President’s Column

April 2007

VOL. 7, NO. 2

The Incredible Importance of Loving Leadership

Dr. Mark L. Bailey

“The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” —1 Timothy 1:5

One of the marks of a great communicator is the ability to take familiar material and infuse it with fresh meaning and even urgency. That’s what my friend, mentor, and Dallas Seminary’s chancellor, Dr. Charles Swindoll, does with the subject of love in this issue of Veritas. Chuck is, first and foremost, an expositor of the Scriptures who communicates the message of Christ in a way that leaves a mark on the hearts and minds of those who hear him. I appreciate so much Chuck’s call to live lives of biblical love because I am passionate to see Dallas Seminary turn out not only biblically competent grads, but also people who love wholeheartedly. Far more people in ministry will fail in their relationships—their ability to love others authentically—than will fail because they denied the faith. That challenges me to make certain the Seminary trains the whole person. The apostle Paul made an amazing statement when he wrote “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5, nasb, my emphasis). The end of learning is not knowledge, but love for God and for one another! This should permeate our training environment. My prayer for each student at the Seminary is that they will love and serve Christ with great effectiveness. I believe Chuck’s message will bless you and encourage you to live a life of love. Please know that your prayers and financial support for Dallas Seminary are helping mold leaders for a world in which individuals and families need to see Christ’s love in action. Thank you for standing with us in this important work.

Equipping Christians to live by truth—veritas—from God.

The Irresistible

Appeal of Love A Heartfelt Plea from Dallas Seminary’s Chancellor to Love One Another by Dr. Charles Swindoll

You will often be surprised by how much Dr. Mark L. Bailey President Dallas Theological Seminary

people need love, and you would never guess who needs it. Every person you will pass by today needs love—every one of them. And, probably, most of them would never say so. That’s the way we are.

Dall a s Theological Seminary

Charles Swindoll

Dallas Theological Seminary

Charles Swindoll serves as Chancellor of Dallas

Theological Seminary and is the Bible teacher of the worldwide radio ministry Insight for Living. He is also the founding pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. Dr. Swindoll served as the senior pastor of a church in Fullerton, California, for 23 years prior to moving back to Texas. Dr. Swindoll’s missionary passion is to train men and women for ministry worldwide while meeting the spiritual needs of the local community. He has published numerous bestselling books dealing with all aspects of Christian life. This message is taken from a chapel address that Dr. Swindoll delivered to the Dallas Seminary student body during the fall semester.

The Irresistible

Appeal of Love A Heartfelt Plea from Dallas Seminary’s Chancellor to Love One Another by Dr. Charles Swindoll

One of the men who mentored me, even years before I came to Dallas Seminary, helped me appreciate John 3:16 in a new way when he said, “Just take away ‘the world’ and put your name there.” The message of this great verse is that God so loved us that He gave Jesus to me and to you. And in giving us Jesus, God left us a model of what is meant by that kind of love. For your free subscription to Veritas, visit www.dts.edu or call 800-387-9673 x3722. Dall a s Theological Seminary 3909 Swiss Avenue • Dallas, TX 75204 • 214-824-3094 Veritas is a publication of Dallas Seminary for our valued friends and partners, designed to provide biblical encouragement and instruction in keeping with our strong commitment to minister to those who stand with us in prayer and financial support. We are pleased to present the messages of outstanding leaders and Bible teachers who speak during chapels and at other events, as a way of bringing you “on campus” with us and giving you the benefit of their insights. Veritas is also available online at our website, www.dts.edu/media/veritas.

How could we not return such love? It’s easy to love God because He is perfect and just and faithful. But it’s hard for us to love one another because we are not perfect or just, and we are Dallas Theological Seminary

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often not faithful. We become envious and lose our temper. And there are times when we

blow it, even with those to whom we expressed our love just a few days earlier.

Loving the Unlovely It’s true that some people are harder to love than others, and we turn to Jesus for our example of how to love the unlovely, those who are hard to love. In Mark 10, we read that Jesus met a man whom most of us would not really care that much to be around.

