What is love?

Love is often defined in terms of what we “do” but I believe we need to be careful not to confuse the evidence of love with love itself. I Corinthians 13 tells us: “1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (NIV).

Verses 1-3 are clear that what we do, if not undergirded with love, is nothing. Thus, love is not the action, love is the motivation; the heart of the matter. Paul goes on to describe love based on the evidence of its presence, but again, he does not assume to define love here, just to describe love.

One thing we can know for sure is that love is vitally important. Verses 8-13 explain that love is everything, the greatest thing, the main thing.  Verse 13 also explains that three elements abide together: faith, hope, and love.  If in my heart I lose hope, I begin to lose faith and I lose my connection with love, and my ability to love.  If I lose faith, I cannot love and I lose hope.  And, if I do not love, I have not faith and no hope.  In order for these three centerpieces of life to remain in me, they must abide together in my heart.  Hopelessness, despair, negativity, doubt, faithlessness, and self-centeredness are all enemies of love.  

I am going to suggest that love is the presence of Jesus. Further, I am suggesting that without Jesus, there is no love. I am saying that love is not an action, it is His presence. Most importantly, I am saying that love behaves as His presence behaves. In other words, love looks like love.

What does Scripture say about these contentions? I John 4 states: “7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (NIV).

Alright, so we love each other because God’s love lives within us. Our actions, if motivated from love, will present as Jesus presents Himself to us.  In the mirror of Jesus, we can see what love creates.  

The cross is the ultimate expression of love - not love itself, because that love existed in the heart of Christ from the beginning of creation - but the product of love, and the evidence of love, true to His heart, given freely for us.

The Sad Prophet

Jeremiah was called on by God to be the prophet who spoke the truth of Judah’s impending captivity. God was not asking Jeremiah to call the people to repentance, like Isaiah had done. Jeremiah was simply stating the truth of the consequences of their refusal to repent when urged by God to do so.

It would not be a pleasant task to do what Jeremiah was asked to do: to stand before God’s people and pronounce the loss of their land, their freedom, their homes, and their place of worship. Predictably, the people did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to say. Denial abounded in Judah during that time. People were asserting peace when there was none; false prophets were claiming God would never take the land away from His people (in spite of prior warnings and opportunities to repent); the nation believed in a false security of birthright instead of recognizing the consequences of their actions and choices. They felt “entitled” instead of responsible. They rejected righteousness of heart in exchange for hedging their bets with false gods – pretending to still worship the One True God but failing to see the hypocrisy in that position. Simply put, the people of Judah were living in lies. Here is what God told Jeremiah about the hearts of the people:

3 "They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.
4 "Beware of your friends;
do not trust your brothers.
For every brother is a deceiver,
and every friend a slanderer.
5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.
6 You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.
7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:
"See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks with deceit.
With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets a trap for him.” (Jeremiah 9:3-8)

Look at the repetition of the lies, the deception, the deceit, and the lack of truth! “You live in the midst of deception” brings to mind an image of people living in a cesspool and calling it a garden. Darkness covered them, embraced them, cloaked them, oppressed them, and choked the life from them.

Are we now, in this time, in a similar state to those in Judah at the time of Jeremiah? I am reminded of II Timothy 3, where Paul also predicts a time when mankind will descend anew into the cesspool: “ 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.”(II Timothy 3:1-8)

I look around our postmodern, relative truth-believing, secular humanistic, blaming, responsibility-rejecting, and so-called (man-made) “social justice”-focused society and see exactly what Paul was describing, and I feel like Jeremiah must have felt. Jeremiah called out to the ones God called the remnant – those who would still be following God, even in captivity. In the same spirit, I call out to those whose hearts still desire the truth of God – the real truth, not the false prophecies of “peace peace” and the cheap, loveless grace we so often see now – and I urge you to stand firm. As Paul wrote, “¹³ Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. ¹⁴ Do everything in love.” (I Corinthians 16:13-14)  And, “⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  (I Corinthians 15:58). 

Seek out others who also desire God’s truth, share in love and growth and the strength of prayer and God’s presence, listen to His voice and His voice alone – and in all things, stand firm, as Paul repeatedly calls us to do. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1).  “¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” (Ephesians 6:10-18). 

Remember: there is no truth apart from God.  Humans are incapable of goodness or decency or peace without God’s Spirit within our hearts, since “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17).  Keep Love as the highest value.  Jesus is everything - and He is the only thing.

What Does It Mean to Love God?

Mark 12: 28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? We have reduced this most important commandment to something more akin to acceptance than love. It is as if we think it is enough to believe God exists. But these words of Jesus reveal a much deeper meaning, an all-encompassing oneness with God that includes some significant statements to us about us as well. So what can we uncover in a deeper examination of this commandment?

First, in order to truly love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength, we must be whole ourselves. While on the surface, this may sound like a simple element, the presence of sin in the world due to the fall of man results in internal fragmentation and disconnection. For most of our lives, we are striving to find ourselves – what is termed “self-actualization” in psychological terms – and to create a sense of being whole. We spend a lot of our lives presenting facades, putting on masks, and trying to be what we think people want to see or expect us to be. We can lose ourselves in the process of trying to be acceptable to others, or good enough ourselves to feel worthy of love. Additionally, difficult and painful experiences in our lives are like rocks hitting against our personhood, chipping off pieces of ourselves that get left behind. For some extreme cases, the trauma is so severe, they lose themselves completely, resulting in the soul going into hiding in a protective internal “cave” that becomes a prison. On top of that, we have the “18 inch division” between our head and heart that is considered the longest 18 inches known to man. What we “know” in our heads we often do not “know” in our hearts; in other words, what we think is true often feels false to us, and what we know in our heads is false often feels true to our hearts. And ultimately, we cannot be whole without our Creator, so we need God to complete us, to pick up the pieces of our soul, and to make us whole again.

