Love and the Obvious

The New Commandment

A new commandment I live to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
--John 13:34-35

Love and the Obvious

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.

--1 Thessalonians 4:9

Sometimes love seems like a difficult and confusing thing. This passage makes me wonder if that is completely my fault.

If I followed this verse, I would save myself so much trouble! I wouldn't spend so much useless time debating with my conscience over whether or not I need to include this person, or apologize to that person, or give her a call, or just leave him alone.

My problem is not that the Bible doesn't tell me how to love others—it does.

It's not that I don't have access to the Bible at virtually any time of the day—I do.

It's not like I don't have a Helper within me, activating my conscience to awareness of God's will—He's there.

Sometimes, the best advice is the simplest.

Do what you know.

If you are a believer, then God has already equipped you to know who you need to love, and how you need to do it.

An application: write down 10 names of people in your life, and next to the names, write practically how you can love them better. Write down what you already know, and ask God for new strength and motivation to actually love these people.

To image Christ to the world, love others in the obvious ways.

Love and Your Mindset

The New Commandment

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
--John 13:34-35

Love and Your Mindset

"And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."
--Col 3:14

Perfect harmony.  What a concept!  I have certainly not achieved this state in my relationships.  Even the closest friendships I have don't sound like a perfectly blending a capella group.  There are moments--and sometimes days or weeks--of discord that create a clashing, painful racket.  Thank God that the reason for this disunity is so plain and obvious.  If we are not in perfect harmony, then we are not loving each other as we should.

Love is incredibly important for the believer.  It is so important that this passage actually directly states that it is "above" many other important godly traits.  For example: "compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another"--each of these important characteristics must submit to love.  Why?  Because without love, it is impossible to bear even one of these Christian fruits.

So love is absolutely crucial.  The context of this verse, the rest of the chapter, sheds more light on what this love means, and how it can be lived out.

The central theme of Colossians 3 is a contrast between the earthly and the heavenly.  The opening statement of the chapter is this: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

Set your mind on the the things above--not the things which are on earth.

Love flows out of this simple yet profoundly impactful choice that each person makes.  On what will you set your mind?

What are the things on earth?
Attention, beauty, clothes, fun, being liked, man's praise, money, pleasure, power, reputation, talents, worries.

What is above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God?
Heaven, my eternal home.

Certainly there is more to love than this, yet this simple truth could deeply impact my life and my love if I let it.  Set your mind on heaven, and as the things of earth fade away, love will overflow out of your heart and into your actions.

Death to worldly thought patterns leads to a growing, godly life.  "You have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (v. 9-10)."  Beginning with the mind, there is an inescapable, undefeatable new life with all new desires.  If you are a believer, your life is already being renewed--in your mind's knowledge--so that you are being transformed to look like the one who made you.

If you are struggling to love anyone in your life, take comfort in the fact that your mind is already being renewed, and God will not stop untill you look like Him.  And as you rest in this truth, take action: make it a priority to think about heaven every day.  When that person does something annoying that drives you crazy, or makes an effort to put herself in your path when you don't want to deal with her, or shoots back a stinging remark--take a minute to set your mind on the things above, where your Savior is sitting down at the right hand of God the Father.

To image Christ to the world, be intentional about meditating on heaven, so that love will flow from your mind to your heart and out to everyone you know.

Love and the Law

The New Commandment

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:  just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

--John 13: 31-35

Love and the Law

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

--Romans 13:8-10

We owe it to God to fulfill His law.  Complete and total obedience to Him, from now until the day we die, would still not be perfect enough, for we have disobeyed Him already enough to earn Hell thousands of times.  In this passage, we find the broad category under which much of God's law falls: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

  

Jesus has a higher standard than just "Don't have an affair" or "Don't kill anybody."  In His most famous sermon, He revealed that He considers lust to be adultery and hatred to be murder.  So it isn't enough for us to just abstain from heinous, obviously despicable crimes that would earn us shame from other people.  That in itself is not enough to pay what we owe.  The perfect obedience which is our debt consists of a heart that loves.

If love is the fulfilling of the law, then I am a law-breaker.

Looking at these four sins, I find just how guilty I am of transgressing God's commandments.

Adultery.  There is more to lust than just looking at someone with impure desires in your heart.  There is a sense in which any relationship you have can contribute to indulging your cravings for attention.  One of the places this can be most obvious is in relationships with people of the opposite gender.  My selfish heart can and does seek to gratify itself in the attention of men.  God tells me that this is not only a way to rack up debt against Him, but it is in fact a refusal to pay what I owe to other people in my life.  If you see someone--anyone--in your life as a source of self-gratification, then your lust for your own glory is actively hindering you from loving that person.  No matter how much you may "like" that guy or girl, the only person you are loving is yourself.

