Even the angels came to worship.

Verses 1 and 2, describe the longing for beauty:

^1-2 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower—
Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom,
a symphony of song and color.
Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift.
Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.
God's resplendent glory, fully on display.
God awesome, God majestic.

Beauty is a gift that God gave to us. He created our longings and meets them.

Verses 3 and 4:

^3-4Energize the limp hands,
strengthen the rubbery knees.
Tell fearful souls,
"Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
He's on his way! He'll save you!"

The Savior comes and He is here to put things right. Every soul that has ever been treated unjustly, and has cried out to God for peace will have things set to the right.

Every person who suffers from the injustice of others will indeed someday be vindicated. God does care. God does see. God will judge and God's judgment will be completely fair.

God's promise is to satisfy the longing for justice.

So, how we spend our time and money, what we do when we see the struggling poor, what we do when we hear of racism, or of the oppressed being hurt further, how we stand up for the rights of the least of these will determine whether or not that reward will be in our favor, or against us.

God will defend the poor, that is a promise. God will set it to right.

And, He will deliver the sick. Verse 5:

⁵Blind eyes will be opened,
deaf ears unstopped,
Lame men and women will leap like deer,
the voiceless break into song.

There isn't a sickness, disease, human frailty that He doesn't know, understand or care about.

When Jesus walked planet earth, He healed every single person who asked Him. He healed them regardless of their spiritual condition. Although, in the question, in the asking, they demonstrated their faith in Him.

And then there is the longing of spirituality. Verse 7:

⁷Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness, streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
thirsty ground a splashing fountain.
Even lowly jackals will have water to drink,
and barren grasslands flourish richly.

Bishop Wright, in the chapter that describes men and women's longing for God titles the chapter “The Hidden Spring.”

He describes it like this. A benevolent dictator wanted to control the health of the people. The land was covered with springs, so he had the entire land covered with concrete to stop the springs. And then he piped the water to every person. He was able to add nutrients and chemicals to add the people in their health. Sometimes the water tasted funny to the people, but they had an adequate supply.

Then a generation later, the pressure of the springs finally erupted and the water broke out, covering the land with mud and bringing confusion.

But the people found that they had their own access to water whenever they wanted.

He describes this as the Church, initially in an attempt to do the right thing, falsely bottled up God and sold Him as a commodity to the people. All the while, God Himself is longing to break out and flow freely in the lives of His people. People thirst for water, they long for it. In the same way, we thirst for God. And God thirsts for us.

And finally, the passage speaks of the human longing for community. Verses 8-10, a description of what the Church should be. Back to the highway:

^8-10There will be a highway
called the Holy Road.
No one rude or rebellious
is permitted on this road.
It's for God's people exclusively—
impossible to get lost on this road.
Not even fools can get lost on it.
No lions on this road,
no dangerous wild animals—
Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening.
Only the redeemed will walk on it.
The people God has ransomed
will come back on this road.

I love this description of the Church. Again, instead of a bowling alley with bumpers on the lanes, it is a road with a real soft fence, plenty of on ramps and little or no exit ramps. It is a journey all the way to heaven. And the joy is in the journey.

And it is community. No one rude or rebellious. It is marked by kindness and obedience.

You can't get lost, even if you are foolish.

The rest of the Church is there to aid us.

The road has clear signs for direction, given to us in God's word, Sunday School, pastors, teachers but more than anything, the example of the leaders all the way down to the least of these.

And, is is a safe place, “no lions, tigers or bears Oh MY.” The church is a safe place, designed to insure the safety, especially the safety of the most vulnerable.

CONCL:

When the Church comes to this ideal, it will indeed be evangelistic. It is God's description of who we are and who we are supposed to be.

Please come to this body. No matter who you are, your presence here will enrich it. Together, we will seek the Savior, who promises to make everything right.

I am telling you, salvation, entrance into the family of God is a gift. It is a treasure. It is the best present ever.

Today, we have freedom from what binds us, hope for the future and eternal life.

I'm So Glad I Am A Part of the Family of God

Text: Romans 1:1-7

Focus: The Family of God

Function: To help people feel the joy of belonging to Jesus

Form: Story telling

Intro:

I love that old Gaither Hymn, “I'm So Glad I'm a Part, of the family of God.”

I remember when I was first saved and the joy I felt when I realized that here was a place that I belonged. I was in a place that wouldn't judge me for who I am. I was in a place where people actually covenanted with me to love and support me regardless of my faults and failures. It feels so good to belong.