Second, the only way we can love God with our whole selves is to be our true selves, as God created us to be. We can re-translate the first and greatest commandment as God saying to us, “Be who I made you to be.” Within each of us is some aspect of God’s nature, as we are all made in His image. None of us, except Jesus, holds the entire nature of God within us, which means we are imperfect in our nature. This limitation also means we experience the “downsides” of the element of His nature that He placed within us. As an example of this, in my case, my warrior nature (the face of Jesus standing on the steps of the Temple confronting the Pharisees with their hypocrisy) can be harsh toward others, lacking in the balance of His grace; however, in Jesus the warrior was completed and balanced by His mercy and compassion. Still, my warrior nature reflects one aspect of the face of God. That light, or “diamond” within me, is who He created me to be. When I am born into this sin-based world, my diamond begins to be covered over with dirt – lies from others, false interpretations of my experiences, and generational false beliefs of my family are all examples of the dirt that can cover the diamond within me. If I am living another life, another self, another “face” then I am unable to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I need God’s help and His truth to uncover my diamond and to remove the dirt that has piled onto my heart from the world. This is the “transformation” offered to us through an intimate relationship with Jesus. Thus, I have two needs toward being my true self in order to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength: I need Jesus to provide through the presence of His Spirit within me the aspects of God’s nature that I lack (in the above example, the mercy and grace that I lack as a warrior woman); and, I need Jesus to remove the dirt from my diamond. We need to be aware that it is God’s deepest desire that we be fully and wholly who He created, and diligently seek Jesus to meet those needs. It is His truth that sets me free.

Third, if we are to fully love God, we need to hate sin. Again, this may seem a simple concept, but I hear Christians and non-Christians alike talking about what they must “give up” to be a believer, including the statement that it is “hard” to be a Christian. My contention is that if we feel like we are “giving up” something to be a Christian, that “something” is an idol that displaces our love of God. Therefore, our hearts and souls and minds are not fully invested in God. What are we really “giving up”? What of the world is better or greater or more worthy than our Lord? What does it really provide for us? I do not have an answer for these questions. Loving God means being “all in” for Him, and Him alone. Knowing God’s love and His provision, I am unwilling for anything else to supplant His love, peace and joy – anything, period. Nothing I have known compares to being with Jesus. There is nothing I want more, or even coming close, to His presence with me. I am told to “fix [my] eyes upon Jesus” – and this is truly the primary desire of my heart. 

One of the “idols” we put before God is self. We want to be god for ourselves, sometimes knowingly, like when we choose to pursue a sin based on fleshly desire instead of pursuing Jesus; and sometimes unconsciously, which is the source of our sin nature from the original sin of man in Genesis 3. Honestly, many people would deny that they want to be their own god, but this is the foundational element of the sin nature. It is a belief we all share. As with the rest of the dirt on our diamond, we need Jesus and His Spirit within us to transform the sin nature. Our part in this transformational process is willingness to partner with Jesus and willingness for Him to change us.

Remember Jesus’ response to the teacher of the law: if we truly understand what it means to love God with all of our selves, we are not far from the kingdom of God.

Now putting it all together: Our "moment of truth" occurs when we come face to face with Him, when we let go of our strangle hold on ourselves as god of our own lives, and when we face our whole selves, the good and the bad, the diamond and the dirt, the upside and the downside, before Him and give our whole selves to Him - it is only then that we can be truly free. It was this face to face encounter that Paul experienced on the Damascus road, that Peter experienced when the cock crowed and when Jesus asked him, "do you love me?" This experience, looking into the eyes of Jesus and honestly seeing ourselves through His eyes, is the "moment of truth" - maybe the first truth we have ever known.  It is surely the truth we need in order to love God with all our hearts. 

Satan's Dollar Store

Satan is the owner of a special kind of “Dollar Store,” filled with all kinds of unnecessary plastic objects and worthless trinkets and trappings. His advertising claims he offers great values and incredible experiences at bargain prices – he is under no compunction to tell the truth, so he simply lies about the true cost to us – yet we believe him. Our first mistake is walking into his “store.” Perhaps it is curiosity; perhaps it is our fleshly, worldly desire; perhaps it is lies we already believe. He doesn’t care why we come – he only cares that we are there for him to influence, and that we bring our greatest prize, the “jewel” of our God-given nature, which we willingly trade for Satan’s wares.

Imagine taking a beautiful, priceless, one-of-a-kind jewel, like a flawless diamond, and using that gem to buy cheap garbage at the dollar store. You would never consider doing such a thing!!! Would you?

Actually, you may be doing the equivalent right now. Without realizing the value of what God has given you (the treasure of who you are), you may be trading it in to the enemy in exchange for a few cheap thrills, momentary pleasure, the acceptance or approval of others, and things which are of no benefit or gain in the long run. You may be cluttering up your “house” (heart) with a whole load of dollar store fluff – while you are ignoring the presence and love of Jesus. For once you enter Satan’s “store” of darkness, you quickly lose sight of what really matters. You can no longer see (in that darkness) the true worth of what you are being shown. He entices you with cheap, fake costume jewelry – and you have so devalued your own precious gem within you that you willingly trade it in for the glitter and glitz of Satan’s offerings.

