Title
Grace, Love and Fellowship
Scripture
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
(2 Corinthians 13:14)
Devotional
Here we have the sinew of the body of Christ: grace, love and communion (fellowship). These are the tendons that make the body work and keep it together. God’s grace is His favor toward us that gives us the ability to be like His Son. His love is the manifestation of His patience, kindness, truth, trust and protection.(1) His communion is His fellowship with His people and our fellowship with each other. As God has graced us, we are to be gracious with and toward each other. As He has loved us, we are to love one another. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”(2) Likewise, if we are not having sweet fellowship with one another, it is most likely because we are not having fellowship with God. Contemplate 1 John 4:20, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”(3)
Thought For The Night
“‘So highly does the Lord esteem the communion of His church,’ Calvin wrote, ‘that He considers everyone a traitor and apostate from religion who perversely withdraws himself from any Christian society which preserves the true ministry of the word and sacraments.’” “The Body,” Charles W. Colson, a best-selling author and president of Prison Fellowship.
Evening Text
2 Corinthians 13:14: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Looking for Answers
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Is not the trinity clearly expressed in our text?
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Are not these attributes to be clearly manifest in the Body of Christ?
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Are these attributes the sinew of your relationships?
Evening Study Guide
Defining: “Sinew”: The source and foundation of the body’s strength and vigor, that which holds us together.
Referencing: “Speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love,” Ephesians 4:15-16.
Applying: At home, at work, at church, practice: grace, love, and fellowship. Be the “sinew” in your relationships.