Apostle Andre Pelser
6 January 2008, 10 AM

Colossians 3:14-'But above all these things put on love (charity), which is the bond of perfection.' Nola and I discussed this a bit after the wedding on Friday ( Louis and Jamie-Lee Groenewald ). The lady who designed the wedding dress, her daughter came to me and said that this wedding is different. I said: 'what is different about it?' She said: 'it is a Godly wedding.' It is because there is love and love is something we can't fake. Without love there is nothing. Where Christ is preeminent, in the church, people's hearts will be knit together in love. Where there is no love there is nothing at all, then our preaching, our worship, our dancing, our giving, even if we give our bodies to be sacrificed, even if we sell everything we have and there is no love, it does not benefit us at all. Love is the key. John 13:35- 'By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.' They shall know by your love that you are a disciple, not by your faith.God pours His love out, by His Holy Spirit, into our hearts, after we have allowed Him to build our Godly character even in the midst of trials and tribulations. Shakespeare wrote: 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds, admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when in alterations finds or bends with the remove it to remove. No it is an ever fixed mark that looks upon tempest and is never shaken.' He tried to define love in his sonnets. Love does not envy, does not parade itself, it is patient not puffed up, love does not behave rudely and does not seek it's own. It is not provoked, thinks no evil and does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth. This bond of perfection is the love of God. What is a bond?

A bond is a, in the Biblical terms, it is a chain. It is what slaves wore, they were bound, that is where the word bond comes from. What the apostle is saying to us there, is that we must accept the fact that we are slaves of God's love. Put on the chains of God's love. It is better to be a slave of love than to be a slave of everything else. Slave of wickedness, slaves of sins, slaves of drugs, slaves of fear, slaves of trying. We choose this morning to enter the bond of love. There is a bond of perfection, which is love. Perfection, teleiotes tel-i-ot'-ace, the Greek word, and end accomplished, or performed as the effect of a process. In other words, with the ultimate end in mind of perfecting us, God has created a unique body, which is called the church, where this process of perfection can begin, continue and be completed by the time He comes back. So we enter into a process. It is a unique, creative, act of God, the same act that was involved in creating Jesus in the virgin Mary. It is a unique act to supply what is necessary. So to knit the hearts of believers together, and for this purpose the apostles labor to the point of exhaustion, because they understand with full assurance the perfect purpose and plan of God for the church. And their desire for the flock and their prayer for the flock, in various passages of scripture, exhorting the flock, is because they know that God is continually busy perfecting the saints. It is a present continuous tense verb. You are being perfected continually.

So every time we meet together like this, God is busy perfecting, adding something, because of His love. He pours His love out in our hearts by His Holy Spirit that is given to us. The bond that binds us together is the love of God. Every true believer has faced this kind of love and His willingness to suffer for the sake of others, to fill up in their flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. In other words, if you look at anything you suffer or go through any trial or persecution, whatever you go through you are saving someone else in the body of going through it. If you only think of your hardship in terms of yourself, you then feel sorry for yourself. 'Why must this happen to me?', it is because you don't think of the body. If you don't discern the body. But when you realize that God has given you this portion of hardship, suffering, whatever you need to go through, on behalf of the body, you are saving the rest of the body this suffering. You are filling up what is lacking and then it changes the whole perspective. Then you look at life differently instead of just you. You begin to do things on behalf of others. If someone suffers in our midst we all with them. If someone is glorified we enjoy the joy with them. You begin to discern the body. You being to live no longer just for yourself. Whatever you go through is on behalf of the body of Christ. That changes the perspective slightly.

There is a hidden mystery that only unveils itself to those that enter this bond of perfection. It is Christ in you the hope of glory. This mystery, many times we think we understand something but we don't. We deceive ourselves. There are riches which only those who enters this bond of perfection, can enjoy and this unveiling of this mystery and these riches is what the apostles labors for, as a result of divine energy working in them to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That is the purpose, that everyone will be presented perfect when Christ returns. That is why we come together. We don't just come to church because it is Sunday, but we are coming together because we enter the bond of perfection. We are being perfected by His love. God unveils it to us and then imparts it to us, builds it into our lives. I am not talking about a church growth plan, or a method to make the church grow, it is a divine operation starting with the work that the apostles do and then being imparted into the lives of those who accept the apostolic ministry. It is an operation of God and it is reveled through preaching, through admonition and through teaching. God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to do these things. Because as you hear the word of God and you believe it, that is where it takes root and begins to grow.

Apostles have great conflicts to face on behalf of those whose hearts are being knit together in love. That is what Paul says. In order to understand Colossians 3: 14, what I am doing is that I am summarizing the previous three chapters for you in perspective of this verse. Because just to read that one verse you will have no understanding, but you read the previous three chapters and you get to that verse, suddenly it has a whole new dimension to it. It says our hearts are being knit together in love. When we were small, in winter times, we used to sit around the fire place or whatever we had in the kitchen that was warm. We use to knit, tolletjie brei. It is a cotton reel and you put four nails into the wheels and then you take ouma's left over wool and tie them around and with a needle you slip one knit one. Out comes a little colorful sausage of wool at the bottom. We made all sorts of things with it, blankets, table mats, or whatever. We didn't have T.V. and gadgets. We had to talk and listen. This generation must be careful that gadgets does not rob them from the ability to communicate. Because gadgets makes you lonely. Only you can do it. The fellowship of people is something very precious and it is designed to stimulate things in you. Yes, use the gadget, but don't avoid communication of a family. Learn to communicate. We used to sit there and listen to stories, and tell stories. It enriched our lives. We used to sit and knit, and then suddenly one day, someone came and demonstrated a brei masjien. You put all the wool in there, you set it to a certain setting and out comes a jersey. It went to another level of being knit together. We can allow God to knot our hearts together just like tolletjie brei style, or ouma's professional style, or we can allow the Holy Spirit