Five Minutes from Pentecost
A Lesson from an Alley
Beautiful landscaping is attractive and inviting, isn’t it? It adds the finishing touch to any nice home. In fact, even a lesser house is made more attractive when tasteful landscaping accents the yard. Isn’t that right?
But you know what? I’ve noticed something about people’s yards. Many people’s yards aren’t finished. And I had never really thought about it until I took a walk through some alleys in my neighborhood recently.
For the first time in my life, I have an alley. It’s really cool. While most of my neighbors have to put their garbage out front in the street for the trash man to pick up, we get to put our trash cans in the alley for pick up—where no one really sees them. And not only do we get to put our garbage cans in the alley, we can actually leave them there all the time if we want to. And nobody complains about it, because they either don’t see them, or theirs are in the alley all the time, too.
However, since having an alley, there’s something about alleys that has come into sharp focus for me. It’s this: most people keep their front yards and their side yards neat and clean. But most people let their alleys look like disasters! Compared to the finished appearance of their front yards, they leave the back sides of their properties unfinished—unkempt and unattractive.
The overwhelming testimony of the alleys that I’ve seen in my life is this: while for most people it is a priority to have the visible sides of their homes finished—i.e., orderly, beautiful, and respectable looking, it is not a priority for many of these same people to have the unseen portions of their properties finished. Their alleys can be anything but beautiful, respectable, finished and nice. Beautiful and finished to the public eye, but unfinished elsewhere, is the norm with many, many people. (Unfortunately, I hate to have to admit it, but I haven’t done any better myself with my alley.)
Well, as it turns out, this observation contains a lesson that has application that extends far beyond our yards and alleys. It reaches all the way to how we live our lives.
A Thoroughly-finished Life
From the perspective of our Creator, what does a well-rounded, thoroughly finished life look like? Taking every dimension of living into consideration, what is true success? When perfection in living is in place, how does God Himself describe the finished product? Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37-40.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
According to Jesus, when a life is complete and thoroughly finished unto perfection, the finished product…is love. You see, money is not the measure of our success, nor property, nor possessions, nor beauty, nor power. It is in the realm of human relationships that true success in living is experienced—our relationships with our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our children, our extended families, our neighbors, our bosses, our coworkers. No human relationship—not even relationships with strangers, not even with our enemies—is excluded when measuring the success—or failure—of our lives.
If you don’t believe me, listen to Jesus:
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,” Matthew 5:43-45.
When love truly exists in our hearts for everyone who passes under the shadow of our lives, even the relational alleys of our lives are finished, well-kept, and attractive. Unfortunately, however, just like a messy alley at the back of our properties is considered reasonable and no one questions it, the same is true in the relationship world. When confronted with the idea of loving everyone—even their enemies, many people will object, saying something like, “But that can’t be right. I have enemies—and not because I’m their enemy; but because they’re just nasty and choose to treat me like an enemy!” Nevertheless, one who lives a finished life in Heaven’s sight loves everyone—all the way down to their enemies.
Consider these inspired and inspiring word that describe what a finished life looks like:
“Love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother. But we can never come into possession of this spirit by trying to love others. What is needed is the love of Christ in the heart. When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within--when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance.” {COL 384.2}
The Earthly Norm
It’s sad to say, however, that just like many people have partially finished yards/properties, most of us also have only partially finished lives. We love some people, but we don’t love everyone. Listen as Jesus describes the norm for the world:
“For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so?” Matthew 5:46 & 47.
These folks have their front yards looking good; and their side yards are pretty, too. But their alleys are ugly. Loving our families and friends makes for a nice front yard. And loving our acquaintances creates respectable looking side yards. But how we relate to everyone from people that just annoy u, all the way down to our enemies determines whether our alleys are manicured…..or a mess.
Most people with alleys don’t think twice about our alleys being unsightly, because their alleys are unsightly, too. So, there’s no social stigma for our backside messes, no embarrassment, no shame. Nobody even questions the third world appearance of our alleys—i.e., with our strained relationships with certain people. To them it is normal, reasonable, and to be expected. After all, they have the same thing going in their lives.
