The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - 7 Ways to One Another One: What Scripture Says about Relationships

Episode Date: April 24, 2020

Jeff offers some words of encouragement through St. Paul’s messages to the Church during this time of COVID-19, encouraging us to be doers of the word of God, not just hearers. Snippet from the Show “Some of our most important relationships are the ones at home.” Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get added to Jeff’s shownotes email list! For full shownotes, go to AscensionPress.com (https://media.ascensionpress.com/category/ascension-podcasts/the-jeff-cavins-show/)

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, Episode 163, Seven Ways to One Another, One Another. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. And welcome to the show today. We are talking about one anothering one another. And if that's a little bit confusing, we'll get down to the bottom of that real quick. Hey, I know that it is difficult to be in quarantine, and I am hearing from so many of you of what life is like and the challenges that you are facing, both with your work and the relationships at home. home. And it's been very difficult for a lot of people, and I understand that. And I'm hoping that today on the show, I can give you some encouragement. In fact, I would say I'm going to give you some encouragement, because I'm going to give you the Word of God and some ways that we can

one another, one another. I'll explain that. But before we get going, I know that there's a lot of scripture that I'm going to be passing on your way today, and you're going to want it. So if you want it without having to pull over or to take a lot of notes. I'll give you the notes. All you have to do is text my name. And that's Jeff Kaven's, J-E-F-F-F-C-A-V-I-N-S, and you can text to 3-3-7-7. That's 3-7-7, and I'll get you all the notes for today's show as well as all the shows in the future. We'll keep you on the list, and we enjoy having this relationship with you. Well, we're talking about one another and one another, and you are quarantined most likely, and that means that you are either with roommates or you're with your family, your kids are at home, you're now a homeschooler, never thought you would be, and it really

comes down to our relationship with one another. Either we're going to be successful or we're going to fail, we're going to flunk, right? And so what we want to do is we want to read the Gospels, We want to read the epistles. We want to read the Word of God, keeping in mind that some of the most important relationships in our life are those relationships right in front of us. Those relationships with family, they're right in front of us. And we are interacting with them every single day. And it's a chance for you and a chance for me to put the Word of God into practice. And that is the way that we grow. That's the way we mature. We mature by, taking God's Word and not just studying it, but putting it into practice. Now, as I share some of these points with you today, I am going to really encourage you to resist saying, well, those are some good points, and then looking for something else. Noah, what I'm encouraging you to do today is what I need to remind myself to do frequently, and that is, yes, we're going to be hearers of the Word of God, but we're going to be doers of the Word of God as well.

You see, the only way that those relationships within your particular quarantine are going to be fruitful and thrive and be a loving place and loving atmosphere is if somebody will act like Jesus, if somebody will literally put the Word of God on and do it. And that's the way that change takes place. And so I can't emphasize that enough. That's the way change takes place. Okay, so when we look at this phrase, one anothering one another, or to one another, one another, I'm getting that from the New Testament where Paul in so many places, in fact, it's all Paul today.

I'm giving you all Paul. Paul is going around from church to church, and he's establishing churches, and quite frankly, he is really up against the odds when it comes to changing the culture. because he's speaking to a world that is worshipping Caesar, who is considered the godman, the prince of peace, the one who has ushered in the good news for the world. I'm speaking of Caesar Augustus. Well, Caesar Augustus is not the god man. There is only one god man, and that is Jesus Christ, and Paul is going from city to city proclaiming the son of God, the true son of God, the true prince of peace, and the true good news for the world.

And as he establishes these churches, he then circles around, and he writes to these churches about their relationship with the Lord. But if you read through most of the epistles in the New Testament written by Paul, you'll see that most of the problems that he is facing are not big theological debates. there are some, but the problems that he is facing and the problems that he is addressing in his letters is the relationship between brothers and sisters within the church, within the body of Christ. And certainly that goes for the relationships within our own families of mom and dad and the kids, but it really also extends to the relationship we have with one another. And it is so

interesting because Paul is constantly trying to help people figure out the problems. And a lot of the times, the problems are us. It's us. It's our relationship with one another. We're so marvelously made. We're so complex. We are created in the image and likeness of God. But man, can it go bad? It can go sour so quick. And our relationships can become a place of darkness and discouragement, and depression and competition and frustration, irritation. You go on and on with the Asians, and that really spells out where a lot of us are in our relationships. St. Paul to the rescue, he's going to tell us some things that will make a difference. And I'm going to give you seven of them right now. Number one, what will make a difference in your life in how we want another one

is from Romans chapter 12 and verse 10. Number one is, be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Well, brotherly love, most of us are familiar with that phrase brotherly love. It comes from the Greek word, the filet, or the city of Philadelphia, where many of our friends are from, Philadelphia. And it refers both to a love that exists between friends and brothers and sisters, but it speaks of family, a brotherly love that comes from this idea of from the same family. In fact, the term brother is used over 230 times in the New Testament, and it means from the same womb. And so if I call you my brother, you call me, hey, brother, It means from the same womb. Paul's point is clear. Love one another like family. That's what we're called to do.