Murder.  The sin of hatred is equally dangerous and equally disguisable.  Almost no one I know has ever actually taken someone else's life.  Yet we all have feelings of anger, bitterness, and un-love that we would be appalled to see anyone find out.  Daily, someone I know does something that causes the mercury in my anger-meter to push to the top.  I may ignore the person--may even be silent--but inside I am hot with wrath.  I have literally thought before of someone in my life, "I hate ____."  I have done this multiple times.  Even more numerous are the instances in which I have said, "I hate it when _____ does ____."  My open complaint reveals that I love my own unchallenged comfort more than I love the person who challenged it.

Coveting and Stealing.  The last two breakable laws seem to go hand in hand--"You shall not covet" and "You shall not steal."  How many times have I wanted something that someone else has?  To limit this to material possessions would be (for me) a major cop-out.  I have found myself capable of being jealous of anything and everything.  Someone's car or clothes or paycheck--sure.  Someone's abilities, popularity, or the favor they enjoy--even more prevalent.  I often like to see the sin of jealousy as a sin against God.  After all, I am being discontent with His numerous gifts.  But I am remiss if I don't consider this sin as a lack of love towards others.  Have you ever been actively envious of someone in your life, and continued to love them perfectly, or even treat them well externally?  It's not just difficult.  It's impossible.  To covet someone, or competitively fight to get what they have is to deny them your love.

Each of these sins jars me with the realization that I do not love as I should.  Every day, instead of paying God and others the debt that I owe, I am increasing my deficit by being lustful, hateful, and jealous.  A comparison to Jesus' law reveals that I am hopelessly behind on laying down even a fraction of the payment He is due.

But praise be to Jesus--He has paid our debts.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

--Matthew 5:17

Not only does Jesus establish the law of love--He follows it to the letter.  In His perfect obedience, we are free to enjoy God's favor even though we cannot obey perfectly.  And because our Savior lives in us,  we know that He will help us to pay back what we owe.

 To image Christ to the world, rely on His power to help you obey the law.

A New Commandment + Love and Vengeance

A New Commandment


A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:  just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
--John 13: 31-35

In an incredible context, we receive an incredible command.  Jesus is sitting down for his last meal.  Directly after being abandoned by a dear friend, and directly before his horrific death, Jesus gives a new commandment.
"Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
And what is the purpose of this great call?
"By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.
Love is important.  Love is so important that our Savior says we are identified by it.  Jesus says that love is how the world knows we are His.  It is important, then, to look very carefully at what our God means when He tells us to love. 


The extent to which we know and apply Biblical love is the extent to which we make it obvious to the world that we belong to Jesus.


Love and Vengeance


Leviticus 19:18 
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD."


Love, in this verse, is described by what it does not do.  Love never has a grudge or a desire for vengeance upon those who harm us.


The problem with this commandment is that, even as believers, we do suffer harm from others--even other believers.  Because we live in a fallen world, we hurt each other.  Until I reach heaven, I will have to deal with biting words from family members, sharp-edged sarcastic remarks from friends, mean-spirited jabs disguised as rebukes, criticisms motivated by jealousy, and undeserved anger caused by circumstances unrelated to me.  But the Bible says that the way to respond to these injuries is never, ever to hand back what is dished out. 


Not only are we not to exact our own revenge, but we are also commanded to not even hold a grudge.


Do you realize what this means?  It means that if you have been wronged and do not fire back a single unkind word, it is still possible to sin.  The root of the sin of vengeance--the grudge--is deeply buried in the heart.  A retaliatory attitude can be present (even controllingly so) and not be visible to anyone else. 


Holding a grudge is refusing to think well of someone who wronged you. It is unforgiveness held close to the heart.  It is a treasured ill will towards another person.  It is the voice in your head that says you would be justified in being mean to that person but you are being extra godly by holding back. 


How guilty are we of this?  Most of us carry just as many grudges as we do scars of being hurt.  It can feel so impossible to love that person who made fun of you in front of friends you look up to, or who belittled you out of his own pride, or who excluded you when she invited everyone else.  It seems rediculous to think of looking at that person the same way again, as though they never did that evil thing.  You look at them through the ugly veil of your own hurt, and their image is forever marred by the fog of your grudge.


There is only one escape, only one way to "love your neighbor as yourself" and that is in the identity of your God. 


"I am the LORD."


Freedom from a begrudging heart can only be found in the One who has forgiven you.  For you greatly wronged Him, spurning Him to His face repeatedly, day after day.  Yet now, when He looks at you (if you have become one of His own), He willingly does not see one who is an enemy.  He has chosen to look at you as though you never sinned against Him.  How much more, then, ought we sinners to willingly close our eyes to the faults of those who wrong us. 


To image Christ to the world, love others by forgetting their wrongs against you through confidence in who God is.