Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: What I have done in this study is to take a dozen verses in the New Testament that use the phrase "one another," and bring them all together in one list that explains how God wants us to look outwards towards others. If we have thought that turns inward for ourselves only, we will become ingrown, and we can never be a true witness for Christ.

But when we have looked at Him and seen Him dying on the cross, when He has come to take up His abode in our hearts, then indeed our hearts must go out to Him, and going out to Him, must reach all for whom He died. For knowing Christ is to be known by Him and to be filled with His love, and that love will be an outgoing love for others.

And our text in Romans says, "He who loves another has fulfilled the law." There is no law but love, and love completely satisfies the law.

Guest (Male): God's word is good for holy gain, to teach, rebuke, correct, and train. Equipped by Him, we can pursue the work God has for us to do. God's word is all the Christian needs to grow in grace and do good deeds. Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation.

He started the radio outreach which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, "Consider One Another."

In one of his best-known hymns, Charles Wesley wrote, "Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God should die for me." There was a time when for many centuries, genuine love did not exist in the world. But Jesus Christ brought God's true love into the world. He alone makes it possible for sinful human beings to love one another with pure, selfless love.

Are you seeking to love others with the same love that God has shown to you? The scripture text for today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans, chapter 13 and verse eight. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, "Consider One Another."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit, we rejoice in Thee. Thou hast loved us when we were sinners, and Thou hast been so patient with us through the years of our stubbornness. Thou hast blessed us in spite of ourselves because of what is in Thine own heart, and we love Thee because of this.

We ask Thee to open the Bible to our hearts, and as we study together, give us, we pray Thee, enlightened minds and a willingness to follow that which Thou dost teach us. We ask all these things in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We come today to the 13th chapter of Romans and the eighth verse. "Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law."

Jesus Christ brought true love into the world. This is not astonishing, for Jesus Christ is God and God is love. It cannot be said that there was love in the world before the time of Christ in the sense that we know love today. There was affection between man and wife, although most marriages were made by the fathers and the role of the girl was obedience and submission.

There were even rare examples like the bond between Damon and Phintias, usually called Pythias, but true philanthropy and neighborliness were unknown in the ancient world. Gibbon declares that one-half the population lived in slavery in the Roman Empire, and later writers believe that this figure is too conservative and that there were three slaves for one freeman in the time of Claudius, with more than 20 million slaves, most of them white men, in Italy alone.

Moreover, Homer, in a celebrated couplet, notes the moral deterioration commonly wrought by slavery: "Jove fixed it certain that whatever day may make man a slave takes half his worth away." It may be said just as truly that to own another human being as a slave takes half the worth away from the master. In the Old Testament, of course, in the times of God's dealings with His people through Israel, love was known, but not as it became manifest when Jesus Christ came into the world.

Now into such a pagan world Jesus came, bringing divine love. He loved us when we were enemies, godless, and hopeless. By nature, we were all the children of wrath. We had a carnal mind which is enmity against God. Because of this natural enmity toward God, we became by nature selfish and self-centered. It took redemption by Christ to break the power of self. The very heart of His work was not only to reconcile the world to God but thereby to reconcile us to one another.

When we truly know God, we can know one another in Christian love. Because Christ lives within our hearts, we must be outgoing. The natural movement of the natural man is toward himself. The supernatural movement of the supernatural man, the believer in Christ, is outward toward others. This is not with the flashing egotism of a sales-type extrovert, but the reality of the outgoing of love from the heart.

Now, we are of course the center of our own sphere of living. We love our own families with a deep love that differs from any other love. But there is also a deep love that goes out towards our close friends, and for all members of the body of Christ, and then for all men. For as Christ taught us in the story of the Good Samaritan, our neighbor is any member of the human race.

I shall discuss our text, however, in its special application of Christian love towards other believers in Christ. If each believer shows the love of Christ towards all other believers, there will be no difficulty in extending this love towards all members of the human race. A good concordance will show you what the New Testament has to say about our attitude toward one another.

In Romans 12, we saw the exhortation, "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another." The Greek reads literally "outdoing one another." Chrysostom explained this: "Do not wait to be loved by another, but thyself spring forward to the act and make the beginning." It makes no difference whether you consider yourself shy, backward, or introspective.

Because we are so loved by Christ, our thoughts of love must turn towards Him and as a result, our love will radiate to all members of the race, especially to those who are in the body of Christ. When we project ourselves into the little assemblies of the first century, we can understand what God was desiring for them and thus what He wants for us in this century.

We have noted that it was largely a world of slaves, and when a group of people were saved, they met together on the first day of the week for fellowship in Christ. It was a totally new thing: master and servant together, and all one in Christ. A stranger appears. The first thought in the minds of all believers is, "Does he know Christ? Has he the knowledge of His redemption? Is he a believer?"

