32726 God’s Call to Love Others

Imagine two doctors. The first was trained in a medical school where no one talked, wrote, or read—training only involved the close observation of working doctors. The second’s training was the opposite. It consisted solely of listening to lectures and reading text books. Which doctor would you rather see—the one who knows how procedures are done but not why, or the other who knows why but not how? Probably neither!

The Church faithfully answers God’s call to love others when we both explain and demonstrate that love.

We explain God’s love when we faithfully teach the content of our faith; when we guard “the original testimony without ceasing to apply it meaningfully to the context of local and prevailing conditions.”[1] Explanation is a way of loving both followers of Jesus and those who are not yet followers. The good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and what that means for us has to be put into words for people to believe. It also has to be put into words for a believer’s faith to deepen.

Explanation is love in that it dignifies our neighbor as a person capable of understanding and making decisions. It is also love when it is motivated by the Church’s concern for people. And finally, explanation connects people to their faith community. As a believer better understands the doctrines, practices, and motivating values of their particular church they are able to more meaningfully participate in the life and worship of that congregation.

We the Church demonstrate God’s love and our own to others when we take their needs seriously—whether physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, or contextual.

While at times, Christians have disagreed over whether explanation or demonstration of love is the more important mission of the Church, it is clear that Jesus saw them as different strands of the same command. Jesus taught that loving God and loving others were together the most important commandments (Mark 12:28-31), and His example is one of blending teaching with meeting the physical needs of those around Him (healing, feeding the 5,000, raising the dead). Jesus was not just a teacher nor just a healer. His authority to teach was proven through His healing and His healing was given deeper significance through His teaching.

Elsewhere in the New Testament, we see the Apostle Paul collecting money from churches everywhere to aid the church in Jerusalem. (2 Corinthians 9) We see the first church distributing money to those in need. (Acts 2:45) And the Apostle James goes as far as saying that caring for orphans and widows is an essential part of pleasing God with our lives. (James 1:27)

Christians have seen acts of charity as the Church’s responsibility for generations, but what about the church actively working to change human experience on a structural/cultural level? Does pursuing justice for the oppressed, victimized, and marginalized fall within our responsibility of the Church? Or is that too political, too far from the proclamation of the gospel? [Read “God’s Call to Pursue Justice“]

Like a doctor confidently practicing medicine because she both understands why a particular procedure needs to be done and has actually physically practiced doing it, the Church clearly practices God-reflecting love of others when we both explain and demonstrate that love. Then believers and not-yet-believers alike, are invited into a deeper understanding and experience of the saving, healing, restoring work of the gospel.

Footnotes:
  1. Thomas C. Oden, Life in the Spirit (Peabody, MA: Prince Press, 1992), 353.

32725 God’s Call to Reach Out

Jesus is risen from the dead! Sin and death no longer have the final say. This good news fully revived and overflowed from those who first heard it. So much so, that disciples who had been paralyzed with grief and crumbled expectations suddenly didn’t care if the political powers that be killed them! They were preaching in the streets, healing the sick, selling their possessions and giving away the money—advancing this good news simply mattered more than anything else in life. (Acts 2) The scared-then-unreasonably-bold followers of Jesus together—as a group—answered God’s call to love God and love others.

Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.” These good works flow out of his call to love. Jesus-followers scattered across the globe (the capital “c” Church) are meant to embody love for God and love for others not just individually but as a Church.

Before we can do these good works, we first have to embrace that the Church is God’s handiwork. It’s His. He made it. It is good. It was made for a purpose. The corruption of sin can certainly distort or even obscure how the Church reflects who God is, but even the worst soiling of sin can itself become an opportunity for the transforming power of the Gospel to shine forth. We the Church are God’s handiwork and we’re created to do good works!

We as the Church do the good work of loving God when we worship Him, obey Him, depend on Him, and testify to His greatness through our collective words and actions. Something amazing happens when the Church is united in love for God. As is explained a little later in Ephesians, “in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). We become a place where we and others can experience God’s presence!

We as the Church are also called to love others, both those who already love God and those who do not yet love God.