I remember the first time the men in the Church got together to help out a family. We were all on the roof making repairs, and because I was small, they tied a rope around me and sent me up on a steep section to make a crucial repair. Not only did I belong, but I was needed.

What a great feeling that is!

Last week, we looked at the commitment, and the sacrifices that we should all be making that love demands.

That commitment, that attitude that the apostle had counted the cost is again reflected in his description of himself. He says, I am Jesus' slave.” He recognizes that as a Christian, he has surrendered his rights to Jesus Christ. Therefore, here he is, sending a letter of welcome to people who are the enemy of the nation he dearly loves.

That is the context of this letter. Paul, although a Roman Citizen, was first a Jew. And the negative and resentful feeling toward the Roman people, was certainly something that loomed large in his mind.

He was a Pharisee and from the gospels we read about the contempt the Pharisees had for anyone who was a part of the Roman bondage.

But all of that changes when he becomes a Christian. Because now, his national identities, as a Jew, and a citizen of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, takes the back seat to the fact that he is now in God's family.

So today, the focus is on joy, the joy of belonging... ...belonging to this great family.

Paul writes this letter to people who didn't expect to be a part of the covenant that God established with the Jewish people.

Paul rejoices in the fact that God's grace, love, and forgiveness extends even to our enemies.

I once heard a believer who was harboring bitterness in her heart say, “I would rather go to hell than share heaven with that person.”

And if she doesn't repent, she will.

Paul realizes that it is indeed a joy for them.

Instead of grudgingly saying, “well if I have to let you into heaven to get there myself, then so be it.” No, his answer was love. He was truly happy about the salvation and forgiveness of his enemies.

Remember Jonah? It wasn't that he didn't want to be a prophet. His entire running away, getting swallowed by the fish, miraculously surviving the ordeal, and miraculously being coughed up on the beach of the very city he was sent to is quite a story.

But his frustration was with God's forgiveness. He was afraid that if he preached to those people they would indeed repent and God would spare them His judgment.

Nineveh was a powerful nation, and they were enemies of Israel. He spends the last 2 chapters sulking, angry at God that his enemies found forgiveness and grace.

So this letter, encompasses the whole hope of the Christmas story. God wants everyone back, even our enemies.

God is in the business of reconciling people to Him and each other.

And Paul is on mission with God.

This is what happens when a person gets saved. They start loving their enemies. And this is an important lesson for us today.

Paul rejoices in the salvation of his enemies.

Do you see this in what I have been preaching here these last three years? 3 years ago this Sunday, God appointed me to be your pastor.

And for three years, I have been preaching that we need to be like Paul, instead of the other Pharisees. The other Pharisees kept control of their people by pointing their fingers at the awful sinfulness of the culture around them. They would claim that the sins of those people, and the sins of this other people, and the sins of someone else is why God isn't blessing the land.

I have been preaching that instead of being like the Pharisees and crying foul over the sins of others, pointing our fingers at pagans, we need to be like this dear brother and get involved in God's mission.

To use a military term: We are on point in spiritual warfare and the battle is for the souls of men and women, even our enemies.

The Romans were this great and terrible military power, so Paul changes his introduction of Jesus to them.

Everywhere else, he starts with the Cross, but here, he starts with the Christmas story, the nativity.

He mentions if from the birth of Christ.

Jesus was born. God came into the World. God has a plan to draw everyone back to Him.

He speaks of the resurrection, but the initial introduction says nothing about the cross. Ho does speak clearly of it later on in the book. But right now, that concept is left out. He speaks of the nativity. The message of hope. The message of reconciliation.

Remember, the Romans were about power and control. When Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, he refused to allow his sword hand to be submerged in his baptism.

That power, that control was extremely important to that culture.

So the emphasis, born as a baby, in human frailty, without the assumed power of a mighty man speaks volumes to the Roman believers about the nature of our salvation and transformation.

He is telling them that conversion into this new family of God will indeed upset the status quo of their own value system.

That is the message.

And in these first 7 verses, Paul explains to them the meaning of God's plan to provide redemption, hope and joy to the entire world.

I love verse 7 from our reading this morning:

⁷And you, dear friends in Rome, are among those He dearly loves; you, too, are invited by Jesus Christ to be God's very own--yes, his holy people. May all God's mercies and peace be yours from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord.

The enemies of God's people are also included in the people invited by Jesus to be God's very own people.

This is indeed a privilege given to us all from God.

Again, this new Kingdom is upside down from the empire that has given them such security and confidence.