It’s interesting what the Bible says in the next verse: “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (v. 21). Jesus told this man what he lacked, but before He dealt with the man’s need, the Bible says that Jesus felt love for him. These are often the kind of

We must turn to Jesus for our example of how to love the unlovely, those who are hard to love. This man was rich, arrogant, and selfish. He came running up to Jesus to inquire how he could inherit eternal life, and when Jesus cited God’s commandments, the man said, “All these I have kept since I was a boy” (v. 20). 2

The Irresistible Appeal of Love

people who turn us off. I was behind such a person in traffic one day. This woman was gesturing at everybody who was cutting into her lane, and she became so angry that she flipped her cigarette against a new BMW

that had pulled up next to her at the red light. I got close enough to her vehicle to read a little sign in the back window that said, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” I have to tell you that I was stung in my spirit. That woman would be a hard person for me to like, let alone love the way Jesus loved the rich man of Mark 10.

She would be a tough person to know as a neighbor rearing a family of kids, if she is married. She would be tough to love. Yet of all the people filling the lanes of the street that morning, she probably needed love more than anybody else. Even so, everything within me didn’t feel a love for her. That’s why the words of Jesus are so revealing, so touching.

Loving Those Close to Us In John 11, Jesus is not interacting with someone He has just met, but with dear and beloved friends. The Bible tells us in verse 5 how much He loved Mary, Martha, and their brother, Lazarus, all from Bethany. So the sisters send word to Jesus about the serious illness of Lazarus. They connect with Him through a messenger and simply say, “Lord, the one you love is sick” (v. 3). They didn’t even call Lazarus by name. He was simply the one Jesus loved. You’ll recall in this story that Lazarus died while Jesus remained behind where He was. He had a reason for the delay, of course, but

what I want us to see here is the fact that Jesus loved this family. He loved them, even though in a rash moment Martha ran up to Jesus and, almost accusingly, said, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21), which wasn’t necessarily true. Jesus didn’t need to be there to keep Lazarus alive. But Martha was in grief, so He loved her in her grief. Then when Jesus came to the place where Lazarus had been buried, He wept (v. 35). The Jews standing there witnessed Jesus’ weeping and said, “See how he loved him!” (v. 36). Let’s do the same today—see how much Jesus loved the people around Him. Dallas Theological Seminary

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Message

Loving Others by Serving In fact, we see Jesus’ love again in the days preceding His crucifixion. Jesus was surrounded by His disciples, who are arguing over who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom. After threeand-one-half years in the “Jesus seminary,” these men are still bickering over who is going to be number one, who is going to sit on

After threeand-onehalf years in the “Jesus seminary,” His disciples still bickered over who was going to be number one.

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The Irresistible Appeal of Love

Jesus’ right hand, and who is going to sit on His left. James and John even got their mother to show up so she could talk Jesus into letting her boys have those positions of honor (Matt. 20:20). Now we come to the Upper Room, in Jesus’ last hours before His death, as recorded in chapter 13 of John. He is about to serve the disciples the Passover as He institutes the Lord’s Supper. But before we are even out of the first verse, we read, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love,” or in other words, “He loved them until the end.” Until the end, He loved them! Until the uttermost, under the extreme pressure of that moment, He loved them. The following verses of John 13 describe how Jesus proved His love for them as He took a towel, a pitcher, and a basin of water and washed their feet. Most of us have never washed anybody else’s feet as an act of love and service. If you ever do, you know you can never hold anything against the person whose feet you are washing. You

just can’t do it. And it’s really great if you can look up into the person’s eyes and say, “I love you.” After Jesus laid the towel aside and then reclined at the table with the disciples again, He said to them: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). If this is a new commandment, what was the old commandment? “Love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5). This command was riveted into their

brains! Those Jewish men had heard those words since they had begun to grow up in their homes. But Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment. As I have loved you, love one another.” It would have been so easy for Jesus to say, “Now that I have washed your feet, I want you to wash My feet.” But He doesn’t say that. We’d stand in line to wash Jesus’ feet. But who wants to wash Peter’s feet? Read again Jesus’ command: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus loved His disciples by serving them, and He calls us to do the same.