God’s Better Way
But in the face of the worldly, relational standard that allows every negative relational thing from friction to misery all the way down to war to exist in the human family, God’s Word challenges this defective norm, and calls us to a better way. With all of the authority of God Himself, Paul writes:
“See that none render evil for evil unto any [man]; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all [men],” 1 Thessalonians 5:15.
Do you hear what God is calling us to? There is to be a consistency about the way we relate to others. It’s this: no matter how they treat us, we are to treat them well. In other words, nothing about how we act in our relationships with other is to be less than loving. Our characters are to be like the shores of the great oceans: though the waves assault them day after day, year after year, millennia after millennia, yet they never yield an inch! Just so, though people assault us with wrong words and deeds, yet we are never to allow their provocations to lessen our love and change who we are in Jesus.
The provocative words and deeds of others do have the potential to change us for the worse. Jesus Himself tells us so. Listen:
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold,” Matthew 24:12.
We can get worn down and worn out by the misdeeds of others, to the point that it changes who we are. And if we go passively through life, merely responding to circumstances and not pushing back against them in the power of the grace of God, mark it down: we will be changed. Our love quotient will diminish! Therefore, our only choice, our only hope, is to pro-actively engage life and people and relationships with them.
In order to pro-actively do anything, we must first have an agenda—a goal in mind. And in the case of getting life right, of having not only our relational front yards and side yards finished but also our relational alleys looking good, our overarching goal is not to make lots of money, or achieve some career-related goal, or any other materially-oriented thing. Our goal, if we are to pro-actively engage all of life and get it right even in the negative relational circumstances we will meet in life, must be to follow the lead of the Lord Jesus Christ at all times, in all things, and with all people! Only as we keep our focus on Jesus and what He would do if He were in our circumstances will we be able to keep on loving when others aren’t loving to us.
Surprise, Surprise!
When our lives are “finished” on all sides—in other words, when love for all exists in our hearts—the way we relate to others will be consistent and positive. There’ll be no surprises, no matter what we encounter at the hands (or mouths) of other people. But when our lives are not finished on all sides, New York City on July 13, 1977 comes to mind. Do you know what happened there that night?
On July 13, 1977, the lights went out in New York City. Then everything changed. One of what is considered one of the most progressive, civilized cities of the entire world became altogether something else. A riot broke out. When it was over, 1,600+ stores were messed up, 1,000+ fires were called in, and 3,776 people were arrested.
But everything had looked so normal the day before, so modern, so cutting-edge, so civilized. However, because the characters of large numbers of people were incomplete, when just the right circumstances came upon them, the beast within that had been kept out of sight in order to maintain respectable appearances emerged, and the city was transformed into a jungle.
So, this begs a question: which gives a truer revelation of who we are, the appearance of our relational front yards…or what our relational back yards looks like? Again, Jesus answers the question, and this time His answer is quite a surprise. To the people who ultimately choose to not allow Jesus to finish their characters off on all side—front, sides, and back—Listen to His words:
“Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did [it] not to one of the least of these, ye did [it] not to me,” Matthew 25:42.
Do you realize what Jesus is saying here—what His words mean? This is serious to the bone! What Jesus is saying here is that our love for Him is no bigger than the love we have for the person(s) we love the least! Our profession of love for Jesus means nothing, if there are people that we relegate to the alleys of our lives—you know, back there with the trash in our cans that we’re waiting for someone to come and take away! When we do that to them, we put Jesus Himself back there with them!
How to Get Life Right
Maybe you’re thinking, “So, you’re saying that I’m supposed to treat my “alley” people like they’re my “front and side yard people? How am I supposed to do that?” God Himself answer that question for us through Paul:
“Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
It’s no coincidence that these verses follow what we discovered in 1 Thessalonians 5:15—(“See that none render evil for evil unto any [man]; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all [men].”) This is because the only way we can do what Jesus calls us to do there is if we do what He tells us to do here.
Do you understand what verse 16 is, with its call to “rejoice evermore”? It’s the call to make a choice. It’s the call to choose to respond positively to life, no matter what we encounter. And no one can pass through this life and do this without choosing to do so! But how can anyone do this? How can anyone choose to rejoice through everything, in view of what this life and people in it serve up to us from time to time? That’s where verse 17 comes in.
