Receiving the Kingdom

Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. (Hebrews 12:28)

Jesus said that the Father, His and ours, is very pleased to give us the kingdom of God. It is purely a matter of His love and grace — and with it, we receive everything. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you,” Jesus said (Matthew 6:33). God does not hold back any good thing from us but gives it all freely.

• We are not bringing the kingdom — we are receiving it.
• We are not building the kingdom — we are receiving it.
• We are not advancing the kingdom — we are receiving it.

God, not us, is the one who is bringing the kingdom, building the kingdom, advancing the kingdom. Our part is to recognize it, believe it, embrace it and bear witness to it in every area of life.

We can no more bring in the kingdom and save the world by our own works than we can save our souls by our own works. But just as “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23), so also is the kingdom of God — it is the gift of God in Christ Jesus, whom God has made Lord over heaven and earth.

Note the tense in Hebrews 12:28. It is not “we have received,” as if the kingdom of God has been fully revealed in the world and we have taken complete possession of it. Nor is it “we will receive,” as if the kingdom is all and only in the future. But it is “we are receiving,” which indicates something that has already begun and is now in progress even though it is not yet complete.

We are in the process of receiving it now, ever since the Lord Jesus was given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18) and seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:19-23). It has already begun in the world but it has not yet been arrived in all it’s glory and fullness. We live in between the times, between the inauguration and the consummation of God’s kingdom in the world.

One day the kingdom will indeed be complete in all the earth. Then King Jesus will “deliver the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.” Until then, “He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24-25).

In the meantime, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, and we are now in the midst of receiving it.

Faith Without Love is Dead

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love.” That is what Paul said in his letter to the Jesus believers of Galatia (Galatians 5:6). We are not justified — that is, identified as being in right relationship with God — by performing certain rituals, such as circumcision (which was the issue of the day for the churches in Galatia). No, we are justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The nature of faith is that it expresses itself in love, and it turns out that love fulfills the law of God. “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14).

This is also essentially what James says in his letter to scattered Jewish Christians, though some in the Church have had difficulty seeing it. Martin Luther, champion of “justification by faith” in the days of the Protestant Reformation, thought the letter of James to be “a right strawy epistle.” However, he had gotten so tightly wound up in his own rhetoric that he missed the meaning of James. But see how James speaks about faith:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder. (James 2:14-19 NIV)

In James’ mind, there are two kinds of faith. He draws the contrast between a faith that is alive and one that is dead. You can tell the difference by the action that accompanies it, or does not accompany it. And the accompanying action James has in mind has everything to do with love. “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well” (James 2:8).

To be clear, James is not telling us how to be justified before God by our deeds. Nor is he telling us about a sort of faith that justifies us before men that is different from the faith one that justifies us before God. But what he is telling us is something about the nature of the faith that justifies us before God — it is a faith that is accompanying by action. This is very like what Paul taught, as we can see in Galatians 5:6, and also in Ephesians 2:8-10:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

A faith that never goes beyond acknowledging propositions about God or Christ or the cross is a dead faith. Even the demons have that, and it causes them to tremble. But that is not the same thing as trust. A dead faith is devoid of life and is completely useless. The only thing left to do with something that is dead is to bury it. Such is a faith that is without love.

Look at the example James gives. Suppose a brother or sister who is destitute comes along, and someone says, “Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,” but does absolutely nothing to aid them in their need, even if it is in his power to help. Is that faith? Hardly. The man who does that doesn’t even believe his own words, much less have faith in God.

Faith that is alive and real actually makes a difference in how we live and how we respond. It is accompanied by action. Faith without action is dead. So is faith without love. Yet even love, if there is no accompanying action, is dead.

Paul and James would both point us to the same thing: It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that saves us. But the nature of that faith is that it expresses itself through love and is accompanied by action.

Faith That Expresses Itself Through Love

The apostle Paul has a lot to say about faith in his letter to the Jesus believers of Galatia. He writes to exhort them, and even rebuke them, concerning the gospel. They have tolerated Jewish Christian legalists coming in and teaching that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough, but that certain elements of the law such as circumcision are necessary for Gentile converts to be identified as being in right relationship with God. However, Paul is adamant that faith in Christ is not only sufficient but is the only thing that counts.

