Just a few hours before Jesus commanded them to love one another, they were having their usual argument about who was regarded as greatest (Luke 22:24). As usual, Jesus took the opportunity to teach them the least shall be great and the leader should be as a servant. However, these first followers of Jesus were relying on faulty thinking that kept them from understanding, at first, the full impact of this new thing.
Faulty Thinking #1
The disciples assumed all the new Jesus had been talking about over the last three years would lead to an overthrow of their Roman oppressors with Jesus as the new earthly King and then, finally, life would be grand.
So, in their minds, this new “new thing” Jesus commanded, to love one another, didn’t really fit their overthrow mindset. For them it was the ultimate paradox. They were ready to fight to the death, but they were not yet ready to love to the death, a much more difficult assignment.
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13
As modern day followers of Jesus, it is easy for us to assume that once we surrender ourselves to the Lord, our lives will be…well…just grand. We work really hard to reach our proverbial Christian grand status… whatever that is.
We get married. (Sorry you single gals. You’re life just can’t be grand.) We have two and half kids. (Any fewer than that and there must be something wrong with us and any more than that is just economically foolish.) We buy a house, put up a picket fence, and put two cars in the garage. Now our life is grand. Well…maybe.
Something is still missing. Education! Surely a mere high school education is not grand enough. We need more information, more knowledge, and more expert instruction. So, we go back to school, maybe two or three times, and get a bunch of letters to put at the end of our hyphenated last name. So, now our life is grand. Hmm…not just yet.
Oh, we forgot. Employment! Now that we have all these letters after our hyphenated last name, we need to be employed. Besides, we need the cash to pay for all the stuff we bought to be grand. So, now let’s check the list. Yep, that should do it. Life is now grand!
Well, not exactly. We still need to scrub away at our failures, tidy up our families, and paint the eight foot walls surrounding us so we can walk into church each Sunday with a smile on our face and an “I’m fine” on our lips. Now our life is grand!
I sincerely hope that you take the above paragraphs for the tongue in cheek picture they’re meant to portray. I am not bashing being married or single or having two and half kids (well I might be against having half a kid) or owning homes or having graduate degrees or working to earn a living. All I ask is that we to take a look at what we work so hard for…what we claw and fight for.
The items listed above are not bad; they are not sin. Well, most of them aren’t. Scrubbing at our own sin and keeping protective walls around ourselves are disobedience. Only God can remove our sin and failure and only He can tear down our walls. But the rest of the list are things God wants to give us and wants us to enjoy, as long as He is doing the giving and choosing.
Things like being married or being single are both good when the choice is the Lord’s. Children are wonderful, but how many is between the couple and God. He knows we need a roof over our head, food to eat and, in this day and age, some sort of transportation. But whether we rent a studio apartment or own a mansion, we must remember God is the Giver of each of these good things. And we should educate ourselves, first in the Word of God and then in man’s teaching. That sequence is vital, and when we get it out of sync, we can count on some trouble.
Women have worked hard to support their families for centuries. It just looks a little different today. The caution is in our attitude about it, not in the work. Are we earning a living so we can have more new things and therefore our life will be grand? That is something I did for years. Or are we working in support of our family? Each woman, along with her family, must answer that question before God. We dare not answer it for each other.
The particulars of the list are not important. What’s important is the lesson we learn. When we correct this first assumption, we learn that knowing Jesus is not the means to the end of having a grand Christian life. We learn knowing Jesus is the end and that is enough to make life grand! He should be enough, not what He gives to us, though it is much. And not what He does for us, though it is far more than we deserve. It is Christ alone that makes our life grand!
The disciples mixed up being free from tyrannical rule with being free in Christ. In the United States, we must be careful not to mix up a belief in the American dream with a belief in the magnificent reality available in Christ Jesus. These two are not one in the same. Just ask our brothers and sisters, our one anothers, living in China, India, or Muslim lands.
If all our American dream stuff is taken away, will Christ be enough for us?
Discussion
What are some modern day religious trappings that would receive similar rebukes from our from Jesus that He gave to His disciples and more vigorously to the Pharisees?
- How does each one of the following verses show loving God and loving one another has always been God’s plan and purpose for us as His chosen people.
- I John 1:8
- I John 3:11
- I John 4:11
- II John 1:5
- Matthew 22:36-39
- John 3:1
One Another Living 