“Pray without ceasing.”
Only as we are in constant communication with God can we hope to pull this off. You see, the law of cause and effect exists in this world. When the cause in our lives is someone doing us wrong, the automatic and natural effect is that our emotions cry out in pain, demanding that we send back to them the pain that they’re causing us. And this natural way of responding to being violated no one has to teach us. This natural response to anyone doing us wrong has given rise to such things as the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys, and unnumbered miserable human relationships!
But right here, I would be remiss if I left you with the idea that all of the misery in human relationship arises only after one person does wrong to another person. Nothing illustrates this better, perhaps, than what happened in Newark, New Jersey, on July 12, 1967.
On July 12, 1967 two Caucasian police officers stopped a African-American taxi driver for passing them incorrectly. A rumor got out that the cops killed the man when he was in their custody. Even though the story wasn’t true, a riot ran amuck. It lasted 6 day. 26 people died, and $10 million property damage was inflicted! And all of this misery was provoked into action on nothing more than the words of a story that wasn’t even true!
So, do you see the point? Conflict was provoked between people for no legitimate reason at all, simply because of words that weren’t accurate, and communications that was, shall we say, “poor”!
By the way, does this ever happen between people today: someone hears something negative and provocative about someone else, and rather than speaking directly to the person, they talk to other people, get all riled-up, and a relationship is destroyed that could have been saved had good, direct, loving communication been enter into? It happens the world over.
But there is another way—a better way, in which people’s bad deeds and the mere stories about them are stripped of their power to needlessly destroy relationships and fellowship that Jesus intends should last for…..for how long? Two weeks? Ten years? No! For eternity! As this verse points out, only as we’re in constant contact with the One who knows the better way and how to live it out can we discover it and be empowered to actually experience it!
Next come verse 18:
“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
God does not leave us to interpret—read, explain away—the literal meaning of what He tells us in verse 16 when He tells us to, “rejoice evermore.” He means exactly all that these two inspired words imply. We are to rejoice evermore—through thick and then, in good times and in bad, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, no matter what! (Reminds you of the wedding vows, doesn’t it?) The Lord does not give us permission to redefine the quality of our lives when we encounter negative things or negative people. He fully expects us to view life through rose-colored glasses, because we are under the rose-colored care of the almighty, all-loving, tireless watch care of the God who gave His own life so that we could have Heaven in our hearts, and live there at last!
With our eyes fixed on Jesus, believing all that He promises to us, it changes everything about how we go through life, and how we relate to others. Some inspired and inspiring words from the daily devotional book The Faith I Live By poignantly describe the perspective we are privileged to carry in our hearts because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here they are:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28. {FLB 64.1}
The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines. {FLB 64.2}
God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him. {FLB 64.3}
All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying. {FLB 64.4}
He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and &all things& that are permitted &work together for good to them that love God.& {FLB 64.5}
Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme, will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet. {FLB 64.6}
As a little child, trust to the guidance of Him who will &keep the feet of his saints.& 1 Samuel 2:9. {FLB 64.7}
As we commit our ways to Him, He will direct our steps. {FLB 64.8}
Do you view the people in your life—all of the people in your life—through these rose-colored glasses? If you do, it will enabled you to not relegate anyone to an unfinished, back alley in your life. Every approach to your life, from all sides, will be finished, attractive, and inviting.
But if you view people through these glasses—“Every way of a man [is] right in his own eyes…” Proverbs 21:2—you’ll always be right, even when you’re wrong. You won’t be able to tell the difference between when you should apologize and when you don’t need to.
Really, there’s only one way that we can beautify our relational alleys to the point that the only way that people can tell the difference between our front yards and our back yards is if they look at the house to see where the front door is! That way is to live by the Golden Rule—to do unto others (all others) as we would have them do unto us. We do this by putting ourselves in their shoes and then asking ourselves, “How would I want anyone to treat me if I were them right now?”
The only way we can live like Jesus in our relationships with others—all others, is if we enter those relationships through the doorway of other people’s interests, if we do exactly what Paul calls us to do in Philippians 2:3 & 4 (which, by the way, is just another way of stating the Golden Rule).
