Change??!!
Q. How many Church of Christ members does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Change??!!
This is not about denominational change but personal change — which is even harder. And we very much need to change.
Catechism class
Imagine that you’re a First Century new convert to Christianity. An apostle enters the room to instruct you on how to live as a Christian. What are we going to hear? Well, this is not the total lesson we’d hear, but we’d certainly hear —
From John —
(1Jo 3:11 ESV) 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
(1Jo 3:16-24 ESV) 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
From Peter —
(1Pe 1:22 ESV) 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
(1Pe 2:17 ESV) 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
(1Pe 3:8-11 ESV) 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.”
(1Pe 4:8 ESV) 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
From the author of Hebrews —
(Heb 13:1-2 ESV) Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
From Paul —
(1Co 13:1-8a ESV) f I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.
(Rom 12:9-1 ESV) 9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Of course, Jesus would have had a few things to say on the subject —
(Mat 22:36-40 ESV) 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
(John 13:34-35 ESV) 34 “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. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
(John 15:12-14 ESV) 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
You have to figure that any new convert would have been closely instructed on “love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” In John 13:34-35, this is a distinctive mark of the church. This lesson would have come chapters and books before the apostles got to whether an elder may have only one child.
“Just as I have loved you.”
And “love one another” wouldn’t have been left abstract. As we see in those verses and others, there’s a standard attached: “just as I have loved you.” Now, how is it that Jesus had loved his disciples?
Well, the first answer is found in Jesus’ crucifixion, and John argues exactly this point in 1 John 3:16. And that is, of course, the ultimate answer from which all other answers hang. The love we are to have for our brothers and sisters in Christ must be modeled on the crucifixion —
(Eph 5:2 ESV) 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
(John 15:13 ESV) 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Now, we need to be clear here. The love that Jesus and the apostles speak of is love among Christians. This is not a general, feel-good, cushy, mushy, “I love everybody,” nice-guy kind of love. This is a love that calls for radical commitment — even our own lives. And it’s a commitment to each other.
Yes, we are commanded to love our neighbors. But before we get there, we must get to “love one another.” Indeed, if we can’t figure out how to love the “one another” whom we know and who shares a love for and commitment to Jesus, how can we love those outside of the church whom we don’ t know and don’t know Jesus?
Of course, it’s actually easier to love strangers, because we can send them a check and stand at a distance. We can love strangers for cheap. Loving the person in the pew next to us, well, that’s hard. And it’s expensive.
You see, American Christianity suffers from a watered down love. We don’t appreciate how much we’ve been forgiven and therefore don’t appreciate how much we need to change. And the change most plainly, most repeatedly called for is that we “love one another” as Jesus loves us. We want this to be a “I’m nice and I don’t hurt anyone” kind of love, when the scriptures call us to a radical, life-surrendering, sacrificial kind of love.
So real restoration requires that we not be satisfied with cheap, easy love. No, we have to mature to the real thing: loving as Jesus loved.
This is what God wants of us, and nothing more. It's the most difficult thing to do because we have to subjugate ourselves to others.
The most powerful definition of agape I've heard is "giving yourself to others for their good, expecting nothing in return."
very powerful.
And note the contrast between the OT standard of "love your neighbor as yourself" versus the NT standard of loving one another as Jesus loved us.
Wow!!
When it comes down to it, Christian faith is both far simpler and far harder than we have made it out to be. We can, and should and must, spend our lifetimes here struggling to get a handle on agape love; we are now fussy babies in the infancy of our eternal lives.
The standard of love Jesus sets for us is infinitely higher than we imagine. He not only demonstrated it at the cross, He describes it in John 15:9 where He said:
"I have loved you as the Father has loved me."
When we love each other as God loves Jesus, we will have arrived. Until then, we still have a lot of restoration ahead of us – and we need to remember that God is the one doing the restoration, not us.
I blogged on this general them of the uniqueness of the New Testament church here.
Jerry
Jay,
Both James and John certainly seem to make a big fuss about Christians materially supporting one another. John especially connects that idea with this very command. Have we lost this particular mark of the first century church? Are there differences in the way we think of financial obligations to each other versus the first century church?
Perhaps my experience is a-typical, but i feel i've encountered a higher degree of resistance to sticking our necks out for each other when it comes to material sacrifices than seems present in the NT.
–guy
Guy,
I entirely agree that we've often overlooked the financial side of the command to love one another. We've not lost it, as I know some truly astonishing stories of Christians helping others sacrificially. (The Spirit is alive, well, and changing hearts sometimes despite our best efforts.)
But I don't think our preaching/teaching adequately focuses on what it means to truly love one another. Sacrificial love is not routinely taught — even in many churches that try very hard to be missional.