Our last and fatal mistake is buying into Satan’s contention that what he offers us is good for us in some way, instead of resulting in our destruction. So not only does he entice us with worthless nothings, he conceals some type of slow-acting poison within the trinkets we have bought – almost like they are radioactive, and we slowly over time die in our spirits.

Consider the cost. Remember the value of God’s wonderful gift to you. Because there has never been before, and there never will be again, another YOU. Nothing that Satan has to offer is worth that price.

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46.

What Do You Value?

What is it you value? Money? Power? Approval? Self-preservation? Security? Status? Pleasure? An easy road? Avoiding pain? If you are unsure of the answer, pay attention to where you spend the majority of your energy and time. Also, notice where your thoughts are focused.

Jesus taught us to value one thing above all else: love. Matthew 22: 36-40 shows us this value in His response to a question from the Pharisees:
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In this response, Jesus presents the values by which He would have us live. He also tells us His values and how He lives. Of course, He demonstrated this value to us when He gave up His life so that we may live. The cross represents this value to us each and every day. What we may easily forget is that He still lives according to these values. Everything He does with us and speaks to us is based on His love for us.

Paul offers us a list of values: “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and temperance. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Paul’s list begins with, of course, the one Jesus prized most highly. The rest of the list flows out of love, as Jesus taught in His response to that most important question. Consider this: this entire list deals with matters of the heart. Nothing of the worldly realm (meaning those things that are not found within the heart) is mentioned as a value or “fruit” of the Spirit. Why is that?

Jesus teaches us this answer also, in Matthew 6:
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Jesus knows that all worldly things, including such illusions as power and control, security and self-preservation, and status and approval, are subject to the rules of the world. The law of physics called “entropy” tells us that all worldly things tend toward chaos and destruction. Only “treasures” in heaven (and remember, the heart is the kingdom of God within us – where the Holy Spirit resides) are not subject to this law. As Paul says, “against such things there is no law.”

So, with the help of Jesus, may we reject all worldly values and accept His values and live by them: “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2). May we, with His help, fix our eyes upon Him – and upon His love for us. And may we allow the fruit of His presence within our hearts to direct our course in this life. Amen.

Whatever is Beautiful

My daughter’s soccer coach through most of her teen years had an interesting saying that he said in praise of his players: “Now that was beautiful soccer!” I had no idea what he meant. What exactly was beautiful soccer? All soccer looked the same to me – you kick the ball down the field, you shoot it into the net, you get a goal – so what was I missing? I realized that in order to understand, I had to learn more about soccer, I had to find out from him what he was referring to, and I needed to see examples of what the coach called “beautiful soccer.”

When I asked her coach where I could watch “beautiful soccer,” he suggested watching the Brazilian World Cup team. When I asked for a brief description of what I was looking for as I watched Brazil play, he said to watch how they spread the field, how they pass the ball, and how they work together as a team. So I set out on a search for a new understanding of soccer, and to learn what differentiates “beautiful soccer” from all others. After quite a bit of study, observation and experiencing soccer of all kinds, here is what I found:

1) It is not about the outcome – it didn’t seem to be the end result of the game or of any play that made it something beautiful; instead, it was how it was played (the process) that matters.
2) It involves relationships – beautiful soccer cannot be created by an individual; instead, it is all about how the team works together.
3) It is not easy – the easy road of soccer appears to be individual talent on display; instead, if anything, beautiful soccer may be more difficult to create, requiring coordination and constant movement, practice and discipline, and such a profound connection with those on your team that you sense where your teammates are without seeing and you know where they will be well before they get there.
4) It is simple and clean – my understanding of soccer was simplistic, focused mainly on the obvious; instead, beautiful soccer is deep and meaningful in its simplicity, and graceful and smooth in its execution, focused mainly on what is unseen.
5) It does not always make sense – my simplistic view said go to the goal and score; instead, players of beautiful soccer sometimes go backwards to go forward, sometimes deny themselves the shot for the sake of a higher play, and sometimes wait for support instead of driving ahead alone.

I began to recognize the difference. I was able to identify and even understand what was going on during a beautiful soccer moment. I came to appreciate how wonderful and enjoyable it was to witness such beauty in action. Soon, other soccer paled in comparison. I was able to truly appreciate beautiful soccer because of what I learned.

This experience came to mind as I read Paul’s admonition in Philippians 4: “4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:4-9)

I wondered how many individuals read these words without having any real understanding of what Paul was referring to by whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. We tend to be unsure of what is true. We don’t seem to have any idea of what it means to be noble. We eschew what is right for what is convenient. We embrace what it tolerable instead of what is pure. We equate lovely with physical appearance. We tend to admire those who are self-serving, who capture the spotlight. To us, excellent means easy, and we tend to avoid anything that is difficult. And praiseworthy? We hand out praise without cause, to make ourselves feel better, to appear to be “fair” or to protect a false self-image, or to assure our so-called acceptance by others. So I applied my five precepts of beautiful soccer to Paul’s writing, to see what my experience with soccer had to say about the more global application of whatever is “beautiful”:

1) Paul is not evaluating an outcome – if so, the outcomes in his own life because of his faith would appear to make his belief foolishness; instead, Paul is referring to a state of the heart, an inner transformation that brings great joy and peace.
2) Paul is speaking in relational terms – he points to our connection with God through prayer, and he speaks specifically about his relationship with the brothers and their relationships with him and each other; these are the things that are important.
3) Paul is not saying it will be easy – he explains the need for focus and putting what was learned into practice, but comforts us with the knowledge that God is with us in everything and His peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
4) Paul is referring to what is simple and clean – peace and joy, and the presence of God with us; however, these truths are profound in their simplicity and depth, and they are anything but simplistic, like a list of things to do would be.
5) Paul is not suggesting something that makes sense – in fact, he is going contrary to how we normally live our lives, with a self-centered, self-protecting, and self-serving focus.

