Teaching Team

Devil's Children

The apostle John says that "the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother" (1 John 3:9).

Robert Lancaster, my father now for more than forty years, spent a good deal of his life as a pastor. Since retiring from the ministry, he continues to minister into people's lives by sending out, short, weekly devotionals to an email list. He has been sending out these devotionals for more than a decade.

I particularly enjoyed his last installment:

Dear E-mail Fellowship, I suspect I may have shared this command of Jesus with you before, but it touched my heart again and I felt it is an important part of the Christian faith to be meditated upon, so here it is. "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this will men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34, 35, NIV). This verse came to me like a flashing light when I was a young intern pastor. There was a great deal of conflict in the church I was serving. Congregational business meetings were like going into a den of lions. I would go home broken hearted. Then, one day, this command from Jesus jumped out of the page as if it were high-lighted. The power of it struck me. I put my hope in it. I had read that John was called "the disciple of love." I prayed, "My Lord, I would like to be a disciple of love." It made such good sense that our love for one another would show that we were disciples of Jesus. I would cringe when those who wanted to belittle my faith would throw this at me: "I hear that those good church people have been fighting again." How that hurt! and I knew it must be very painful in the loving heart of Jesus. I learned from a godly man that a way to quell a church fight is, as soon as the first bitter remark is thrown out, is to stand up and loudly say, "Brothers, we are beginning to act like the devils children instead of disciples of Jesus. Let's stop and pray and confess our wrong spirits and ask God to forgive us and give us love in place of bitterness." I can't promise that it will always work, but so far, for me, it has. PRAYER: Dear Father God, Your Word tells us "God is love." May we reflect that love, and may it be a testimony of Jesus Who loved us so much that He laid down His life for us. Forgive us for our conflicts. Forgive our anger. Forgive our hard- heartedness. Cleanse us and give us a spirit that testifies of our loving and faithful Savior. We pray in Jesus' Name. Amen. "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 19:19). Bob Lancaster

About the Author: D. Thomas Lancaster is Director of Education at First Fruits of Zion, the author of the Torah Club programs and several books and study programs. He is also the pastor of Beth Immanuel Sabbath Fellowship in Hudson, WI (www.bethimmanuel.org).

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