(this is a long one, again; sorry)
Whatever It Takes
Along with being the title to one of my favorite Lifehouse songs, this has become a prevalent line in many of my prayers for non-believers and believers alike. As I pray for more and more people to truly be brought face to face with the glory of the Living God, I recognize I'm praying for something that is a) atypical compared to many of our prayers, and b) atypical compared to what many of us say when someone asks us "how can I pray for you?".
I've wondered why this is over the years, and specifically why it's this way with me much of the time, and I believe it's because most of the time I truly think that my greatest need is for (fill in the blank) to happen, with the 'fill-in-the-blank' not usually having anything to do with being brought up under the glory of God. As the Holy Spirit, by God's grace alone, has brought this realization to the forefront of my mind, I've been both convicted and humbled to know that even in my prayer requests, I'm missing the mark of God's holiness.
In the famous part of Acts 9 that tells of Saul's (later Paul) conversion, the part that always made me skeptical that this was just a fairy-tale Sunday school/VBS story was the fact that he was blinded until eventually some fish scales fell from his eyes (9:18). What? Why would fish-scales fall from his eyes?, I've asked in reserved skepticism. At best this is surely an add-in from the author to make the story more palatable to children who need images in order to stay engaged to the story...if the story is even TRUE, I've stated.
This of course, until I realize what has just happened to Saul. As a hardcore Jewish Pharisee who persecutes and murders those men and women who proclaim that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth rose from death because He's God like He said He was, the idea that he would eventually become one of them seems like the silliest and most far-fetched idea Luke's Acts narrative could possibly have happen next.
But then it happened. Saul is on his way to Damascus to persecute and kill more Christians who profess that Jesus is Lord, when he is suddenly struck to the ground, and this Jesus Himself asks him "Saul, why do you persecute me?" (9:4). Interestingly, Jesus doesn't ask why Saul persecutes Jesus' followers, or why he persecutes Jesus' people. He asks him why he persecutes Him. Why? Because Jesus' resurrected body is now in two places: at God's right hand in Heaven(Matthew 26:64, Hebrews 8:1), and in the Church on Earth (Ephesians 1:22-23, 5:22). Apparently, in hurting and murdering Christians, Saul had been hurting and murdering Jesus. But since Saul clearly doesn't trust in or have regard for the faith the Christians have, this wouldn't strike Saul if just anyone said it.
But it was Jesus that said it. And right on the spot, Saul calls Jesus "Lord" (9:5). Now Saul asks Him who He is, so we can clearly deduce that he isn't aware that the obvious 'Lord' he was talking to was Jesus Himself. Many people, even those who knew Jesus personally, didn't recognize His resurrected body, and Saul was no exception. But then Jesus tells Saul who it really is, and the story doesn't have Saul saying anything more after that. All we see is Saul being blinded by the light, and sent into the city, where he will await further instructions.
We then find out in 9:10 that a man of God named Ananias was called to reach out to Saul, explain to him that he's a chosen instrument of Jesus the Risen Lord, and Ananias has to put his hands on Saul so that he'll receive the Holy Spirit. Ananias, eager to be used by God, uses the same phrase Isaiah did when God called him, "Here I am, Lord", and he does it. As Ananias prays over Saul, the scales fall from his eyes and he receives the Holy Spirit which, just like with the Christians in Acts 2, causes him to start making much of the glory of God in the face of Jesus for all to see and hear, no matter who they are.
You may wonder, "Okay, but what about the scales? That's still wierd." Granted, it is. But what's wierder: the Living God converting a man who hated Jesus into a man who worships Jesus, or that man having 'something LIKE' fish-scales fall from his eyes? Or what about the fact that Saul was blind in the first place after he saw Jesus? Why was Saul blinded?
Because God does whatever it takes to make one of His sons or daughters trust in Him totally.
