Thursday, August 25, 2011

1st John: The Word of God Lives in You

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 08/21/2011

[Play video: 1 John 2v12-14…]

 

12I am writing to you, dear children,

because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

13I am writing to you, fathers,

because you know him who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young people,

because you have overcome the evil one.

14I write to you, dear children,

because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers,

because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young people,

because you are strong,

the word of God lives in you,

and you have overcome the evil one.

1 John 2:12-14

Plagiarizing from Mars Hill, and Rob Bell today. Started our series before they did, but Rob spoke about this text in a way that spoke to my heart. I want you to have the best that I can give you. And much of what he said, and even some of the ways he said it, is the best that I can give you. Send complaints to me, and props to him…

A reminder of where we find ourselves in this letter…

It began with:

Witness

(breathless excitement, the encounter with and experience of eternal zoe life)

Invitation

(have fellowship with us, this is for you, join us)

<Then a pause for breath>

Instruction/teaching

(light and darkness, sin, confession, forgiveness)

Comfort

(my dear children, the pause that refreshes)

Correction/Rebuke/Reminder

(no room for hate, it all boils down to love)

<Now a shift, a new tone.>

Like a teacher, at a key moment, who knows that the learning now depends on something else, something beyond the material, beyond the classroom and the work. You need to know why I am saying this to you. You need to know something about yourselves that you might not know, but I do. I see something in you. Because I believe in you.

So why is John pouring himself into this community of Jesus’ followers? Because it’s his job? Is it because he wants to leave a legacy? Is it even because God told him too? Or is it because he can see something of what God has done in them, because he believes in them, because by being a part of what is happening in them, he gets to be part of something awesome.

Because your sins have been forgiven

Because You know God

Because You are strong

Because the word of God lives in you

And because you have overcome the evil one.

Your sins have been forgiven

You know God

You are strong

The word of God lives in you

And you have overcome the evil one

I write because your sins have been forgiven,

apheontai, sent away. Gone, not here any more, dismissed.

I write because you know,

gnosko - first hand personal experience, a knowing that is deeper than head knowledge, heart knowledge, the way you know your favorite voice.

I write to you because you are strong

Ischuros, powerful, mighty, like the wind in a storm, like Jesus’ weeping in the garden of gestemene, like an angel casting boulders in the sea, like a fully armed man guarding his dwelling.

I write to you because the word of God lives in you

ho logos ho theos, the word that created the universe, that speaks light into being, that healed the blind, that sustains every living thing, Jesus himself who holds all things together, the song that undergirds the universe.

I write because you have overcome,

neNikekate, a battle that’s already been won, victory in the past whose effects spill into the present and the future.

I write because you have overcome the evil one,

poneros, the evil one, or evil, but also the pain sweat and sorrow that come with evil

[Volunteers / 3 to speak and 3 to hear]

___________________,

Your sins have been sent away

You know God

You are strong

The word of God lives in you

And you have overcome the evil one

The good news is the disruptive announcement of who you really are, in Christ, what has really happened, in Christ, what is true about reality, in Christ, whether or not it feels true [Thanks, Rob!]. The announcement itself disrupts the darkness, unravels it.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16

Who believes. Not assents to it in their head, but who acts in trust of it.

It may not be true, but it’s True.

In receiving it, the good news takes root in you.

The word takes on flesh and blood and comes to us.

And more often than we realize, we are the flesh and blood the word takes on to come to others.

Set up Blood diamond clip…

Child kidnapped from African village, turn him into child soldier, brainwash him, train him to be a killing machine. Father, Solomon Vandy, sets out to find his boy. While the searching continues, the boy is corrupted further and further. At the end, the father finally reaches this boy, holding a gun, and realizes it is his son, Dia.

[Play Blood Diamond clip…]

“You are Dia Vendy, of the proud Mende tribe.

You are a good boy who loves soccer and school.

I know they made you do bad things,

but you are not a bad boy.

I am your father who loves you.

And you will come home with me

and be my son again.”

Gospel of John full of “believe”, 86 times. Believe in Jesus, believe in his good news of the kingdom. Believe as in trust, as in act in confidence that it’s true.

Some of us are being called to announce the good news in this very practical, simple way John does, with new clarity and confidence, towards others.

How would that change the way you raise your kids? Serve in children’s ministry? Youth ministry? Compassion Ministry? Lead your small group? Love your spouse? Your friends?

What basis does John have for saying it? He loves, and he abides in the light. That’s it. That’s enough. This is what we can see to be true about reality, about those we love, when we see in the light of the Gospel.