If you think about it, the cross doesn’t make sense. It certainly was not easy. It is simple (a death) yet profound (victory over death). It is undoubtedly the greatest expression of love known. And it results in a process – a process of ongoing connection and relationship with Jesus that transforms our hearts and creates in us a new life.

I encourage you, as I did when seeking to understand “beautiful soccer,” to seek Jesus to reveal to your heart what is genuinely true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. I hope you will focus on those things He reveals and put what He teaches you into practice, as Paul suggested. I pray that you find through that relationship the peace that guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and that you will always know Jesus is partnering with you in everything in your life. As a result, I pray you will begin to personally and deeply understand, and experience, the beauty of this kind of relationship with Jesus.  This relationship is worthy of our complete and undivided focus - "think about such things."

The Parable of the Talents

The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 is one in a series where Jesus is teaching about the “coming of the Son of Man.” There are many lessons in this teaching, but one I want to focus on is how the “wicked, lazy servant” burying his talent relates to our relationship with Christ in our daily lives. Do we invest ourselves in our relationship with Christ in all things? Or do we bury ourselves in self-protection out of fear, carry the burden of daily life alone and lose everything of value in the end?

Many individuals have divested or compartmentalized our day-to-day lives from our "spiritual and religious" lives such that we see "everyday life" as separate from "religious" life. The first two servants saw the gift of the Master as entrusted (this is the key word) to them, and they responded by investing totally in the gift. However, many believe, much like the wicked servant, that our everyday life is separate from God and completely up to us.  We don’t recognize the gift of relationship with Christ for what it is, but instead, exclude the Master and bury the relationship under our religious responsibilities. Instead of a loving husband, we see a harsh taskmaster. Like Adam and Eve in Eden after the fall, we hide ourselves from God. Those who take this view bury our relationship with God (our “talent”) out of fear just like in the parable, because we believe God to be a “harsh taskmaster”, or a “hard man”, and we don't want to do it wrong and be punished. This fear tells us to protect our life experiences, so we don't "invest" our whole selves in our relationship with Jesus. We even feel sort of a "beyond possible" response to the thought that He would care about or be involved in our everyday lives, and that leaves the burden squarely on us. We want to do well, to choose good things, to get it right (like the Pharisees did in their attempt to follow the letter of the Law) but we cannot without the presence of God to guide and share with us in the experience through an active relationship (the Word of God written on our hearts). Our choices made apart from God are therefore fruitless (or the fruit is bad, like the Pharisees' fruit). Of course, a relationship buried does not and cannot grow. Thus, even what we have is taken away by the fear, and, of course, we create what we most fear: we have failed the Master. The paradox here, in fact, is that our own view of God precludes the type of relationship He desires to give us. We have missed the element of trust completely.

We turn everything from relationship to task because we are still looking for a standard to meet. “How do I stand before the Master?” “How do I measure up?” We want to know how we are doing. We use the Law as our measure for moral issues and our tasks (works) for everything else. Cody once observed, at every site where a building project is proceeding, there seems to be a compulsion to “dig a hole and make a mound.” When we watched the progress of the project together, we laughed about how one mound is used to fill in a hole and another hole is then dug to make another mound, in an endless series of pointless exercises that accomplish nothing. I relate this process to our accomplishing tasks for a harsh taskmaster. In essence, we are enslaved to “tasks”—shoveling dirt from one pile to the other. There is no value in the task, but at least we can measure our progress. “Look! I moved that whole pile from here to there!” We feel good about that as if that measurement buys us a sense of accomplishment, which feels like purpose. We then make that false sense of purpose a measure of our worth.

Whether it is the Law or tasks, it is still an attempt on our part to measure ourselves, to “measure up” so to speak, and to replace our lost identity in Christ (who we really are, and our real worth and value in His eyes) with the accomplishments of life on one side and the accomplishments of the Law on the other. Both exclude Jesus ultimately, don't they? But somehow we've convinced ourselves that we are OK as long as we have included Jesus in the area of religious stuff (albeit a distant, observing Jesus, checking us out to make sure we are getting it right). We believe we aren't even supposed to bring Him in on the mundane, everyday stuff. Yet, in this parable we are told the result is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Ultimately, we cannot know fully about our relationship with Him except from Him. What He would desire to give us includes the true knowledge of Who He is, and how He sees us or who He says we are; in other words, an intimate connection or “oneness” with Him.

Humility and Hope

Romans 5:1-5 - 1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 5:1-5 is an often misinterpreted Scripture, sometimes used to support the idea that God produces suffering to teach us a lesson...specifically humility. However, a more careful reading in context tells us this writing of Paul is a discussion of the irrelevance of circumstances, because of the hope we have through God's love being poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can also rejoice in the suffering of our circumstances, because in the face of those circumstances, we continue to abide in the love of God in our hearts while He redeems the suffering through His hope.

