We finished our study of the several gifts last week and, hopefully, you will remember what Paul makes clear every time he gets the chance. These gifts are not for personal fulfillment or satisfaction. In fact, if they are used in that way they will likely be misused – if not become harmful. They are for the strengthening of the body and not for the personal development of the believer. In the exact same way, the passage for this morning should be read.

These are not moral maxims like something from Confucius or Marcus Aurelius or Benjamin Franklin.

They are not to be taken as common sense principles by which to live. In fact, like the Beatitudes, they are intentionally impossible. Only the Holy Spirit can enable us to live this way. Anyone else will only experience frustration and discouragement. They are not intended to make sense to the natural man – only to the person who has Christ living in them.

They are not intended for a larger audience or an audience different from the Church. They are not to be taken out of context and used by an institution, an organization, or a country. They were written to a specific audience – the church. They are only for the body of Christ. The fellowship of believers.

They were not written as strategies for success in the world. They are not “Think And Grow Rich” or “How To Win Friends And Influence People.” In fact, they were not written as strategies for winning a culture over to their beliefs. They were written to people in a lifeboat as a way to live together while they waited to be rescued. Paul wrote these as a description of what life should be like in the lifeboat. They are rules for survival and not principles of how to run the world. In a lifeboat, everyone must practice together. You cannot have some people choose to do as they please. But, you cannot learn to live this way without everyone else helping you along. You cannot be like the recent story on the NFL player who quit football to become a farmer. He knew nothing about farming and did not know any farmers so he bought the land and taught himself to farm by watching YouTube. That’s not how it works in the church. We need each other to learn. We cannot learn in isolation.

They are written to people who belong to each other and not people who are independent individuals. They are people who are not their own. People who are hid in Christ and hold all things lightly and in common.. They are not the Ten Commandments which can be adapted to serve as a moral guide for a nation. These are instructions for surviving in cramped quarters afloat in a culture that is hostile and suspicious and anxious to misunderstand and misinterpret everything you do.

That is why this passage breaks easily into two parts – how we are to live with each other in the boat and how we are to deal with hostility from the outside. I think you’ll see that as we look at the passage. We won’t look at every word this morning – only about ten.

First, we begin where you might expect but with a twist. “Love from the center of who you are” is the way The Message puts it. Don’t try to pretend to love in a way that is not genuine to you. Don’t try to be someone else or to fake it. Love from the center of who you are however that works out in practice. For everyone that will be different and there is no particular template for love. For some it is more like “telling the truth in love” and for others it is “overlooking the faults of others” but each one of us has a particular way to love that people recognize as genuine and authentic.

Next, Paul says we are to “cling” to what is good. That’s the same word we find in Genesis 2:24 to describe the relationship between Adam and Eve before the Fall. They are united and hold on to each other with nothing between them. The word can also mean “glued” together so they become bonded. That is how we are to hold on to that which is good. We are to lash ourselves to it because so much in the world is anxious to pull us away. Evil is not neutral. It is not merely tempting. It is actively against our loving God and each other. The strong current of evil outside the lifeboat is fatal.

Next, Paul says we are to be devoted to each other. Again, that’s a strong word that means we are to think of each other as not only family but as the best kind of family – one which is based on brotherly love. The word here is “philos” and it means we don’t just love the other person but we have found something in common that we both love. It’s not romantic or idealized love. It’s not an exclusive love between two people at all. It is friendship and it delights in including others.

“Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”

Then, Paul says we are to share with God’s people in need. I looked up the word for share and it is the same as the word for communion. The literal definition is “contribution as an outcome of fellowship.” That’s interesting to me. It means I have to get to know someone in order to share with them. It doesn’t mean I don’t respond to starving children in Africa or orphans in India or even the dire circumstances of people I don’t know in this community. But, I think the point is we are to start with the needs of those we know the best – and those needs are not just financial. I talked to a friend this week whose husband had lost his job and it was a difficult time. No one really knew but their neighbor did and one day she showed up on the doorstep with some clothes and cookies. That, according to my friend, was more precious than any amount of money. Look around and think about the needs of the people in this fellowship and then imagine what you could share with them. Again, it’s not always money. It may be a word or a note of encouragement. Sharing is not the same as fixing. Share what you have – however little it is. Some of you know my favorite Edmund Burke quote: “No one makes a greater mistake than the one who did nothing because they could only do a little.”

