Our Master said, "Love one another as you are loved." (Part 2)

Part 2: What it Means to ‘Love…as we are Loved’

“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.” [Psalm 36:5]

Last week we looked at what it means to have a Master—or, what it means to be Mastered. We discovered that it means his commands are non-negotiable: we must say to him “thy will be done,” or he’ll say to us “thou will be done” ; we must choose either “No,” or “Lord,” but we can never say “No, Lord.” Now that we understand this command is not up for debate, we must get to the business of understanding exactly what we have been commanded to do. So, this week, we’re going to look at what it means to “love…as we are loved.’

To begin with, we must realize that we are not free to love people in any we see fit. We cannot say “well, this is how I love people.” He didn’t command that. His command was very specific: “Love one another as you are loved.” In essence, he said ‘this is what love looks like: do it this way. Rather, do it my way—follow my example.’ Which means that if we are to obey this command in truth, we must understand the nature of God’s love toward us.

So, what does God’s love toward us look like? I think the answer is in at least two parts:

1) what is the purpose of God’s love? (or, why does God love us? To what end?) and

2) what is the nature of God’s love? (or, how does God love us?)

First, what is the purpose of God’s love? In his essay titled The End for Which God Created the World, Jonathan Edwards wrote “All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works, is included in that one phrase, the glory of God.” All of God’s activities and motives are all wrapped up in that same purpose: the glory of his name. (See Romans 9, 11; Ephesians 2:7-9; Colossians 1:16; and Revelation 4:11, KJV. For a complete list, see Edwards’ book—especially chapter 2, section III.) This means that in our loving one another, our goal must be to bring glory to God. And, since “the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever,” that means that we love people by helping them enjoy God. And joy in God glorifies God. So, the purpose of our loving one another must be God-centered and God-exalting and God-soaked—we must love people for His glory, and their joy. Sometimes that will mean saying things that are temporarily hard to hear, but will lead to eternal Joy in God himself. We love people best by loving God most.

Second, what is the nature of God’s love, or “how does God love us?” This is a huge question, but we’ll just look at four basic ways: initially, undeservedly, unreservedly, andunceasingly.

a) Initially. Throughout scripture, God always makes the first move. This was so with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, you, and me. If we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another initially. That means that we make the first move toward godly relationships. (See John 6:44; Ephesians 1:4; 1 John 4:19) (Please note that I am not referring here to godly romantic relationships. There are other principles for those—perhaps that will come later.)

b) Undeservedly. God’s love is a gift—no person alive (apart from Christ) has ever deserved it. God’s love and forgiveness springs from his mercy and grace, and so must ours. Many will offend us, both believers and non-believers—they will not always deserve our love. But if we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another undeservedly. (See Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Isaiah 64:6; Titus 3:5)

c) Unreservedly. Since God’s love for us is not based on our merit, or on our performance, but on that of Christ, he can and does love us unreservedly. There is no end to his love, neither in quality or quantity. “He who did not spare his only Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another unreservedly. (See Matthew 18:21-35; Romans 8:32)

d) Unceasingly. Here is perhaps the best, and most challenging part: God loves us without end. Once he chooses us, and sets his love upon us, it will never, ever, fade away. His love is eternal and unchanging. So, if we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another unceasingly. (See Psalm 16:11; Jeremiah 31:3; John 6, 10; Romans 8, 11:29; Revelation 5)

Our Master said “Love one another, as you are loved.” To obey this command, the purpose of our love must be God’s glory and their joy, and we must love initially, undeservedly, unreservedly, and unceasingly. I don’t write this so our minds will be filled with more fodder for lively, spiritual-sounding conversation. I write this so that we all might “think on our ways, and turn our feet toward his testimonies” [Psalm 119:59], and “Examine ourselves, to see whether we are in the faith.” [2 Corinthians 13:5] We are so prone to deceiving ourselves about how we’re really doing with God; and that’s eternally dangerous. I write so that would apply truth to life, live out being mastered, and “Strive [Gk. ‘agonize’] to enter through the narrow door. For many, [our Master told us], will seek to enter and will not be able.” [Luke 13:24]. Let’s not deceive ourselves—let’s be doers.

[Stay tuned for Part 3: Loving as we are loved: ‘I AM, your stepping stone.’ An illustration of a community loving as they are loved. Thanks for reading!]

Recommendations

[site] Louie Giglio’s message from this past Tuesday night, “Good God Almighty: Who is Jesus? (Part 2)” – A great follow-up to last week’s discussion about the absolute, invasive Lordship of Christ. (He even used the same text: Luke 6:46!) He does a much better job than I could, and even goes on to answer the question ‘why don’t we submit to his Lordship?’ – which we talked about in the message from 10/07/2004. Message starts about 34 minutes in.

[book] Jonathan Edwards’ The End For Which God Created the World,available online. It’s long and challenging, but it’s one of the most important things I’ve ever read outside the Bible.

Our Master said, "Love one another as you are loved."