Benedict (6th century), founder of the Benedictine Monastic order, developed a ladder of humility – including:
reverence for God, obedience to God’s will, enduring affliction, confession, contentment, self-reproach, silence, seriousness, simplicity. Notice where Benedict began his ladder (similar to Paul): reverence for God. To have reverence means "honor; profound enduring awe and respect" (Webster). Perhaps in our use of language, where love is diminished to an emotion, the description of reverence for God as something profound and awe-producing captures the feeling of being in His presence better...as long as it doesn't intimate distance or a feeling of shame. Just out of personal interest, I compared Benedict's ladder with Cody's life style and beliefs. I thought I would share my own thoughts, for what they are worth.

Cody loved (loves) God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. He certainly revered Jesus, but His relationship with Jesus also held a quality of familiarity that Benedict's "reverence" might not capture. So I choose to make the first step on Cody's ladder to "adore God with your whole being."

Cody demonstrated obedience to God's will but not in the sense of making himself go against what he felt or wanted, like obedience itself was a struggle. Instead, he found that God's love and presence in his heart produced a desire to live as God does - to be close to Him and stay there. So I choose to make the second step on Cody's ladder to "follow God in your heart and listen to Him all the time."

Cody certainly endured affliction; yet, he always disagreed with people who described it that way. In fact, he openly scoffed that he was not suffering, and fully believed nothing was "wrong" with him and he could do anything his heart desired. This belief came from living in the kingdom with Jesus instead of living as a part of this world. So I choose to make the third step on Cody's ladder to "live with both feet in the kingdom of God within your heart."

Confession, many believe, is a "requirement" of forgiveness; however, Cody saw it as something provided by God for our sakes so that our own feelings of shame could be overcome. Cody knew Jesus' blood was sufficient for all of his sins, from the beginning to the end of his life. So I agree with the step of confession being on the ladder as long as it includes the understanding that confession is for our sake, and not a requirement of God's before He will offer forgiveness. So I choose to make the fourth step on Cody's ladder to "confess in order to realize and recognize God's forgiveness so you can look Him in the eye with no shame."

Peace was Cody's constant state of being. Contentment doesn't quite capture the level of peace Cody felt, so I choose to make the fifth step on Cody's ladder to "live in the peace that passes understanding through knowing the truth of Jesus."

Self-reproach was not something I ever saw in Cody or heard him say. So I choose to change this step to one that would more reflect Cody's life and belief. Cody's sixth step would be to "realize I need God and I cannot be my own god."

Silence, in the context of listening, would be something Cody would completely agree is crucial to humility. So I choose to make the seventh step on Cody's ladder to "listen in silence to the voice of Jesus in your heart in all things."

Seriousness would not be a word I would use to ever describe Cody. In fact, his incredible joy and amazing sense of humor, the blazing smile on his face, and the depth of feeling he brought others with his wisdom, his comments and jokes and his individual perspective on life was anything but seriousness. So I choose to change the eighth step on Cody's ladder to "feel everything deeply and share yourself completely." Cody never ever hid his heart.

Finally, simplicity would be something Cody would agree was a huge part of knowing Jesus. Jesus can share truth in one image or a simple phrase that seems to encompass the universe in a word. Truth is indeed a simple thing. So I choose to make the ninth step on Cody's ladder to "live in the simple truth of Jesus."

Jesus and Responsibility

In receiving the abundant grace and mercy of Jesus, we may be tempted to believe there is no accountability for our actions or personal responsibility for our choices; however, Scripture in both Old and New Testaments is clear that our choices have consequences (see Deut 30:11-20; Proverbs 11:18, 22:8; 2 Cor 9:6, Gal 6:7-8, James 3:18).  It is built into the fabric of creation, and is even expressed as a law of physics, that actions produce reactions.  The reason God created such a system was out of love for us.  Imagine for a moment what our lives would be like if our actions produced no predictable results.  How could we ever learn what is beneficial (blessings of Deuteronomy) and what is harmful (curses)?  Without resulting consequences, we would be repeating the same harmful actions over and over again, but never learning.  We would also be living in a world ruled by chaos, without order and without understanding or wisdom. 

I have heard two excellent illustrations of this truth.  The first was from Charles Stanley, who said, “if I throw a baseball at a window, and the moment the ball releases from my hand I ask Jesus to forgive me, He will forgive me; but the ball will still hit the window, the glass will still break, and I will still need to clean up the broken glass and replace the window.”  In other words, asking forgiveness from Jesus does not remove the responsibility for making amends for our actions.  As was the case with Zacchaeus (Luke 10:1-10), Jesus asks us to restore what has been stolen, even as our sin is forgiven.  The other illustration was from John Eldredge, who throwing down a tennis ball said “choice” and as the ball bounced back up to his hand, he said “consequence.”  He was making the point that each choice we make has a predictable result, and that this pattern of action-reaction had been established by God.  What would it be like if we threw down a ball, and had no idea where it would wind up based on our throw? 

