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  • We Are Commanded To Show Goodness in Fellowship

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    Grace Church Modesto
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    We are Commanded to Show Goodness in Fellowship

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    rtf36

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    16 views1 page

    We Are Commanded To Show Goodness in Fellowship

    Uploaded by

    Grace Church Modesto
    rtf36

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    #36.

    We are Commanded to Show Goodness in Fellowship



    1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek
    after that which is good for one another and for all people.

    We have been making a point in the last few posts that by now is hopefully very clear; the
    fruits that God causes to be produced in our lives by the working of His Holy Spirit, He
    commands us to share in the life of the church.

    We keep stressing this because we have been taught something quite contradictory in our
    culture and in many of the churches today - namely that the church is there to serve us. It
    is the task of the church, some seem to believe, to lay on programs and events to entice
    people to come along and to cater to their felt needs on each and every occasion. People
    now judge churches by what they can get out of them, rather than by the opportunities they
    provide for them to serve the Lord in His body.

    If this contemporary view of the church is correct, then, why does God give us fruits and
    gifts, and why does He then command us to use them for the good of "one another?"

    In our passage this time, the fruit we are to show to one another is that of goodness. We
    are always (at all times, on every occasion) to seek after that which is good (morally
    positive, excellent) for one another (in the church) and for all people (those outside the
    church).

    It probably goes without saying that this is a behavior lacking in the world, both as to what
    is sought for others and how often the seeking occurs. We are naturally selfish and even
    our best and highest deeds are not done consistently, and are performed with an eye to our
    own benefit or advancement in some way. It is only those who have turned from their sin,
    trusted Jesus alone to save them and received the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in them who
    can behave in this way at all - and they need to be encouraged to do it more and more
    because they still have a contrary principle at work in them.

    It is a wonderful thing, though, to do good to others. Jesus Himself said that it is more
    blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). We are more like Jesus when we do good to
    our brothers and sisters and to unbelievers too. It is another wonderful thing to be present
    in a fellowship where spontaneous acts of goodness are both done and received. Doesn't the
    very thought make you want to be among the family in your local church? Again, then,
    although this is a command that we must obey as children of God, there is nothing
    objectionable in it at all!

    www.graceopcmodesto.org

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