And as you are struggling with the pandemic, this virus going around the world and being quarantined with the ones you love more than anyone else, it's important to remember to love one another, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, to be devoted to one another. some of these phrases that Paul uses like, be devoted to one another, we ask ourselves, well, what does that mean to be devoted to one another? Well, it's easy to figure that out. Have you ever felt that someone was devoted to you? Well, you know what being devoted is. It means completely given over to you and for your well-being, and they're staying on track as far as their relationship with you. devoted. They are given over to you and your eternal well-being. And so we're called to be devoted to one another in brotherly love. If you can do that in your home to be devoted to each other in brotherly love coming from the same family, the atmosphere will change in your home. I think that that is a

beautiful, beautiful scripture. Love one another with brotherly affection. That is so good. Number two is actually taken from the second part of Romans 12 in verse 10. The second one another and one another is to honor or prefer one another above yourselves. Isn't that beautiful? I love this. He says, love one another. We've already gone over. this love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Some translations say honor one another. Some translations say prefer one another above yourselves. Now, if you're in a quarantine situation and you are there with your family, you have a choice to honor one another, to prefer one another. You have that opportunity. You have that opportunity.

to prefer one another when it comes to eating. You have an opportunity to prefer one another when it comes to television, when it comes to the computer, when it comes to the rec room, when it comes to the car, whatever it might be, you do have an opportunity to honor and prefer one another. So if you've ever been honored by others, you know what it means to be honored. It's striving. It's striving. to make our others, other believers, in this case, other people in our home look and sound good. And we lift them up, and we honor them. We rejoice in their achievements and their success. To honor and to prefer one another within a family is a great way of celebrating love, in the love that we have in this school of the family. It was Jesus who honored and preferred others when

in John chapter 13, what did he do? He washed the feet of the disciples. He washed the feet of the disciples. Can you imagine what your kids would think if you said as a father, as a mother, I'm going to honor and prefer you. I want to wash your feet. I'll tell you what. they'd never forget it, that's for sure. They'd talk about it in 20 years from now. Remember that when that pandemic was going around and that, that Corona Vona thing? And remember that when dad washed our feet? They'd never forget it. Trust me. Never forget it. If you do it, email me. I want to hear about that. The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. That's my email. Seriously, I'd love to hear about it. If you do any of these things, let me know about it. So is there some

that you have a problem with, that you could honor today? Maybe it's not just in your family at home there, mom and dad and the kids. Maybe it's people in the body of Christ in your church that are not with you right now, but you could honor them with a text. You could honor them with an email. You could honor them by saying something in that Zoom call that you have four times a day. So honor and prefer one another. Number three, serve one another. Serve one another. Paul said to the Galatians in chapter 5 and verse 13, he said, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. Wow. Isn't that something? Let me read that again. That is so good. That's good. That's

Scalations 513, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. In other words, what Paul is saying here is that we need to use our freedom to be servants of one another. Oftentimes our freedom is used in serving ourselves, isn't it? Whether it's our appetites, whether it's dealing with our free time, or our resources. I don't know about you, but I do that sometimes, once in a while, maybe a few. But we're called to use our freedom as an opportunity to serve one another. Let me ask you this. Do you have any free time in the quarantine? Well, serve your family. You know what literally means? It's kind of wild. It literally means to serve one another. Literally means to be slaves or servants to one

another. And this is why Paul told the Ephesians, in Ephesians 5 in verse 21, to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And so out of reverence for Christ, if you want to reverence Christ, if you want to show honor to Christ, then submit to one another, serve one another, that is very, very powerful. So so far we have to be devoted to one another, honor and prefer one another, and serve one another. And did I say that was number three or four? I can't remember now. Well, I've gone through three.

We know that. Well, number four is to accept one another. To accept one another. I'll tell you what. This is one of the harder ones, I think, for us to do in our lives. It's to accept one another. Oftentimes there's so many things among siblings and family that we don't want to accept, do we? We don't want to accept. People have idiosyncrasies.