So it was love that determined choice and consequence, which gave us responsibility and in so doing produced real freedom.  Accountability, then, is part of love, and removing responsibility or consequences for choices ultimately removes freedom.  This truth is applicable in all of our relationships – from our partnership with Jesus to our marital relationships to our parenting to our friendships.  Remember, as Stanley eloquently illustrated, Jesus will forgive our sins but will not remove responsibility for the consequences of our choices.  In so doing, He shows His love for us in a deeper, and far more respectful, manner.  We need to do the same in our relationships with others.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

The parable of the ten virgins is a story told by Jesus to His disciples, in response to a question they posed, reported to us in Matthew 24: ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  Jesus responds first by describing what those times will be like, and admonishing His followers that, as you see the fig leaves begin to bud out, you know that summer is coming, so you can know when the end times are upon us based on seeing what He described as the “birth pains” of those times.  He begins this section of His response to their question by saying, “At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like…”.  This sets the stage for our understanding of this parable. 

Throughout Scripture, prophesy operates simultaneously on at least three different levels.  The most obvious level is relating something that is happening or will happen in the time of the prophesy (an example includes Isaiah prophesying the taking of Israel into captivity by the Babylonians).  In this case, in Matthew 24:34-35, Jesus tells His followers: “³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”  In other words, the disciples (then apostles) had their own experiences of being hated because of Jesus, of being persecuted and turned over to death, of hearing of wars and rumors of wars, of having false prophets claiming to be the Christ and false teachers misleading many – and as He said, all of those things happened before that very generation passed away.  Still, it was not the “end.”

The second level of prophesy speaks to an ultimate culminating event in a future time (using the example of Isaiah again, he spoke of Messiah coming to release Israel from captivity, which happened ultimately with the coming of Jesus Christ to release us all from captivity to sin).  In Matthew 24, Jesus is responding to that question as well: what it will ultimately be like at the end of all time, when He returns: “as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”  According to Jesus and foretold in other Scripture, there will be an ultimate end, where He returns and gathers His children to Him, separating them as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  In the mean time, as we wait for that ultimate end, we each experience our own “gathering to Him” at our death, which is our personal “end time” – which leads to the description of the third level of prophesy.  Prophesy is applicable on a personal, individual level, and describes in the macrocosm what takes place within our hearts (in the microcosm).  Going back to our Isaiah example, we each have our own personal “Babylon” to face, our own captivity from which we need Jesus to be set free, and our own personal release from prison (to sin) through Christ. 

Having set the stage in Matthew 24, Jesus begins by describing what the kingdom of heaven is like “at that time” – meaning at the time the disciples would experience after His death and resurrection, at the end of all time, and at our time of personal trial.  Since I don’t believe we can separate the last two, as we experience both, I will speak about that “time” as now.  The parable goes as follows:

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³ The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴ The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵ The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶ “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

⁹ “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

¹¹ “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

¹² “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

¹³ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

In this parable, the “oil for their lamps” refers to the presence of God’s Spirit, providing light in times of darkness.  The wedding banquet refers to the Kingdom of Heaven (which is within us now, is where we will enter at our death, and is the coming Kingdom when He returns bringing Heaven to Earth).  The five wise virgins were prepared.  They brought the Spirit of the Living God with them to fill their lamps (to light their way through the darkness or time of trial).  They had already developed that strength of relationship, by focusing on their relationship with God as the thing of primary importance – they had invested their resources wisely into that relationship, instead of spending their time, energy, and resources on other things (whatever worldly things might try to distract from the relationship with God and His presence within our hearts).  They were ready when the time of deepest darkness came, and Jesus (the Bridegroom) showed up.  The five foolish virgins, however, brought their lamps (in other words, they knew the Bridegroom was coming – they knew about Jesus) but failed to invest in the oil for their lamp (the intimate presence of the Holy Spirit). 

The Bridegroom took a long time to come, and although five were prepared and five were not, they “all” dozed off.  (This reminds me of the three disciples who could not stay awake with Jesus at His time of trial – no matter how deeply we love Jesus, we still succumb to the weakness of the flesh, and can “fall asleep” when things seem to be going along fine in our lives).  Then suddenly, the Bridegroom is approaching and the alarm is sounding – and the five foolish virgins become aware they are not prepared.  Notice that the preparation of the five wise virgins is not going to be enough to cover the five foolish virgins, it can only provide oil enough for their own lamps – their “oil” (relationship with Jesus) cannot sustain the others during that time of trial, or during the end times.  Jesus is giving us an important warning here: prepare by investing in your relationship with Me as of first importance, for when the time of trial comes (or the end time comes), you will not be able to stand in the light without that preparation to sustain you, and you cannot rely on the relationship of others with Jesus to sustain you.  I know from personal experience that, when a time of trial came (Cody’s death), if I did not already have the depth of relationship with Jesus that both Cody and I had through investment of our hearts, our focus, and our time and energy, I would not have made it through that time intact.  And that is just the trial of losing a child to death.  The trials of the end times, according to Jesus, are unequaled:  Matthew 24:^21 “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. ²² “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.”  If at the time of great trial, or in the end times, I go out seeking to purchase “oil for my lamp”, because of the nature of the times, the strong and prevailing presence of the enemy in those times, and the distractions of my emotions and the pain of those times, I will have difficulty “making it back in time” to be with the Bridegroom in His kingdom.  The warning from Jesus is clear:  you will not “make it back”, so the door will already be closed and the way blocked, and Jesus will say “I don’t know you.”

We cannot serve two masters.  We cannot have two “gods.”  Jesus said, as reported in Matthew 6:24, “Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”  We cannot stand with one foot in the Kingdom and the other in the world, nor can we focus on our relationship with Jesus as the thing of primary importance – our first priority – while focusing on things of the worldly view as equally (or even more) important to us.  Our circumstances cannot take precedence over our relationship with Jesus.  Whatever the foolish virgins were doing with their resources, they were not investing in that connection with Jesus (the presence of the Holy Spirit within us to give us light and truth).  They were counting on what they had in the lamp already to see them through to the end.  It will not be enough.