Jesus’ final words to his followers were: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Church loves others when we explain and demonstrate God’s rescuing love to all nations, including our own, as well as when we lead those who already love God into greater depth. Making disciples involves helping others mature in their experience of who God is and how loving Him changes how they live. [Read “God’s Call to Love Others”]

We are on a journey. Pressures, dangers and confusion surround us. But it is not an individual quest, and we are not solitary heroes. The Church is on a journey and it’s as messy and complicated as herding cats. But it is beautiful because in the moments when we are realizing our mission to love God and love others, God-dwelling-in-us is revealed. Joy and worship overflow. And we understand that being a part of this simply matters more than anything else in life.

[Read “God’s Call to Love Others”]

32724 God’s Call for Me: Tasks and Responsibilities

Saturday. It’s a beautiful day for playing outside with friends. A young boy dresses hurriedly, swallows his breakfast almost whole, and prepares to burst through the door into the beckoning sunshine. His plans collapse the moment his mother’s voice rings out. “Whoa! You gotta clean your room first.”

Talking about vocation is exciting. We are energized at the thought of an overall sense of purpose that gives us a part in the bigger story of God’s work in the world. But there is a lot of life that doesn’t fit neatly into a vocational box.

Alongside God’s call to love that applies to all Christians and His call to each of us individually to live out that love in very specific ways, He also calls us to live out love in our individual tasks and responsibilities that vary from day to day.

These tasks and responsibilities are different than our unique vocations. They are places for us to faithfully live but may or may not contribute to our overall sense of mission in the world. “The daily demands on our lives are not necessarily threats to the fulfillment of our vocation…They are all part of what it means to be called of God.”[1]

God calls us to follow Him in all our time. In fact it’s not really our time at all, it’s his! So maybe that’s in a job that just seems to pay the bills but not much more, the interrupting phone call from a friend, daily chores like washing dishes, or that stranger walking home in the rain who might just need a ride. When we believe that our time is actually God’s, we take on a posture of anticipation toward what the Lord will bring our way that day.

Some responsibilities are certainly easier to look forward to than others. Some things fit more easily into our sense of mission in life while others might just seem pointless.

We can learn from believers who were slaves in Roman times. Masters had total authority over their slaves, even to the point of life and death. Yet, the Apostle Paul writes,

“Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ, not like those who do their work only when someone is watching—as people-pleasers—but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. Obey with enthusiasm, as though serving the Lord and not people.” – Ephesians 6:5-7

Here were people who had no option of career change, yet they are invited to do their work as God’s work. Their own daily work was given dignity because they were now doing their master’s business—their master being Jesus.[2] Our work is to be worship—done “as if you were serving the Lord”.

These people had responsibilities of the day that didn’t seem related to a sense of mission, but how they did them could be.

Following Jesus becomes the way in which we live, not necessarily the means by which we live. It is something more than what we do on coffee breaks or weekends. We live as followers of Christ not just by how much we can witness to our co-workers or how much time we can take after work to help our neighbors, as good and important as those things are. Our work itself can be worship, and how we do our work can be an arrow pointing to Jesus. We must ask ourselves, then, “To whom does my life point, especially in the interruptions and less glamorous tasks of my day?”

Footnotes

  1. Gordon T. Smith, Courage and Calling (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 11.
  2. It is helpful to note, however, that the gospel doesn’t condone oppression—these lists in Ephesians and Colossians for wives, children, and slaves actually turn the status quo on its head by redefining the master or Lord (the legal terminology of the time for the male head of the household) as Jesus. See Eph. 6:9 and the book of Philemon for evidence that the movement of the gospel was intended to have an impact on the reigning oppressive social structures of the day. See also: Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat, Colossians Remixed (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004). Especially pp. 201-219.

32723 God’s Call for Me: Vocation

“Get a good job, become financially secure, have a nice family, buy what you want, enjoy a few of the finer things in life, avoid the troubles of the world, retire with ease.”[1]

Is this a Christian vision of life? Is anything wrong with pursuing comfort, financial security, or personal fulfillment?

It’s not so much what that vision of life contains, as what it’s missing.