Repeatedly throughout the Bible, the case is the same: Abraham has to be willing to sacrifice his own son on an altar before he realizes he can truly trust in God. Jacob wrestles with God and suffers an injury so that his stubbornness will finally be tamed enough to trust God. Isaiah had to be confronted with his own sinfulness before he trusted God's goodness enough to be sent out to minister. Jesus' disciples have to spend three years following Jesus around and learning the Gospel, failing in faith continually, before they finally trust in God enough to be Gospel ministers who Jesus uses to build His Church (Peter even denies Jesus the night before He's crucified...Peter was a failure to the end, but Jesus loved him to the end (John 13:1). And it doesn't stop with them. Now, Saul, proud of his Jewish heritage (as he should be) and satisfied of his own great and wonderful accomplishments, had to be stopped dead in his tracks, and blinded and immobilized for three days before he was ready to go out and minister. Then he immediately begins preaching the Deity of Jesus: Acts 9:20-21--"and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God'. And all who heard him were amazed and said, 'Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name (Jesus)?'"
If you're a Christian who truly trusts in Christ for everything in your life from first to last, you know that it takes a lot for God to truly get your heart. You also know that many of your earlier times "being a Christian" weren't times when God truly had your heart, but rather were times where you felt you had GOD'S heart, and you self-righteously still lived to worship yourself, as you assumed God worshiped you, too.
I'm convinced that if Saul would have jumped up and began preaching right there on the spot of seeing Jesus, he would have hung onto his self-righteousness as he preached the Gospel, which would have probably made for him not preaching the REAL Gospel ever. Of course, we know the story that Saul's name was changed to Paul, he planted churches everywhere, mentored pastors and elders like Timothy and Titus, and wrote almost half of the books of the New Testament. So what happened, and why was he always so zealous for the Name of Jesus Christ and so unconcerned for his own name, like he had been before?
It's because he saw the risen Christ who died for his sins when he saw the risen Christ who is Creator and Sustainer of all things, and this risen Christ in His glorious goodness and power will take someone's eyesight if it means humbling them for the ministry of proclaiming His glory. That's why Paul famously said in Philippians 3:8-9, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." He said it because it's infinitely better to live with Jesus on your horizon, than with anything else on the horizon, and Paul knows, because he's been to both extremes.
All people worship something--whatever it is that gets you out of bed in the morning, and whatever thought or hope it is that keeps you working THIS job or living in THIS house or studying THIS topic, we all worship SOMETHING. Paul worshiped himself. But when he encountered Jesus, he began worshiping Jesus. And the necessary first step was for him to be immobilized and shown how un-powerful he really was.
The temptation for Christians often is to think that if they receive Christ or if they're baptized or if they read their Bibles or if they pray hard enough, God is OBLIGATED to do for them whatever it is they want Him to do. That's why many people get baptized or get zealous for God, and then fall off the radar of their church for months, years, or decades: because they thought God was supposed to give them what they wanted and make their lives easier.
But in Paul's case, as in the case of anyone in the Bible who was brought to God's feet, the person had to suffer some sort of debilitating or excruciating loss in order to be counted as "one of God's".
The reason for this is that, as John Calvin has rightly said, "the human heart is an idol factory" and our idols follow us into our conversion to Christianity, if God doesn't squash them. Not unlike cancer patients needing chemotherapy to kill many good cells so that the bad cells die, human beings need the part of their heart that worships idols killed in order for the worship of the idol to cease. This is a painful process, but a necessary one. Maybe you're going through it right now. Many people think that since they're a Christian, they shouldn't have to experience pain, so when the storm comes, they look up at God and say, "seriously?" They don't stop to think that perhaps they're STILL producing idols in their heart and worshiping them, even though Jesus is their Sunday or Wednesday Savior.
Paul knew this. That's why he wrote so adamantly against false worship and selfishness in his letters--because that's a sign of Christ not TRULY being Lord of your life.
