Love is the Answer
"I will give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)
We might ask, how is this a new commandment? Leviticus 19 is known as the holiness code. "Holy" is a word that means "separate ort different." In that passage God tells the people, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"(Lev.19:18), words that we know better for the fact that Jesus quoted them as part of the greatest commandments. Nor would an ancient hearer of this passage require a Pharisee to ask a clarifying question like "Who exactly is my neighbor?"
Later in the chapter we read, "you shall love the alien as yourself," as reminder that outsiders in our midst are part of our community.
What makes the commandment new is that now these are no longer just words that come from above. These words are being lived before us. Jesus said they are to love one another "as I have loved you." Washing the feet of his disciples was only a start. They were probably still reeling from that. But they were about to be confronted by the ultimate act of love -- the cross.
That's the simple plan. That's the secret we've stumbled on. That's the message that has been decoded and dropped into our lap. We are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. That's how they'll know we belong to Jesus., "if you have love for one another."
I wish this was more difficult. I wish it was harder because we'd have an excuse. I wish there were a number of steps we'd have to go through, levels of secret knowledge we'd have to be initiated in, or training we'd have to endure under blessed masters. Not that Christian education is a bad idea. Not that workshops don't benefit us. Not that continued and regular Bible study doesn't strengthen us. But this is simple.
The world is in rebellion against the kingdom of God. The rebels have an able general who has been able to redefine bad as good, sin as attractive, atrocity as pragmatic. Their leader has won many victories. In response we have been overwhelmingly cautious.
Are we ready to live this simple plan of practicing sacrificial love for each other and for the world? Or are we just going to talk a good game.
During the early days of the World Council of Churches, one of the delegates, M.R. Zigler of Virginia, stood up and made a proposal --- that the Christians of the world resolve not to kill each other. Zigler was much beloved by the other delegates and admired for the many service programs he had administered in post-war Europe that had brought relief and healing to so many. Yet though he was given a respectful hearing, there was not a second to his motion.
This is not meant as a criticism of the WCC. It's the same everywhere. Christians are not willing to pledge that they will truly live the Sermon on the Mount, returning good for evil, turning the other cheek, and pledging not to kill in the name of Christ.
So there it is. The key to success has been thrust into our hands. We've found the key -- to love one another with a sacrificial love that will stop at nothing -- not at the washing of feet or other menial tasks, not even at the cross itself.
Are you ready to love the enemy to death, even if it means your own? Are you willing to answer the oft repeated question whose answer is just as often ignored - What Would Jesus Do? Amen
Questions to Ponder
Do you think the world is in rebellion against the Kingdom of God?
Is love the answer?
Are you willing to practice it however difficult it may be?
In His Service,
Terry Phillips
