Jesus Is My President; John 17-19

May the mumbling commence!

Here we are on the cusp of Holy Week.  Today’s reading came from John chapters seventeen through nineteen.  I have always found the trail of Jesus before Pilate challenging and revealing.  Read it below from John chapters eighteen and nineteen:

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" 

"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?" 

"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?" 

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." 

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." 

"What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him.  But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?" 

They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion. 

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.  The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. 

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him."  When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" 

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"

But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him." 

The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." 

When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.  "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" 

Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." 

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar."  

When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).  It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. 

But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"

"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.

"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered. (18:33-19:15)

Where do you find yourself in this story?  Do you join the soldiers who mocked the royalty of Christ?   

Do you join Pilate in his bitterness and misunderstanding (“What is truth?”), or in his heady use of power (I have the power to free you or crucify you)? 

Do you join the crowd mentality and call for violent revolution rather than the love of enemies that Jesus professed and lived?  Do you dismiss the godly reign of good will and shout crucify?  Is violence the only language we understand?  Do we also dismiss the divinity and royalty of Jesus the Christ and claim another king – PRESIDENT? 

Let us stand this presidential election year and proclaim that God is our true King, from whom we seek truth and peace.  Let us proclaim Jesus as the Prince of Peace.  And, regardless of who is in the White House now or in the next four years, our true King and President of Peace is Jesus.  We have nothing to fear, for Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world – which is rapidly disintegrating. 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

Steeped in the Holy Spirit; John 13-16

May the mumbling commence!

Did you ever want the recipe to be steeped in the Holy Spirit of God?  In Jesus’ farewell speech recorded in the gospel according to John, Jesus gives us the active ingredients.  Read from John chapter fourteen:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." 

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" 

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 

All this I have spoken while still with you.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (Verses 15-27)

Active ingredient number one: be obedient.  Do what Jesus commands.  Doing what Jesus commands is how we show love to him. 

It means welcoming Jesus into even the darkest and most remote areas of our lives.  It means entering into the foreign world of Jesus.  In this welcoming and entering ingredient, we become totally encompassed by God the Father. 

So, what does Jesus command of us?  Read from John chapter fifteen:

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  This is my command: Love each other.” (Verses 9-17)

Remain, abide, in Jesus the one true vine.  The Greek word is menno.  Gives a whole new meaning for the denomination of Mennonites, doesn’t it?  Abide, remain, menno in Christ’s love.  Christ commands us to love one another as he loved us.  That means a conscious choice to sacrifice our own perceived wellbeing for the wellbeing of other people. 

Wow!  That message to love one another – didn’t I spend several days mining the word love in First John?  Here it is again.  It is a thread that runs not only through John and First John but also through the entire Bible.  Repetition means something is important in the Bible and in life in general.  Threads are even more important than repetition.

So, here they are, the active ingredients in a life steeped in God’s Holy Spirit: 1) Obey God’s commands, 2) love one another, 3) remain in God’s love.  If we combine these active ingredients, we will fully welcome the Spirit of God into our lives. 

And a peace will reside – a peace that far exceeds anything that the world can give us.  It is a peace that endures through times of hardship, loss, and discouragement. It is a peace that grants full and rightful relationship amongst God and all creation. 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out  

Death's Bad Odor Is Removed; John 9-12

May the mumbling commence!

We have reached another signpost in the gospel according to John.  The signpost came at the wake for a dear friend.  Read about it from John chapter 11:

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.  "Take away the stone," he said.

"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." 

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." 

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"  The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." 

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. (Verses 38-45)

In Israel’s past, there had been prophets who have raised people from the dead – like Elijah raising the widow of Zarephath’s son from the dead.  Even Jesus had raised others from the dead.  What made Lazarus’ raising from the dead special? 

Lazarus had been dead for four days.  Four days was a significant amount of time.  Martha spoke of the stench of death.  At the benchmark of four days, Jewish thought was there was no hope for a person to return from death.  This sign teaches us that with Jesus there is always hope.  Jesus, in his words and actions, sheds a light on the glory of God.

Even so, we must show our faith.  They took away the stone.  What stones need to be removed from our mental or spiritual lives?  What do we think is impossible in our lives?  Do we say along with Moses that we cannot lead God’s people?  Do we need a logical and scientific way of grounding our faith?  Do we say that we cannot be disciplined enough to steep ourselves in the Scriptures or prayer or meditation or Scripture memory on a consistent basis?