I personally believe that we are in those end times described by Jesus in Matthew 24 and 25; I see evidence in the increasingly strong presence of evil influencing the actions of mankind, in the engulfing fear that grips the world in so many ways and determines the direction of our leaders (as well as many of us individually), in the realities of global annihilation at the fingertips of those who have no restraint from creating destruction and who are willing and even eager to do so, in the pain and suffering of children and those who are weaker at the hands of those in power, in the burgeoning upheaval in the natural realm, and in the rise of attitudes contrary to those taught by God and demonstrated by Jesus such as taking the easy path, looking out for self, and rejecting any absolute truth.  However, and I want to stress this point, even if we are NOT in those end times, the truth of this parable is still relevant to our individual experience and the warning still holds true.  For each of us, the trial will come.  If we do not have that connected presence of Jesus to hold us fast, we will lose our grip on the Kingdom and we will fall. 

What are you invested in?

Battle ground!

Psalm 35
1 Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;
fight against those who fight against me.
2 Take up shield and buckler;
arise and come to my aid.
3 Brandish spear and block the way
against those who pursue me.
Say to my soul,
"I am your salvation."
Psalm 35 seems to be a discourse on revenge, asking God to destroy those who were against David. This does not seem to be a very Christian concept – on the surface. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you does not appear to match David’s prayer here. But we do need to remember that we are in a spiritual battle, and that is indeed a Christian concept. Paul is clear that we are to “stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6 states: 10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Those who “contend against” us are the minions of our enemy. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it is against evil. If we do not take a stand, we are abandoning those we love into the enemy’s influence and deceptions. David is also clear, as Psalm 35 continues, that those who are against him are spreading lies and making false claims. Who is the father of lies? To call God to action side by side with us, to ask Him to take up the spear and shield on our behalf, is a perfectly appropriate prayer. Somewhere along the way, Christians have adopted an attitude of passivity as if that is the meaning of love and grace. We have bought into the false idea that confronting evil is tantamount to judging others, and that we will be held accountable for making those judgments. No! Jesus was anything but passive! Check out His confrontations of the religious leaders, and His stand against all hypocrisy, and then see if your picture of a passive Jesus is accurate. Ask, seek and knock are action verbs, and so is taking a stand. We are called to action, not passivity. We are partners with God in the battle. Stand on the truth of God and stand firmly against the enemy’s schemes. Let us as Christians never forget that we are in an all-out war.

Reconciling God in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament

Imagine for a minute that you are a parent (if you are not – if you are then just think about being a parent). If your child is two years old and you are going to explain to him or her about not running into the road, you would probably point and say a firm “No!” while holding their hands. There is not a whole lot of need to go into all the whys of you might die, etc., because the two year old would not understand the concept of death anyway. At four, you might say, “Honey, don’t run into the road.” A four year old has more language and hopefully by that point has learned to trust your direction. You still would not need to explain the concept of death. It is too abstract for a four year old to comprehend. They might say, “If I died when would I wake up?” or “Could I come home in time for bed?” But you can see how they would not grasp the concept and would misrepresent what you said if you tried to explain it to them.

Now move ahead to your eight year old. To them, explaining the same danger, you would likely say, “You know we live on a curve, and cars are coming around that curve all the time. See how fast they are going around the curve? If you were in the road when one of those cars was racing around that curve, they would not be able to stop in time. They might not even see you before they hit you. And you would be seriously hurt, or even killed. Stay out of the road when you are playing in the yard. Do not chase your ball in the road!” Now you have the ability to explain more about the dangers, offer details and specifics, and even give an explanation of the possible consequences. But at eight, you still would not offer a lot in the way of choices for how to go into the road. For example, since you live on a curve without a line of sight, you would not say, “look both ways” like you would at an intersection. Fast forward to your twelve year old. At that age, you could say, “If you are going to walk in the road, walk down to the stop sign on the corner first. Then look for cars and cross the road there. That way, a car coming around the curve has time to slow down and stop before they hit you.” Now you can offer more choices, and even an option for how to walk safely where they want to go. And at sixteen, you start talking about being the driver on the road, and being sure to go slowly around the curve watching for children playing near the road.

The point of this analogy is this: all along the foundational truth remains the same, and your words are spoken out of love and care. See, though, how the words themselves appear to change based on the needs of your child? God, our Father, responds to us in the same way.

Early in the “life” of God’s people, they were like two year olds. When God explained His creation to them, they wrote it down as best as they could understand it, and He used words and images they would comprehend. The Law was given as do’s and don’ts, and as Paul described it, the Law was given to reveal sin, meaning it was given so His people would know what was safe and what was dangerous. But they did not grasp the deeper meanings of the Law as revealed to us by Jesus. This explains Jesus’ statement that He was not abolishing the Law but fulfilling it, and He added the depth of the heart to the Law when He explained to us that those who hate in their hearts commit murder in their hearts. He revealed through exposing the Pharisees’ hypocrisy the part of comprehension that was missing from the “four year old’s” understanding of the teaching given. The truth did not change, only the depth of the explanation.

