The Lord’s “Lettuce Patch” Kids

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)

Perhaps you recall the Cabbage Patch Kids, a line of cloth dolls that were all the craze in the early 1980s. Today I’d like to encourage you with a word about the Lord’s “Lettuce Patch” kids. Many Christians refer to the tenth chapter of the book of Hebrews as “the lettuce chapter.” The reason for that is the repeated use of the exhortation “let us” in verses 22-25. Now, all that “lettuce” creates a supernatural salad that is designed to both strengthen and stretch you, right where this message finds you today.

If you’re a regular reader here, you’ve seen my frequent reminders that inasmuch as we are saved individually, we are saved to community. The Bible knows nothing of the solitary saint. When God in Christ saved us, He placed a new obligation on us: the obligation we have to the family of faith. The word US makes it clear that there is a mutual responsibility in the body of Christ, each for the other.

Perhaps the best way to express that responsibility is through the numerous “one another” commands of Scripture. Here are just a few:

• Care for one another (Galatians 6:2)
• Accept one another (Romans 15:5)
• Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
• Confess to one another (James 5:15)
• Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21)
• Forgive one another (Colossians 3:13)
• Comfort one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
• Carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
• Love one another (John 13:35)

How well have you been feasting on the sweet-tasting supernatural salad Jesus has set before you? Remember that Jesus died to make us His family of faith. He wants us to live as a community of believers who put the Gospel on display in such a way that unbelievers begin to ask why we are so different from other people they meet. The answer to that question, of course, is that the grace of God that saved us is also in the process of sanctifying us. Without the grace of God, we would still be as sinful and self-centered as we were before we were saved. Even after salvation, we must still appropriate the grace of God in order to rightly live out the exhortations of “the lettuce chapter.”

Remember, Christians living in community is not only God’s desire for each one of us, it is the clear and present indicator that we are growing and maturing in our faith. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus vertically, we are to also be growing in our relationship with others horizontally. In the creation account, everything was good except one thing: It was not good for Adam to be alone (Genesis 2:18). So God created Eve, and the first community in the world was formed. If you are a Christian believer, you are part of the most important community in the world: the church. But in order for the church to truly be the church, we must do our part and commit to community.

That reminds me of another “lettuce” verse from the letter to the Hebrews: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching”:” (Hebrews 10:25).

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!