• “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
• “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:16).
• “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:2). The implied answer is that is was by faith.
• “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:5). Again, the implied answer is that it was by faith.
• “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7).
• “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Galatians 3:8-9).
• “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘The just shall live by faith.’ Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘The man who does them shall live by them.’”(Galatians 3:11-12).
• “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us ... that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13-14).
• “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:22-26)

So Paul is very clear — and very insistent — that it is not by keeping the law that we are identified as being in right relationship with God. Rather, it is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But now look at what Paul says about the nature of faith, particularly in contrast to the law and circumcision:

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:4-6 NIV)

The contrast here is between trying to justified by the law of Moses, particularly in the matter of circumcision, and being justified by faith. The only thing that counts is faith, and the nature of that faith is that it expresses itself through love.

That is what faith does in our life — it results in love. Love for God and love for others. For by faith in Jesus Christ we are not only reckoned as right with God, but we also receive the Holy Spirit by that same faith. And the fruit of the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us, is love (Galatians 5:22). That is something the law could never produce in us and yet what perfectly fulfills the law (Galatians 5:14).

The faith in Christ that justifies us is not merely a mental agreement with the facts of who Jesus is or what He has done. That kind of faith is really nothing more than a head fake. But the faith in Christ that justifies us is the faith that expresses itself through God-formed love.

Godlikeness

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

God created us in the image and likeness of God — to be like Him. His plan was for us to represent Him on the earth and exercise dominion on His behalf. However, that image was marred when Adam rebelled against God, and through Adam, all humanity was bent toward evil and made subject to death. And the expectation of godly dominion on the earth was shattered.

Which is why Jesus came. The eternal Son of God “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) in order to redeem us and restore creation to godly dominion. Paul says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15). The author of Hebrews calls Him the “express image” of God’s person.

In Jesus Christ, not only is our humanity restored but so also our godlikeness. All who believe on Him are part of that restoration; Paul says that we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of [God’s] Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). So then, we are being conformed to the image of Jesus, who is the express image of God. We have “put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:9-10).

Though Peter does not use the word “image,” he does indicate the same reality concerning our restoration to godlikeness:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we become partakers of the divine nature, participants in what God Himself is like. This does not mean, however, that we become God Himself. We do not participate in who God is in His infinite powers — His omnipotence, omnipresence, or omniscience, for example. But we do share in the life of God, who is immortal. “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). And we partake of the character of God, which can be summed by one word, love, “for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

This is the direction Peter moves in. Directly after the promise of being partakers of the divine nature, he adds, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Love is what caps it all off, bringing faith to completion.

Paul also speaks of the divine nature of love, in the book of Galatians, where he identifies love as the fruit of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). This is the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, and is perfectly fulfilled by Him. Love heads the list, and all the other “fruit” that follows can be understood as manifesting love.

We were created to be like God, who is love. In Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, we are being restored to that likeness. And that changes the world.

King Jesus and the Creation Mandate

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

God created man, male and female, in His own image and according to His likeness. Then He blessed them and told them to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, and to have dominion. This is called the “creation mandate,” also known as the “cultural mandate.” It was not given as a means for selfish exploitation but for stewardship on God’s behalf. This is why it is important that man was created in the image of God and to be like God.

God’s purpose was for all creation to be filled with Godlikeness, reflecting the glory of God in every thing and in every way. In other words, it was that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven, just as Jesus taught us to pray in what we call the “Lord’s Prayer.”

The Hebrew word for “subdue” means to bring under subjection. Though God created the Garden of Eden in the world, and it reflected the glory of God to the world, the whole world itself was not yet a garden. That is what God intended for man to do, to bring the rest of the world into alignment with the divine pattern of Eden. The result would be, in a very real way, heaven on earth.

However, man rebelled against the will of God and in doing so disconnected from the life of God. And instead of heaven on earth, hell was unleashed. That is why, to make a long story short, Jesus came. He became flesh and dwelt among us in order to redeem the world of humanity, and even creation itself.

At the cross, Jesus defeated sin, death and the power of the devil — every thing that worked against humanity and creation. Then God “raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). All who belong to Christ when He comes again will likewise be raised from the dead, as Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15, the “Resurrection Chapter.”