Maybe that's why it hurts so bad right now for you. Maybe that's why it's so scary and dark and you don't feel like you'll make it.
But it certainly isn't because God doesn't know pain. At the Cross, God suffered the loss of His only Son who has shared eternity with Him. Where there needed to be a shedding of blood to atone for humanity's idolatry, He brought the blood.
Because God does whatever it takes to get you.
Scott Stine - PhD, Pastor of First Baptist, Newton NJ. Follower of Jesus; husband, daddy, too distracted by basketball.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
To Love God and Neighbor, pt 2
This is part 2 of attempting to clarify "the Great Commandment", as Jesus spoke it in Matthew 22:37-29. Allow me to continue the last blog by diving right in:
-To become so concerned with 'loving God' that we forget to love our neighbors isn't as much to literally 'love God too much' as it is to not understand what it means to love God, because it's impossible to love God too much, but it IS possible to be so concerned with the personal and private striving after God's holiness and glory that we know our Bibles very well and know theology very well, but we hardly do ANY of the hard work of bringing the Gospel to people who don't have Christ. This plays itself out in churches where the preacher is on fire from the pulpit (not literally) and the people are 'amen'ing all over the place during his sermon, but the idea of ministering to the people with needs in their community is something that's not even in their vocabulary. They operate under a "come to us" ministry mentality (which is big-brother arrogance), assuming they have all the answers and the people with the needs need to take the initiative; this is opposite of a "go to them" ministry mentality (which is humbling and Christ-like) and assumes that since the people obviously can't get to God unless they have Christ, the only way that they can get to Christ is if those who have Christ bring Him to them. The former assumes that we have all the answers and they need to come to us, and the latter assumes that we don't have ALL the answers, but that since we have the only answers that matter, we can boldly and humbly take it to them, trusting that God is going to do the work of the Gospel through us. Nevertheless, the absence of this is a common problem in churches--we concern so much over 'loving God' that we forget that to truly love Him means to make much of Him for others who don't know Him, like the disciples did when they received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, and like Paul indicts in Romans 10. This mindset is prevalent in many churches with predominantly older congregations. "We're successful if we have our Bible verses memorized and if people in church are acting right," is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their theology, but a shallowness in their ministry.
-Conversely, to become so concerned with 'loving others' that we don't love God like we should is to assume that the chief end of Christian ministry is to meet needs and have a "church as a hospital" mindset, and completely neglect God's call for His people to be holy like He is holy. This plays itself out in predominantly younger congregations, many times in response to the older congregations that don't do anything for people with needs. But this is just as (if not more) sinful, because it makes man the chief end of ministry. "We're successful if we're filling the pews and if we're feeding people that are hungry and getting recognition by others in the community" is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their ministry, but a shallowness in their theology.
Clearly, both sides are wrong and unfortunately if you had a coin in your hand where one side said "God-centered but man-neglecting" and the other side said "man-centered but God-neglecting", you could enter most churches in America and make a pretty accurate guess as to which side of the coin faces up in that church.
I think the Church isn't supposed to be a place where we either lean too heavily on the first Command that we neglect our neighbors, nor is it to be a place where we lean so heavily on the second Command that we neglect loving God with all we have. Clearly in the Great Commandment, Jesus calls His people to strive after God first, and in response to striving after Him, take care of and love your neighbor. This looks much more like a basketball than a coin, because a coin always lands on one side or the other, but a basketball lands however it's going to land, and you know that if it landed another way, it'd still look the same. This way, God remains on the throne where He belongs, and our ministry to our neighbors, friends, community, etc. happens in response to the fact that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if the ball lands another way, it'd still look the same because the make-up of it is the same all over the surface.
Seeing it this way, we will always a) remain underneath the sovereignty and Lordship of God, and b) keep in mind what it is our neighbors really need, which is to hear of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We'll stop assuming that if we have Scripture memorized we're doing all we need to do, and we'll also stop assuming that if we're meeting needs in the community, we're doing all we need to do.