Your sins have been sent away

You know God

You are strong

The word of God lives in you

And you have overcome the evil one

[this is why I pastor the Vineyard Church of Milan…]

Some of us are being invited today to receive this good news, in a very simple, practical way, with new clarity and confidence, from others.

Your sins have been sent away

You know God

You are strong

The word of God lives in you

And you have overcome the evil one

[Invitation to come forward and have these words spoken to you as you receive communion…]

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

1st John: Unblinded by Love

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 08/14/2011

MLK, jr. “We believe as Christians that the end is pre-existent in the means.”

Kindness to kids vs. harshness, Sabbath rhythms vs. crazy schedules, love vs. hate especially.

3By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

7Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. 9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 2:1-11 NASB

Recap “guarding the commandments” with respect to Jesus’ command to love one another…

By this we know that we have come to know him, if we guard his commandments to love each other. 3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we guard His commandments to love one another. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not guard His commandments to love one another as he has loved us, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word to love each other, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to wash others’ dirty feet and lay down his life for his friends in the same manner as Jesus washed our dirty feet and laid down his life for us.

Today unpacking the next paragraph. Why is loving one another so important? Why does hate blind us so effectively?

Love is what we do when we can see reality clearly, as it really is, and when we love, our eyes are kept bright and clear. Hate, on the other hand, is a natural byproduct of living in shadow, and when we hate, we develop blinding cataracts.

[native American grandfather parable / two wolves…]

Before we explore those ideas in more explicitly, let’s just work through this paragraph to get a sense of what it’s basically saying.

7Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

In other words, when John commands us to guard Jesus’ command to love one another, to never let the Love stop placing her demands on us, to attend carefully to Jesus’ instructions to love each other as he first loved us, John isn’t saying something we’ve never heard before. John is saying that we’ve been under instruction to do this for a long, long time – from the beginning, in fact.

The word “heard” here perhaps is a hint to us as to what John is driving at. The word “heard” brings to mind the “Shema,” a prayer prayed daily by every Jewish person. The word “Shema” means “Hear” and it comes from the first word of the prayer, a prayer based on Deuteronomy 6. The people of Israel, when they first were rescued from slavery and were being formed into a nation of free people, were commanded this by Moses:

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

On your hearts, impressed on your children, talk about them at home, when you walk, when you lie down, when you wake up, tie them on your hands, put them on your foreheads, doorframes, gates…? This is a picture of guarding these commandments, isn’t it?

In fact, this is the commandment referenced by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, when Jesus says that the first and greatest commandment is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…” Which Jesus then follows with, “And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the new commandment that John writes about when he says:

On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.

In other words, Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, although it’s very old commandment, has been cast in a whole new light by Jesus. When Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself, to love one another as he has loved us, he’s showing us that loving God and loving others are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other, and they are in fact, the same commandments seen in fresh, resurrection light. Because God is love, and because God’s image is stamped on every human being on the planet.

John is saying that this commandment to love others is being truly expressed in Jesus, and his church – that’s the “in you” bit. Because the way Jesus kept the command to love God was by becoming our brother and loving us. Because Jesus said that others will know we are his students, his disciples, by our love for each other.

And then John goes on this riff about light and darkness and loving and hating, because he wants to flesh out what he’s saying in the most practical and powerful of terms.

Remember, John uses light and darkness as a way of talking about seeing reality as it really it vs. living under illusion, because he understands Jesus as someone who came to shine a light in dark places, to help us see the world and the kingdom of God as it really is, so that we wouldn’t be living in a false illusion that comes from the enemy of our souls about how the world works, about who God is, about who we are.

So we might paraphrase the paragraph this way:

