Sermon: Our Spiritual Roof

Agape Beats All Things
#1694A
Bill Onisick
Given 18-Feb-23; 39 minutes

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It was early in September, 2017 when Hurricane Irma decimated the island of Saint Martin as a Category 5 storm. And over five years later much of the island has been rebuilt, but you can still see signs of that massive destruction, especially outside of the main tourist areas. Scattered along the beautiful, bright blue, clear water and the white sandy beaches you see shells of former homes, empty concrete walls with no roof.

Now a building without a roof is completely exposed to the sun, the elements, wind, weather, and debris. The contents of a roofless house are often blown away, are quickly destroyed, and a roofless house is unprotected from snakes, bugs, rats, thieves, and predators like jaguars. Even the walls of a roofless house are compromised without that roof to tie them all together and provide that structural integrity.

But as I looked around that island, I wondered, why were some roofs still there? How did they survive the storm when others did not?

As I researched the strongest types of roof structures, I found that a hip roof with four equal 30° slopes performed best under heavy winds. In fact, the oldest wooden roof is a hip roof from the seventh century in Japan. But unfortunately that hipped roof is also the most expensive roof to build. So the traditional gable roof that we see in our houses is much more common even in hurricane prone areas because it is so expensive to build the other type of roof.

Please turn with me to I Timothy. Now I know I have been accused of being stuck in a bit of a rut and I do not deny it. John Ritenbaugh once told us find a good rut and get stuck in it. So I'm stuck in it and I do believe that Paul, John, and Jesus Christ's teaching on God's very essence of agape is indeed the most important to the end time church.

Now we can spend a lot of time and energy on perhaps talking about some symbolism in the Bible, we could talk about some prophecy, we could try to predict the future of Christ's return. We could talk about current events and conspiracy theories all day long. But what really matters most in the end, is our daily growth into God's image. Are we doing what Craig [Sablich] said? Constantly looking in that spiritual mirror to see if we are indeed growing into Christ's image? The sheep on the right are judged solely based on their application of agape. And I find that very interesting.

I Timothy 1:5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart.

The Greek word translated "purpose" here and "the end" in the King James, is Strong's telos meaning a definite point, a goal, a conclusion, a result, or indeed an ultimate purpose. And if you are reading this out of the New King James and it is translated purpose, it is a much better fit here. We know God's Word does not end, but there is a purpose for that. And that purpose is to help us in our transformation into God's pure agape Spirit.

We can think of the law kind of like gutters on a bowling alley that make it clear when that ball has steered out of bounds. Now I do not know about you, but bowling has always eluded me. I do not know if it is the goofy looking shoes, if it is maybe that light colored, white wood flooring, but something sucks the athleticism out of my body. And the harder I try the more easily I roll that ball into the gutter. And I am sure many of you can relate when we think spiritually about areas of our lives where we try hard to stay right down the middle, but inevitably we veer off course into the gutter areas of our lives, where we are more prone to commit a sin, where sin is hard for us to avoid.

The gutters are well-defined physical boundaries and when we roll into them, it is because we have committed actions that are driven from a self-focused heart. Herbert. Armstrong used to call God's way "the way of give" versus Satan's way, "the way of get." Another way of saying that is Satan's way is self-focused. God's way of life is others-focused, and that is really what our transformation is all about. It is about becoming others-focused in everything we do. It is that simple and that hard.

Now we know God's law never ends. He is unchangeable and His law is His way of life. It will always exist. It will always be there. Christ confirmed in Matthew 5 He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill. Jesus expanded on the letter of the law, He added to it with the spirit of the law. But the hard boundaries, the gutter, the consequences of breaking the law, are not the end goal.

Again, God's long way of life does not change. But what does change as we become more Godlike is we become more like His others-focused way of life and therefore we always obey His commandments and His law.

The law still there. But it is like we have these invisible bumpers like there are in bowling. It will not allow us to go off course. God's Spirit of agape never breaks the commandments and when we are walking in it we always roll a strike. As we become more like Him, our Godlike spirit prevents us, brethren, from rolling into the gutter.

Turn with me to I John. Now God's way of life, His law, is always properly upheld when our heart is transformed into His pure agape image. And what is more—and this is important—it is only through His Spirit that we can have both the right outcome—adherence to the letter and spirit of the law—with the right underlying motivation, the right mindset, the right attitude that has driven the right action.