“[Let] nothing [be done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
Is there someone that you need to give the benefit of the doubt to? Anyone you need to apologize to? Pride will forbid it—and keep wounds alive and alienation thriving. But humility will empower honest attempts at reconciliation—and open the doors for the very atmosphere and fellowship of heaven to enter, right here in this life—in your life, and mine.
So, let me ask you: should the flaws of other people be allowed to lead us to lose interest in them, to drop them out of our lives, or even to relate to them as enemies? Well, did Jesus write us off because of our behavior, or does He hang onto us in spite of our faults because He knows that we have no hope if He walks away? We all know the answer. It’s self-evident.
The question then becomes, are people more important to us than their behavior? If we live in agreement with Jesus that people are more important than their faults, how will it affect the way we relate to imperfect people? Will we enjoy their company up until we discover some overly offensive fault, and then write them off, consigning them to the alleys of our lives; or will we continue to try to keep them in our front yards of friendship because we understand that our faults are no more virtuous than theirs, and in the awareness that our love for them might be the very help they need in order to overcome at last?
Why does Jesus hang onto us in spite of the back alleys in our lives? Why does He keep His grip on us even though He knows that we do unto others as He won’t do unto us? Paul tells us in Romans 2:4. It’s because, “the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4.
Does this means that there is never a case in which we can distance ourselves from others because of their sins? No. The sins of some people are too dangerous for you to allow them within reach of you and our hearts or even our lives. Sins like adultery, drug abuse, criminal activity, and other things can make people too dangerous to be around. However, the legitimate reasons for moving people to the rear of our lives are fewer than we see in operation in the relationships all around us.
Jesus asks a group of people that are (only) on their way to perfection—i.e., they’re not there yet—to hang onto each other with a tenacious love that is stronger and tougher and more determined than their feelings of offense when they discover one another’s faults. He actually prayed that we would be unified throughout the time of our imperfections! Consider His words:
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me,” John 17:20 & 21.
Jesus prayed for Pentecost for His disciples; and they experienced it. But His prayer for Pentecost didn’t end with them: “neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,” He prayed. That includes you and me!
You know, we ask Jesus for things all the time; and He answers our prayers. But He prayed a prayer that only we can answer. He prayed that we would be unified, that we would clean up our alleys and make them as attractive as our front yards.
This can happen, and will happen for the final generation of God’s people. But in order for it to happen here, there are three things that we’ll have to do—all of us. We’ll have to give each other the benefit of the doubt. We’ll have to humbly communicate directly with each other. And we’ll need to apologize to one another for the things that we’ve done wrong to each other.
Regarding strained relationships in the Church, a consummately experienced church leader once wrote in the book Early Writings:
“Conversation has been protracted for hours between the parties concerned [in church conflicts], and not only has their time been wasted, but the servants of God are held to listen to them, when the hearts of both parties are unsubdued by grace. If pride and selfishness were laid aside, five minutes would remove most difficulties. Angels have been grieved and God displeased by the hours which have been spent in justifying self. I saw that God will not bow down and listen to long justifications, and He does not want His servants to do so, and thus precious time be wasted that should be spent in showing transgressors the error of their ways and pulling souls out of the fire.” {EW 119.1, emphasis supplied}
Conclusion and Appeal
Pentecost with its heavenly unity can belong to the Church once again, if we’ll have it. It’s only about 5 minutes away.
Do we want it?
It came to the disciples and their followers when they decided to put their personal interests aside, when they stopped competing with each other, choosing to serve each other instead; and after they made the wrongs they had done to one another right.
The experience of loving unity that the apostolic church got when they did these things, we will obtain when we do these things. Pentecost was wonderful, and launched the Church to a glorious beginning, but Pentecost is history…..
Isn’t it about time for Pentecost again, with the power of launch us into finishing the work that began so long ago?
It can get started now, if we’ll clean up our alleys by giving the people we’ve put back there the experience of love we lavish on those we have in our front yards.
No, we may not be able to give everyone a front yard experience. Some people won’t allow you to move them out of the alley. But even if they choose to stay there…we can still be loving to them, because if with Jesus’ power we can love our enemies, then we can love anyone. Isn’t that right?
(Photo: Stephen Leonardi, unsplash.com)