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:22-24)

Between now and then, King Jesus is in the process of bringing all things into alignment with His kingdom: “For He must reign,” Paul says, “till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). All authority on earth as well as in heaven has been given to Jesus (Matthew 28:18) and through the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) He is bringing humanity into line with His kingdom. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will one day confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God (Philippians 2:9-11), and all who belong to Him will be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29). Creation itself awaits that day:

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21)

The creation mandate God gave to the first Adam is being fulfilled by the Last Adam, King Jesus the Messiah.

The Epistemology of Love

Epistemology is the study of how we know something. The apostle John understood the epistemology of love very well. So well, in fact, that he has sometimes been called “the apostle of love.” In his letter to the Church, he has a lot to say about love as a way of knowing.

• “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5). This is God’s work of love being brought to maturity and completeness in us. We see it at work when we keep His word, His commandment, which is to love one another. And by this love, we know that we are in God (and that God is in us), because love is the work of God in us.
• “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death” (1 John 3:14). Here again is the love of God being perfected in us and revealed through love for each other. And by this love we know that we have passed from death to life.
• “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Here is how we know love itself — the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life for us (even while we were yet in our sins and rebellion against God), and we manifest that love to each other in the same way, by laying down our lives for each other.
• “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). Those who love are born of God, because it is God’s love that is being demonstrated through them. And by that love, they know God — for God is love.
• “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments” (1 John 5:1-2). All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are born of God, and we can know that He is in us because of love for all those who belong to God. And here is how we can know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandment. Love comes from God, and when we look to Him, He will work in us by that love. His commandment is that we love one another (1 John 3:21). Indeed, all His commandments are fulfilled through love. Paul said, “He who loves another has fulfilled the law … For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Romans 13:8, 10).

Don’t Trust in Prosperity

Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,
    And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment,
    His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
    But joy comes in the morning.
Now in my prosperity I said,
    “I shall never be moved.”
LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
    You hid Your face, and I was troubled.

(Psalm 30:4-7)

Prosperity is wonderful. God wants us to prosper. In another psalm, David says this: “Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause; and let them say continually, ‘Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant’” (Psalm 35:27). In 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul gives us a good description of prosperity when he says, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” This is the abundance of grace He desires to extend to you and me. I’m all for it.

And yet, prosperity can quickly become a big problem for us. David recognizes it in Psalm 30. He experienced prosperity and felt very secure: “I shall never be moved,” he declared. He understood exactly where it came from and he praised God for it: “LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong.”

Everything was great. But then something happened and David looked for God — and could not find Him. He panicked. “You hid your face, and I was troubled,” he said. Somewhere along the way, David had begun looking to his prosperity, instead of to God, for his security.

It can be very easy for our focus to drift away from the Lord because of our circumstances. They often seem so tangible and immediate, when often God does not. And it does not matter whether circumstances are favorable or desperate, they can distract us either way. Remember how Peter walked on water with the Lord Jesus, until he looked around and realized how rough were the wind and the waves, and he began to sink. But then he cried out to the Lord — who had been there all along — and was rescued. Jesus lifted Peter out and returned him to the boat.

But in the scene David recalls for us in Psalm 30, it was not desperate circumstances but the false security of prosperity that shifted his trust away from the Lord. Then when something happened that caused that security, if not his prosperity, to vanish, David was troubled and wondered where God was. Like Peter, he had lost sight of Him. God was still there, even though His face was hidden. Then, realizing once again that it was God Himself, and not the prosperity he had received from God, that made him secure, David cried out to the Lord and was rescued. Reoriented now in his faith, he rejoiced in the Lord:

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
    You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
    O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

(Psalm 30:11-12)

God wants to bless and prosper every one of us, but He wants us to trust in Him and not in the blessing or the prosperity. The “good times” may come and go, but it is the Lord Himself who will keep us safe and make us whole. When our trust is in the Lord, though there may be weeping in the night, there will be joy in the morning, for He is always there for us — even in the dark — and His favor endures forever.

As We Have Forgiven Our Debtors?

Here are a few thoughts I had from a recent discussion I was in concerning the petition for forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthews 6:12).