I think the real reason why ministry's so hard isn't just because we work with people, nor is it just that we strive after the Holiness of God. It's because we lean too easy to one of those pursuits or the other:
-If we're tough-guys (or girls), we lean on Loving God but forget that to truly love Him means that we have a tenderness towards others (because tenderness goes against our personality!). That's why it so difficult for us to TRULY connect with people and get motivated to be priestly with them. We'd rather just be prophetic. Many Bible-thumpers AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
-If we're more tender-hearted and compassionate, we lean on Loving Others but forget that to truly love them is to be sent to them from being up underneath the throne of God like Isaiah in Isaiah 6. So we tend to have gifts of caring for people and helping people, but we never read our Bibles or spend time in prayer, because it frightens us to have to come to grips with our unholiness, which happens to ALL people when they come to grips with God's holiness, like Isaiah did. We'd rather be priestly than prophetic. Many Christian activists also AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
The answer and solution?: Go to our knees and pray honestly for the Lord to reveal which side we've been guilty of landing on. Do you study Scripture all the time but don't ever bring the Gospel to people who don't have Christ, and thus make void the faith that you profess to have (see James 2)? Or do you minister to people all the time, but never actually spend time in the Word or in prayer, and never actually share the GOSPEL with the people you're ministering to, making your work no different than secular humanitarians (see Revelation 3:15-16)? Whatever side you're on, it's time for the Church to look much more like a sphere than a coin. It's time that our gospel be THE Gospel, and it's time that we be reconciled to God first, so that we can work to reconcile our neighbors second. In the Kingdom, it doesn't work one way or the other. It ONLY works if both sides are embodied. It starts with answering the first question: Do you love Him with all you have? If not, maybe you should take a step back from ministering for a while. But if you DO love Him with all you have, are you bringing it to those who need it? If not, you should pray long and hard.
Pray for Hazelwood Christian Church as we seek to live the Gospel in our Church family, and as we seek to live the Gospel in our community. I'll pray that you do, too. Thanks for reading.
-To become so concerned with 'loving God' that we forget to love our neighbors isn't as much to literally 'love God too much' as it is to not understand what it means to love God, because it's impossible to love God too much, but it IS possible to be so concerned with the personal and private striving after God's holiness and glory that we know our Bibles very well and know theology very well, but we hardly do ANY of the hard work of bringing the Gospel to people who don't have Christ. This plays itself out in churches where the preacher is on fire from the pulpit (not literally) and the people are 'amen'ing all over the place during his sermon, but the idea of ministering to the people with needs in their community is something that's not even in their vocabulary. They operate under a "come to us" ministry mentality (which is big-brother arrogance), assuming they have all the answers and the people with the needs need to take the initiative; this is opposite of a "go to them" ministry mentality (which is humbling and Christ-like) and assumes that since the people obviously can't get to God unless they have Christ, the only way that they can get to Christ is if those who have Christ bring Him to them. The former assumes that we have all the answers and they need to come to us, and the latter assumes that we don't have ALL the answers, but that since we have the only answers that matter, we can boldly and humbly take it to them, trusting that God is going to do the work of the Gospel through us. Nevertheless, the absence of this is a common problem in churches--we concern so much over 'loving God' that we forget that to truly love Him means to make much of Him for others who don't know Him, like the disciples did when they received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, and like Paul indicts in Romans 10. This mindset is prevalent in many churches with predominantly older congregations. "We're successful if we have our Bible verses memorized and if people in church are acting right," is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their theology, but a shallowness in their ministry.
-Conversely, to become so concerned with 'loving others' that we don't love God like we should is to assume that the chief end of Christian ministry is to meet needs and have a "church as a hospital" mindset, and completely neglect God's call for His people to be holy like He is holy. This plays itself out in predominantly younger congregations, many times in response to the older congregations that don't do anything for people with needs. But this is just as (if not more) sinful, because it makes man the chief end of ministry. "We're successful if we're filling the pews and if we're feeding people that are hungry and getting recognition by others in the community" is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their ministry, but a shallowness in their theology.
