Love, love me do !

LOVE, LOVE ME DO

A new year, a new decade, a page, a new chapter. It is indeed a season for new beginnings. Yet,

These are some timeless truths we need to anchor in and remind ourselves.

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, goals, and plans all of which is very good to in order to live with purpose and intent. I do it myself.

Let me share one  of my goals with you for this new season, nay for a lifetime actually.

My goal is to be more loving. I am by nature a doer. I feel fulfilled in doing tasks with many boxes ticked off. That also happens to be my love language i.e. serving people is what I do.

However, I ask myself a question: how well I am doing on being? Can I love in ways that others feel loved and receive love?

This makes me reflect on two passages which talk about love and challenge us. However, both have different approaches and standards.

The Pharisee, teacher, and ruler of the law were questioning and challenging Jesus’ authority and knowledge of scriptures. They were seeking to set a trap.

Imagine challenging the WORD OF GOD on the Word of God!! What utter foolishness. That is what spiritual pride and blindness do to us.

They tried to trap him by asking him of the Big 10 which was No 1.

Any God fearing Jew knew the answer to that:  Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:⁵ And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.⁶ And these words, which I command  Deut 6:4-6

To this Jesus added, “Love your neighbor as yourself”.  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matt 22:37-40

It was not addition really, but a summation of all the other 9. That sure tied the Pharisees in knots because they always wanted to get away with the bare minimum, counting dill and cumin.

Think about it. How do I love myself? Some of us love ourselves more and some less. Our love for ourselves can be distorted by life’s circumstances, experiences, culture, upbringing and what our significant others said to us, and how they treated us.

We can never love or give more than we give ourselves. For example if I don’t believe I deserve to live well, or dress well or earn well; chances are I will think others don’t need either and could even sit in judgment of any deviations from my standard. Mark that I did not say God’s standard.

The other thing that can happen is I could then give motivated by guilt or obligation.

Water finds its own level. That is where and how our love for others will rise and fall. Is this a standard to live by?

In the second passage, Jesus blows it out of the water in

 John 13:34

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

This was for his disciples alone- not for the Pharisee or the crowds. To his disciples he gave them a New Commandment – to love as He loves us!

Now this makes perfect sense. Why would Jesus point to an imperfect flawed standard of love like us? He has always been the standard. 

He has never referred to anything but himself as being The way, The Truth and The Life.  Why, he even swears by himself because there was nothing higher to swear by! God is love. It is the essence of his being. Only He is perfect love and can love perfectly.

His perfect demonstration of love was in him leaving heaven to become a human, identifying with us, and then dying in our place.

This is the truest and highest standard of love. Jesus said it himself – greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for a friend. You are my friends…

So loving your neighbor as yourself must come second to this greatest commandment.

As I think and ponder over this, I am reminded that I do not live by the law. I have been set free from the law. However, this is not so I can live at a lower standard. On the contrary, the bar has been raised to that of Jesus himself being my model.

If I keep this plumb line of love before me, I will make good choices not only for me but also for those around me.

The effect of loving as Jesus and not just to the measure that I love myself is that the world will be made aware of who Jesus is and that we truly belong to Him.

That is so powerful!! Is it no wonder that we fall into the trap of shifting dill and cumin? The devil would keep us busy counting from 1 to 7 and Jesus’ tongue in cheek response to that was not 7 but 70!

This year I want to remind myself to take

that love quotient higher and love as Jesus did. Do you?

Can't Do Without You | Reflections on John 15 | Part 2

This is the concluding part of the 2part Blog Post. For PART 1 please click here

PART 2

Verse 12-13  ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

Why is there this switch as it were, a shift in focus from our relationship with Jesus to our relationship with one another? He knew if He asked us to just love Him that would be easy. He asked us to love each other! He knew that was another story!!  The test of our love for Him is in our obedience to this command; to love each other.

Remember this is a few hours before his arrest. He knew what was ahead and that they were going to need each other in the new chapter in their faith. They could not be in competition with each other nor in constant comparison.

 He wanted them to know the importance of being connected to Him first. It is from that prime connection that they get their identity and not from each other or in relation to each other. Nor do they get it from what they do or don’t do.

 You can almost sense the urgency in Jesus’ voice as HE is trying to get this truth across to a very distracted lot of disciples.

Jesus knew that this would not produce the fruit He was looking for in their lives. 

Also I looked at the other Gospels. Here is what I found in Luke 22: 24-27

²⁴ A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. ²⁵ Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. ²⁶ But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. ²⁷ For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”

Did this prompt the Master to wash the feet of His disciples as an object lesson so that they would never forget? He could see what had the potential to destroy the early church – pushing for power, position, and prominence. He had to get them to understand that that would get them nowhere. It would not produce the fruit He was looking for. 

To paraphrase chapters 13 to 16. “ Hey, guys stop all this fighting amongst your selves. Stop secretly thinking about how you can get forward and leave the others behind. It does not work that way. Jealousy and competition and grabbing won’t get you anywhere. You need it each other.

Trust me, it is going to get crazier than you think. The politicians and religious rules are going to come after you. Some of you will pay with your life. You need to watch each other’s backs. You will not be able to do the stuff I want you to do if you do not stay close to each other and me. It’s just like the grapevine and the branches. They are connected. If it is not, it will die and not bear any fruit.

I want you guys to succeed. I am giving you the Holy Spirit for that reason. I will be praying for you. Your unity is so important. More than you can ever imagine. Trust me, this will only work if you get it together.

 I love you deeply. Just like my dad loves me. I love each of you. See I do not treat you like servants. We are friends. All of us.Together. Do you get it? Together! Its not going to work any other way.  Not one of you is more important than the other. Get rid of that thinking. It will destroy you. When you do this, people will realize that you have been with me and this is something powerful.

So stop fighting like kids about who I love more or who will get the most important jobs todo. It just does not work like that. Get rid of that Roman thought. Think like me. I didn’t have any issues washing your feet because I am secure in who I am and my dad’s love for me. I know who I am. I do not get my identity from the stuff I do. Neither do you. Do you know who you are? You are my friends. You don’t  need to prove anything. Therefore, get rid of those hang-ups. You have a  whole world to tell all that I have taught you. In addition, none of you can do it on your own. So can you cut all this out and learn to work together? You have to learn to really love each other”

~ Jesus.

Intrinsically linked to our fruitfulness is our loving one another. Jesus deliberately intertwines the vine and branches. He knows of our tendencies towards self-glory and independence that He worked it in a way where we can’t do without each other.

Verse15 -17  ^“ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus is dealing with Core issues here. He knows that we cannot do the above until we have understood this vital truth. That is, who we are – branches connected to the vine. We are to be ones connected to Jesus Himself, getting our identity from Him not in a slavish way. He calls us friends. He establishes my worth. But as if this is not enough. He establishes WHOSE we are. 

 He establishes my belonging and my connection. When this is settled, we are able to love one another to the point of death, to the point to preferring others, thinking of them more highly than ourselves, to the point where it does not matter who gets the credit or the attention. ( Phil 2:2-4).

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members,^[e] and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Romans 12:3-5.

You see this as a recurring them even through the epistles. Paul is constantly asking the believers to live in love and unity.

When this happens, we will bear lasting fruit (verse16). We can have many kinds of fruit in our lives. Jesus is looking for one particular kind – the lasting kind.

I realize that nothing about the kingdom is temporary. Everything has a bearing in eternity; whether it is being a mum, wife, businessperson, employee, etc. etc. If I am a kingdom person, then everything I do is in the kingdom. It is all from my place of being in the vine, in Jesus. I do not straddle two disconnected worlds. My life in its entirety is in Jesus. It is in “For in him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28

 What I get from this passage is that it all about my relationship with Jesus and the other branches – my fellow Christ followers. It’s not about keeping a set of rules and regulations. 

As I said earlier the Pharisees were very good at it. It was cold and calculated to the last dill and cumin.  Love was something they did not understand. They understood religious rituals and not a relationship, which was always in the heart of God; that we would desire Him deeply.  Hence, they misunderstood Jesus. They never understood his compassion that caused him to smash Sabbath rules to heal the cripple.

Religion can snuff out and replace relationship so subtly that we can fail to recognize this shift in our hearts. We need the Holy Spirit, to help keep us in check, and connected.

As I crossed the 50 mark, I have become more and more aware that I want the second half of my life to count even more. I want to make an impact, leave a legacy, and change the culture around me to reflect more of more of His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

All this is possible with lasting effect when I function from a place of knowing Jesus intimately and as in verse17 Jesus once again emphasizes “love each other”.

As I end my reflections I am more convinced than ever that being connected to the vine is not about “spiritual disciplines” ( and there is a place for that) but rather my relationship with Jesus and each other.

As Paul eloquently puts it If I have not love, I am nothing!!! (1Cor 13:2).  I do not want to be just hot air and a lot of noise with no substance. I want to love and serve and have fruit that will last.

Simple Equations

In today’s world performance outstrips everything else. All can be and will be overlooked if one brings in the results – whatever that may be. The bottom line is the bottom line in a balance sheet: do the profits look good? The end is more important than means therefore collateral damage is the catch word.

 Walking the straight and narrow is becoming a thing of the past or is certainly under threat.

Ethics and Character have no part to play in this game of success and being opportunity driven rather than value driven is becoming the norm. One only needs to look at politics to see it at its best.