7Beloved, this isn’t anything new, but the same thing you’ve been trying to live out and understand your whole lives, even though maybe you couldn’t see it as clearly as you can now. 8 On the other hand, now that Jesus has shown us what loving God really looks like in action, and now that we’re starting to gets hints of it in our relationships with each other, it’s as if a brand new thing is happening. Because the false illusions about the world being a place where only the strong and powerful and religious superstars succeed, where evil wins in the end, and the false illusions about God being aloof and distant, or only loving the ones who have what it takes to impress him, and the false illusions about us being worthless unless we can achieve something valuable have been shattered by Jesus – God’s own Son – coming into the world announcing good news about how the world is really a place where blessings are poured out on rich and poor, strong and weak alike, where humility and vulnerability and love defeat evil in the end, the good news that God loves even his enemies and is pouring out forgiveness like it’s going out of style, the good news that God is getting involved in our mess because he cares about us so much, overcoming evil not with stronger evil, but with good, and with kindness, and with mercy, and by sacrificing himself, the good news that the only thing that gives us worth is that he loves us because we are his children, and there is no way to earn his love, but rather simply something to be received and generously given away. 9 The one who says that he sees the world, and God, and people as they really are and yet hates his brother is still living in the grip of false illusions. 10 The one who loves everyone he sees has his feet firmly planted in the reality of the world as it really is, and is seeing God as he truly is, and is seeing himself the way God sees him and others the way God sees them, and there are no invisible stumbling blocks about to catch his feet unawares and make him come crashing down to unreality. 11But the one who hates anyone for any reason is somehow stuck in a false illusion about how the world works, or who God is, or who people are, himself included, and lives as if that illusion is true, and can’t see where his steps are going to lead because straining his eyes trying to see in those illusions has caused them to be filled with blinding cataracts.

Consider for a moment what’s going on when you hate someone.

Usually they have done, or are doing, or you expect they might someday do something that threatens your well-being. Anything from making you feel less than to working against your goals to injuring you to taking something valuable from you.

As a result, you lose all goodwill toward them. In hate’s embryonic form, you lose the desire to participate in blessing them. And hate has two full-grown forms. The most obvious is when you are filled with the desire to participate in cursing them. And the second, and slightly less obvious, is to become indifferent. What we might call disdain, scorn, or contempt. Perhaps saying, “You’re dead to me.”

Why does John say that if you hate anyone in any of these ways that you are walking in darkness, that darkness has blinded your eyes?

Because, for one, our well-being can only be threatened if we accept the illusion that the way the world works is that success and blessing only come to those who can secure it for themselves. If we accept the illusion that God is distant and aloof, unconcerned with or incompetent to provide for our well-being. If we accept the illusion that there is some possibility evil will win out in the end.

And secondly, because every form of hate towards a person requires us to stand in judgment above another person. And as soon as we stand up above another person – determining whether or not they deserve blessing – we have taken God’s place in the world. And we only try to take God’s place when we accept the illusion that this world needs a new god to work properly, the illusion that God’s throne is empty, the illusion that some of us human beings are fit to sit in it.

And the danger is that if we accept any of these illusions and embrace hate towards even one other person – even if we love everybody else really well – a cataract begins to form in our eyes. And soon enough, because we are blinded to reality as it really is, our love starts to be based in illusion as well, and it ceases to be connected to God’s love. Our love becomes conditional; everyone at risk of our hate

On the other hand…

10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

The Greek word that gets translated “cause for stumbling” is skandalon, the word from which we get “scandal.” It’s more literal meaning is the moveable stick or trigger of a trap or a snare, and it was often used to refer to a rock that would cause someone to stumble – a stumbling block.

In other words, when you have unconditional goodwill towards others, you are seeing reality as it really is, and you can walk forward with confidence, knowing that if anything comes in your path to trip you up, you’ll be able to see it. When you love others, you are firmly grounded in reality. You can see that this world is a place in which no one can threaten your well-being, because Jesus has shown us that the world is God-breathed and God-drenched, and forgiveness and favor are flooding over the face of the earth, and with God’s coming kingdom is coming justice and the setting right of all things, and every person is a brother or sister, an image-bearer of the loving God waiting to be rescued and revealed. You can see God’s goodwill toward you, and see that the goodwill he has toward you is the same as the goodwill he has towards the people you were hating, and you can see that the only way to welcome the love he has towards you is to welcome the love he has towards them, too.

Practical Tips:

With respect to a person you hate:

1. Admit that you are blind to some aspect of reality and ask Jesus to show you what that is. Maybe you feel threatened. Maybe you think God hates them too. Maybe you can’t see anything good in them.

2. FROM MLK, JR: A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points… That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.

3. FROM MLK, JR: Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must not do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.

With respect to those you are loving:

1. Guard your love against becoming conditional… Your love for your family, your friends, the people you serve in ministry. Conditional love is the beginning of the cataract. Ask yourself this question: what could they do or not do to cause me to no longer desire to rejoice if they rejoice, or to mourn if they mourn?

2. Guard your loving actions against becoming disconnected from your love for God or your love for people.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

1st John: Guard the Goal

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 08/07/2011

3By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

7Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. 9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 2:1-11 NASB

We will spend a couple of weeks in this passage, just getting our feet wet today.

