What Solution Might Jesus Offer Us Today?
As rioting and looting rage again tonight in many of our cities, many of us wonder what can we do? What is the answer to the rage and anger we see parading across the streets of America? Importantly WHERE do we look for the answers to these problems? Do we look to the government? Do we look to social media? Where do we look for the answers to life's biggest problems? If we believe in Jesus don't you think we might want to look at his solution?
Jesus brought real change to the people he came in contact with. Their lives were a mess and he addressed their true need to accepted and loved and sent out to a life of meaning and purpose. He came to show people they had value because they were made in His Father's image. Their instrinsic related to the divine imprint they were given on the 6th day of Creation by the Creator.
Today Jesus gives some final instructions to his disciples about how to continue the movement he started, and I have a feeling it is part of the solution to what we are seeing going on today.
John 15:10-17 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
The word you will hear used most throughout this whole passage is "love". But the word "love" can be trivialized. It can become all about emotion or feeling good. While true love does bring good feelings it doesn't drive it. True love is a choice. God the Father chose to love His Son and it was this same love Jesus shared with His disciples. What can we say about this kind of love which the world so desperately needs right now?
1. Love has to do with keeping God's commands. Why? Because at the heart of God's commandments is love. The summary of the commandments is to love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. God gave us laws to protect us from each other. When I steal from you, I am not loving you. I am hurting you. So when we break the law of stealing we are not remaining in God's love or keeping His commands.
Don't confuse this with legalisim. Legalism is thinking that God will love you only if you keep the law. As we know this is not impossible and why we need Jesus. But legalism is not what Jesus is talking about. True love is loving because God loved you first, not to earn his love.
2. Love is defined as "laying down one's life for one's friends". Jesus says there is no greater love than this kind. And if that is unclear Jesus' own life is a textbook of what this kind of love looks like. Jesus, who was completely innocent, suffered and died on a cross for those who were completely guilty. This kind of sacrificial love defines the type of love Jesus is talking about.
3. Love lasts. We all look for meaning in life. We want our lives to count for something bigger than ourselves. According to Jesus the biggest impact we can have on this world is to love others like He did. He says this is the fruit of remaining in Him. This is a fruit that will last forever.
To love someone unconditionallly and sacrificially regardless of of the color of their skin, the size of their wallet and what they can do for you is a love that will have a lasting impact. Jesus loved the least and the lost. Like the woman caught in adultery, the blind beggar, the woman at the well with many husbands, and the self righteousness leader. He loved them all because he knew that was the only way they could be transformed into the type of people who could continue the work he started.
Do you feel powerless with what is going on around you? At first, we couldn't go out because of the COVID pandemic, and now we are afraid to go out because of the looting and rioting. Jesus sends us out to love like He did. Who can you love tomorrow to help be part of the solution and not the problem?
Jesus brought real change to the people he came in contact with. Their lives were a mess and he addressed their true need to accepted and loved and sent out to a life of meaning and purpose. He came to show people they had value because they were made in His Father's image. Their instrinsic related to the divine imprint they were given on the 6th day of Creation by the Creator.
Today Jesus gives some final instructions to his disciples about how to continue the movement he started, and I have a feeling it is part of the solution to what we are seeing going on today.
John 15:10-17 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
The word you will hear used most throughout this whole passage is "love". But the word "love" can be trivialized. It can become all about emotion or feeling good. While true love does bring good feelings it doesn't drive it. True love is a choice. God the Father chose to love His Son and it was this same love Jesus shared with His disciples. What can we say about this kind of love which the world so desperately needs right now?
1. Love has to do with keeping God's commands. Why? Because at the heart of God's commandments is love. The summary of the commandments is to love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. God gave us laws to protect us from each other. When I steal from you, I am not loving you. I am hurting you. So when we break the law of stealing we are not remaining in God's love or keeping His commands.
Don't confuse this with legalisim. Legalism is thinking that God will love you only if you keep the law. As we know this is not impossible and why we need Jesus. But legalism is not what Jesus is talking about. True love is loving because God loved you first, not to earn his love.
2. Love is defined as "laying down one's life for one's friends". Jesus says there is no greater love than this kind. And if that is unclear Jesus' own life is a textbook of what this kind of love looks like. Jesus, who was completely innocent, suffered and died on a cross for those who were completely guilty. This kind of sacrificial love defines the type of love Jesus is talking about.
3. Love lasts. We all look for meaning in life. We want our lives to count for something bigger than ourselves. According to Jesus the biggest impact we can have on this world is to love others like He did. He says this is the fruit of remaining in Him. This is a fruit that will last forever.
To love someone unconditionallly and sacrificially regardless of of the color of their skin, the size of their wallet and what they can do for you is a love that will have a lasting impact. Jesus loved the least and the lost. Like the woman caught in adultery, the blind beggar, the woman at the well with many husbands, and the self righteousness leader. He loved them all because he knew that was the only way they could be transformed into the type of people who could continue the work he started.
Do you feel powerless with what is going on around you? At first, we couldn't go out because of the COVID pandemic, and now we are afraid to go out because of the looting and rioting. Jesus sends us out to love like He did. Who can you love tomorrow to help be part of the solution and not the problem?
Comments
Post a Comment