I John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

Talk about a simple proof that the law has not done away! I mean, that says it right there. How can you debate that? John tells us God is love several times and then he says this is obeying the commandments. The law is still there, brethren. Of course we know that.

We are going to walk back a little bit in I John. Let us go back to I John 4.

I John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

His agape has been perfected in us if we agapeo each other. He abides in us when we agapeo each other. That is how we know He is in us, when we have actions of agapeo to our brethren.

So God beings are agape by definition and simply cannot sin. Now, none of us are even close to that level of perfection yet. And we know that, but a pure heart of agape is the end goal and we need to stay focused on this, focused on those spiritual mirrors that we just heard about from Craig. We have to be working each day by yielding to His Spirit in our lives. At the end of each day that spiritual mirror evaluation is pretty simple. Today, how did I agapeo God the Father? Today, how did I agapeo my brethren. Right? Every day ending the day with those two questions. If you cannot state things that would adhere to the spirit of agape, well, we have got work to do, either one or the other.

Now, as we briefly explore some history, I do not want to get too tied into this because when you think about language and words, we know that our language is so inadequate to describe God, our great God. But I do want to at least explore this because I found it interesting.

Way before Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth in the flesh, Greek became the international language, thanks to Alexander the Great's conquest. Now of all the early Greek manuscripts dating back to the fourth century, like Homer's The Odyssey or some of the early writings of famous Greek philosophers, ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, we find many related words used to describe love, agapaton, agapon. They are used to describe a type of love that soldiers had for their country as they died in battle. But as far as we can tell, I researched this quite a bit to try to tease it out, the noun agape and the verb agapeo, are first found written in the Bible. It may not be significant, but I found it pretty interesting.

A lot of literature is out there that could have included those words, but as far as we could see, it did not. So is it possible that in order to give us a better understanding of our great God, that in order to give us a better detailed description of what He is like, that maybe these words were kind of set aside and brought forth as part of the writing of the New Testament? That is kind of interesting. It probably does not matter. You can call it anything. What matters is, what is the underlying spirit of that particular word as used to describe the very essence of God. But I found that interesting so I thought I would share that with you.

So it is just a word, mind you, and no one word could adequately describe our great God. But as I have said before, I think omni-agape is probably about as close as we can get to describing God in one word. And granted I did make that up, but it is a really good description. Everything God does is in His Spirit of agape, which is an everlasting, always burning will to do the best for His God Family. In a will coupled with action always to do the action of what is best for His creation, for His Family. For each of us, brethren, it is super exciting when we study into this.

I John 4:8 He who does not love [agapeo] does not know God, for God is love [agape].

That is pretty interesting. John repeats, by the way, in this chapter, I John 4, that God is agape. Simply put. Right? God is agape. But he adds here that we may think we know God. We may think we know God. But if we are not actively expressing His agape love every day to Him and to His children, we do not even know God. It is pretty strong words there. If we do not think this is important that should probably change our mind here on just how important this is.

Over to I Corinthians now. 13 Paul makes this really clear; and this is something that I have got to tell you, it just really hits me hard. We could attend Sabbath services every week, consistently. We could have all the knowledge of the Book. We could have all faith, we could have all prophecy right, we could give everything we have to the poor, literally sell it all, give it to the poor. We could even suffer death due to persecution for keeping God's truth, and Paul tells us here if we are not doing it with the right underlying spirit, God's Spirit of agape and others-focused spirit, it is still not hitting the mark. And that is really powerful, brethren.

As we examine Paul's detailed description of God's agape Spirit here in I Corinthians 13:4-8, we find 16 actions that describe what agape does and what agape does not do. Seven positive actions—agape does this always does this. And nine negative actions—agape never does that. We have looked into a few already, and God willing, we will look into more over time because I believe each one is a really interesting detail into the very essence of God's agape Spirit.

Agape by definition, remember, is action. It is not an empty thought. It is not an emotion, it is not a feeling. The action of agape in fact must be performed regardless of what the underlying emotion or feeling. Maybe we may not want to do something, but we still have to do it. Where would we be if God did not first agapeo us? Did we deserve it? No, we did not. We do not have to like what somebody did to us, brethren. We do not have to like it, but we are commanded to agapeo them. Jesus Himself commands us in the two greatest commandments to agapeo God and our brethren.

