Tape Gems on Love #2
/By Oscar M. Baker
[The following excerpts are from Mr. Baker’s Tuesday night Bible study tapes.]
In our Lord dwelt, “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. Now His body, the Church, is filled to the full with His fulness, and that means filled to the full with the fulness of God. But it’s too bad a lot of us don’t seem to know much about that yet; I suppose for one thing it can’t be comprehended because it is just too good to be true. However, I think that is not really the reason – the real reason is the lack of love to all the saints. Now if we have love to all the saints, that will result in praying for all saints as Paul says in Eph. 6:18. If people don’t pray for each other, they don’t love each other, and so the reverse would be true. And there’s something else too, supposing you do have someone who is a little difficult to love, they kind of repel you, you maybe don’t understand them – well, try praying for them, it works!
Now you know that Paul ended in Ephesians by including himself. He wanted them to pray for him, and I’m pretty sure his request was granted. I’m sure those folks prayed for him, for he was given utterance and boldness to speak, and in spite of his surroundings and they weren’t too good! Paul had really nothing to encourage him as far as his message was concerned, yet he gave us the greatest message the world hasever heard. I think then, it might be a good idea if we would be like him and the Ephesians (Eph. ) and have love for all the saints. (From T.F.T. tape
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted…” Tenderhearted means to be tenderly or yearningly affectionate. It isn’t too hard a job to love people when we realize Christ loves them. There are times when we fail to get people interested in a study of the Word, to understand some of the things we are trying to put across. Probably at those times we should examine ourselves. Have we been tenderhearted towards those we would like to win to the way of life --- the dispensation of the Mystery? Can we maintain an attitude of tenderheartedness when they oppose themselves to the truth? Or do we get argumentative? Can we take an insult, and act as if nothing ever happened? Can we do that? If we can’t do those things, we find that self is still in the way. And there is an old saying, “As long as a man is bigger than the gospel he is trying to preach, he’s a rank failure”. (From T.F.T. tape
TAPE GEMS ON LOVE to be continued in next issue.