Part 1: What it Means to be ‘Mastered’

"Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?" [Luke 6:46, NASB]

We have no idea what it really means to have a Master—rather, to be mastered. We having nothing in our world to compare it to. But we desperately need to understand and embrace it. It’s crucial to our eternal survival. Henry Blackaby (author of Experiencing God) has said, “When God calls a man to himself, he calls him to the absolute, unconditional Lordship of Jesus Christ over every area of his life.” When he emphasized the words “absolute,” “unconditional,” “Lordship” and “every area,” the idea was seared into my conscience. It was a small beginning to this understanding—which I am far from having attained—that He is my Master. This blessed road we’ve been chosen to walk is no light footpath; it is a harsh, hard, and narrow path—but never-ending and always-increasing joy awaits us at the crest of the hill.

This week we begin a series of messages directed by the statement above: “Our Master said ‘Love one another, as you are loved.’” We may not care to admit it, but this can be one of the steepest, and rockiest sections of our upward climb. It is hard to love people. More clearly, it is hard to love all people, at all times, in all circumstances. Yet, “Our Master has spoken.” So we must obey fully, and joyfully, because there is no other path to his presence than faith-induced, and love-soaked obedience. So, first, we look at the words “Our Master said…” – at what it means to be Mastered.

To have a Master means that we have no final say over what happens to our lives. This is the case for everyone and everything in the created world: this is his world, and we just live in it. God is not campaigning for office: he’s already on the throne—and his term lasts forever. Every creature ever created is subject to his “absolute, unconditional Lordship.” Some are striving to be loyal, obedient (and therefore joyful) subjects. The vast majority, however, are not. Instead, they live out a tragic life, well-expressed by William Earnest Henley in his poem Invictus:

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

It is merely an eloquent way of expressing the same rebellion inherent in all of us as children: “You’re not the boss of me!” This is the mantra of the treasonous subject: “I AM the master…I AM the captain…” But God is the only “I AM.” And those endeavoring to be loyal subjects understand this. We have seen the reality of our situation, which Charles Wesley put into the awe-inspiring words of his hymn, Amazing Love:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Here is the heart of a soul set free: out of love and thankfulness and a desire to be in very presence of their King, we labor “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” until we attain Christ. And these two views frame the choice we make every day as we live out our life: what kind of subject will I be? Loyal, or treasonous? In the office or on the campus, in the bedroom or in the car, Jesus is our Master. When he gives instruction, there are no negotiations: we say to him “thy will be done,” or he says to us “thou will be done.” This is what it means to be mastered.

But we all know this—at least, we know it in concept. In practice, we fail in many ways. I’ll mention three of the most common ways that I’ve experienced.

The first is when we plainly say, “No, Lord.” And this we cannot say. The first word undoes the second one. We cannot say “No” to our “Lord.” We may say only “No,” or we may say only “Lord.” We cannot have both—they do not belong together. If he is our Lord, “No” must be dropped from our vocabulary.

The second is that we, sometimes unconsciously, pass his commands through our ‘approval process.’ We try to imagine why we should obey, or what the outcome might be, and then, seeing it, we agree. As if to say, “I think I see where you’re going with this, Lord, and I hereby deem it a worthy project and thus have decided in favor of your proposal, O God most High. I give it full support—well done, thou good and faithful God.” The essence of being Mastered is deciding before we even hear the command that we will obey—period. The rest is just details.

The third way is that we receive the command, then ‘revise it,’ then imagine that we have somehow obeyed. C. S. Lewis puts it perfectly in his book, The Four Loves:

"Those like myself, whose imagination far exceeds their obedience are subject to a just penalty; we easily imagine conditions far higher than any we have really reached. If we describe what we have imagined we may make others, and make ourselves believe that we have really been there - and so fool both them and ourselves." [C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves [New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1960], p. 140. Thanks, Dunphey, for the quote.

Piercing words—they sure hit home for me. We must know ourselves in reality—we are so prone to imagination. And this ‘knowing’ will only come if we are alert and aware as we leave the ‘devotional time’ or ‘church’ bubble, and carry our Master’s commands into the world. How do I react when someone cuts me off? How about when they won’t let me return a damaged good? “Love them, as you are loved.” How often do we revise it, and apply the command to whomever we will or won’t? That is not for us to do. Only God ‘shows mercy on whom he will show mercy.’ Only He has that absolute freedom to do as wills, when he wills, nothing more or less. We, on the other hand, have a Master. And “Our Master said ‘Love one another, as you are loved.” Case closed.

So this is, briefly, what it means to have a Master, and to be mastered by him: absolute, unconditional, consistent, joyful obedience. And “Our Master said ‘Love one another, as you are loved.’” If we would be honest, this is a very steep, and very rocky portion of the path. But, thankfully, God is good. And “with God, all things are possible.” Is it worth it? Oh, I cannot say ‘yes!’ loudly enough! The joy set before us is unimaginable. It is unthinkable. It is beyond all hope and expectation—so let us labor not to fall from the heights, and let us examine our hearts in honesty, and lay down those areas we’ve held back from our King, and let us press on to attain the prize! For “Our Master has spoken...!” and he awaits us at the hill’s crest!!

