There is a temptation in us the temples of God to forget the most important part of our Christian walk. Ask a believer to shape up, to endeavor to become more righteous, or more virteous, and the response is a resounding amen. Critiques of the Church, condemning the cruel or careless practices within a congregation gets attention and praise. We all too often are like the crowd that cries, "crucify Him!" and less like the crowd of people who shout, "have mercy!" Our attitudes are shaped by holy frustration at the lack of piety in our times, and how the church so often fails to meet the challenge of "deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me." (Matthew 16:24). But there is theme, nay a heartbeat in Scripture that we cannot afford to ignore. From that heart blood pumps into the believer, the blood of God's love.
Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands." (John 14:6).What commands are they? Are they the Ten Commandments? Are they the Beatitudes he spoke before the crowds? No, Jesus is alluding to these commands, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27). Christ is commanding us to love God and love one another which He says, "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:40). Commands to love? What about self improvement? Jesus says all the Law and Prophets are fulfilled if we love Him and our neighbor. He even adds another commandment, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."” (John 13:34-35). By loving one another our Lord says everyone will know we are his disciples. He challenges us to love one another as He loved us, laying down His life, and alluding to what He said before, "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13). If you seek a challenge to grow as Christian soldier, to become a more devout disciple, there you have it, the challenge to love, the command to love so much that you would be willing to die for your brother and sister in Christ! Oh, the reason we prefer a seremon or challenge to become more righteous, pure, and conceited is it only has us looking inward, and measuring ourselves, and the testing only involves self, but to love requires that we pay it to another, that we focus on spiritual growth not of only ourselves, but others. This will not do for self righteous, they cannot handle the prospect of turning their focus on progress of others. And yet this love does have to begin with us, for Jesus said, "love your neighbor as yourself." You cannot love a neighbor if you do not love yourself, and Paul said, "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church." (Ephensains 5:28-29, see Ephensians 5:25 for how far man's love for his wife should go). And yet there are those who mutilate, mistreat, and hate their bodies, and so they can not love their neighbor, nor their spouse.
The Apostle Paul challenges us as well, He says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). You can know all deep mysteries, fathom all wisdom, know how to speak with the eloquence of angels and men, but if you have not love, Paul says you have nothing! Nothing! All those self righteous treasures, all your religious piety, and glorious feats of faith are nothing if you have not love, and you know why? Because, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8). God is love and so all your religious toil without love does not come from God and is not blessed by Him, because you are not abiding in Him! This is what Jesus meant when he said this, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" (Matthew 7:22-23). Those who did miracles and great pious acts did not know Jesus because to know God requires love, because God is love (1 John 4:8). In fact, when Jesus uses, "You never knew me," is quite the verbage, because in those days one used knew for the intimacy of sex, "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD," (Genesis 4:1) and "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (Luke 1:34, KJV). Jesus is talking about a love connection with Him as strong as sex, but he is not saying you have sex with Him; it is figure of speech trying to imply what kind of intimacy God wants with us, that just as man and woman are joined as one in sex, God wants to be one with man, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:20-21). To be clear, Christ is not asking you to have sex, he is using the verbage and description associated with sex to indicate to what level of intimacy and closeness He desires, not the literal experience of sex.
But what does love look like? Does it erequire us to live with reckless abandon and have no rules or decorum? Is it a doormat status where we must abide and endure the most heathen of abuses from our spouses and friends? On contrary, love has major standards, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Abuse cannot abide in love and is not love, for as you read love is patient, is kind, does not evny, is not proud, does not dishonor a person (which is to hurt them physically, emotionally, or sexually), does not easily anger, does not keep record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth (Jesus, ), it always protects (so how could it be abusive?), always trusts (and creates trust), always hopes, and always persevers (never abandons, a loving person does not abandon a person). This is the face of love, defined by one who knew it well in God and people.
Love also has a tough side, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." (Revelation 3:19), and "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:6). Love can be a rebuke, chastising word, and discipline from the Lord Jesus and our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is what Solomon meant when he penned, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17). We do this by intuitive words from Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16). We must speak the truth to one another, not live in denial. Remember how it said 1 Cornithans 13, "Love does not delight in evil but rekocies with the truth." When we speak the truth, we speak love, for love accompanies and is married to the Truth who is Jesus (John 14:6), but Jesus is also love (1 John 4:8, John 10:30), and so Paul's words now can be understood, "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." (Ephensians 4:15).
Love has power, it even covers sin, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8). How can love cover sin? Did we not establish God is love (1 John 4:8)? Then when we love God manifest and it was God who so loved us that he died on cross: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us," (Romans 5:8), "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters," (1 John 3:16), and "For God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, and whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). Love covers sin because Christ who is love (1 John 4:8) covers our sin with His blood. Our ability to love comes from God alone who is love! "We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19). This love manifests not in mere words alone, but in deeds, "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." (1 John 3:18).
We often get sidetracked and caught up in our zeal to serve the Lord. We can be guilty is we are not careful of forgetting our first love, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place-- unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4-5). The Lord's words are proof that one can be pious without love, but it wil lead to be removed from lampstand, because without love there is no God (1 John 4:8) and so you become like those, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." (Matthew 7:22-23). You cannot know God without love, and you cannot love without God. Love like Truth comes from the Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone. By avoiding love, trying to run from it, or covering it up with zealous deeds you run the risk of not knowing God, being bankrupt and "a clanging cymbal," and worst of all being sent away from God's presence, "Away from me, you evildoers!"
Take the challenge to love. It will require that you know God deeper for He is love (1 John 4:8) and it may require you to love yourself (Mark 12:31). The commands of Christ to love are the greatest commands, for Jesus says, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment," (Matthew 22:37-38) and "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31). Those are words of the Word of God, Emmanuel, God with us! He jas spoken and so we must respond! Respond by learning to love through loving love itself, that is the Trinity who is One God! Then you will be able to love yourself and subsequently love others. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment