Disciples of Christ

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Throwing off a heavy weight

Go ahead and laugh. It’s a good morning for a chuckle. Since I couldn’t find a photo of myself in buggy horse blinders, this image of me in my moose-hunting gear will have to do. Frankly, I think this is one of the best photos of me ever taken.

 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge cloud of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.(Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT)

I want to think shorter today. These verses have always spoken to me of a long-distance race, a marathon, the life-long living out of faith.

But within the marathon of our faith-life, we must run many sprints. Think of the times when a project seems impossible and overwhelming. Or those days when we can only hang on by our fingernails and hope the day will soon be over. And the fleeting moment, when we have to make a choice between treating someone as Jesus would or letting our human nature react. For all those races, the same principles apply.

(You’re wondering where those moose-goggles come in, aren’t you?)

Two things make it possible to dash the sprints and endure the marathon: stripping off whatever slows us down and focusing on the champion, Jesus, who is working in every circumstance to perfect our faith.

Jesus is working to make our faith complete and perfect. How encouraging! Even on those fingernail days, even when you think you have failed to run well, Jesus’ Spirit is at work perfecting the faith He began in you. I love the choice of the word “champion.” He ran the perfect race. And now He has us in training; under His guidance, following His example, He’s going to turn us into strong faith-contenders, too. Wow.

Does this change the way you reflect on those times you feel you did everything wrong?

Yes, you might indeed have done everything wrong, but God still works to achieve His purposes in you. It’s grace. It is how we go forward in life without fear or terror or timidity but with peace.

And just as any athlete has to follow the instruction of a trainer and coach, so we need to keep our eyes on the one who is training us.

That means I can’t be looking around at a whole bunch of things that will distract me. I’m thinking of those blinders on a buggy horse. I’m sure the moose-goggles are more attractive. But blinders is what I often need.

I cannot measure myself or the race I’m running by looking at others who run beside, behind, or ahead of me. Yes, there are many people whose stories can inspire us; Hebrews 11 was written for that purpose. And we are instructed to encourage each other. But we have to learn, somehow, to take inspiration and encouragement from the races others run and yet remember that each of us must run her own race, according to the purpose God has for her.

When I changed jobs, began a new race, the heaviest weight I carried was that habit of comparing myself to others, measuring my gifts and abilities against those of other writers. It was so easy, almost automatic, to read what someone else had written and then allow self-doubt to creep in. We humans have this habit of comparing ourselves, our abilities, what we have, what we’ve accomplished — even the shape of our bodies! — to what someone else owns or is or has done.

And when I start comparing myself to others on the same course, I can soon be thinking that I’m not running fast enough, I’m not running well, I haven’t trained enough for this … hey, why am I even doing this? I don’t belong in this event.

You know the downhill path of such thoughts.

I want to throw off this weight, be done with it, run freely. But like ashes from a bonfire drift back down and settle in my hair and leave smudges on my face, this tendency to compare myself with others keeps returning to me.

For me, this is one of the sins that so easily beset me in the race. It does come so easily, but …… is it really sin?

The Greek word used here for “sin” is hamartia, which means “any action or attitude that is contrary to the will of God and the revealed standards of God.” Whew. That would include many things we don’t normally label sin. And it convicts me: when my attitude about myself is other than what God says, then I need to repent and ask His forgiveness. (And remember: Repenting means changing!)

That’s why we need to keep our eyes on the Champion, why we need to know what God intends for us. We find all of that in His Word, the sword with which the Spirit battles sin in our lives.

Because His Word says:

    We have been given a spirit of power and love and self-discipline
    We are being transformed into Christ’s image
    We are his masterpiece, created ANEW to do good things He has planned
            (Did I emphasize that sufficiently?)
    He will not abandon the work He’s started in us
    His power within us will accomplish far more than we could ever imagine
                 (See references below)

And that’s just the beginning! These are just a few statements about what God intends for His children. Scripture is filled with His plans for us. I am convicted and humbled and encouraged and so loved.

Keeping our eyes only on Christ, running with His words in our ears instead of looking around at others, throwing off the things that weigh us down … that is how we run well in both the sprints and the marathon.

That’s my sermon for today. Preaching mostly to myself. Wearing my moose goggles.

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Scriptures: 2 Timothy 1:7, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 1:6, Ephesians 3:20

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First Love: For Christ, For Others

And perhaps the most difficult place to love, the most difficult place to lay down my life — is in the church. Is it because that is where Satan would most like to defeat us, where he works hardest against God’s plans?

Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians, and one of the subjects was about a certain practice under debate. Apparently, both sides of the debate felt they knew the “right” answer. Paul says:

Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.
(1 Corinthians 8:1)

That’s the New Living Translation. The NIV says, Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. A sobering test of our motives, when we have disagreements, debates, issues in the church body:  Do we want to feel important or do we want to strengthen the church?

Love strengthens the church.

I re-read Revelations 2 … and re-read, and re-read. When Christ says to the church at Ephesus, “You have forsaken your first love…” is He perhaps saying that the love the church once had for each other has diminished, has been neglected, has now taken a back seat to the good things they are doing? Have they been careless in loving each other and so have lost sight of Christ’s commandment? Are they no longer loving Christ because they are not loving others? Is this the complaint Christ has against them?

Is lack of love for each other the thing that will weaken the church so much that its candlestick is removed?

 

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So I go back to my question to my Lord:  How can I love you more, love you better, always keep you as my first love?

This is how: I give up my life for the sake of reconciling others to God, I learn how to do that every day, I keep that commandment from Christ as my first rule in living with others.

I want to love the Lord God with my whole heart, and so I will love others as Jesus loves.

Spirit, help me.

 

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How do we love?

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.

That verse is in 1 John 3:16 Isn’t this interesting? John 3:16 talks about God giving up His son because He loved the world. 1 John 3:16 takes the next step—now we’re to love each other in the same way, laying down our lives for others just as Jesus did.

This is the command Jesus gives to all who say they love Him and live in Him: We must love like He does.

So, I’m asking … what does giving up our lives for each other mean? I don’t think it means physically dying in another person’s place. Maybe it means letting my own dreams and desires die for the sake of another soul. My selfishness is squelched so that I can treat another person as Christ would treat him. I give up some of my comfort for the sake of another. The “I” in me dies, so that another soul will live.

Oh. That’s tough. I am so … human.

Jesus says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Yes, Lord, we hear your command, but what you ask is really, really hard.

But Jesus doesn’t give us time to object or whine. Because the next verse immediately says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth.”   (John 14:15-16)

Ah, yes. Jesus knows exactly how difficult it will be for me — human me — to obey His command to love others. And so He promised the Counselor, the Spirit, the one who leads me into truth. The Spirit of Christ himself dwells within, to help me live the way He wants me to live.

Romans 5:5 says that God gave us the Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. Some versions say our hearts are flooded with God’s love, or it is poured into our hearts, or shed abroad. One of the fruits of the Spirit is love, and it can come pouring into us, flooding through our hearts.

Wow. I admit, that’s what I need. A flood of something beyond myself. That’s the only way I can love the way Jesus loved me.

It’s difficult enough to give up my selfishness for the sake of someone I claim to “love” in my human way. But Jesus also asks us to love our enemies, to love those who hate us, to love those who are in need (and what greater need is there than the need for God?) That’s the way Jesus loved. He prayed God would forgive those who killed Him. He gave up His life, not just for the handful who followed Him for a few years on earth, but for people who mock Him in 2011.

How do we love like that? How do we love, when our human nature would rather hate and condemn and avoid?

The Spirit sheds abroad, pours out, floods …

　　

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WHO do we love?

Try to imagine: You get a call from Jesus. (Or maybe a text.) He’s in town for a few hours, and he’d like to stop by your house for a cup of tea to discuss an assignment He has for you.

Wow. The Teacher is dropping by to see you. You have never seen him, but you’ve pledged your life to follow Him. The one with power to defeat Satan’s plans, the one who laid open the way for you to come to God … He wants to talk with YOU, face-to-face, to give you an assignment.

He settles into your couch with his cup of tea and says, “You know, I only spent a few years as a man on this earth. I accomplished my mission then, but now my disciples must continue the ministry. People need to be reconciled to God. So here’s what I want you to do: I want you to love others just the way I love you.”

Yes! A personal assignment from Jesus Christ. You determine to throw your life into it.

So to love as Christ did, you need to know who and how to love.

God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.    (Romans 5:8 NLT)

But to those who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. (Luke 6:27-28)

Sinners and enemies. In Jesus’ time, that would mean … the oppressive government, prostitutes, lepers who were outcasts, religious hypocrites, thieves, men who cheated when collecting taxes, greedy people, abusive people, those who worshipped other gods, ones who cursed God, those with an agenda opposed to God’s people … Hello? Does it sound familiar?

Jesus’ command to love as He did forces us to take a second look at how we respond to everything going on in the world around us, to societal issues, politics, wars.

But then, closer to home, there’s the neighbor who seems to be on a mission of his own, and that mission is to make your life miserable. There’s the coworker who ridicules you. There’s the rebellious child who says she hates you, the man who has cheated you, the friend who betrayed your trust, the woman in church who … 

You begin to see, to feel, the difficulties of loving as Christ loves.

But that is what we are commanded to do. We were not brought into God’s family only to be saved. We also became part of a mission, the mission of reconciling people to God who loves them.

That mission is fueled only if the love of Christ works in us.

 

Next: How do we love?

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Loving Christ

For a while, I thought I had made a royal goof. I’d gone down the wrong path, big time. I would have to go back and amend my last post or maybe even delete it completely.

But then I calmed down and realized that post does belong in this series. I believe in the Spirit’s leading, that He takes us to what He knows we need at the time. Have you noticed that Scriptures speak differently to you at different stages in your pilgrimage?

So the post stays. Because a passion for God, a devotion to Christ, is still the first necessary desire. Because that’s where I was at the beginning of this week, wanting to know how to love God better.

And today, I go to the next step:

             Scriptures say loving Christ, loving God, is about what we do.

Okay, I admit, at one time I would have read that statement and immediately closed this website. Never read a word by this writer again. Because I react to a legalistic religion by slamming shut my ears and heart.

But that’s not where this post is headed. Breathe. Read on, please.

I’m looking for answers this week, wanting to know how to keep a love for Christ burning brightly. And what I read today says: Love. Loving others is how we love Christ.

Jesus said it bluntly:

If you love me, you will obey what I command… Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.    (John 14: 15, 21)

That is how we love Christ. By obeying what He commands us to do. And what is His command?

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

He repeats again, just a few verses later, This is my command: Love each other.  (John 15:12,17)

The greatest commandment, Jesus says, is to love the Lord God with everything you have. (Maybe what I was seeking on Monday.) And the second commandment goes hand in hand with, is inseparable from, the first — you must love your neighbor as yourself. All other admonitions and teachings are details on how to obey those two commandments.

This is not a legalistic teaching, a laying down of rules, a warning that we had better do this or else we’re in danger of hellfire. This is Jesus telling us how to live in Him, how to love Him. We love Him by loving each other.

That love for God and neighbor is not just a verbal declaration, a passion, an emotional adoration. The emphasis is on action. It’s what we do. We’ve all heard the commentary on I Corinthians 13, that love is what we do, rather than what we feel.

But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.    (1 John 2:5)

Here it is again: obeying makes our love complete. To love Him, to live in Him, we must walk as Jesus did.

Love is such a difficult word to define in our English language. My dictionary has 18 definitions. We love everything from Cheerios to spouses. We fling the word about in a hundred different ways. We all understand that my loving Maine is something completely different than my loving God.

But just as being “in love” means we’re totally immersed in our feeling for someone else, loving God means living in God, our lives immersed in Him, our mortal being swallowed up by His immortal. Or, maybe it’s the other way around: Living in God is loving God. Am I going in circles? Is that because it is all the same? Isn’t our loving really our living?

Jesus says, Love each other in the same way I have loved you. (NLT) That’s his command. If we are loving Him/living in Him, we must walk as He did.

Scriptures say again and again, Love each other, love each other, love each other the way Christ loved you.

How does Jesus love? We need some concrete details here; we need to know, because He wants us to live that way, to walk that way, to love that way.

                                                                                             To be continued …..

　

Assignment: Hear Jesus saying directly to you: “Love others in the same way I love you.” How does He love you?