Read
“After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.”
(Acts 21: 3-6)
Think
Imagine a friend of the church comes to visit us at Kingsgate for a weekend. Imagine they have a risky calling ahead of them – heading to a country where Christianity is a dangerous business, perhaps even with warning from the Holy Spirit that the journey may well lead to their imprisonment or worse. How would we treat them? Would we spend time with them in friendship? Opening our homes to them to give them refreshment and rest? Encourage one another with words from the bible and heartfelt prayers?
And when it came time for them to leave, would the entire church family – men, women and children – go with them to the train station, kneel with them on the platform to pray and send them off with deep affection?
When Paul said a last farewell to the elders in Ephesus in chapter 20, “They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.” Here in Tyre Paul meets with local followers of Jesus when their ship puts into port. It’s not clear how well Paul even knew the Christians who lived there, but what he receives is a heartfelt welcome and a loving send off. The middle east of ancient and modern times remains a hospitable culture – yet there is something more at work here.
We have been united in Jesus with all who call him Lord. The more we abide in God and in his love, the more his love flows through us towards others – and there is an especially deep bond between all those who have been adopted as sons and daughters of God.
Would our attitude towards one another reflect the behaviour of the believers in this passage? Towards visiting believers who stop by on their way to somewhere else, or towards one another as we meet week by week? Enjoying one another’s company, giving time to pray, to make welcome, to encourage and to strengthen? Let’s pray that we and others would enjoy the rich blessing of this deep affection. That through each of us many would experience the deep, unchanging, overflowing love of God.
Pray
Father, thank you for your astonishing love for us – thank you that you teach us to love one another honestly, selflessly, and deeply. Thank you that you change us by your Holy Spirit through the death and life of your son, to love like this from the heart.
We ask again for you to change us – to fill us with your Spirit, to help us to see the great love that you have for us, and as we see you, to be made like you in your unfailing, generous love for all. May we love our brothers and sisters in Christ to strengthen and encourage one another, and may we love those who don’t yet know you – that through us you might show them who you really are.
Amen