[Next week we’ll look at the next part of our statement above: “Love…as you are loved.” Loving as we are loved means two things: loving how we are loved, and loving why are loved. And that's where we'll pick up our discussion next week. Thanks for reading!]

Recommendations
[site] 722.org, Louie Giglio’s (of Passion) weekly Bible Study for twenty-somethings [loosely defined as 18-35]. Streaming video of live worship and excellent exhortation. A great way to spend a late night.

Practicing the Fear of the Lord?

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have good understanding.” [Psalm 111:10]
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves." [James 1:22]

We’ve probably all heard of ‘practicing the presence of the Lord’ (a la Brother Lawrence), but what does it mean to 'practice the fear of the Lord’? I read this recently and was struck by the idea that I thought the fear of the lord was only something I had, or felt—not something I practiced. I thought it was more of an emotion, not an action. So, what does it mean to practice the fear of the Lord?

James nails it in Chapter 1:22-25:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of he word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in the doing. [Context]

The underlying motive is to have faith with legs—that is, a rock-solid Christian faith that actually bears fruit into real-life decisions and actions; a faith that runs. Having these commands and principles, and seeking to apply them and encourage others to apply them—practicing the fear of the Lord—was the inspiration for the last message or two I’ve sent out. And yes, it got a bit messy.

But the desire of my heart (and yours, I trust), which fuels these little messages, is that you and I would not be counted among the millions of Christians who are 'hearers only’ of God’s Word. That’s why, for about the past two months (or so) we’ve been searching the Truth (not truths) and wisdom of the Almighty God, found in the Scriptures, and seeking how to apply it to every aspect of our regular, everyday, real life—not our imagined one. And that’s precisely why the recent general election was fair game: it's simply a part of life to which Scripture and godly principles must be applied—especially today, when we have a say in the battle for the unborn and for the preservation of marriage. If we are silent on the issues precisely when they are issues, we fail, as Martin Luther said:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every part of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all battlefields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. (Quoted in Parker T. Williamson, Standing Firm: Reclaiming Christian Faith in Times of Controversy [Springfield, PA: PLC Publications, 1996], p. 5.)

So, in order to actually practice the fear of the Lord by being doers of the word, we need to set a few things straight about our concept of what Christianity itself is and is not: it is not an extra-curricular activity, it is not a profession, it is not a club, neither is it merely a social gathering. It is a life spent with God, that invades all of life, or it is nothing. That means with God in our thinking, with God in our decision-making, with God in our desires, with God in our purposes, with God in our actions, and, ultimately, with God in eternity. Let me explain.

Picture all the ideas and activities of your life as a desk full of drawers (here's my 'social' drawer, my 'employment' drawer, my 'physical fitness' drawer, my 'personal finances' drawer, etc.). What is marked "Christianity"? Is it one of the many drawers in the desk, or is it the desk itself? If it’s just a drawer, you’ve been deceived. Christianity is no mere ‘religion drawer;’ it is either the desk itself (into which all other drawers go), or it is not Christianity at all—despite its label.

This means that every idea or action in our life (or every drawer in our desk), must be reshaped (or even discarded) in order to fit into the 'desk' of Christianity. Everything must be 'held' or 'stored' or even 'hidden' within the context and the restrictions of our 'desk' of Christianity. Some drawers won't hold some items. Some drawers, we might find, are bottomless (like the 'joy' drawer). Sometimes an entire drawer won't fit in the desk (like a 'sex life' drawer if one is not married), and must be utterly discarded. Instead, it is an all-encompassing, uncompromising, and exclusive view of every aspect of reality. It is a total world- and life-view.

Renovating our lives to this model is a process; usually a life-long one. If we are to succeed, we must be continually testing the drawers (our ideas and actions) to see if they still open and close smoothly in the desk. If not, they’ll need reshaping; and Scripture is our sandpaper (and our table saw, and our fire to burn the remnants). This is how we practice the fear of the Lord: by being doers of the word, and not hearers only: and that means application.

Before I stop, I’m in that process, too. Things have gotten a little messy around here this past week; I've been both the offender and the offended. But here, especially, is where our Christianity either has legs and gets up to run the race, or it is found to be non-existent. Here is where the rubber wheels hit the road—and if they don’t, our faith is not genuine: it’s merely a showpiece on display. So, next week, we're going to start a few-week series on what it means to be subject to a Master who commands that we love one another—no matter what. And we’ll look at—as practically as I can—how to actually apply it. How should we disagree? How do we deal with confrontation? It won’t be new material, but I hope to package it in a new and fresh way that gets the point across.

I hope you'll stick around for it...

For Further Reading
If you never read the articles from www.boundless.org from a few weeks back, do so. They’re very, very good.