How does this impact our reconciliation of the OT with the Jesus we know? On two levels: we can see how God would by necessity use relevant terms and understandable concepts, sometimes appearing strict or controlling to the eyes of a two year old, sometimes appearing to not explain His reasons to the four year old, etc.; we can also see how the two and four and eight year olds, when writing down what God said, could present His words in a confused manner (reference back to the four year old trying to explain death). This does not mean the words are not true, or that the truth of God (or His nature) has changed, any more than it meant that the parent above loved the sixteen year old more than he loved the two year old!

I believe we reconcile and understand all Scripture now through the eyes of Jesus, and that Scripture is “written on our hearts” by the Holy Spirit Who leads us into all truth. Jesus came, in part, to show us through experience Who God is. Now we are given the Holy Spirit, Who can also reveal God’s nature to us, and Who can teach us those things that are not specifically outlined in the Bible, as Jesus told us would happen in John’s gospel. So here is the truth about us: we may be somewhat older children than the children of God in the OT, but we are children still. We are in need of a Father and a Teacher, and that Teacher is Jesus and Jesus alone. If we approach reading the OT from a basic truth of understanding that everything written there is meant to point to Jesus – for example, Noah’s ark points ahead to the cross that will carry us over the water of chaos and sin into a new life, and the ark of the covenant parting the waters before the people into the Promised Land represents the same truth; the story of Abraham and Isaac points to God Himself providing the sacrifice, and the story of Passover points to Jesus Who will be the Lamb whose blood covers us from being taken by death (I could keep going and going but I think you get the point) – then we can “get over” ourselves worrying about the way the writers presented their understanding of God through the eyes of a two year old, leaving an impression of an arbitrary or controlling God. Instead, we can see through better equipped eyes and discern the love behind the actions of God in the OT, all the way through dying on the cross for our sakes.

But let’s don’t ever forget that we are also children, and we “see through a glass darkly.” We need the Holy Spirit’s presence to truly understand the truth that God has revealed to us. So do not try to reconcile OT Scripture with NT Scripture on your own. Ask Jesus to help explain it and receive through God’s Spirit within you the truth that makes the Bible a whole story about One God whose every action is coming from a heart of love for His children. The entire Bible is the story of God’s pursuit of His children to reconcile with them because He loves them so much. For this reason, the whole story points to and centers on Jesus.

Problem resolution: Walking in the way of love

Jesus provides us a roadmap for problem resolution – if we will simply look to Him for guidance and choose to follow His lead. Instead, however, many individuals choose to set out on their own path to solve their own problems. Usually, that path looks like focusing on the problem instead of the cause, seeking through self-protection or self-service to deflect, avoid or divert responsibility off of themselves, and choosing the easiest solution even if that solution ultimately leads to destruction.

Our society has degraded into one of valuing individual gain at the expense of others, employing denial of accountability, and refusing to look deeper into the motivations of the heart. Avoidance is touted as the behavior of choice. We tend to embrace short term gain even if it means long term pain. We have become a culture of don’ts: Don’t make waves, don’t upset anyone no matter what is right or true, don’t challenge anyone on anything, don’t stand up for the truth, don’t even believe there is a truth to stand up for…I could continue but I believe you get the idea. Whatever you do, don’t. Shame and fear are the bases for this “don’t” position – we are afraid and embarrassed to take a risk. However, as a result, problems are not solved; problems are simply reframed, denied or avoided. This is not the stance of Jesus, Who faced His issues with others head-on. He was surely willing to confront others, to challenge others, and to stand for the truth – look at His confrontation of the Pharisees – at the cost of His life. He did not choose self-preservation or self-protection. Instead, He chose love as the reason for everything He did. He was also focused on the root causes of issues, rather than each specific problem. He looked squarely at the motivations of the hearts of those around Him, identifying the motivation of lust as causing the problem of adultery and the motivation of hate as causing the problem of murder. Finally, Jesus did not choose the easiest path, or the simplest solution, which in His case would have been to have each of us pay for our own sins. He chose, once again motivated by His great love for us, to take responsibility onto Himself rather than to deflect it off onto others. He chose the hard road for Himself, the road of short term pain and long term gain.

Ephesians 5:1-2 says: 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

What does it mean to “walk in the way of love”? If we are to follow Christ’s example, several components need to be in place. First and foremost, we are not able to walk in the way of love without His help and presence. He is love. Without Him, there is no love. So, we need Jesus as our partner. Second, we cannot walk in the way of love if we don’t know what love is. So, we need the truth from Jesus about love in order to see clearly what path we are to take. We need to be able to ask Him to show us what the loving thing to do is, in every instance and every choice we make. Even more globally, we need a source of all truth – the presence of Jesus within us, listening to His voice and the leading of His Spirit – or we will be easily deceived into falling back into our self-serving actions. Third, we need to seek the reasons for our choices – in other words, we need to understand the motivations of our hearts that inform our choices, and that cause our problems. Problems are rarely what they appear to be on the surface. Solutions are rarely what we first think they should be. We can see evidence of that throughout Scripture, where God’s answers to problem situations for His people are often counterintuitive or appear contraindicated. Finally, we need to align the motivations of our hearts with the truth we hear, see and know from Jesus. Simply put, we need to know the truth so that the truth can set us free.

Walking in the way of love is therefore more difficult. It takes time and energy and effort. It requires insight and self-examination. It means spending time with Jesus in quiet listening and reflection. But as the example set by Jesus shows us, the long term benefits greatly outweigh the short term costs. Spend time speaking with Jesus about each of these ideas presented here. Listen to His leading, and experience what great good comes from following His example.