Faulty Thinking #2
The disciples filtered much of Jesus’ teachings through human reasoning, not just in regard to a political victory, but in their everyday lives.
Just a few days earlier Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive his brother. He thought seven times was pretty generous, but Jesus told him to forgive seventy times seven.
Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21-22
In the Greek language the idea is to forgive “countless times” times seven, in other words to forgive an infinite amount of times. This was way beyond Peter’s understanding and he would soon learn that his idea of loving one another was quite different from Jesus’ example. Washing his feet was only the beginning of just how far Jesus’ love extended to Peter. Eventually, Peter wept bitterly over this realization and so should we.
Instead I find myself reminding God just how lucky He is that I am on His team. Oh, I don’t come right out and say those exact words; that would be sacrilegious! But my heart-speak sounds a lot like that Pharisee who looked down at the tax collector, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people…” and on he went… “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” (Luke 18:11) This guy really thought his own efforts made him better than all the others around him. He thought he was a pretty good guy.
Sometimes I think I am pretty good gal. Come on! Admit it. You do too! After all, we do have some pretty awesome qualities. We’re smart and, of course, our kids are brilliant. We’re compassionate. Didn’t we drop in our spare change at every Salvation Army bucket we passed at Christmas time? We’re calm and level headed except, of course, when the idiot behind us stepped on the gas instead of the brake. But, I ask you, who could be calm in that situation?
Obviously, we’re hospitable…if we have at least two weeks to plan and the event is limited to six couples. (Sorry, no singles. We just don’t know what to do with you.) And, we must mention, we are loving. Women are natural nurturers, you know. Of course, we are more loving when you give us what we want, behave the way we expect, and let us do what we want, but hey, those are just details.
Like Peter, it’s painful when God shines His holy Standard up to those so-called good qualities we hold to so tightly. In fact, it should be so painful that we weep. God doesn’t want an offering of all our good qualities. He doesn’t need them. He wants a broken and contrite spirit.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:17
Faulty Thinking #3
The disciples figured they could obey this new command within the framework of their current religion.
This diverse group of men had one thing in common: they were Jews. As such, they were raised and lived in accordance with The Law of Moses and under hundreds of extra manmade religious rules. They also lived under Roman law. If there was one thing they knew about, it was following laws and rules. These students of Jesus assumed they would find the assistance they needed to obey this new command, to love one another, somewhere in all that verbiage. They assumed wrong.
This is evident throughout the New Testament epistles. The early church and its leaders, including the original disciples, struggled to love. Even a simple act of fellowship, sharing a meal together, caused quite the stir. Paul spends a great deal of time on this question. Should a true believer, a one another, eat meat offered to idols (I Corinthians 8:4-13)?
Before Jesus…before the cross…before grace…for a Jew to eat meat offered to an idol was not only a religious sin, it defiled him or her and it was a political disaster. How could any of the eleven disciples back in that upper room know that in just a little while, not only was it going to be okay for them to eat food offered to idols, they were going to be eating that food with their uncircumcised Gentile brothers AND women would sit at their table. Talk about shock waves.
This is not something we easily relate to, but for the early church, it was as charged as our modern debates over Bible translations. Indeed important stuff and just as important as meat offered to idols. But as Paul through the Holy Spirit explains, the real crux of the matter is not which translation is really God-breathed or whether we can eat certain foods or not. The real issue, the most important matter, is how it all affects our brothers and sisters in Christ, our one anothers.
Or as another godly man I know, my husband said it, “Loving one another trumps everything!”
Therefore, if food (or translations) causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. I Corinthians 8:13 (Parenthesis added)
Love trumps gender and ethnic diversity. It trumps cultural differences. It trumps religious preferences. It even trumps political affiliations. Do I dare say that in an election year? We’ve gotten so consumed with being right, that we’ve forgotten to be in love. That’s right! We are supposed to be in love with each other. Born again people are supposed to love other born again people as Christ loved us. Christ’s love trumps all! ALL! I know it’s not polite to yell (all caps), but we’ve got to get this right and soon.
That means the Baptist crowd down the street that sings out of hymnals should trot on down to the community church across town, join in with their band, and raise their voices to a common Savior. And the Mega church up town that “only” has church on Sunday morning might want to send a worship team once a month to the little Methodist church just outside of town to assist in their Sunday night teaching service. Whew! Wouldn’t all that turn a staunch old religious community upside down? There might even be some disciple sightings along the way!
I am picking on these groups because I’ve worshipped with all of them and lived to tell about it. My point is the Body of Christ is fractured into all these sub-groups because, in large part, we are not in love with one another. The sick and dying world around us can’t tell a true disciple from a religious bigot because we are not in love with one another. We need to face that fact head on and turn the tide.
It’s not the purpose of this book to get into discussions of religious preference. And I am not degrading the importance of such discussions. I have very strong views and convictions on a variety of topics and not necessarily the ones I randomly pointed out here.
All I ask is for you to pick your topic. There’s plenty of controversy to choose from. Better yet, ask God to pick the topic for you and ask yourself this question. Do I love my sister in Christ whose view on _________ (you fill in the blank) is different from mine?
I have my filled in blanks and you have yours. Now what do we do about them? How do we love within and around them?
Discussion
Let’s ask God to bring a new one another our way. She may be a visitor to our church or Bible study. Or it may be someone in our church that we’ve never really gotten to know, so they’re new to us. This may require us sitting in a new section of the sanctuary. Proceed with caution though: changing where you seat on Sunday morning may be perceived as tantamount to sin!
A new one another may cross our path at work, in the store, or in the beauty salon. God only knows what unique places He has planned for a new one another relationship in our lives. We just have to be open to grasping the opportunity.
One Another Living 