Week 24 (8 - 14 June): Unified by Truth and Love

Last Saturday, RT1 studied Acts 15:1-35.

This passage recounts a pivotal incident that brought Jews and Gentiles together, abolishing

the need for circumcision and following the law of Moses as prerequisites to salvation. Through belief in the sacrifice and lordship of Jesus, all have access to salvation.

We discussed what were the red flags to discern wrong teaching, and also what good

teaching/teachers looked like.

Even today, we are bombarded with wrong teaching packaged in more subtle ways, teaching

that tells us we need to work for our salvation or hypergrace. Such errors affect our posture

to repentance and how we lead our lives.

It reminded me that man is fallible in many ways, because our nature is inherently sinful, and we ultimately need to look towards God and His word (the Bible) to validate what we hear and see. It should always be consistent with what is core in our Christian faith, and we should also look at the fruit bore by the teacher, to tell if he is “a good tree”.

We discussed about how the apostles responded in love and, considering all Jesus and the Holy Spirit taught them, they came up with a guideline to unify the church, so that ALL can come to the Father, through faith in Jesus, and all can eat and fellowship today.

How do we live in love with one another, building up the community of Christ? We talked about what was core to ensuring deep authentic fellowship in RT1, and this was so nicely

summarized by Jordan:

• Being welcoming of people regardless of where they are in this journey

• Being present as an encouragement and support to each other and showing up for

  each other in times of need

• Serving each other humbly in love

• Being life-giving (positivity)

• Vulnerability - being able to be honest about issues within the group and our own personal journeys

• Living out our faith authentically

• Being who others need us to be, and meeting people where they are

In conclusion, love without truth is license to sin. Truth without love is simply enforcing

discipline. These are not God’s ways. He is true love and wants us to live the abundant life in

truth and love.

On behalf of RT1

Andrea