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What To Do When Troubled
What To Do When Troubled
Two of the most beautiful, meaningful, and memorable lists in the Bible are found in the letters to the most troubled congregations – 1 Corinthians and Galatians.
Galatians 5 contains the fruit of the Spirit – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.” (CSB’17 Galatians 5:22-23)
1 Corinthians 13 contains a description of the first fruit of the Spirit which is love – “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…” (CSB’17 1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Think about it #1 ‐ These lists are actually the attributes of God, which includes the Spirit. An apple tree produces apples so when walking by the Spirit we produce the Spiritxs fruit in our lives.
Think about it # 2 – When churches are troubled, when we feel like strangers or superior to one another, when the essence of God’s truth and way are endangered by selfish sin and false doctrine, the answer is found in imitating God Himself.
Think about it #3 ‐ Why did Jesus come? One reason is to reveal the Father. To learn how to practice the attributes of God, we imitate Jesus who walked by the Spirit.
In the most troubled times we usually the exact opposite and start acting like the one who started the turmoil – Satan. The more troubled we are,, whether congregationally or personally (which is how congregational problems happen), the more we need to start living God.
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