People, they have habits. They have mannerisms. They do things that we don't particularly enjoy, right? And unfortunately, many times this is based on what, you know, on things that we simply don't like personally or inconvenience us. And we are called to accept them, to accept one another. Do you know, we are not put on this earth to change the details of everyone around us. I'm not put on this earth to change you in terms of who you are, the way you do things. Maybe some things do bother me. Maybe some things bother you. Maybe some things bother but I'm called to accept you. And you know why? Because Jesus Christ has accepted you. He has accepted you, even though you have those idiosyncrasies, those habits, those patterns, you have those weaknesses

in your life. But he accepted you. He accepted you. And that's what Paul says to the Romans in Romans chapter 15 and verse 7. That's what we're called to do, accept one another. very, very powerful. If we will do that, the atmosphere at home will change. And you know, some of these things get, they get real personal, don't they? It could be, it could be the sound that someone makes at dinner. It could be the fact that somebody digs into the meat at dinner before everybody else. It might be the fact that they take the cash shoes out of the nut bowl before everything else. And that bugs you. Except one another. You'll do more to change the atmosphere in your home by accepting one another, but then by demanding that everybody line up with your idea of what

normal is or your idea of what a good day is even. So accept one another. Very, very powerful. I've got three more, three more powerful ways to one another, one another. And I'm going to share those with you right after this. Hi, we're Jackie and Bobby Angel with Ascension Presents. And we wrote a book. Yay. Tadda. It's on discernment, which is figuring out the will of God in your life, which can be an exciting and yet exhausting endeavor. It's called pray decide and don't worry, five steps to discern. God's will. And we wrote it with Father Mike Schmitz from Ascension Presents. You might know. You may know that guy. The book is concise, but there's lots of wisdom for any person that really wants to do God's will. And it's a journey trying to figure out what God wants for your life.

And so there's a lot of wisdom from things we've learned along the way. There's testimonies and parts of our stories to help you out. Really like, this is a book I wish I had as a young adult. Like this would have helped me a lot in my 20s. Discernment is a question we get asked all the time, where is God calling me, what am I called to, what vocation I call to? How do I know if I'm supposed to take this job? How do I know this? So we wrote this book to help you along the way to give five steps to discern whatever decision you're making and hopefully to give that peace and that joy that will come from making that decision and the main goal is to help you grow closer to God along the way.

So maybe not you, maybe someone in your life is wrestling with a really tough decision and you want to give them some kind of resource for encouragement. It's for if you've got a big decision, period. Yeah. So go get your copy of Pray Decide and Don't worry. Go buy one for a friend. Buy one for someone who's not your friend. Love your enemies. Buy them this book. Go to Ascensionpress.com and get your copy today. And welcome back. We're talking about one anothering one another. And I've got seven ways to one another one another in quarantine that I think will make a difference in your life. And I know that they would make a difference in my life if I would do them. And that's the key. That's the key to the Word of God, my friend, is the key to the Word of God is not just knowing

it. The key to the Word of God is doing it. And that's what brings about a transformation in our lives, which is what we all are really looking for. And so I've given you four already. We need to be devoted to one another, honor and prefer one another. We need to serve one another. And I left off before the break with except one another. And now number five, bear with one another. Bear with one another. Ah, this is a good one. This is a good one. To bear with one another, we are called in Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter four and verse two. And by the way, I said before the break, if you want the notes, you want all these scriptures, then just simply text me, Jeff Kaven's one word at 3377.7. Okay, so we're called to

bear with one another. Ephesians 4 in verse 2 says, Paul says to the Ephesians, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. That's a free one. I threw that in. That's verse 3. So how do you, how do you maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace in your home during the quarantine? Well, the way you do it is you bear with one another. That's one of the major ways that you do it. You bear with one another. To bear means to be tolerant towards other Christians. There is family members, as I mentioned in step number four, point number four, it's to be tolerant of idiosyncrasies, weaknesses, and faults. We'd not only accept one another,

but we sometimes just plain have to bear with one another, don't we? We are family. We see each other at our best, but we also see each other at our worst. If I were to interview you and ask all your friends what you're like, they'd probably have quite a list of some pretty good things. But if I interviewed your family, they might say some other things. They might say, well, you know, it's not all a bowl of cherries. Let me tell you some stories, right? So we are family, and we see each other at our best, but we also see each other at our worst. Paul wrote to the Colossians as well as the Ephesians, and he said to the Colossians that we were to forgive as the Lord forgives us. And I love this. Let me read this to you, this text from Colossians 3, verses 12 through 14.