Clearly, both sides are wrong and unfortunately if you had a coin in your hand where one side said "God-centered but man-neglecting" and the other side said "man-centered but God-neglecting", you could enter most churches in America and make a pretty accurate guess as to which side of the coin faces up in that church.
I think the Church isn't supposed to be a place where we either lean too heavily on the first Command that we neglect our neighbors, nor is it to be a place where we lean so heavily on the second Command that we neglect loving God with all we have. Clearly in the Great Commandment, Jesus calls His people to strive after God first, and in response to striving after Him, take care of and love your neighbor. This looks much more like a basketball than a coin, because a coin always lands on one side or the other, but a basketball lands however it's going to land, and you know that if it landed another way, it'd still look the same. This way, God remains on the throne where He belongs, and our ministry to our neighbors, friends, community, etc. happens in response to the fact that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if the ball lands another way, it'd still look the same because the make-up of it is the same all over the surface.
Seeing it this way, we will always a) remain underneath the sovereignty and Lordship of God, and b) keep in mind what it is our neighbors really need, which is to hear of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We'll stop assuming that if we have Scripture memorized we're doing all we need to do, and we'll also stop assuming that if we're meeting needs in the community, we're doing all we need to do.
I think the real reason why ministry's so hard isn't just because we work with people, nor is it just that we strive after the Holiness of God. It's because we lean too easy to one of those pursuits or the other:
-If we're tough-guys (or girls), we lean on Loving God but forget that to truly love Him means that we have a tenderness towards others (because tenderness goes against our personality!). That's why it so difficult for us to TRULY connect with people and get motivated to be priestly with them. We'd rather just be prophetic. Many Bible-thumpers AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
-If we're more tender-hearted and compassionate, we lean on Loving Others but forget that to truly love them is to be sent to them from being up underneath the throne of God like Isaiah in Isaiah 6. So we tend to have gifts of caring for people and helping people, but we never read our Bibles or spend time in prayer, because it frightens us to have to come to grips with our unholiness, which happens to ALL people when they come to grips with God's holiness, like Isaiah did. We'd rather be priestly than prophetic. Many Christian activists also AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
The answer and solution?: Go to our knees and pray honestly for the Lord to reveal which side we've been guilty of landing on. Do you study Scripture all the time but don't ever bring the Gospel to people who don't have Christ, and thus make void the faith that you profess to have (see James 2)? Or do you minister to people all the time, but never actually spend time in the Word or in prayer, and never actually share the GOSPEL with the people you're ministering to, making your work no different than secular humanitarians (see Revelation 3:15-16)? Whatever side you're on, it's time for the Church to look much more like a sphere than a coin. It's time that our gospel be THE Gospel, and it's time that we be reconciled to God first, so that we can work to reconcile our neighbors second. In the Kingdom, it doesn't work one way or the other. It ONLY works if both sides are embodied. It starts with answering the first question: Do you love Him with all you have? If not, maybe you should take a step back from ministering for a while. But if you DO love Him with all you have, are you bringing it to those who need it? If not, you should pray long and hard.
Pray for Hazelwood Christian Church as we seek to live the Gospel in our Church family, and as we seek to live the Gospel in our community. I'll pray that you do, too. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
To Love God and Neighbor
Hey everyone,
Well I'm ripping this blog off of part of my sermon this past Sunday, so any HCC people, you'll recognize it and probably fall asleep (lol--ok I didn't really 'lol', nor did i chuckle).
