Josh Benner

Author: the Josh Benner Blog

  • The hardest commandment: love your neighbor

    The hardest commandment: love your neighbor

    Throughout the Bible, there are lots of commands to love people. Why? 

    Obviously because it’s important. But it’s also interesting that the command keeps coming up. 

    The fact that it has to be told to us over and over again points to the fact that it’s actually hard for us to do. The Bible doesn’t call us to do things are super simple and which come naturally to us. 

    There’s no command to love chocolate in the Bible. 

    Loving people is hard. And part of why it’s hard is because we don’t think it’s hard. 

    It goes back to how we use the language of the things we love. If we will throw around the word “love” for things we don’t actually even love, then we believe in an idea of love that’s pretty easy. 

    The Greek language actually had four words for four different types of love. I’m not going to get into all of those this morning, but even to know that fact is interesting. That there are different ideas of love, different types of love. 

    And we probably all understand that but we only have one word for love. We don’t think it’s hard to love people because we think love is easy. 

    Real love is hard. 

    Sometimes when we say “love,” what we really mean is tolerance. Let and let live is not love. That’s easy. Anyone can do that. 

    We do love our families. That’s usually pretty easy, at least for most of them. They’re our family. But we’re called to love everyone. 

    Now, that’s easy to do in that aggregate. It’s easy to love humanity as a human race and want what’s best for it. And that’s fine. But that’s also pretty easy because that’s so big and broad that we can also still get away without having that really needing to impact how we live. 

    But what about loving the people who are hard to love. 

    Jesus and love

    We see that from Jesus throughout his ministry. 

    We see him associating with those his society most despised. We see him visit lepers, people who were viewed as inherently unclean and who were outcasts in their society. We see him show grace to a woman who was a prostitute. 

    One of his disciples was a tax collector. Tax collectors were hated in their society. For the Jewish people, they were looked at as being traitors to their people. Taking money from Israelites to give to Rome. We see Jesus show grace to those who hated him, personally. Pharisees who plotted against him, guards who beat him, officials who crucified him. 

    Jesus loved the groups who were hard to love. 

    Every society has its groups it looks down upon. We see how Jesus showed love. Who are the groups with whom our society struggles? 

    Criminals. People who struggle with addiction. 

    People who have hurt us. And that can be hard. There’s incredible damage people can inflict. Forgiveness can be hard. Let alone saying that we love that person. 

    People who have different political views than us. The division right now in this country is incredible. Some of us can really struggle with not being judgemental on those who have some different political views. 

    You still have to love them. 

    How do we love people? It begins not with the people, but with the God we serve. Loving others is, and especially loving those who are hard to love is a reflection of our love for God. 

    We are to love others because we have a savior who loves us when we were unlovable. 

    Knowing the love God has for us. Knowing the need others have for grace and the gospel. Knowing that every person we meet is created in the image of God and is worthy of value and dignity. 

    How do we love people? 

    By praying for a person, by sharing the good news of Jesus with someone, by showing kindness to someone, by serving someone. By stepping into a person’s life. 

    Jesus stepped into our world to show love for our world. 

    Jesus went out and found the people who were hard to love. We actually can have pretty good control of our surroundings to avoid people we don’t want to be around. And I’m not saying that we all need to make a checklist of every difficult group. But let me ask you this: when is the last time you’ve had to regularly interact with someone who challenged you? When was the last time you’ve been around someone where you’ve had to turn to God and ask you for strength to love that person? 

    For some of us, maybe it’s been recent. 

    And I’m not even saying that you need to go out today and go out of your way to find the most difficult person you possibly can. But I think we do need to have some humility that love is actually hard. The love that God calls us to is hard. But Jesus didn’t shy away from us, he didn’t walk away from our world, he entered into it. He loved us when we were unlovable. 

    We can’t do it perfectly. But we have a savior who loves us perfectly. 

    And the more we understand God’s grace, and the more we grow in our love for God, the more that is meant to impact our love for those around us. 

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  • Love and the law – Galatians 5:1-15

    Many in our world can be hard to love, but the Bible repeatedly commands us to love our neighbor. Jesus sought out those who were looked down upon in his society. For most of us, it’s easy to be selective about those with whom we interact. Because of that, it’s easy to think that we excel at loving our neighbor. But in a fallen world, it’s often a bigger challenge than we want to admit.

    Sermon manuscript

  • Warning signs of abusive churches

    Warning signs of abusive churches

    In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the church had been infiltrated by people who had corrupted the gospel message and were seeking to add law onto grace. 

    In Galatians 5:1, Paul said for freedom, Christ has set us free. 

    Sadly, many churches fall into similar problems today with authority that is not Biblical and which brings its own form of slavery rather than the freedom Jesus died to give. 

    Here are six warning signs, in a list which is by no means exhaustive. 

    1. The leadership is authoritarian

    If you have a pastor – or leaders in general – who are not accessible or accountable, it’s creating the conditions for problems. Other signs of authoritarian leaders: a leader who never admits that he or she is wrong, lacks compassion and empathy for others, and is strong-willed to get his or her way. 

    If all of the power in the church is effectively given to one person, that’s also a sign of authoritarian leadership. The biggest problem with that leadership style is that it’s not Biblical. 

    There have been some high profile instances of megachurch pastors being forced out because of abusive leadership. But those are just the examples we hear about. It can happen in a church of any size. 

    An abusive pastor can do tremendous damage. They can hinder rather than help someone’s walk with Christ. They can sour a person on the church. 

    But the issue isn’t ultimately THE CHURCH. It always comes back to people, and sin, and adding to the gospel, which brings slavery.  

