Jesus gave us one new command:
“I want you to love each other in the very same way that I love you.”
(John 13:34)
This is not complicated, just impossible. Well, not exactly impossible since “with Christ, all things are possible,” which really gets to the crux and the answer of how we love others like Jesus does. The perfect love of Christ in and through us does it. The life of Christ in us is the true vine that sprouts branches of the very same substance which produces exquisite fruit—mostly love—just so long as we don’t wander from the only source of our life. This love is the fruit of the Tree of Life (Jesus) in the garden of Eden we were always meant to eat of as we enjoy deep intimate connection with our heavenly Father. The very same Father who “was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself and no longer counting anyone’s sins against them.” (2 Cor 5:19)
Is it possible to wander from this source of life? While nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, we can act in an independent way when we try to do life on our own terms (the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) instead of enjoying our intimate connection. That independence is the work of our selfish ego, that we also call the flesh, trying to run the show. When our flesh tries to be the director of our own play, it gets U-G-L-Y! In case you weren’t aware, our flesh really likes to be right…as in all the time. And this means that someone else is necessarily wrong and our flesh wants the other person to know all about it. Other ways of saying ‘right vs. wrong’ is ‘who’s in and who’s out?’ or ‘who’s us and who’s not us?’
But in Christ, there’s only us! “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). When Jesus included all of us in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:10, 1 Corinthians 15:22), he ended all the ways our flesh wants to make ourself superior or to make another feel inferior in any way. This includes ethnicity, social class and even gender. Leveraging or putting others in their place is the world’s way and not the way of our Father’s kingdom.
In another passage, Paul makes a similar point: Where there was previously a hostility between Jews and Gentiles, Jesus made peace by creating in himself one new people from the two groups, reconciling both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, thus ending our hostility toward each other which was put to death. (Ephesians 2:14-16)
Did you see how this is something Jesus accomplished?
So, how do you love like Jesus? Instead of redoubling your efforts to try to love other people, you are invited to surrender to the person of Jesus within you and allow his love to change your heart first, flowing through you more and more unhindered. Then, you will have a sincere love for others with a love you didn’t even know you had! By surrendering to his Spirit and by agreeing that he already took your flesh/selfish ego to the cross, his life in you looks more and more like a very familiar description of love that we could accurately rephrase like this:
“Christ in me is patient and kind; Christ in me is not jealous or boastful;
Christ in me is not arrogant or rude. Christ in me does not insist on its own way; Christ in me is not irritable or resentful; Christ in me does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Christ in me bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things. Christ in me never ends.
His love for me and through me never fails!”
1 Cor 13:4-8 (based on RSV)
Take some time right now to entrust your heart to Jesus and surrender to his goodness in you. Invite Holy Spirit to lead you and to show you when your selfish ego/flesh tries to run the show. Now comes repentance: “I choose your Spirit to lead instead, Lord—your life in me—because I trust you to usher me into the freedom you promised!” | 
No comments:
Post a Comment