The Christian’s Mark After Jesus had given His new commandment, He said, “By this

Schaeffer wrote a book called The Mark of a Christian. I love

What marks us as Christians is not any outward sign. all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Years ago, Francis

that little book. My copy is dogeared. In it, Schaeffer calls love the “identifying badge” of Dallas Theological Seminary

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Message the Christian. What marks us as Christians is not the cross around our necks, the Bible we carry, the bumper sticker that says, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven,” or any other outward sign. Those are not our identifying marks. It is love. It is loving those who are hard to love. It is loving those outside the circle of our own group. It is loving people of all kinds, all the time, regardless. Love is our identifying mark. In his magnificent letter to the Galatians, Paul announces our emancipation from the legalism of the Law. No one loves the freedom we have in Christ more than I do. No one preaches grace stronger than I do. But I also need the reminder of Galatians 5:13: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” Then when the apostle

begins to list the beautiful fruit of the Holy Spirit, first on the vine is love (v. 22). John Schlatter writes of a young teenager named Mark who was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped, dropping all of the books he was carrying along with two sweaters, a baseball cap, a glove, and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles, and because they were going the same way, he helped carry part of the burden. As they walked along, Mark discovered that the other boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball, and history, and that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and had just broken up with his girlfriend. They arrived at Bill’s home first, and Mark was invited in for a Coke, to watch some television, and to play some

There is no way that you and I can know what’s in the hearts of the people we meet every day.

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The Irresistible Appeal of Love

video games. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some small talk. They continued to see each other around campus and had lunch together a few times. Both boys graduated from middle school and ended up in the same high school, where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally, their long-awaited senior year came. Just a few days before graduation, as they were having their picture taken dressed in cap and gown, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met.

“Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” Bill asked. “Well, you see, I had cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away my mother’s sleeping pills, and I was going home to take my life. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed all these times and so many others like them that would follow. “So, you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life.”

The Supremacy of Love There is no way that you and I can know what’s in the hearts of the people we meet every day. We don’t know the desperation or the need that may be there. And we are all busy about our work. Believe me, I understand! I really do. But it is easy to pass by someone who has dropped their books, as it were. We can’t afford to do that, because every person needs love and love is our identifying mark as

Christians. I can’t talk about love without getting to 1 Corinthians 13. Paul covers all the bases in very simple words. You’re familiar with them; if you have been a Christian very long, your lips move along with the preacher when he reads, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (v. 1). I like the way Eugene Peterson Dallas Theological Seminary

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In Appreciation for Your Support of Dallas Seminary . . . renders this verse in The Message: “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.” Paul’s call to unconditional love often reproves me. One of

We prove ourselves to be His disciples when we love even the least.

my favorite sections of Scripture that I read on occasion when I find myself reproved in moments like this is the simple statement of Jesus when He said to His own, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). We prove ourselves to be His disciples when we love even the least—meaning the kind of people who put signs in the back windows of their cars warning you about their bad attitude. The kind of people who don’t give a rip about you. And those who because of physical or mental impairment can’t keep up with everyone else. God bless every one of them. All of them need our love. So please, let us love one another. †

Learn How God Wants to Mold You into a Person Who Makes an Impact!

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allas Seminary chancellor Chuck Swindoll has done it again! Every page of his new book, The Strength of Character, is packed with insights from the Word and ideas you can put to work to help you become a person of outstanding character who can make a life-changing difference. Dr. Swindoll says that what we do as our vocation is not the same as who we are. Taking you beyond superficialities, he explores seven key character traits— determination, hope, conviction, courage, curiosity, sincerity, and serenity. In the preface to this attractive giftsized volume, Dr. Swindoll writes: “God is looking for a man or woman who will yield to His purposes and seize the day for His glory. . . . Peter’s second letter goes so far as to list some of the things included in this shaping process: diligence, faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love (2 Peter 1:5–7). In a word . . . character.” Don’t miss your opportunity to receive a copy of this remarkable book!

To receive this resource as our thank you for your support of Dallas Seminary, use the enclosed reply card (for subscribers) or call 800-387-9673 x3722. Thank you!

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The Irresistible Appeal of Love