There was to be no question of the quality of clothing worn by the stranger; the poor man was to be received as quickly as the rich man. In fact, the idea was strongly presented that Jesus Christ Himself might appear in the form of some wretched outcast, and the one stretching out the hand to this stranger was reaching out to the Lord Himself. If a cup of cold water was given in the name of the Lord, it was received by Christ in the thirsty one, and Christ Himself honored the giver by noting the loving act in the eternal record.

Moreover, the Bible record showed that in exercising hospitality, some had received angels unawares. Above all, the stranger was to be received. Some came with letters of recommendation, such as the honorable mention given to Phoebe who arrived in Rome with no less than the statement from Paul himself: "I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a deaconess of the church."

Others undoubtedly walked in from the street. Though there were problems, nevertheless, the believer was to meet the stranger with the love of Christ. And before the end of this epistle, we will find Paul writing, "Receive ye one another." The church today is a far cry from the little assemblies that met from house to house in those days.

Today, of course, we have massive buildings where people gather for a set service. Frequently, the stranger feels himself unknown. It is difficult to assimilate the stranger into a large organized community church. Nevertheless, the love of Christ must constrain us to move in this direction.

I believe it worthwhile to pass on a description of the practice in a certain large church in which I ministered for a few days, where the Sunday morning service was attended by hundreds of people. At the close of the service, the pastor invited those of the denomination who had moved into the city to bring their letters and any others who wished to confess Christ or unite with the fellowship to come forward.

A dozen people came in response to the invitation. After receiving them, the pastor turned to the congregation and called on other members to sponsor the newcomers. For a teenage girl, he called a teenage girl from the congregation. To look after an evidently prosperous businessman and his wife, he called another couple of similar status.

Before the whole congregation, these were introduced to their opposite numbers. The pastor then said, "These sponsors will take your names and address. They will call on you. You will be invited to their homes for a meal. They will explain the workings of our church and will introduce you to a circle of people with your own interests within the multiple interests of our church."

Now, this was a 20th-century adaptation of the principles of the New Testament, and it would be well to extend it on a larger scale. But Christian love is not to be manifested merely in the sphere of social acceptance. Love goes much deeper than the amenities. Peter says, "Use hospitality one to another without grudging."

The Christian's love was to extend to the care of others, manifested in ungrudging hospitality. In the ancient world, there were few places where a believer could stay while traveling. Inns usually were houses of prostitution. The greatest authority on life in the ancient world says, "During long centuries, those who found themselves far from home could expect no welcome except from private hospitality.

In time, especially in places of commerce and pilgrimage, it became extremely difficult to secure food and shelter. When professional suppliers of travelers' needs did exist, they were ill-famed because of the evil reputation which surrounded such places, as they were open to every debauch. Well-born people could not patronize such places without destroying their own reputation."

We can well understand why the Lord put into the scriptures that believers were to exercise hospitality one to another and to care for one another. For in another verse, we read that the believers are to care for one another. This thought is expressed in the famous passage about all believers being members of one body that is found in the 12th of First Corinthians.

We read there: "God has so adjusted the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another." Christ used the same word in the Sermon on the Mount in the well-known verse, "Take no thought for the morrow; take no thought for your life."

There was to be no real concern about our future since our times are in His hand. But though we are relieved of all anxiety about ourselves, we must have a real concern for other Christians. We must think of their needs, material or spiritual, and do what we can to meet them. The love of Christ within us will give us this loving thought for others.

Just as a mother fast asleep seems to be fully awake to any sound from her child, so a believer given over to Christ will be sensitive to the needs of other believers. To the Ephesians, Paul wrote, "I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love."

Oh, it is possible to be bored with people, to be impatient and exasperated with them. But the believer is to think of the love of Christ towards us. Remember how Paul told the Romans that the forbearance of God and His longsuffering were to lead us to repentance? Just as He is never bored with us, never impatient, never exasperated with us, so we are to be towards others.

We may not have the same tastes, but we must tolerate their expressions of thought and action. Even when someone hurts or wrongs us, we are to take it in the light of our own treatment of Christ. How we wronged Him! How our sins pressed cruelly upon Him! So beside forbearing one another, we are to forgive one another.

The full verse reads: "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Just how far should this business of forgiving those who have wronged us really go? Peter was disturbed about this and asked Christ, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"

Well, that would have been a nice full number and Peter would have gone away quite smug and well-prepared to exercise full judgment if someone sinned against him the eighth time. I've always suspected from this question that Peter was of a belligerent nature and quarreled more frequently than do most men.

Just as some drivers are accident-prone, so some individuals are quarrel-prone. Christ's answer laid down the principle sweeping away any thought of rules, saying "until seventy times seven." Some people would be disposed to do some quick multiplication and say, "But that would be 490 times. Do you really mean that I must forgive someone that often?"