All that is very well; we can moan about all the lack of integrity out there and how rotten the system is, how immoral x, y and z and shake our heads at “them”.  But, what about us Christ followers? My daily Bible reading and meditations have made me reflect much on this. Let me share my thoughts and reflections with you.

I have been in the book of 1 John for some time now simply because it’s not an easy book to read through and walk away from unchallenged or unprovoked.

John throws a challenge to the Christ follower to love. One would think he is stating the obvious – of course we are called to love !!  Easier said, than done !

I feel 1 John and 1 Corinthians 13 are two sides of the same coin. One challenges our beliefs and allegiance to God and the other challenges our practice of this confession and the attitudes of the heart that underlie everything we do – even the use of the great gifts.

Often  these days we are willing to side step the character issues that crop up; turning a blind eye simply because we are blinded by the gifting before us and to the opportunities that are presenting itself to us.

While it’s all very well to point fingers, 1 John brings the truth starkly home. He addresses “me” and not “them”. He hammers away mostly at one point from every angle even at the risk of over repeating himself in every little chapter in this even smaller book. I think he knows how easy it is for us to want to skip what we don’t want to hear to the other “interesting “bits that we want to .

But he comes at it again and again. He puts before us some very simply equations so that we don’t miss it.

Here are some I have jotted down

1:5 God is light = no darkness In Him

2:3 Knowing God = obeying Him

John is establishing where he is coming from. Then he homes in on what he wants to focus on.

2:5  Light= no hate

Hate = darkness. The math is pretty simple, clear cut as black ≠ white

Let’s  go further

2:12-14   John reassures us of our forgiveness and position of being over comers in Christ.

2:15-17 Love  God = hate the world

John seems to have been contending with a lot of liars and deceptive people!! Is it different today?

3:10 Children of God = those who love their brother

 Doing what is right = a child of God

3:11 Love one another is the bottom line

3:15 Hate one’s brother = a murderer

Murderer = hell

3:6 Love = Jesus dying for us

 Brotherly love = laying down our lives for each other.

3:17 Love = meet each other’s needs.

3:18 Love = action

3:22 Obedience to God =  answered prayers

4:16 God is love = we should love = God lives in us

4:19 Hate your brother = liar = hates God. WOW!! John is turning up the heat. He is not mincing words.

4:21 Love God = Love brother

5:1 Love God = Obey God

In such a short book John packs a solid punch! That’s a lot of emphasis on one point. Interesting to note John is not encouraging us to love the unbeliever, the persecutor. He is commanding us to love our brother!!!

What he is saying is (and I paraphrase) : don’t you get it ? You don’t have a choice in this one. You have to love. And if you can’t, there is no fudging it. It’s as clear as crystal, as plain as day. There is no second interpretation, no further explanations, contextualization’s and all the other lame duck excuses you give not to obey a passage in scripture. Bottom line – you have got to love your brother no matter what.

Even as I write it send shivers down my spine. This is ruthless coming from the apostle of love. It’s downright radical. Take or leave it – that’s what John is saying.

Who is my brother? Is a clever devious question I might throw to save my skin, in my defense trying to justify a lack of brotherly love across borders or denominations, churches, apostolic movement I belong to etc etc. Let’s not try and see much hate I can get away with. The truth is God is love and I have to love at all times and EVERYONE. Jesus once said on the Sermon on the Mount “Love your enemies…”  There goes my last chance at hate! – All excuses crumble at the cross.

The point I think John is making is – guys love is not an option you can opt out of, we have to love everyone. If we can be forgiving and tolerant toward the unbeliever,  how much more our own brothers.

I find the book entirely rhetorical in nature. John states the obvious because sometimes it needs to be said. It’s like saying you drive a car you don’t push it. If you push it around, it’s not a car anymore. Therefore get into the car and drive for it to be a car!! Get it?

I think I  am getting it  - therefore no room for grudges, hurts, nursing old wounds, playing  politics and all the others thing even we Christ followers have got cozy with simply because rationalizing comes easy when the shoe is on the other foot.

As I reflect I think of those I find hard to love, I think of those old wounds that won’t heal because I keep pulling the scab off, etc. Can we resolve to deal with these things before we grow old and bitter and realize that all the hate was not worth it after all? There is so much in life to appreciate and love and be thankful for.

So this brings me back to where I first started . I can be very gifted, very well known, very liked , even in the Christian circles but that does not really count. In the final reckoning of things if i do not have love I am nothing ( 1 Corinthians 13 lays it our starkly). In the final scheme of things "success" as everyone sees it may not necessarily be so because I have neglected this one very important thing called love. Sobering isn't it?

Let’s drop all that stuff and just do it – LOVE.

Navaz

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