Sermon Sunday was on Ephesians 6:1-9, which is the section Paul uses to unpack now children are to relate to their parents and how workers (slaves in the original context) are to relate to their bosses (masters). Of course, the over-riding theme throughout the entire 5:22-6:9 section in Ephesians is the same over-riding theme prevalent all throughout the Scriptures: In view of God's holiness and mercy shown most through Christ Jesus' work, do this (whatever this is). A lot of people assume the Bible is just a list of rules by which to abide so that God won't punish us or be mean to us. Of course, there have been many Christians over the years who portrayed the Gospel in these terms, so I can't totally blame the people who wrongly assume that. It should also be understood that all of us, before we receive Christ, are in rebellion to God and actually are enemies of God. Paul says in Romans 5:10 that we who have Christ have been reconciled to God, even though we were enemies of God. He then goes on in Romans 8:7 to say that those who's minds are set on the flesh are hostile to God, since their mind "does not submit to God's law; indeed it can not." We could go on, but my point is that although some Christians have done a bad job at portraying the God of love, ALL non-Christians are in rebellion against God's holiness and even if Christians were to present the God of love better, portrayed most gloriously in the face of Jesus Christ, most non-Christians (if not all) would still find some reason to not believe--because they're in rebellion unless the Holy Spirit does the work of awakening their hearts to Christ (which we pray for and seek to model in our lives as ambassadors of reconciliation).
All this to say that the context in the Ephesians passage is that those of us who claim to have Christ, who "have learned Christ" (Eph. 4:20), have "put off the old self" (4:22), are "children of light" (5:8), and are working to "understand what the will of the Lord is" (5:17), don't just follow the rules because we want to appease an angry and vengeful God--we follow them because Christ already followed all the rules and went to the cross to make a final sacrifice for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God, and now we follow His rules because we WANT to. You can look all throughout Deuteronomy 6 to hear Moses talking about how all of God's laws are for our good, and are to be followed in response to His goodness and provision.
In closing the sermon Sunday, I felt it best to head back to Jesus' telling of "the Great Commandment" in Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus says it's to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength", and then He continues on with another command that is apparently to follow in succession, to "love your neighbor as yourself". When referring to 'the Great Commandment', people typically speak of both commandments, even though Jesus said the first is the greatest and the second is second. Nevertheless, the fact that He says both means that the second is to be critically understood and followed. This relates to the discussion at hand because at the end of the day, Paul's concern throughout Ephesians is that we treasure what God's done for us FIRST, and then act it out in our relationships with each other SECOND, which seems synonymous with what Jesus said.
The point of this blog post today is summed up in this one statement: The Great Commandment is sufficient to explain ALL that God wants from us (Jesus said it is), but in order to understand what it means to be ministers of the Gospel, we have to continually keep watch over our following of the WHOLE Commandment. What I mean is this: While we are to love God with the whole of our entire self, we clearly MUST have a love for our neighbor which flows from our love for God. At the same time, while we are to love our neighbor, our concern for them must never eclipse our concern for the holiness and glory of God.
It may sound like I'm speaking obvious things that don't need to be emphasized, but I don't think I am (obviously, I wouldn't be saying it otherwise). I'm convinced that one of the chief failures of city churches (I'm a pastor in a city church) is that they've either leaned too heavily on one half of the Great Commandment, or leaned too heavily on the other half.
What I mean is this: In seeking to do Gospel ministry, many people have become so concerned with God's holiness and following His rules, that they've neglected the work of loving their neighbor and caring for them. On the flip-side, many others have become so concerned with caring for and loving their neighbor, they aren't concerned in the least bit with God's holiness and truly loving Him with their whole being.
Since I don't want to write a blog as long as my last one for fear of having something that's so excruciatingly long-winded that people take one look and click 'x', I'll stop here for now as I've laid out the argument, and I'll unpack it in a blog later this week. Keep posted, and thank you all for reading.
Well I'm ripping this blog off of part of my sermon this past Sunday, so any HCC people, you'll recognize it and probably fall asleep (lol--ok I didn't really 'lol', nor did i chuckle).
