I encountered Romans 8:28 three times this past Sunday. I heard two sermons on Sunday and read a chapter in a book that used Romans 8:28. Romans 8:28: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (NASB).

This verse has always been a comfort to believers. It is always applied to troubles, trials, and tests we experience in this world under the curse of sin. God is all-knowing and all-powerful and causes all things – troubles, trials, tests, good and bad events in our lives – to work together for good. There’s cause and effect in this promise. God is the cause and the effect is all things working together for a final good. God causes this to happen for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

My concern is that none of the preachers or writers connected 8:28 with 8:29-30 for believers to understand 8:28 in its context and see the bigger picture. The two men preached with passion and sweat, but didn’t develop the power and beauty of the complete text. The “all things” that God causes to work together for good are stated before and after 8:28. All things refers to “the sufferings of this present time… In all these things (tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword) we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (8:18, 31-39) These things are evil. All things also refers to verses 29-30. The good things that God causes to work together are foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. Sanctification is not mentioned, but it is being conformed to the image of God’s Son. Believers are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. These are powerful and beautiful theological truths. Each one needs to be understood and meditated upon.

If a man peaches Romans 8:28 and doesn’t include 29-30 then it isn’t good preaching. Here’s my analogy: A person visits the Grand Canyon and only stands at the rim and looks across the vastness of the Canyon. Now he thinks he knows the Grand Canyon. But a person doesn’t really know the Canyon until he has hiked to the bottom and back to the top. (I did this with my daughter and almost died because I didn’t drink any electrolyte!) There is power and beauty deep in Canyon not visible from the rim.

God works all things together to deepen our relationship with Him. “Certainly Paul does not mean that the evil experienced by believers in this life will always be reversed, turned into ‘good.’ For many things that we suffer will contribute to our ‘good’ only by refining our faith and strengthening our hope… The idea that this verse promises the believer material wealth or physical well-being, for instance, betrays a typically Western perversion of ‘good’ into an exclusively material interpretation. God may well use trials in these areas to produce what he considers a much higher ‘good’: a stronger faith, a more certain hope.” (Douglas Moo, NICNT: The Epistle to the Romans. Eerdmans, 1996, p.530)

I may be anxious about a lost job, a life transition, a broken relationship or a health problem, and wonder how God can work “the sufferings of this present time” together for my good. God’s promise is that he can and will do it for those who love him. One person wrote, “This promise is for those who love God. In other words, if you are walking away from the purpose and will of God, it’s probably not going to work for your good… So always commit what you do into God’s hands, and it things don’t go the way you expect, you can rest in the promise of Romans 8:28. That will help to lift the weight of depression from your shoulders.” (Ray Comfort, How to Battle Depression & Suicidal Thoughts, p.78.) The writer used Job as an example. Joseph is another excellent example. They both experienced extreme trials and the trials were a part of God working all things together for their good and His glory.

God “works together” for our good the trials of this life, but let’s not miss the bigger picture. We take comfort in God’s foreknowledge of us (Psalm 139), his predestining of us, his calling us according to his purpose, his justification of us by Christ’s death and resurrection, his sanctifying work to conform us to Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8), and our final glorification in heaven.

I make the same mistake almost every day. I compare myself to other people and my life’s circumstances to other people’s. The grass always looks greener in someone else’s life. Someone else has more financial security; someone else has a better ministry; someone else less to worry about; someone else has more good things happen to them; someone else has more money to retire on; someone else is healthier (I’m very healthy!). I need to stop comparing and start counting; that is, stop comparing my blessings to someone else’s and start counting my blessings. Is there a Bible story for my problem? There’s “You shall not covet your neighbor’s greener grass.” (Exodus 20:17) But I like the story in John 21:20-23 better. Jesus healed Peter’s fear and shame by asking him three times, “Do you love me?” Jesus told Peter how his life would end for the glory of God and then said, “Follow me.” (John 21:15-19) Then Peter compared his life to John’s and asked Jesus, “Lord, what about that guy, John?” Why did Peter want to know Jesus’ plan for John? Curiosity or insecurity? Probably both. I compare out of fear and insecurity. The grass always appears greener in someone else’s life, but it probably is not. I am really ignorant of that person’s life circumstances. I don’t know what battles that person has faught or challenges he/she faces. There’s a lot of green in my grass to be grateful for. The answer to the comparison trap is what Jesus said to Peter, “If it is my will that he remain until I come what is that to you? YOU FOLLOW ME!” First, it is a healing medicine for my fear and insecurity to know that Jesus’ will directs and protects my life. Second, my focus is to follow Christ. No looking around and comparing myself to others. I only look at Christ and follow his plan for my life. When I’m looking around and comparing my life to other Christian’s lives I need to hear Christ say to me, “Stop looking. What is that person’s life to you? You follow me!” I need to see myself alone with Jesus, no one else in sight, hear him say, “Follow me,” and stay right behind him as he takes me places I’ve never been before.

Two things important to living with confidence and contentment are prayer and accepting a change of plans according to God’s will. I will post some Bible study on these two topics soon. They are under construction right now.

Jesus’ two commands are LOVE one another and GO make disciples.

1. John 13:34-35: “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
2. John 15:12-14: “This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

What makes Jesus’ “love one another” a new command? Every Jew knew the two great love commandments: Love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. What’s new about Jesus’ command?

