Christ's Vision for His Church

The title of the sermon today is Christ's vision for His Church. What does Jesus want His Church to look like? What does He want His people to be characterized by?
We know that Jesus wants His church, His people, to be walking in the Spirit, loving one another. But it is easy to talk about love in an abstract and general way; but how should we demonstrate our love for one another?

In these verses, God gives us some specifics.

First, we will see from v26…

1. How Not to Treat Each Other - v.26
   God says through His servant Paul – do not become conceited. This word denotes somebody who has an opinion of himself which is empty, vain, or false.
   Paul teaches us two ways not to treat each other: do not provoke one another and do not envy one another. When we are conceited, we tend to do one of these two things.
   To provoke means to challenge someone to a contest. It implies that we are so sure of our superiority that we want to demonstrate it. So we challenge people to some kind of contest in order to give ourselves a chance to prove it.
   Besides provoking one another, Paul gives a second way not to treat each other:
   Do not envy one another.
   Now, just in case you are still fuzzy on what it look like to practically serve one another through love, Chapter 6 is going to tell us how. We have seen how not to treat each other, now let us consider…
2. How to Treat Each Other - vs.2-5
   How are we to treat each other? We are to bear one another's burdens!
   We must love our brother and sister in Christ enough to learn the burdens they are carrying and then offer to help. On the flip side, we also have a responsibility to let others know of our burdens.