Chose this translation (New American Standard Bible) over the one in your seats because it’s a little more word for word faithful to the original Greek in which these words were first written, and with respect to one key word in particular, preserves an important nuance. The word that the NASB keeps that I want to highlight today is “keep.” It shows up 3 times in the first paragraph, always connected to Jesus’ commandments.

“Keep” comes from the Greek word “tereo” [tay-reh-o]. It means to attend to carefully, to take care of, to guard.

Like in the movies when someone finally catches someone important, and they give someone a gun and say, keep an eye on him. Don’t let him escape. And you know the plot is going to turn on whether or not this person with the gun is going to be able to stay vigilant and guard them effectively or not. Will they get distracted? Fall asleep? Succumb to the charms of the prisoner?

Or like when the baby gets dropped off with the bachelor by the desperate single mom on the run, with instructions to take care of the baby. And you know the plot is going to hinge on how carefully this bachelor can attend to this baby, how well he can take care of it. Will he know what do when she cries? Will he know how to change the diaper, what kind of food to give it, how to talk to it, get it to sleep, on and on and on.

Or maybe like a goalie.

[volunteer to guard the aisle throughout the sermon; don’t let anything get past!...]

This idea of keeping, of attending to carefully, of taking care of, of guarding Jesus’ commandments is central to what the author of 1st John wants this outpost of Jesus’ followers to do. If you want to know God, if you want to be filled with truth, if you want his love to be made perfect in you, if you want to be deeply connected to Jesus like a branch is to a vine, you’ve got to tereo / keep / guard his commandments.

So hold that thought, and we’ll come back to it a little later.

This is the kind of passage that, when you first read it, makes you want to say, “Yes!” followed by, “Um, what exactly is that all about?”

Ever have a conversation with someone where you felt like you were with them all the way along, nodding your head in agreement, etc. and then you get to the end and you say, wait a minute, what exactly were you talking about this whole time?

[Ronni and the Collie…]

This passage is a little like that. It doesn’t get specific until verse 9, does it?

Maybe we hear verse 3, and we nod because we insert our own understanding of commandments that indicate that we know Jesus, an understanding that makes the best sense to us.

And same with verse 4. We know what makes people liars, empty of truth.

And in verse 5 we’ve got a pretty good idea of what word we are supposed to keep to demonstrate that God’s love is perfected in us.

And in verse 6 we’ve got ideas about how we are supposed to walk like Jesus’ walked.

But then in verses 7 & 8, things get a little muddy and our minds are scrambling to keep up, to keep it all coherent. Not new, old? Not old, new? Huh?

And then, all of sudden, the author of 1st John seems to change gears, throws a wrench in the works. You say you’re in the light, but you hate your brother? You’re really in darkness. But love your brother, and you are living in Light and walking tall. Seriously, if you hate your brother, you are blind and confused.

It makes us a do a double take on everything we read before. Which commandments were you talking about at the beginning? Did they have something to do with love and hate? What word was I supposed to keep? What manner of walking is required of me to abide in God? What command is not new but very old and new at the same time, true in Jesus and true in us?

It would almost be helpful to be a brand new Christian reading the bible for the first time. Because then you’d be asking these questions immediately, making no assumptions, and you’d get to verses 9-11 and recognize, aha! verses 9-11 give you the interpretive key to everything that comes before.

Aha! The author is saying that loving and not hating is related to true knowledge of God. That hating and not loving goes against what it means be intimate with truth. That loving and not hating is what happens when God’s love is made complete in someone. That to be connected to Jesus is to be loving people the way Jesus loved people. That loving and not hating isn’t a new idea; it’s something God’s been saying for a long, long time – from the beginning, really, in a thousand different ways. But it’s also something that seems completely fresh and new because of what we can now see clearly in and through Jesus, and that the world can see in and through us in a brand new way.

Remember, 1st John is written to a community of Jesus’ followers shaped by the account of the life and ministry of Jesus contained in the gospel of John, and 1st John serves as a commentary on that gospel.

Look at John’s gospel, chapter 13. This is what Jesus says at the last supper before he is arrested and taken away to be crucified. Shortly after he has washed the disciples’ feet for them.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:34

And then, later that same night:

9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17This is my command: Love each other.

John 15:9-17

Now 1st John 2 begins to come together, doesn’t it?

By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments to love each other. 3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments to love one another. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments to love one another as he has loved us, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word to love each other, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to wash others’ dirty feet and lay down his life for his friends in the same manner as Jesus washed our dirty feet and laid down his life for us.

I can anticipate one common objection to this reading of the text.

