We’re not quite finished talking about “remembering.” You may be surprised to see that we have little to say about “Repent” and “Repeat.” To repent is to change one’s mind in such a way that the mind is renewed and the behavior itself is change. To repeat means, well, to repeat! It is interesting that it is the “mature” church (i.e. the one that has been in existence for a while, and has excelled in many ways) that needs to go back and repeat the “love” they had at first. We might see this in the normal life of a human. The child is full of zeal, excited, lively, but not always wise. With adulthood comes the wisdom, and sometimes “wisdom” doesn’t exist well alongside love or zeal. Think about some things the Lord said on this. He valued the “humility” and “faith” of a child (Mt. 18:1-5; Luke 18:15-17). Paul said to be like children in terms of “malice” (but not understanding, 1 Cor. 14:20). There may be less spontaneity in an adult believer. Perhaps things are more planned out. But the point is that we still do those things our of our love for Christ. “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). That is our first love!
Now, consider briefly 2 other matters. First, I think we can see, in Paul, good
examples of serving out of “first love.”
·
1 Th 2:9: “Surely you remember, brothers, our
toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden
to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.” Paul went beyond what was required so as to
be gentle with people who needed to hear the gospel and put their faith in Christ.
·
1 Cor 4:17 “For this reason I am sending to you
Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of
my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach
everywhere in every church.” Again, “first
love” was a lifestyle for Paul.
Meditate on those passages and do some “remembering”
in your own life. Then repent and repeat
as the Spirit leads.
Finally, let’s consider some cautions as we
engage in Spirit-led “remembering.” As
we remember the past, let us not be …
1.
Overly idealistic.
a.
About leadership, Ps. 106:7; Zech. 1:4-6. Israel leadership, especially in the Exodus
and wilderness wanderings, was not perfect.
We are not looking back to criticize the “fathers” or to blame them for
our faults. We look to them to learn so
as to make right choices now.
b. About
circumstances, Num. 11:5. Some of the
Israelites looked back to the Egypt days and only remember the better food
choices. They did not remember the
hardship of being slaves. We need to be
careful when we look back in history.
2.
Overly pessimistic.
These are all from Ps. 78, a Psalm that speaks of Israel’s failures so
that God moved the tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh to Jerusalem.
a.
78:17,32,40: These passages speak of continued and
increasing sin. We must be realistic
about the sins of the past, but learn from them. Our goal is to be built up in the faith so as
to walk faithfully.
b.
78:38-39: As we remember the sins of the past, we also
need to see the grace and mercy of God in those times.
c. 78:40-42:
Then we also need to see God’s power in the failures of the past. God had done marvelous things for
Israel. Those things needed to be
remembered, not just Israel’s moral failures.
We have talked a lot, maybe too much, about
looking back. But our goal has been to
help use the past as an encouragement to faithfulness today and into the
future. He hope you are so encouraged!
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