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.” – Galatians 5:13

We do not exist only to serve our own interests. Nor do we exist to serve others on our own terms. So what that initial statement is missing is the linkage between what we do with our lives and for whose sake we do them. Christian vocation is “a purpose for being in the world which is related to the purposes of God.”[2]

It is here that we see how our unique ways of answering God’s call to love him and love others leads us toward a vocation–how we live out the call to love in every sphere of our lives. Vocation is unique to the individual but fits into the big picture of God’s work. It is an individual purpose for the sake of others. Vocation, however, is different than a job or career. Jobs may or may not be an expression of one’s vocation. It is wonderful when there is congruence between the two, but for many people that might not be possible.

So let’s assume we really understand that (following the reasoning of Ephesians 2:10):

  1. We are God’s handiwork, people who have no need to strive for riches or acclaim to assure ourselves of our worth.
  2. We are his handiwork created to do good works that are not just for our own benefit but for the benefit of others.
  3. We each live out the call to love in unique ways so our vocation—our purpose—is unique to each of us.

But how in the world do we make progress in actually deciding on a direction to pursue, let alone the myriad decisions that face us each day?

1. We trust that God provides just as much in the ordinary as the extraordinary.

A booming voice from heaven would make decision-making a lot easier, but not everyone is called in such supernatural ways. If we proclaim God as sovereign over all of creation, then we should also proclaim that what we casually label as “natural,”—talents, interests, passions, opportunities, and experiences—are God’s direct work in our lives just as much as a voice from heaven would be. In fact, when we pray for guidance, God often allows us to see how one choice is actually the direction he has been leading us in all along. It is, of course, also within God’s sovereignty to completely change our direction and to do so dramatically!

2. We trust that God has given significance to our decisions.

God created humans to make decisions. Following the creation of Adam, “the Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19). We reflect His image when we are creative and make decisions. So while we are attentive and responsive to His leading, we are also not to be paralyzed waiting for extraordinary guidance.

3. We trust that God speaks through His Word and in times of prayer.

Reading scripture is one way to get to know His will. We will understand better who God is and what He cares about through reading His word. This is essential for gaining the wisdom to see how the various options before us fit or don’t fit into His will. As we make ourselves available to God in prayer, He will help us submit to His will and bring to mind what He wants us to be focusing on for that day.

4. We trust that God has given us unique gifts, passions, opportunities, and communities.[3]

We must identify our God-created giftedness and passions. This humble self-knowledge is essential, as God’s call on our lives is usually consistent with how he has made us.[4]

God also presents us with specific opportunities to exercise our giftings. These opportunities are often either bigger or smaller than our perceived capacities!

Finally, He places us in particular communities of believers. He expects us to live interdependently, so those who benefit from our vocational living also invest in our vocational development with their wisdom and affirmation.

In all four points, trust is central. And that is what separates Christian vocation from the clichéd American dream. To live vocationally is to live in a radical dependence on God. We trust that his purposes in the world are worth living (and dying) for. We trust that He has provided already and will continue to provide for us into eternity. We trust that He has freed us to serve each other in love.

[Read “God’s Call for Me: Tasks and Responsibilities“]

Footnotes:
  1. David P. Setran and Chris A. Kiesling, Spiritual Formation in Emerging Adulthood (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 114.
  2. Ibid., 117.
  3. Ibid., 130.
  4. Gordon T. Smith, Courage and Calling (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 53-55.

32722 God’s Call for Everyone

What does a music lover look like? Or a football fan? Or a musical football fan? Well, like, anyone, really. Aside from the people wearing piano-key ties or team jerseys, it wouldn’t be instantly clear. But spend some time listening to what they discuss with the most excitement, or hear how they tend to spend their time, and it wouldn’t take long to figure out.

A group by definition consists of individuals who share some characteristic in common. But what identifiable commonalities do Christians share, given the diversity of Christianity—the hundreds of ethnicities, traditions, languages, and ways of worshiping?

Jesus clearly tells us what sets us apart as His followers:

“I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” – John 13:34-35

Love. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love in a Jesus-kind-of-way. Love in a radical, forgiving, sacrificing, not self-seeking kind of way.

It’s like a secret agent whose commitment to his mission guides him through the complexities of disguises and intrigue. To love as Jesus loved guides us in whatever individual role we have as a part of His kingdom.

