The Blog

CHBC Connect for November 1, 2024

The Great Commandment:

Capitol Hill Baptist Church exists to glorify God through the equipping of the saints, the exalting of Christ, and the extending of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The ultimate goal of the church is to develop fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who live by the Great Commandment and who fulfill the Great Commission.

Have you thought about the Great Commandment lately? Matthew 22:36-40 says,

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

This command of our Lord is great because it is a perfect summary of the laws of God. It is great because it comes from the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. This commandment is great because it is so profound – “on these two commandments depend the whole law and the Prophets.” This commandment has weight for our lives and bears the weight of all our understanding.

Love God and love your neighbor. These two things are so tightly woven together that they must not be separated. Any attempt on our part to separate our love of God and our love for one another is a matter of complete dishonesty. 1 John 4:20-21 says, “²⁰ If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” It is worth reading the entire context of 1 John 3-4 to deeply appreciate the weight of the Great Commandment.

Church we are called upon to love one another as we love God. Developing disciples will work at increasing love vertically toward God and horizontally toward one another. The local church is the greatest exercise for love. Being in close proximity with a diverse group of people, who have different backgrounds, different theological positions, different ideas on politics, different approaches to family life, different ethnicities, different preferences of music, … you get the idea. We are different. And that is good because it exercises our love muscles.

Fully devoted disciples love God and love one another. And love is not sentiment, it is activity of the mind, will, and body. 1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings, but it was written to a church struggling through division. It should be read often in the church, by the church, to the church.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never fails;” (1 Cor. 13:1-8)

A fully devoted disciple will take these verses apart day by day and savor each word in an attempt to love carefully and fully the brothers and sisters in Christ with whom they have been put in communion within the local church. In a culture that is quick to cancel one another, let us stand as a bastion of forgiving love. This attitude was so threatening to the religious and to the secular that they joined forces to crucify our Savior. This approach by Christ’s church does not promise a peaceful existence with the world or with the religious. But it does promise the precious assurance of belonging to Christ.

Press on by faith, dear church, press on!

By His Grace, and For His Glory,

Pastor Mark

CHBC Connect for October 25, 2024

Purpose, Mission, Vision:

God in His wisdom created humanity and put them in community. The first community was the family. Then He made them into a nation, fulfilling His covenant promises to Abraham. That people of God was always intended to bless “the nations,” literally, the people groups of the world. That covenant promise is being fulfilled in the spread of the gospel through the church.

God instituted and established the church, and He is continuing to build, empower, and bless the church. For what purpose has God done this? God’s eternal redemptive plan of the church is for His glory. Hebrews 1:3 says, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” This verse is speaking of Jesus, but we know that Christ is the head of the church, and we, the church, are His body. We exist for God’s glory to be visible, so that the world will bring Him glory.

His purpose for the church becomes our mission for the church. That mission is to extend the gospel to our neighbors and nations by personal witness, faithful prayer, and purposeful giving. It is our mission to share the gospel with others. As people respond to the gospel we are to make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things He has commanded us. As these new believers grow in knowledge, they grow in the love of Christ, and desire for obedience to Christ. Our extension of the gospel, exaltation of Christ, and equipping of believers becomes a tightly woven net for the work of being fishers of men.

As the church fulfills its mission, the vision starts to become reality. The vision is what it looks like as the purpose and mission are fulfilled. The vision is a people of God, equipping believers, exalting Christ, and extending the gospel to the glory of God. The vision is real people doing regular life by God’s design and according to God’s will. Men and women, students and retirees, husbands and wives going to jobs, going to school, planting flowers, raking leaves, attending ball games, having dinners, planning trips, and all the rest. But doing all these things by His power, for His glory, and for the purpose of others knowing Him and loving Him.

By His Grace, and For His Glory,

Pastor Mark