Christ was really saying that forgiveness is by principle, not by rule. We are to love, to be kind, to forbear. We are to be patient, tender, and forgiving. The motive lies in the last words of the verse: "Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Again we find that the love of Christ is expressed through us toward others by comforting them.

We are commanded to comfort one another with these words. What the world calls tragedy comes across everyone's path sooner or later. Death enters the circle of loved ones and we stand lonely and bereaved. When we see others in grief, we are to support and strengthen them, but it can be done only in God's way.

I've stood by the open coffin of a loved one and measured the Christian life and experience of those who approached me with their sympathy. Those who gushed about their grief only added to mine. Those who emphasized their own feelings of sympathy only called my attention to my need for sympathy.

But true comforters said, "God has never made a mistake. He knows what He's doing. We sorrow not as others who have no hope. Don't forget that absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. He has said it's far better." Such words drew my attention away from myself, lifted my heart to Christ, and established me in the certainty of God's absolute rightness.

Now, we are to be on the lookout to be true comforters to those who mourn. In that same Thessalonian epistle, once more we find the phrase "one another" where the writer says, "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, even as you do." I'm so glad he was able to add that last line, "even as you do."

There was a church that allowed the Lord to work within them and among them as He wished. They were encouraging and edifying one another. The word for encourage contains the Latin word for heart, and the word edify is kin to the word edifice. So we are to work through the heart and build one another up.

Our modern slang has adopted the idea of build up for an expression of over-flattering praise, but the New Testament idea is to work within the life of another so that he becomes a better person. This is true edification and can be done by showing him Christ living in us. Many other verses in the scripture speak of the interaction of believers one upon another.

James tells us to pray for one another. Paul says that each is to esteem the other better than self. If there seem to be shortcomings in this divine altruism, it's perhaps because we fail to obey the exhortation in Hebrews: "Consider one another." Though this takes time and thought, it is a part of our life in Christ.

The revision has translated this passage with great profit: "Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works." And thus we start a chain reaction. Because we consider others, they increase in love and good works. This reacts on us and we increase in love and good works. Finally, a verse in the Galatian epistle points directly to the text with which we began: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

The practical outgoing of love sees the need of another, shares the burden, and thus fulfills the law of Christ. If you have noticed what I have done in this study is to take a dozen verses in the New Testament that use the phrase "one another" and bring them all together in one list that explains how God wants us to look outwards towards others.

If we have thought that turns inward for ourselves only, we will become ingrown and we can never be a true witness for Christ. But when we have looked at Him and seen Him dying on the cross, when He has come to take up His abode in our hearts, then indeed our hearts must go out to Him, and going out to Him, must reach all for whom He died, and ultimately, all members of the human race must receive the invitation to come to Him.

For knowing Christ is to be known by Him and to be filled with His love, and that love will be an outgoing love for others. And our text in Romans says, "He who loves another has fulfilled the law." There is no law but love, and love completely satisfies the law. There is a hymn that we used to sing that has a chorus that goes well with our study: "Others, Lord, yes, others; let self forgetful be. Help me to live for others that I may live like Thee."

And we ask Thee our God and Father that Thou wilt give us the outgoing heart, that we may understand that we have been the objects of very great love, that Jesus Christ has died for us, and that He stands today in the world waiting for us to minister unto Him, and that He has said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And we give Thee the praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Guest (Male): God commands His people to owe no one anything except love. When we truly love one another, we fulfill the law of God's abundant love in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You have been listening to Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. We hope you enjoyed today's message entitled, "Consider One Another."

To listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled "Consider One Another," or simply request message number R13-9. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled, "Death is Swallowed Up in Victory."

In this four-chapter booklet, Dr. Barnhouse answers such questions as: what happens the moment you die? Where are the dead right now? Is there such a thing as soul sleep? These and many other questions on the subject of death are treated with profound biblical insight. Are you grieving the loss of a loved one or struggling with the issue of death?

Ask for your free copy of "Death is Swallowed Up in Victory" when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals exists to promote a biblical understanding and worldview.

Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

The Alliance also produces the radio broadcast, "The Bible Study Hour," featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and "Every Last Word," featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a full list of radio stations carrying our programs, please visit our website at alliancenet.org.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners like you. If you have benefited from the broadcast and would like it to continue, please prayerfully consider a donation to help us keep this ministry on the air. For more information or to make a contribution to help further our work, contact us by calling toll-free 1-800-488-1888.

Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. Write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103. Visit us online at alliancenet.org. Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Doctors Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken.

Thanks for listening today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The Bible has commanded words to do God's saving work. To work on earth, His saving work, on work on earth. It draws our souls from death to life and rescues us from needless strife. Amazing gift, of worth so high, the life-imparting word of God.