And then in Matthew 5, He takes it up a notch, does He not? Jesus tells us we also have to love our enemies and then we truly become the children of God. That is a high, high mark. And I do not know about you but I have a lot of work to do on this one because when somebody in the world does something stupid when they are driving, my ball rolls into the gutter. I mean, it just does, and I have to get to a point where I can overcome that. Right? That is our high calling, brethren.

I Corinthians 13:7 Love [agape] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Today we are going to examine the first action in verse 7, which is the twelfth overall, "bears all things." Now on the surface, we might think Paul's kind of doubling down here because you see him using two similar English words in the same verse, bears and endures. But let us explore this a little closer here. I think you may be as surprised as I was as we get into this.

The Greek word translated bears here is Strong's 4722. It is stego, a Greek verb meaning to take action, to roof over, to figuratively cover with silence, and endure patiently. It is from the underlying Greek noun, Strong's 4721 stege, which means roof. So please turn with me to Matthew 8 as we start to dig in here, as we start exploring first the underlying noun stege.

In Matthew 8 we have Jesus entering the city of Capernaum and we have a centurion (which is a captain of at least 100 men, could be more) approaching Him. The centurion is distraught, explaining that his servant (who he cares about deeply) is sick and on his deathbed. And Jesus responds, I'll come heal him.

Matthew 8:8-10 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it. When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"

Matthew 8:13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.

Now the centurion's servant was healed because he trusted in faith that Jesus could and would heal his servant. He humbled himself before Jesus and counted himself not even worthy for Jesus to enter his house and come under his stege, his roof. Luke's parallel account in chapter 7, verse 6, is very similar. It reads, "Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof." And again, the same Greek word is used for roof.

Over to Mark 2. Jesus is in Capernaum again and there were many gathered around the house that He was in there, literally spilling out the doors, into the streets, and there is no room to get in the house or even get close to the doors or the windows. And Mark tells us there is four men carrying a paralytic man on the couch, but they cannot get near the house.

Mark 2:4-5 And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you."

Here again, we see the sick were healed because the faithful four men trusted in Jesus to do the healing. They trusted in Jesus to do the healing. And again, we find the word stege translated roof. This underlying Greek noun stege, roof, helps us better understand the Greek verb stego that Paul uses to describe when he says "love [agape] bears, stegos, all things.

Back over the I Corinthians now, but this time we are going to go back to chapter 9 as we look more closely at the verb stego, used four times by Paul, including his description of agape.

I Corinthians 9:11-12 If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.

So Paul states here that he did not mandate monetary support even though he could have for preaching the gospel. He was entitled to it, but he chose rather to endure, stego, all things. He chose to put a spiritual roof on it, so to speak, to conceal or hide the gap of donations as he denied himself physical comfort in order to promote the spiritual welfare of others. He was indeed walking in God's Spirit of agape. He was others-focused, not self-focused.

Over the I Thessalonians 3 now, where we see the last two uses of this word.

I Thessalonians 3:1 Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone.

I Thessalonians 3:4-5 For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know. For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain.

There is a little bit to unpack here. Paul is expressing that he could no longer conceal his concern and was sending Timothy, despite the fact that this means he was going to have to be alone and this was a great personal sacrifice for Paul. He was others-focused and wanted to ensure their spiritual roof remained intact despite the strong winds of tribulation and temptation.

Now with this backdrop, I think we can more properly understand what Paul is trying to tell us. When he says agape bears—stegos—all things, Paul is indeed drawing an analogy to a physical roof, stating that agape is expressed through actions that mimic a roof, actions that literally strengthen the building, strengthen the building's integrity, the Body of Christ. Just like a physical roof that protects, shelters, guards, and defends a home from bad weather and threats, our actions of agape must protect, shelter, guard, and defend one another.

When one of our brethren is struggling and makes some mistakes, God's Spirit is not ready to pounce on them and give them the what for. God's Spirit of agape is not going to expose them to any ridicule. No. God's Spirit of agape bears all things, brethren! Like a spiritual roof, agape is always working to maintain the structural integrity of relationships and the building of Christ.

Agape covers, supports, protects our brothers and sisters in Christ. Agape will never speak ill of another person for something they did or a decision that they made. And I will repeat: Agape never speaks ill of another person. It does not matter if what is said is true. Agape never gossips, will not even allow us to participate in the sin of listening to gossip.