“Follow me.” Jesus invited a ragtag group—from fishermen to a revolutionary to a tax collector—to journey with him for three pretty wild years. And he speaks these same words to us; he calls us to follow him, walk with him, be about the things he was about, to emulate him. His call to all Christians is to become followers, people who love, and agents who know their mission.

The Bible has more to say on what kinds of actions and commitments distinguish us as Christ-followers. Don’t miss, however, that these principles don’t mean anything unless we see them as flowing out of our guiding mission: love God and love others.

[Read “God’s Call for Me: Vocation”]

32721 My Place in the Story

God’s invitation into His work (sometimes referred to as His “call”) operates on three levels: that which applies to all Christians, that which applies uniquely to each of us, and that which applies to the moment in front of us—like our daily tasks and responsibilities.[1]

“Jesus said to him, ‘”Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”‘” – Matthew 22:37-39

With these words, Jesus gives all Christians their overall mission. We are to love God and love others. All that we do in life can flow from applying these statements to specific situations. [Read “God’s Call for Everyone”]

But how does loving God and loving others make choosing a college major, career, or spouse any easier? It seems that mathematicians and social workers, business people and artists could all find ways to apply Jesus’s commandments to love God and love others in authentic ways within their disciplines. The second level of God’s call for believers is his call to vocation.

“When we fulfill our specific vocation, we are living out the full implication of what it means to follow Jesus. Therefore, while we all have a general call to love God and neighbor, we each follow our Lord differently, for though he calls us all to follow him, once we accept his call we are each honored with a unique call that is integrally a part of what it means to follow him. The second experience of call is derived from the first.”[2]

This is another way of saying what we read in 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 about the way that God creates and utilizes individuals in his kingdom.

“Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.”

So how do we begin to know and live out our unique callings in the kingdom? [Read “God’s Call for Me: Vocation”]

God calls us in a third way, too. He invites us into the work of the day—the responsibilities or tasks He puts before us. This is different than the work that God has for all his followers, because these tasks are given to us each individually—caring for pets, commuting to work, shopping for food, going to a party, coloring with our kids—but they are to be done in a way consistent with the way God calls all his followers to live. [Read “God’s Call for Me: Tasks and Responsibilities”]

It is easy, however, in a discussion of God’s will and call to focus exclusively on what we should do. But it is equally important, and actually precedes the doing, to focus on who we are called to be.

Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.” In this passage we can skip past the “For we are his creative work” portion. But until we understand intellectually, emotionally, and behaviorally that we are the creation God delights in, we will continually contrive to make the doing portion of that verse be about the tasks that most convince us of our own indispensability and most reassure us of our own worth.

Footnotes:
  1. Gordon T. Smith, Courage and Calling (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 10.
  2. Ibid.

32910 The Story

Advancing—progressing in a direction—implies a past and present, not just a future. What, then, is the broad sweep of God’s story? It began with the very good creation. God created. And He called His creation good. Particles, plants, people, sexuality, community, and work were called good by their creator.

But all that was good was twisted when human rebellion from relationship with God—part of which involves honoring God as our rightful king—came into the story. Fear, shame, suffering, punishment, banishment, but also provision for the journey were added to the human experience.

As we are unable to repair the damage from our side, God’s people have always needed God to initiate restoring the relationship. God’s movement to bring His people back into right relationship with Himself, other people, and creation culminated in Jesus, God Himself, demonstrating an astounding love for us such that He would die in our place, removing the guilt and shame that became in human life in that very first rebellion.

God, in relationship with His people—those who once again honor Him as king, continues that redeeming process in our lives individually, in relationships, in social structures, and between people and the rest of creation that had once been declared very good by its creator.

Starting with those first scared-then-bold-beyond-reason followers of Jesus, the too-good news of Jesus has been shared throughout the world. The Church was formed, and re-formed, grown and pruned, planted and withered. Church history overflows with examples of that original twistedness of a good creation being embodied in poor decisions, gross injustices, and hate-filled actions. But that the good news remains (and is also embodied throughout Church history) is a testament to God’s sustaining, story-authoring work. We today also become the scared-bold followers of Jesus, embodying the good news to our families, neighbors, and world.