Practice hospitality. It’s not just having friends over to dinner. The word here is “pursue welcoming strangers” and that is especially hard for some of us. It must have been difficult for the early church in the life raft as well. After all, once we have our groups and our friends and feel like we have just enough people in the boat to be comfortable it is hard to scoot over and share the little space we have. It’s taken this long to get to know the few people we do and what could fellowship mean other than spending time with the people you already know and like? It’s not written as a national policy on immigration. It’s the way we survive. We welcome new people. We make room for people we don’t know.

“Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.”

I love the way Eugene Peterson puts that. “Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.” We all want to be a somebody, don’t we? We all want to be noticed and feel important. That’s normal and natural. No one wants to be invisible and it’s probably not healthy to desire invisibility. However, being noticed can lead to the desire to be noticed. Eugene Peterson says in his autobiography: “A certain blessed anonymity is inherent in pastoral work. For pastors, being noticed easily develops into wanting to be noticed. Many years earlier a pastor friend told me that the ego ‘has the reek of disease about it, the relentless smell of the self.’” Who wants to be in a lifeboat with that person?

Associate with people of low position. That doesn’t just mean people with menial jobs or going out and talking to your yard man. It can also mean, quite literally in the language here, not turning your back on someone who has been humiliated, made ashamed or disgraced. I have friends who have been dragged out in public and exposed for their failures and this is the first thing they learn. There are many people who want to associate with the right people but, as the song says so well, “Nobody loves you when you are down and out.” Well, the people in the lifeboat do because we belong to each other.

Paul uses a wonderful phrase that the NIV translates as “Do not be conceited.” The literal phrase is “Do not become wise with yourselves.” First, it’s plural. Conceit is contagious and it happens when people stop talking to others who will challenge their thinking. Much of the media today begins with the assumption that people do not want to hear other opinions unless they can immediately follow up with a rebuttal by someone who is the right kind of thinker. Their knight gets a Shetland pony and a butter knife. Ours gets a stallion and lance. Conceit doesn’t just mean pride. It means self-deception and that is what we get when we only associate with people who hold our opinions or beliefs or way of looking at the world. We become self-deceived and wise in our own unchallenged estimation.

How do we live at peace with everyone? Isn’t that a classic description of a people pleaser and someone who gives up their own beliefs just so they won’t rock the boat? For sure, we need people who are not always stirring up dissension and strife but how can anyone live at peace with everyone. Well, first of all it says “as far as it depends on you” so it is not always possible with some people to be at peace. Second, this is a particular kind of peace. It is the peace of living without revenge. See how it is bracketed by “Do not repay anyone evil for evil” and “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Paul is not talking about any and all kind of evil or any kind of peace. He is talking about a particular kind of evil – the evil of people maligning and distorting the truth about you. It is the evil of slander and intentional misrepresentation. It is the evil of deliberately misinterpreting what someone says or does to cause them harm. That is the special kind of evil the early Church faced most often and that is why “live at peace” means live without revenge and live in such a way that people will come to respect you for who you are. Otherwise,

“When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.”

Our best defense is not striking back but integrity in the way we live our lives. That is the particular good that overcomes this particular evil. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

The Apostle Peter echoes these same words in 1 Peter 3:8-17:

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,

“Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep their tongue from evil
and their lips from deceitful speech.
They must turn from evil and do good;
they must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats[b]; do not be frightened.” 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, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

Maybe that is how we should defend ourselves against politicians, consultants and pollsters turning the word “evangelical” into the neat description of a politically conservative voting bloc. It’s probably impossible at this point to turn around the misrepresentation and manipulation so perhaps all we can do is redefine it to what Paul and Peter say. We are friends and family with each other. We cling to what is good because we have seen others swept away by the undertow of the attractions of the world’s way of doing things. We are not those who look forward to revenge or humiliating our opponents. We seek to live in peace and are eager do good. We do not fear what they fear. We do not desire to be the “great somebody.” We speak with gentleness and respect. We control our tongues. We pursue hospitality and welcome strangers. We share and we live in harmony. Maybe it is possible to overcome evil with good. We cannot expect them to understand but maybe a few people in a lifeboat can be an example for what it means to live with hope.