Turn with me to Proverbs 6. Jesus indeed tells us, brethren, that our transformation is all about our heart. He tells us this many times over. But in Matthew 12:34, He says simply, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." A good heart brings forth good things, while an evil heart brings forth evil. And He tells us we will give account for every idle word spoken. Only an evil heart can speak negative words about our brethren or our ministers.

Satan is the accuser and he will deceive us into a self-righteous attitude. He will convince us to share someone's sin or mistake with others. But when we say anything negative about a brother or sister, we have become the hypocritical Pharisee, basically saying, "I'm glad I'm not like them, a sinner!" We can put disclaimers in front of it, but they just call out the fact that deep down we know it is sin and we should not be doing it. We can even position it as an innocent conversation that maybe does not even mention somebody's name, technically, but everybody knows who we are talking about and/or we certainly know who we are talking about. So it does not make it any better.

Agape will never openly state something someone did that we think was not right to anyone, anyone, other than the person that did it.

Now if we like the gossip, I actually have some good news. It is allowed on one condition. The only sin that we are allowed to speak about without sinning is our sin. We are freely allowed to tell people about our sins. So if we feel like we need to gossip, let us start talking about our own sins with each other, because that is allowed. That is okay.

Proverbs 6:16 These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him.

Now the Hebrew word translated abomination is Strong's 8441, toeba, meaning disgusting, an abhorrence, adultery, abomination. This same word we find used throughout the Old Testament to describe God's perspective on some of the most shameful and disgusting sins: sins of adultery, sins of sacrificing children in fire. Barnes' Notes explains that God indeed hates the first six qualities here in Proverbs 6:16-19. But the seventh is the worst of all as seven represents completeness. And what is the seventh?

Proverbs 16:19 . . . and one who sows discord among brethren.

When we share something negative, perhaps a mistake someone made, we are gossiping and we are doing something that is outright disgusting to God. When we say anything that tears down the spiritual building and causes division and separation, it is an outright abomination to God. Satan is always at work trying to get us to open our mouth and express our opinion on someone's choice. He will even try to get us to make something a spiritual issue when it is not.

For example, vaccination is a personal decision. What type of medical treatment someone gets for cancer is a personal decision. None of our business, right? Who someone invites to their baptism or to their wedding, it is not our choice. It is their choice. We cannot try to make someone else's business, our business. And what is worse, if we take it a step further and now we start to talk about it negatively with others, now it is outright sowing discord and outright abomination to God. He likens it to the sacrificial burning of children because really, when we speak negatively of each other, that is what we are doing, We are torching God's children. He does not take kindly to that, brethren.

Over a few chapters now the Proverbs 10. When someone does something we do not like, perhaps something we do not agree with, or at the extreme, maybe they do something that is downright sinful, like getting drunk; or maybe they said something terrible that they should not have said—there is really only one response, brethren. If we are walking in God's Spirit of agape, do you know what it is? We put a spiritual roof on it. We keep it to ourselves. It is not easy. It is unnatural for our carnal mind that wants to retaliate.

But if we are others-focused, we keep it to ourselves and we take it to the one who can fix it—God. We take it to God in prayer and He will fill us with His Spirit and enable us to keep it concealed. God's Spirit of agape never, ever, ever tears down the building. It never says anything that would put a brother or sister in a negative light. When offense happens, agape works to conceal, forgive, and move on. When we take it to God, brethren, and we ask for His forgiveness and healing for them, agape will never expose somebody's mistake to anyone else. God's Spirit of agape will help us to put a spiritual roof on it.

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.

How many unreconciled relationships are in the church today because someone failed to bear all things and put a roof on it? Yes, someone did something or said something they should not have done. But instead of walking in agape and letting it go, we walked in Satan's spirit. We snapped back. We said something we should not have. We shared the offense openly with others and thereby defiled everyone who would listen. If we made this mistake, it is on us to reconcile. Regardless of how bad the offense that was done to us, we cannot ever talk about it. That is not agape. That is not God's Spirit.

Proverbs 11:13 A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.