And he says, “you are God's very own -Yes! His holy people.

Holy People.

What does that mean?

Holy does not mean religious. It means set apart.

It means that we, like Jesus have adopted a new country, a new Kingdom a new first allegiance.

We now belong to God's family and as we saw two weeks ago, it is indeed a treasure that is worth everything we own.

Before we count ourselves citizens of our the United States of America, before we consider ourselves members of a political party, before we consider ourselves members of a certain racial group, before we consider ourselves members of a certain economic class, before we consider ourselves members of a certain educational class, before we consider ourselves blue collar, or white collar, we are first and foremost believers in Jesus, members of God's family and citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Paul is reminding them of the benefits of that kingdom.

It means everything.

I have had the privilege of several “eleventh hour” baptisms. At the bedside of dying people who finally surrendered their souls to God's salvation.

On every single occasion, the person has regretted the fact that they waited until the last minute. To see the joy of transformation come across their faces, to know that they are indeed forgiven and to know that they are reconciled to God is amazing.

One man, covered in tattoos and apparently a pretty notorious sinner lay dying in a hospital bed in the front room of his mobile home for months.

People who knew him kept asking me to visit.

When I would visit, he would be cordial, but when the conversation turned toward eternity, he would almost immediately fall asleep.

One day, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about the veil that Satan places over unbelievers eyes, and I rebuked a spirit of slumber, silently in my minds own prayers.

Immediately the man woke up and started asking me if he could be saved.

He accepted Christ's sacrifice for him and told me to make sure to say that he now had a new last name: Christian.

That funeral service focused on his new last name.

To see the joy that came into his heart was worth a lot to me.

And, he called himself by this new last name.

I used to wonder what people thought when they heard “I'm a part of the family of God.”

Did they hear me saying “I'm in and you are out?”

Did they hear me saying “I think I am better than you?”

Or, did they hear us talking about the joy, the privilege and the peace that comes from being in this family?

I think a lot of it has to do with the way we describe the family and the way we treat those who may not yet be members.

A lot of it is up to us. So again, let us take our clue from this scripture and recognize again who this Jewish man, the apostle Paul is writing this letter to.

Now we know that he is a Roman Citizen, even though he is Jewish. He obtained his citizenship by having the good fortune to be born in a Roman city. Maybe he was one of the first “anchor babies.”

In the Roman world, at that time, this was indeed a great privilege. It was as great a privilege for him as it is for those of us who happen to have US citizenship. It was a sort of “passport to safety” wherever he traveled.

But, in this passage he makes one thing clear about all of that privilege. He is a member of God's family, and he is more concerned and more excited, and more committed to what that means than his rights and privileges as a citizen of the most powerful kingdom the world had ever known.

Do you see the importance of being imported into the family of God?

It is our birthright as believers. The joy, the privilege of being a member of God's family.

And that privilege does not make us better than anyone else. It should never make us feel arrogant, or proud. But the emphasis is one of Joy.

What is joy? It's an emotion.

One wise person said: “Joy is peace dancing, and peace is joy at rest.”

When we think of joy, we think of merriment. But it isn't necessarily excitement, or partying.

Joy is what happens when the hope we trust in comes to pass.

It springs out of the peace that we have when, just as my ruffian friend proclaimed, he knew that his sins were forgiven and he was a part of something huge.

When my father died, I didn't feel a lot of joy, but I sure felt peace. I had peace to know that his was a life worth living. His life made a difference. He preached grace to people who knew they didn't deserve it.

It was a life demonstrated by the peace that comes from having the issue settled as to where his primary allegiance lies. His was in the kingdom of God.

And joy came for him the moment he died. And it will come again for me, with him in heaven.

And all of that makes up what it means to be a Christian.

But in this passage, brother Paul chooses to emphasize the joy, the privilege and the meaning of life on this earth as a believer.

He is a part of God's great adventure. He is a part of God's great desire to bring everyone back to Him.

The Family of God is not an exclusive club membership, but it is a partnership of believers who have the same concern for one another.

That is the beauty of the Christmas Spirit. It is a time for us, for everyone to remind ourselves that essentially, we are all loving people who care for others.

Hope came at Christmas. Love came at Christmas. Joy came at Christmas.

CONCL:

At the end of 2 Corinthians, the other 13^th chapter, Paul gives this instruction:

^5-6Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.

And by this text, the acceptance of his enemies into God's kingdom we see something.

True Christian love rejoices in the restoration to God of our enemies.

Are you happy that at the success or failure of others?