Paul says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, forbearing one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. And above all, these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Perfect harmony, right? And that's what we're trying to do is maintain the unity of the spirit during the quarantine. And if you'll do these things and put on love, this binds everything together in perfect harmony. That's just beautiful advice, and I need to take that myself. By the way, everything I say here, on the show is actually for me. You just get to listen in. You just get to listen in. Well, how do you

bear with one another? That's an interesting idea to bear with one another. I think most people would say, well, the equivalent today in English is put up with one another, you know, whatever, and put up with one another. How do you bear with one another? Well, it takes a deliberate act of the will. It takes a deliberate act of the will. I'm going to accept you. I am going to bear with you. I am not going to lose my patience. I'm not going to give you a peace of my mind. I am not going to give you directives as to how my evening can go better and what you're doing wrong. I'm going to bear with you. Paul also wrote to the Romans in chapter 15 and he said in the first two verses, I'll put them in the show notes for you. He said, we who are strong, which is obviously you and me, otherwise we wouldn't be listening or doing

this show, right? Kidding. We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to edify him. That's beautiful. I really like that. We who are strong, we ought to bear with the failings of the week. that we're more mature, we're strong. Don't let it get to you. Don't let it bring you down.

Don't let it dictate the atmosphere of your home. That's just great advice from Paul. And number six, number six, we're talking about one another and one another. We are called to encourage one another. Encourage one another. Paul says to the Thessalonians, He says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 11, he says, encourage one another with the word. We're called to encourage one another. And that goes beyond just, hey, brother, encouraging you, but it's to encourage each other with the Word of God. And that means that we need to get deep into the Word of God, and we need to commit it to our hearts and committed to our minds and memorize it and soak ourselves in God's word. so that, in times of need, you can be an encouragement to other people. Let me ask you this.

How many times during this quarantine have your children been upset, crying, worried, anxious, and you wanted to encourage them, but all that could come out of your mouth was be encouraged. But what about being encouraged with the Word of God? What about sharing the Word of God with others in such a way that they would be encouraged, that, for example, God has a plan for your life, or that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, or scriptures about the power of God, and forgetting about the past and looking forward to the future, there's just all kinds of things we can share with our loved ones, with family members that are going to be of great encouragement. So I encourage you.

one another and number seven number seven the seventh way to one another one another is to bear one another's burdens this is so important wow does your mate carry a burden right now at work a burden with the kids a burden with the finances a burden with health issues bear one another's burdens. That means to help to carry that weight. Help to carry their cross. Join with them. As Simon the Cyrene carried Jesus' cross, what did he do? He was bearing the burden, right? And he was called into service. And we can voluntarily do that at home during this coronavirus pandemic. We can bear one another's burdens. Is your wife really going through it right now? Would you please bear her burden with her?

Is your husband going through an anxious time and you can tell, you know, maybe the kids don't know, but you know, would you be willing to help bear his burden? You can do this by praying for him or her. You can do this by attending to the physical needs. of relaxation or maybe just maybe give your spouse a good neck rub, whatever it might be to help to carry that burden that they're carrying in their life. Let them know that you're praying for them. Offer to pray a rosary with them and say, you know, I can tell, honey, that you are so burdened down, I like to pray with you a rosary and give this to the Lord. It'll take a certain amount of humility for you accept that. But if you do, you'll be better off. Believe me, you really will. So bear one another's burdens. I like that what Paul says. Galatians 6-2, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law

of Christ. Isn't it interesting that fulfilling the law of Christ is related to us in our relationship with one another, bearing one another's burdens? Well, those are seven ways that you can one one another this week while you're in quarantine. Let me just end by saying this one more time, and that is that the key to this is not hearing it or just believing it, but the key is doing it. And if you'll do it, it'll make a difference in your life. And not only will it make a difference in your life, but you will provide a example for those around you of how to respond to difficult times like we are going through right now. I'd love to hear from you, my friend.

You can email me at The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. I also want to remind you to go to Ascension Press web page, website, because there they have a lineup of a number of shows that are being offered in the evening, in the rosary every day during the day. You can join us live, myself, as well as a number of other people, and we can help to bear one another's burdens, right? and during this difficult time that we are going through, we can bear one another's burdens. I want to pray for you.

I want you to know that I love you, and I'm thinking about you, and I want to help bear your burden by lifting you up in prayer right now. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my brother, I thank you for my sister, and I lift their burdens up to you and ask you, Lord, as an intercessor, or I pray for them and ask you, Lord, to comfort them, to be their shepherd, to be their physician and counsel. I thank you, Lord, for your word, which encourages us and leads us and guides us and corrects us. I pray, Lord, that my friend will find freedom and a new joy in one anothering those who are in quarantine with them. We offer all this up in your name, O Lord. In the name of Jesus,

Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. P.S. Do pray a rosary, your mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, she will help you bear your burden. God bless you. Thank you.