How can love be commanded? Love is an action of free will. Love is freely offered self-sacrifice on behalf of another person. It cannot be commanded. I cannot command my wife to love me, especially after I do something to make her angry and she doesn’t feel in love with me. Jesus commands love because love is an action we can choose to do.  The feeling of love cannot be commanded, but the action of love can be. Love is an action verb. We can still do a loving action even when we don’t feel like it. My wife’s love language is acts of service. I can still love my wife by serving her even when I don’t feel in love.

What’s new about Jesus’ love command is its exclusiveness. Jesus gave this command to his disciples, not the world. In fact, he gave the command after Judas left to betray him. This command is exclusive to those who love Christ as Savior and Lord. We’re not commanded to sacrifice our lives for just anyone; only other brothers and sisters in Christ.

What’s new about Jesus’ love command is its example. The Old Testament commands, “Love God and love your neighbor,” are for all people (inclusive), but there was never a perfect example. Israel failed to love God and neighbor. There are imperfect examples of love your neighbor, like Jonathan loved David, Ruth loved her mother-in-law Naomi, but no perfect sacrificial example until Jesus Christ.

How did Jesus love his disciples? What perfect example did he give them?

Jesus taught and showed them how to love one another for three years. Jesus settled jealous rivalries between the disciples. When James and John asked to sit next to Christ on his throne, Jesus taught them about the cost of love. Jesus gave James and John the nickname “Sons of Thunder” because they were quick-tempered, judgemental, and selfish (Mark 3:17).  Read Mark 10:35-45. One of the Sons of Thunder, John, changed and wrote more about “love one another” than all the other disciples. Christ changed that Son of Thunder into a selfless servant.

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet as an example of how to love by serving (13:12-14).

Jesus’ final and perfect example of “love one another” was his sacrifice on the cross as a ransom payment to save us from our sinfulness and reconcile us to God. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

What’s new about Jesus’ love command is the power of its testimony. John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Our testimony to the world will be powerful if we have the kind of self-sacrificial love Christ has shown us for one another. I’ve served in a few churches and I know that loving one another takes patience, kindness, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, every quality described in 1 Corinthians 13. Love for one another is our most powerful testimony to the world about Christ. Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus are recognized by their religious rituals. Christians must be recognized by their love for one another!

I remember when I was a teenager singing around a campfire, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

GO command – next post.

I recently watched two movies showing the necessity of forgiveness: I Can Only Imagine and The Railway Man. Both movies showed the necessity, beauty and power of forgiveness. I cried at the crucial point in each movie when forgiveness was finally offered and received after years of living with suppressed anger, bitterness and resentment. Forgiveness in necessary whether or not you believe in God who loves and forgives. Forgiveness is necessary for the person who needs to be forgiven and the person who needs to forgive. Both souls are healed by forgiveness. The healing is spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, and probably also physical.

Christ taught us to pray, “Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Some people do not want to settle for “win win” – that is, compromise so both parties in a dispute win.

I had a dispute with someone very close to me today. It was about nothing really important. I am ready and willing to settle the dispute. But this other person in the dispute keeps coming at me. She makes her point over and over again until either I yield or I yell. (Yelling turns a spark into a raging fire – self control!) I feel like a suspect being interrogated by persistent detectives who are convinced I committed the crime and are determined to get a confession from me.

What is the biblical way to handle a dispute like this?

I think I can extract a principle from 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. Apostle Paul told Christians suing each other to stop. Don’t allow worldly judges to settle your disputes. Paul asked some very hard questions: “Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” It is better to suffer wrong or be defrauded than to take our disputes before the world. It seems to me like Paul is saying, “Let it go. Don’t fight and become angry and bitter and a bad witness.” If you can suffer wrong and accept being defrauded over something major like Paul’s example, then why not something minor, even trivial? Tell the other person in the dispute, “OK, you win! I give you the last word.” It’s hard because the sinful nature in you (and me) doesn’t want to yield. Of course, if you are wrong and realize it, then apologize.

I heard a sermon recently about being unoffendable or un-offend-able. I went forward for prayer!

Colossians 3:12-14 is an excellent scripture for resolving and ending disputes.

I’m new to this blog stuff, so be patient and kind.  My writings will become more intimate and profound. I used to have a blogspot titled Wilenghart’s Wisdom. I do not know what happened to it. I didn’t pay for it – the domain name? – and it vanished. I will attempt to write wisdom from my interaction with the Spirit and the Word several times a week.

I’m listening to a song by Lincoln Brewster, While I Wait. “I live by faith, and not by sight. Sometimes miracles take time. While I wait, I will worship. Lord, I’ll worship your name. While I wait, I will trust you. Lord, I’ll trust you all the same. You’re faithful every day. Your promises remain.”

This blog is about learning to live with confidence and contentment. Philippians 4:11-13 describes the Apostle Paul’s contentment: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him – Christ Jesus – who strengthens me.”

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ for many years and I’m still learning this. This is my writing about living with confidence and contentment trusting in Christ who gives me strength. Living with confidence and contentment is living without fear. My insecurities make fear my greatest enemy. I am learning how to live by faith. I am learning to be content and live without anxiety because Christ strengthens me as I keep my focus on Him.