But the end of the story, ah, the end. We will one day see all that was created, then twisted in sin, become beautiful and fully restored and in right relationship with God! But seeing good restored will be nothing, really nothing, next to the overwhelming awe of face-to-face-knowing our creator. We will never cease to be amazed at who He is and what He has done. Like a novel so delightfully gripping we see and hear nothing but the unfolding story, so, but more so, we will be captivated by the presence of God and will finally understand that this is why we exist. We will have found our home.

We can see evidence of God at work in the world, and we can look at our own lives and see evidence of transformation, but we can also see so much lacking. We confidently hope for Jesus’ return but until then, we’ve been invited into God’s work. Just as Adam was given good work in the garden prior to sin, so being forgiven of sin, we have again been given good work to do until that day when our work fully becomes worship.

32636 Forgive One Another

“Watch yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” – Luke 17:3-5

Most of us are probably like the apostles in the Luke passage above. In hearing that we must forgive someone for the same thing seven times in a day (really this means an infinite number of times) the apostles and many of us respond, “Lord, increase our faith!” In other words, “What are you, crazy??? That’s impossible!” True. Forgiveness doesn’t make a lot of sense.

With these words Jesus set a high standard. His life set an even higher standard. While hanging from nails pounded through his body, in physical agony, betrayed and humiliated, Jesus looked at those responsible and prayed, “ “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

So what did his executioners do to merit forgiveness? Was there a sudden change of heart, tearful apologies, demonstrated difference in life choices? They didn’t deserve to be forgiven. And that’s the funny thing about forgiveness, it isn’t and can’t be deserved. So when each of us hears the good news of the gospel that says “You, ______ (fill in your name), are forgiven. Everything you’ve ever done, are doing, or will do is forgiven.” It has nothing to do with your worthiness of being forgiven.

Jesus is pointed in his application of this truth: we do not have a corner on the forgiveness market. As we have been forgiven so we should forgive—extravagantly, without waiting for change in the other, forgiveness as a gift, not as a response, but initiated by the offended.1

Lord, increase our faith.

Then Peter came to him and said, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother who sins against me? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy-seven times! “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. As he began settling his accounts, a man who owed 10,000 talents was brought to him. Because he was not able to repay it, the lord ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, children, and whatever he possessed, and repayment to be made. Then the slave threw himself to the ground before him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’ The lord had compassion on that slave and released him, and forgave him the debt. After he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 silver coins. So he grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ Then his fellow slave threw himself down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you.’ But he refused. Instead, he went out and threw him in prison until he repaid the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were very upset and went and told their lord everything that had taken place. Then his lord called the first slave and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me! 33 Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed it to you?’ And in anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards to torture him until he repaid all he owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.” – Matthew 18:21-25

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” – Luke 6:37

“Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32

“bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.” – Colossians 3:13

How then do we forgive so generously? Is forgiveness an intellectual act? Do the emotions associated with being hurt or sinned against simply disappear if we decide to forgive?

Forgiving another person can lead us toward emotional healing, increase our experience of peace and contentment, and lessen our anger and pain. “But emotional healing is not the main purpose of forgiveness…the heart of forgiveness is a generous release of a genuine debt…that’s a gift we give not so much to ourselves but to the one who has wronged us.”2

So forgiveness is an action of love, done for the sake of another. It is an action that is prompted when we receive God’s forgiveness for our own sins and motivated by God’s crazy love in us that allows us to love our enemies (even if they remain our enemies).

Some Challenges

Think of someone who has wronged you. Use the prompts below as one possible way to pursue forgiving them. Repeat throughout the rest of your life.