Agape forms a spiritual roof that is impenetrable to protect others from exposure to ridicule or harm. Agape works hard to look past any mistake or offense that is done to us, and only in very rare circumstances, when it is truly required for the good of the offender, would we ever look to correct the mistake ourselves. And we would do so with the least possible exposure and the least possible harm to the person. A correction would never happen in a public setting. A correction is never shared with anyone else. And a correction can only be effective if it is out of a pure heart filled with the others-focused spirit that really wants what is best for that person.

It cares so much about that person, it loves them so much, it wants to help them see that they made a mistake. And when they go to that person, they say, "Look, I am the biggest sinner among us. I make all kinds of mistakes. But when you did this it hurt me, it really hurt me. And I just wanted you to know that I think you have a habit of doing this. You gotta watch that, I think, because I really want you to be in God's Kingdom." That is the spirit of agape, not retaliating.

As we recall the three scriptures that used the underlying root words stege for roof, can we see a common thread, brethren? When a centurion's servant whom he loved was sick, he had faith. He took it to God, he trusted God and knew God could heal him, and God did. When the four men lowered the paralytic from the roof in Mark 2, Jesus saw their faith and He said to the sick, "Your sins are forgiven" as He healed him. We have many sick among us. We are all sick with sin. We must, in faith, put a spiritual roof on them and bring the sick to God in our prayers and ask God to forgive them, to heal them of their mistakes.

We cannot allow Satan to convince us to expose their mistakes or retaliate. Why is it so hard for us to look past the mistakes of others when we clearly cannot see your own? And I speak to myself first and foremost. Why are we so compelled to talk about others mistakes and shortcomings? There is only one reason: we are spiritually immature and we are just not walking in God's Spirit of agape.

When babies and children make mistakes, it is easy for us to forgive and forget their mistakes because we know they are still immature. Right? We give them some leeway. It is also easy for us to forgive our cute little puppies that seem to poop in all the wrong places and believe me, I have got a lot of experience with this one. But why is it so hard for us to bear with our spiritually immature adults? It is pretty ironic because we are all spiritually immature in various areas of our lives.

Satan will convince us, though, to hypocritically look down on someone for their area of weakness. We might even look at an alcoholic and self-righteously we might think, "Oh, we could never be like that! I could never be like that." The reality is, brethren, if we had their body, their genes, their life, and all of their experiences, we absolutely would be like that. Anything else, any other thought in your mind is hypocritical. Right? You are thinking somehow you would be able to supersede when they could not. Probably not the right attitude. Probably Satan inspiring that type of attitude.

Their sin is easy to see. But how about our sins that are hidden? God easily sees them. God hates hypocrisy more than anything. And if we fail to bear all things we are always the hypocrite in His mind. And we would do well to remember and repeat Paul's admonition in I Timothy 1:15, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." We should all be saying that, brethren.

Please turn with me to I Peter 4 as we start to conclude. Paul states in Ephesians 2 we are members of the household of God, we are built on the foundation of the apostles, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. The whole building, he says, is being fit tightly together into a holy temple for the dwelling place of God Himself. John tells us when we agapeo one another God dwells in us and His love [agape] is perfected in us (I John 4:12-13).

So, scattered among the end time churches, brethren, we find shells of former homes, empty concrete walls, missing a roof, relationships that have been utterly decimated by Satan-inspired hypocritical Cat 5 words that have been carelessly spoken. This is an abomination to God and we have to do better. It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort to build and maintain a strong spiritual roof, a spiritual roof of agape to shelter, guard, and defend one another. Our roof of agape must bear all things to cover, support, protect, and maintain the structural integrity of the Body of Christ, the church. God's Spirit of agape will never, ever, ever speak ill of another person.

I Peter 4:7-8 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love [agape] for one another, for "love [agape] will cover a multitude of sins."

Think about what Peter is saying here. Through humble prayer before God we can put on His powerful spirit of agape, the bond of perfection, and bear all things as we become like Him, others-focused. We must take our brothers and sisters who are ill with sin, those that make mistakes before us, we take them faithfully before God and we ask Him, in faith, to heal them of their sins and their mistakes and we let it go, because we know there are many things, many sins and mistakes that we commit every day that we cannot even see yet. We have to mature more spiritually in order to see them.

And so as we forgive, we are forgiven, Jesus tells us. And when we do ask Him in faith, this is always in the best interest of His Family. He will heal them, He will forgive them, and thereby we find agape has indeed covered a multitude of sins.

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