You Save Me And I'll Save You

    In Romans 1:11-12, Paul writes that he longs to come to the believing communities in there that“we may be mutually encouraged in the faith.”   The depth of this statement becomes clear when we understand that Paul is alluding to a story in the Old Testament, the story of Joab and Abishai in II Samuel 10.   The Ammonites have gone to war against Israel and hired a host of Syrian soldiers to fight with them. It ends up that King David’s general, a man named Joab faces the Syrian army and his brother Abishai faces the host of the Ammonites.; the brothers and their warriors are fighting back to back against two enemies.  When the battle is about to begin Joab says to Abishai, “if the Syrians are too strong for me, you come and save me, and if the Ammonites are too strong for you I will come and save you.”  We might pass over what Paul has to say in Romans 1:11-12 without a backwards glance, but when we look just a bit more closely at the grammar and surrounding context, we see something wonderful.  We find that he is alluding to the story of Joab and Abishai, the moral of which could be summed up as, “you save me and I’ll save you.”
 Recently I have been trying to understand the idea of love in the New Testament.  Here’s what I have learned so far: Both faith and love are gifts from God, but love comes in a very specific way.  The Holy Spirit seems to go hand in hand with love.  It’s almost as if when we breathe free through the Holy Spirit, our hearts expand and warm and we are able to love.  But God directs that love and compassion toward the brother.  Like someone might re-direct a spring, God directs that spring of love toward one another.  Jesus does not say in John “just as I have loved you, love me” instead he says, “just as I have loved you, love one another.”   Of course, we love the Lord with all our hearts, this is just as it should be, but at the same time we see again and again that Jesus wants to emphasize the love we are to have for one another.  Jesus says to Peter in the last chapter of John, “Do you love me?”  When Peter answers that he does, Jesus responds, “Feed my sheep.”  The Lord loves us so much, laying down his life for sinners and enemies.  Those sinners are now part of the Lord’s assembly, those who were once far off have been brought near.  Jesus is now saying to Peter, “Go and do likewise” and “As I have loved my people you are to love them,” feeding the hungry not only with good food but most importantly with the word of God. 
Many of us remember the story of Joseph and his brothers.  Joseph is kidnapped, sold as slave, falsely accused, thrown into prison before he become second in command to Pharaoh in Egypt.  It is a position that allows him to save the family of Israel (and indeed the known world) from starvation.  But he has one thing to say to brothers as they return home to Canaan to bring their father, Israel to Egypt.  He tells them, “do not quarrel on the way” (Genesis 45:24).  Joseph has suffered for his brothers’ sake, that they might be one, that they might love one another and be saved.
What does all this mean for us?  We can be saviors to one another.  Luther said that we can be “little christs”  to one another.  We can be a port of refuge in the storm to one another.  Jesus gives us the gift of the Spirit and the love that goes along with it, so that we can “love one another,” mutually encouraging one another, bearing with one another, mourning with one another, consoling one another with the consolations we ourselves have received from the Lord, all these things and more.  This world can be a stormy place, a place of trouble.  There are situations, institutions, powers and spiritual enemies fighting who are actively in opposition to the Lord Jesus. But the good news is that have been enabled by the Lord to help one another.  We can be “a place of quiet rest” for one another.  We are only clay jars, subject to so much weakness, but within us is are great powers from our Father in heaven, and “the greatest of these is love.”