  1. Realistic Assessment3 On your own, name what was done that was sinful or hurtful. Name who was affected. Name what the affect was (emotional, physical, spiritual, financial, social, etc. consequences). Strive to avoid exaggeration, “always” or “never” statements, or lumping unrelated experiences together.
  2. Remember Your Own Forgiveness4 The basis for this crazy act of forgiving doesn’t lie in the other person or in you. We are only ever grateful servants being gracious toward others with the grace we have already received. “This step is the equalizer, leveling in you any sense of superiority over the sinner, to whom you are more similar that to the righteous God.”5
  3. Sacrifice Your Rights in Prayer6 The world tells us we have a right to revenge. Justice tells us we have a right to expect restitution, or at the very least that the offender should remorsefully apologize. Our stubbornness tells us we have a right to expect the offender to initiate reconciliation. But Jesus’ example turns this on its head. We are not left with the option to hold on to our rights. Instead we give up our rights in prayer.Talk to God about what you’ve named. Tell Him you let go of your rights for fairness and revenge. It is God who works in your heart the miracle of genuinely releasing another from their debt.It is here that we encounter the scandal that forgiveness is not ultimately about gaining something (healing, peace, etc.) for ourselves. Forgiveness is instead a gift to the debtor, given to benefit them. It seeks to overcome evil, not continue it, as is clear in Romans 12:20-21: “Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”7
  4. Speak the Sin and the Forgiveness8 Now with the work you’ve done above in mind, if at all possible, make a time to talk with the person who wronged you. Tell them two things. Say what happened and what the effect was, and tell them you have forgiven them. You have released the desire for revenge or to make them hurt, this act of speaking is done for their sake, that their relationship with God be restored and they would be changed, grown, and transformed to be more like Jesus.
  5. Demonstrate the Sincerity of Your Forgiveness9 This conversation could indeed produce true, sincere repentance and joyful acceptance of your forgiveness in the other person. More often, though, interactions might feel awkward as the person doubts the depth of your forgiveness and wrestles with lingering guilt. It is also possible, that after this conversation, despite your best efforts, the other person would get defensive and reject your forgiveness.

Regardless of their reaction, if the person you’ve forgiven is someone with whom you have ongoing interactions, your next job is to assure them that the gift of forgiveness you gave them really was free—through treating them with respect and warmth (not trying to subtly punish them with coldness), serving them humbly (reinforcing that you don’t think they owe you anything), and even verbally affirming them (not giving guilt the silence it needs to fester).

Endnotes

  1. Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 168.
  2. Ibid., 169.
  3. Walter Wangerin, As for Me and My House (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1990), 96-104
  4. Ibid., 98.
  5. Ibid., 98.
  6. Ibid., 99-100.
  7. Volf, 160-162
  8. Wangerin, 100-102.
  9. Ibid., 102-103.

32635 Be Joyful and Demonstrate Sacrificial Love

Joyful, sacrificial love. Love that doesn’t make sense. The verses above are woven together by this thread of humble, selfless, freely given love.

In the clip from Les Miserables, the Bishop freely gives away his wealth for the sake of a stranger he calls “brother.” The joy of that sacrifice astounds the stranger, Jean Valjean, who actually had stolen the Bishop’s silver, but is now free to go.

Jesus’s example is even more striking. He who was the teacher and master, stooped to wash feet—a job usually reserved for the lowliest of household slaves. Jesus served others, indifferent to position or title. Ultimately, He demonstrated the craziness of His love for us when He who is God chose to be ridiculed and tortured to death in our stead.

“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” John 13:12-15

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Romans 16:16

“All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.” 1 Corinthians 16:20

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” 2 Corinthians 13:12

“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 1 Peter 4:9

“Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.” 1 Peter 5:14

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” Galatians 5:13

Notice that Jesus doesn’t tell His disciples to follow his example and serve sacrificially until after they had accepted his service to them. The Galatians passage above summarizes the order necessary in our service: we’re already free, therefore we can serve one another in love.

The joy in sacrificial service comes from knowing and reveling in the fact that we’ve been served first. Everything hinges on the fact that God’s love for us was proved in Jesus’s sacrificial death. But it isn’t a cold, utilitarian sacrifice. It is a loving sacrifice that welcomes us into a family where we are not seen as problems to be fixed but beloved children to be celebrated!

Christians have always flung open the doors that separated actual blood relatives from non-family. Yes, God still graciously gives us families, but to become a Christian is to suddenly find out you have brothers and sisters you’ve never met!

This expansion of family is what’s behind the passages above that urge us to greet each other with a kiss. Roman, Greek, and Middle Eastern cultures kissed as an expression of familial affection or to show respect to someone in authority.[1] It was not just a normal greeting given to everyone, like a handshake might be in Western cultures—it expressed affection and acknowledged the bond between the people. So it like the writers of these passages are saying, “forget your preconceived ideas of who you’d define as a stranger and warmly and joyfully welcome one another as family members!”