Sermon Sunday was on Ephesians 6:1-9, which is the section Paul uses to unpack now children are to relate to their parents and how workers (slaves in the original context) are to relate to their bosses (masters). Of course, the over-riding theme throughout the entire 5:22-6:9 section in Ephesians is the same over-riding theme prevalent all throughout the Scriptures: In view of God's holiness and mercy shown most through Christ Jesus' work, do this (whatever this is). A lot of people assume the Bible is just a list of rules by which to abide so that God won't punish us or be mean to us. Of course, there have been many Christians over the years who portrayed the Gospel in these terms, so I can't totally blame the people who wrongly assume that. It should also be understood that all of us, before we receive Christ, are in rebellion to God and actually are enemies of God. Paul says in Romans 5:10 that we who have Christ have been reconciled to God, even though we were enemies of God. He then goes on in Romans 8:7 to say that those who's minds are set on the flesh are hostile to God, since their mind "does not submit to God's law; indeed it can not." We could go on, but my point is that although some Christians have done a bad job at portraying the God of love, ALL non-Christians are in rebellion against God's holiness and even if Christians were to present the God of love better, portrayed most gloriously in the face of Jesus Christ, most non-Christians (if not all) would still find some reason to not believe--because they're in rebellion unless the Holy Spirit does the work of awakening their hearts to Christ (which we pray for and seek to model in our lives as ambassadors of reconciliation).
All this to say that the context in the Ephesians passage is that those of us who claim to have Christ, who "have learned Christ" (Eph. 4:20), have "put off the old self" (4:22), are "children of light" (5:8), and are working to "understand what the will of the Lord is" (5:17), don't just follow the rules because we want to appease an angry and vengeful God--we follow them because Christ already followed all the rules and went to the cross to make a final sacrifice for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God, and now we follow His rules because we WANT to. You can look all throughout Deuteronomy 6 to hear Moses talking about how all of God's laws are for our good, and are to be followed in response to His goodness and provision.
In closing the sermon Sunday, I felt it best to head back to Jesus' telling of "the Great Commandment" in Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus says it's to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength", and then He continues on with another command that is apparently to follow in succession, to "love your neighbor as yourself". When referring to 'the Great Commandment', people typically speak of both commandments, even though Jesus said the first is the greatest and the second is second. Nevertheless, the fact that He says both means that the second is to be critically understood and followed. This relates to the discussion at hand because at the end of the day, Paul's concern throughout Ephesians is that we treasure what God's done for us FIRST, and then act it out in our relationships with each other SECOND, which seems synonymous with what Jesus said.
The point of this blog post today is summed up in this one statement: The Great Commandment is sufficient to explain ALL that God wants from us (Jesus said it is), but in order to understand what it means to be ministers of the Gospel, we have to continually keep watch over our following of the WHOLE Commandment. What I mean is this: While we are to love God with the whole of our entire self, we clearly MUST have a love for our neighbor which flows from our love for God. At the same time, while we are to love our neighbor, our concern for them must never eclipse our concern for the holiness and glory of God.
It may sound like I'm speaking obvious things that don't need to be emphasized, but I don't think I am (obviously, I wouldn't be saying it otherwise). I'm convinced that one of the chief failures of city churches (I'm a pastor in a city church) is that they've either leaned too heavily on one half of the Great Commandment, or leaned too heavily on the other half.
What I mean is this: In seeking to do Gospel ministry, many people have become so concerned with God's holiness and following His rules, that they've neglected the work of loving their neighbor and caring for them. On the flip-side, many others have become so concerned with caring for and loving their neighbor, they aren't concerned in the least bit with God's holiness and truly loving Him with their whole being.
Since I don't want to write a blog as long as my last one for fear of having something that's so excruciatingly long-winded that people take one look and click 'x', I'll stop here for now as I've laid out the argument, and I'll unpack it in a blog later this week. Keep posted, and thank you all for reading.
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