Some have proposed that the Lord’s Prayer — the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray — is for those who are under the law and does not apply to those who are not. Some even suggest that is it not for Christians today but for some future tribulation period. However, that raises a few questions:

• First, where do we find anything in the Law to the effect of what Matthew 6:12 says? This petition does not seem to me to be specific to the Law, or even about the Law in a general way.
• Second, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also spoke about murder and adultery, and seems to “raise the bar” in regard to the way many thought about them in those days (and still often do today). Does that mean that what He said about those things are not pertinent for us today? Hardly.
• Third, as I consider the other petitions in that prayer, none of them appear to be about the Law. So why should we suppose that the petition about forgiveness should be understood as being about the Law, when the others are not?
• Fourth, where do we find any hint that this is only for saints enduring the tribulation period? I don’t see that anywhere in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, or even in the larger context.

One of the significant things I have found as I have searched the Law of Moses is that it does not appear to address the issue of us forgiving others for their sins against us, much less relating our forgiveness of others with God’s forgiveness of us. On the other hand, as I consider the Gospels, I find quite a bit of Jesus’ teaching is about forgiving others. And I think that tells us something important about the kingdom of God.

The Lord’s Prayer is a kingdom prayer: “Thy kingdom come ... Thine is the kingdom,” it says. It is not only about being forgiven ourselves, it is also about us forgiving each other. This forgiveness is about fellowship, not just our fellowship with God but also our fellowship with each other. This is about the kingdom of God, and that kingdom has already begun through Jesus, God's Messiah King.

The Lord’s Prayer does not allow us to think merely individualistically about our relationship with God and whatever He is doing. Rather, it teaches us how we are to live together as the community of God’s people. We do not address, “My Father,” but “Our Father.” It is not merely, “Give me this day my daily bread,” but “Give us this day our daily bread.” And the petition for forgiveness is not simply, “Forgive me my debts,” but “Forgive us our debts.” It is quite appropriate, then, that Jesus adds these words: “as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Thoughts on Justification and Sanctification

A few thoughts from a recent discussion about the theological/biblical concepts of justification and sanctification.

In the Bible, justification is law-court terminology and, therefore, judgment day terminology. When God justifies us, He judges us and declares that we are righteous — that is, in right relationship with Him. When we stand before God on that final day, that is what God’s judgment of us will be, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in the Lord Jesus, we know ahead of time what that the judgment on that day will be.

Sanctification is God setting us apart as His own people, conforming us to the image of His Son and transforming us by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of God through and through. We do not conform ourselves, nor do we transform ourselves. Indeed, we cannot. It must be the work of God. By grace through faith.

In Ephesians, Paul says, “For we are His worksmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). This is sanctification. The workmanship is God’s, and therefore also the good works — they are His works. In Philippians, Paul tells us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). This, too, is sanctification, and again, the work is God’s.

We learn to live out the reality of that sanctification by daily choosing to allow the Spirit to control our attitudes and actions, conforming them to His. And by yielding our will to that of the Spirit, we are gaining a very practical salvation from the power of sin. This is sanctification in action.

Now, this yielding, choosing to allow the Spirit to control our attitudes and actions, is not a matter of human work or merit but is all about faith. It is trusting God to work in us by His Spirit. It is no more a work than receiving the gift of eternal life is. It is ceasing from our own works so that God may do His own work in us.

Through faith in Christ, we are already set apart as God’s people. That is a done deal. We are also saved from the power of sin. That is, its power has already been broken at the cross and it no longer has any authority over us. But there is also a sense in which we are presently being saved from the power of sin as we learn to yield to the work of God in us by the indwelling life of Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

A Discipleship of Gentleness and Humility

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29 NIV)

“Learn from me,” Jesus says. It is an invitation to be His disciple (the Greek word for “learn,” in this verse, and the word for “disciple” come from the same root). What Jesus calls us to learn from Him is gentleness and humility. These are traits that reveal the Lord Jesus Himself, in His incarnation, in the saving work of the cross, and in His exaltation. It is not surprise, then, that the New Testament writers also hold them in high regard:

• “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” (Romans 12:16 NIV)
• “By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you.” (2 Corinthians 10:1 NIV)
• “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
• “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.” (Galatians 6:1 NIV).
• “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:1-2 NIV).
• “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12 NIV).
• “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:23-25)
• “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.” (Titus 3:1-2 NIV)
• “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” (James 3:13 NIV)
• “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:6-7)
• “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” (1 Peter 3:3-4 NIV).
• “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV).
• “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” (1 Peter 5:5)

Given that Jesus invites us to come and “learn” gentleness and humility from Him, what should Christian discipleship look like?