We are family. Even if we have never met, we are family. The commitment to each other suggested in these verses only makes sense if we are related. When we are at the end of ourselves with no place to go, we turn to family, even to a broken or dysfunctional family. And if unhealthy families can still be supportive on some level, how much more beautiful is the support given by a healthy family.

Like hikers who jump to divide up the gear so the guy who just sprained his ankle can walk without extra weight, we come around each other to ease and support each other in the hard times of life. We bear with each other, not to be repaid, but because that’s what family does.

Some Challenges

  1. Before we can serve with joyful, sacrificial love we need to have truly received this love from God. How freely do you accept God’s love for you? Does your sense of unworthiness keep you from believing that and feeling like you are a beloved child? If so, talk about why and when you feel this way with Christians you trust. Regularly pray and talk about this with your community and then be on the look out for how God builds your community through your vulnerability as well as the glimpses He gives of His heart for you.
  2. How free and joyful is your sacrificial love for others? Do you keep track of how much you are serving compared with others? Does your love and service come with an expectation of repayment or at the very least appreciation? If your sacrificial love isn’t free, talk about it with your community of Christians. Consider practicing the discipline of anonymity. That means do some act of service every day in such a way that there is no way the person or group being served would know it was you or even notice that something had been done for them. Beware of starting to keep a mental tally of “good deeds,” however!
  3. Being a Christian means joining a family. Who in your local community of Christians do you hesitate to be hospitable to or welcome? Begin praying for opportunities to become more open towards them. The next time you see them, imagine you just found out they were really your brother or sister!

Footnotes

  1. Peter H. Davids. The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990) 204-205.

32634 Live in Harmony and Be Humble Toward One Another

Jostling is part of what makes a crowd a crowd. We push back to keep our place in line, to stand our ground, or to reach our destination.

Jostling, while not physical, can be part of advancing our careers, making our point, or just looking out for ourselves. We are often both the jostlers and the jostled.

The passages below speak against vying for position and seeking to surpass others. We are presented with a view of living as Christians that, if anything, is downwardly mobile.

We are to honor others above ourselves and submit to one another. Slander, grumbling, pride, divisiveness, judging each other—these efforts to assert ourselves have no place in the Christian life.

Competition springs from scarcity. But as Christians, God has given us such an abundance of love, grace, hope, purpose, and forgiveness that we don’t need to struggle against each other to get them. When we choose to accept how and when God provides for us, we are released from a self-fixated, desperate scramble to meet our own needs.

Perhaps these passages are meant to strike deeper than just convicting us of our efforts to avoid trusting God to provide for our needs. Fundamentally, they are about “us” and not “me.” When we become Christians we are not only declaring God our master and His priorities more important than ours. We also declare that our needs, successes, desires, and plans no longer trump our community’s. They can still be important, just not more important than others.

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves…. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Romans 12:10,16

“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.” Romans 14:13

“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Romans 15:7

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:5ff

“Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.” James 4:11

“Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” James 5:9

“In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.'” 1 Peter 5:5

The Philippians passage, especially, points out that our relationships with each other should be marked by humility and sacrifice. So from a place of accepting God’s abundant good gifts for us we are able to “make ourselves nothing and serve.” We no longer need to jostle each other for our needs are paradoxically met as everyone in the community puts others first.

Marriage vows depend on this paradox. As long as both people continually elevate the other’s needs above their own, each person’s needs are met, without jostling and with joy that comes from knowing another has noticed what you need and graciously given that as a gift.

Some Challenges

  1. Imagine that when you became a Christian, you said marriage vows, but instead of being directed toward a spouse they were to all other Christians: “Will you love them, comfort them, honor and keep them, in sickness and in health, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to them as long as you shall live?” Who can you love and cherish this week, as an exercise in un-jostling your life? How will you demonstrate that cherishing? Make a plan now and share it with a friend for accountability.
  2. How do you honestly feel when someone close to you is recognized, honored, or rewarded? Does that reaction fit the spirit of the passages under consideration?
  3. When was the last time you thought or said something judgmental or gossipy? What need of yours motivated those thoughts or words? How can you ask God to provide for that need? Has He already? While it might be humbling, share your answers to these questions with a friend and pray together for God to provide for those needs.