And that is that it is just a little too vague, and therefore a little too easy. After all, what does it really mean to love one another? Couldn’t people just say, chill man, I love everybody. It’s all good. I’ll just live and let love. Love, love, love everywhere. Cool. I mean, after all, the Dude abides, right?

In response to that objection, allow me to quote my dad.

“Love is the most ruthlessly demanding thing.”

If we think loving one another is too vague, and potentially the easy way out, it’s either because we misunderstand love, or because we haven’t thought enough about the ruthless demands of love.

Look at what love demanded of Jesus. Letting go of his seat on the throne of heaven. Inhabiting skin and bones. Having parents. Fickle, thick-headed, headstrong, disloyal friends. Persecution. Death.

Ask Mother Teresa about the demands of love. Ask the parent of a child with a disability. Heck, ask the parent of a child in travel sports. Ask the child of a parent with a degenerative illness. Heck, ask the child of a parent with a new computer or trying to use facebook for the first time. Ask a missionary living far from home. Ask a married couple trying to make things work in the aftermath of alcoholism or infidelity or the death of child. Ask anyone trying to forgive someone who has hurt them deeply.

You set out on the way of love, and love will demand everything of you in the end. Your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.

Love

Demands trusting the good news.

Demands not embracing anger.

Demands forgiveness.

Demands generosity.

Demands a willingness to endure pain, discomfort.

Demands waiting and patience.

Demands growth.

Demands ever increasing definition of “us” or “family.”

Demands depending on God for strength and help.

Demands listening to the Holy Spirit for what now and how.

Demands refraining from judgment.

Demands our time,

our money,

our energies,

the whole of our lives.

It’s not so much about perfect fidelity; it’s about carefully attending / guarding the command to love one another. To love your neighbor as yourself. To love your enemy.

Not letting the command slip away, or be forgotten, or silenced, or ignored, or lost in the shuffle of other important things.

Looking at the command, always keeping it in view, living with it as a daily companion. Always listening to it, letting it speak to you, interrupt you. Making your life revolve around it.

[ask a few questions of the “goalie” about his/her experience guarding the aisle…]

Guarding Jesus’ command to love one another allows it to continue making demands on you.

Because otherwise, we will abandon it and substitute other things for it. Things that are less demanding. Like a religion of rules, for example. Do this and this and this and this, and as long as you do those things and not these things, you’re good and can go about your life.

But if we guard Jesus’ command to love one another, we will know God. Our lives will tell fewer and fewer lies about who God is and who we are, and we will become true image bearers again, as Jesus is. The truth will be in us. The love of God will be made complete. We will abide in the vine. We will be a Vineyard church.

Practical Tips:

1. Invite Love’s demands. Invite love to make a demand on you this week. Every morning, a simple prayer. Jesus, I want to know what love demands of me today. Every night, a simple reflection. What demand did love put in front of me today?

2. Make this passage specific. Read this passage once a day, substituting specific people in the appropriate places, starting with those closest to you on day one, and further out each day. For example, on Monday: “By this we know we have come to know Jesus, by guarding his commands to love Ronni and Colin and Elle and Micah. The one who says, I have come to know Jesus, but does not guard his commands to love Ronni and Colin and Elle and Micah is a liar, and the truth is not in him….” Then Tuesday, maybe Mom and Dad and Maja and Amy and Judy and Grace. Then Wednesday maybe my friends. Then maybe others in the church. Then maybe other pastors or colleagues. Then maybe my neighbors. And so on. Until I’ve included the people in Texas, and China, and Russia, and Iraq, and Ghana, and Turkey, and Jordan, and Columbus, Ohio.

3. Confess a breach. This command is under constant attack in our lives, from every angle and with every weapon. If we aren’t vigilant in guarding the Lord’s command to love one another (and sometimes, even when we are but our best efforts are good enough), our hearts will grow cold towards certain people, or maybe even hot with hate, and we will cease to listen to the demands of love toward them. They may be close (a friend, a spouse, a child, a parent) or more distant (a co-worker, a boss, an old acquaintance, someone else in the church who you just don’t care for, for one reason or another, an enemy, certain kinds of strangers – democrats, republicans, rich people, poor people, gays, teenagers, foreign car drivers, buckeye fans). Simply name them out loud before God (and if you’re brave enough, a trusted friend) and recite this passage, but putting that person’s name in the appropriate places: “By this we know we have come to know Jesus, by guarding his commands to love Bob. The one who says, I have come to know Jesus, but does not guard his commands to love Bob is a liar, and the truth is not in him….”