    2. Secrecy

    A church shouldn’t have levels of access. Some churches, people have no idea how that stuff is working. And when churches do that, it can be a symptom of a bigger issue with authority.Because there’s no reason why that stuff needs to be secret. 

    Again, I’m not saying it’s always because a church is deliberately doing something inappropriate. But it allows for those conditions. 

    3. Every issue is a gospel issue

    Some issues are gospel issues. That’s what we see in Galatians. In Galatians, the gospel itself was being undermined. The way in which we can be forgiven by Christ was being undermined. That was a non-negotiable. 

    Third warning sign of a church that is bringing slavery over freedom. If every issue becomes a gospel issue, it becomes its own form of intellectual tyranny. 

    But if you make everything non-negotiable, you basically crush independent thought, you crush honest conversations, and questions. It’s seeking blind compliance. 

    4. If the church makes the members prisoners

    If the church calls your salvation into question if you leave it for another church, that’s a warning sign. Because it’s elevating their church to have influence over your salvation. We’re saved by faith in Christ. 

    If you’re a follower of Christ, it is important to be part of a church. The New Testament is clear on that. And I’ve before made the commentary that our culture is way too quick to leave good churches for reasons which are not rooted in theology, but which are rooted in personal preferences. 

    But sometimes there can be legitimate grounds to leave. 

    5. If they have a culture of shame around doubts and honest questions

    Fifth, if you can’t ask honest questions or if you’re afraid to express doubts. Sometimes we go through a spiritual crisis where we’re really struggling. A church needs to be a place where a person can have the comfort to be open and honest about that. Without fear. A church needs to be a place where you can talk about your struggles. 

    The Bible does tell us to bear one another’s burdens. Not to be forced into hiding. 

    6. Adding to the gospel

    The sixth warning sign, if a church makes you feel guilty and like you’re never doing enough, or they’re adding things to the gospel and tying them to salvation. 

    If people are led to believe that anyone besides Jesus is their savior, and anything besides the gospel is the means by which they are saved, then it’s a church that has added law onto the gospel. 

    That’s not to say that pointing out what the Bible calls Christians to do is legalism or slavery. But when we act like doing certain things in addition to the gospel is contributing to our salvation, we have added works to grace. 

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  • The Father, the Son, and a thousand year old debate on the Holy Spirit. Studying John 15:26

    The Father, the Son, and a thousand year old debate on the Holy Spirit. Studying John 15:26

    Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus refers to having been sent by the Father. 

    But who sends the Holy Spirit? 

    In John 15:26, Jesus says: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

    Helper comes from the Greek word “paraclete.” That word gets translated in different ways in different Bibles. Helper, advocate, counselor, comforter. 

    And really what that shows is that it’s such a broad idea that it’s hard to condense down into one simple word. Because indeed the Holy Spirit does all of those things. 

    Jesus says that the helper will bear witness about him. Jesus is highlighting that the Holy Spirit teaches about Jesus, bears witness to Jesus, testifies to the truth of Jesus. 

    Jesus says: whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 

    Theology – helper 

    That is quite the theological statement. 

    Jesus says in this verse whom I will send to you, but then he adds from the Father. 

    That leads to an important theological question. Who sends the Spirit? 

    Perhaps you’ve never even thought about that. To approach that question, I need to take a moment and give a brief history lesson, because the answer to that question was part of a major theological debate almost 1,000 years ago. 

    The Great Schism

    In 1054, there were no independent churches or Bible churches. You didn’t have the Apostolic church. Protestantism was nearly 500 years away. 

    Virtually all of Christendom fell into one of two camps. East and west. You had the Eastern Orthodox Church in the east and you had the Roman Catholic Church in the west. 

    There were some outliers, but those two movements were definitely the biggest. They were coke and pepsi. The east and west churches had open communion with each other, but that all changed in 1054 when they split in a rift that has never been fully repaired. 

    There were several reasons, but one of the major issues and one that is related to our passage today was the question of who sent the Spirit. The Eastern Orthodox Church believed that God sends the Son and that God also sends the Spirit. 

    The Catholic view – which is also essentially the universal view within Protestantism is that God sends the Son but that the Father and the Son send the Spirit. 

    Another key verse in the discussion is in the following chapter. John 16:7, when Jesus says: 

    I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 

    I affirm the view that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

    You might ask “why does that matter?” Most importantly, it matters because we’re talking about what the Bible teaches. These complicated theological issues might seem boring or abstract but they matter. The Trinity is a significant part of what makes Christianity different from any other religion. 

    And the reason why this particular issue matters: the reason why it matters that the Spirit comes from the Father and the Son and not just from the Father is that if the Spirit is from God, then it would seem that the Father can be accessed via the Spirit apart from the Son. 

    If the Spirit is only from God alone, then, why do you need Jesus? 

    I’m not saying Eastern Orthodox people believe that but it is a danger of a theology where the Spirit does not proceed from Christ. 

    Also if Christ in heaven, ruling and reigning with God, and the Spirit is empowering and edifying the church, how are Jesus and the Spirit relating to each other? 

    The Father and the Spirit are both active in the ministry of Jesus. The Father sends the Son. And the Spirit was with Jesus during his earthly ministry. 

    Mark 1:10-11: when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” 

    All three persons of the Trinity are working in the ministry of Jesus. And all three persons of the Trinity are working in the church. The Spirit comes from the Father and from the Son. 

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  • Evangelism Training Podcast #7 Jordan Acer

    Evangelism Training Podcast #7 Jordan Acer

    In this episode, we talk with Jordan Acer about being a minister outside of the church. Most Christians are not pastors or elders, but that doesn’t mean that theyr’e off the hook as far as serving the church in meaningful ways. No matter what a person does professionally, that can be an extension of his or her ministry.