With God, all these things are possible.  Let us remove the stones that keep our lives of faith from taking off.  With God, all things are possible.  When Jesus called out at the tomb, he called Lazarus by name.  He called Lazarus by name because there were many dead in the tomb area.  If Jesus had simply said come out, there might have been quite a resurrection of people who were long dead.

The dead man came out.  You and I, without Jesus in our lives, are dead men and women walking.  Our only future is death.  When we respond to the call of Jesus and believe, we embark on the only path to eternal life.

There will be grave clothes to remove.  We must help one another remove grave clothes – those things in our lives that lead to our physical and spiritual destruction.  Our grave clothes immobilize us.  Our hands and feet are bound.  We cannot properly feel.  Our faces are shrouded so that we cannot properly see or hear or smell or taste.

And we can help one another in our fellowship with Jesus.  Satan may whisper into our ears that we cannot, but Satan will be whispering in his native tongue – lies and deceit.  Through the work of Jesus the Christ, we are free to go – free to serve in obedience to our Lord.

It is no wonder to me that many people put their faith in Jesus because of this signpost to God.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

Belief the Transcends Human Reason; John 5-8

May the mumbling commence!

In the gospel according to John, we are given signposts.  What are we expected to do with them?  It is a question that follows the third sign – the feeding of the five-thousand.  Read the third sign as recorded in chapter six of John:

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.  Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.  The Jewish Passover Feast was near. 

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"  He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 

Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" 

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" 

Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them.  Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."  So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 

After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." (Verses 1-14)

This sign was primarily for the disciples.  When doing the work of God, Jesus’ disciples could easily get overwhelmed.  In fact, being overwhelmed is one sign that you are doing the work of God. 

This sign calls us to look beyond our own meager resources to the boundless resources of God.  Give thanks for our meager resources, hold onto them loosely, and distribute them generously.  Then, prepare for the provision of God, and waste nothing. 

The people who were fed sought out Jesus again, and Jesus pointed them to God.  The people asked how they were to respond.  Read the exchange below that happens later in John six:

Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" 

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." 

So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?  Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 

"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." (Verses 28-34)

The work that God requires is belief in the One He sent – Jesus the Christ.  Who is Jesus?  What defines him?  Read from John chapter eight:

So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.  The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." (Verses 28-29)

Jesus is free to make a choice, and he chooses obedience to his Father’s will.  Obedience alone pleases God.  That is difficult to do when we think of things in human terms.  The followers of Jesus got caught up in this very trap.  Some were leaving Jesus.  So, Jesus asked the Twelve – his closest disciples – a question in John chapter six:

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.  "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. 

Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (Verses 66-69)

Indeed, there is no one else to go to find the truth, to find eternal life – even when the way seems foreign to us.  Belief that transcends human reason is imperative when we seek the divine truth. 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

Signposts to God; John 1-4

May the mumbling commence! 

Today, we begin our journey through the gospel according to John.  There is so much rich material in the first four chapters of John!  Where do I start?  I will take my cue from a pair of passages toward the end of John.  Read them below:

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (20:30-31)

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (21:25)

The author of John points his readers to signs of Jesus.  Two (and possibly a hidden third) signs are contained in the first four chapters of John.  I will focus on the two signposts to God that the author directly labels.  Read the first one from chapter two:

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." 

"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." 

His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 

Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. 

Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." 

This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. (Verses 1-11)

There are two miraculous things to ponder in this familiar water to wine story, and neither one of them is the physical changing of the water into wine.  First, the stone water jars were for ceremonial washing before meals.  By using these jars, Jesus was showing his disciples that he was better able to cleanse than the old traditions and customs of their elders. 

Secondly, the wine created from the water was the best till now.  Through the work of Jesus, the wine was the best yet.  Jesus surpassed the old traditions and customs because he was the first to fulfill them.  What a sign! 

Now, read the second sign from John chapter four:

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.  When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. 

"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe." 

The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." 

Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live."

The man took Jesus at his word and departed.  While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.  When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour." 

Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed. 

This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.  (Verses 46-54)

While Jesus’ first sign pointed to a greater life in quality and duration – eternal life with the Father – Jesus’ second sign points to God’s ability to heal deadly illnesses.  And the healing will come regardless of if we sense God’s presence through Jesus. 

Will we take Jesus at his word and act in faith?  In both signposts to God, people, through their faith, needed to accept Jesus at his word (the servants and the royal official). 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

All in the Family of Agape, Godly Love; First John

May the mumbling commence!

After today, we will move on to reading the gospel according to John.  Today, we will embrace the seventh day of First John and the fourth complete day of focusing on godly, agape love.  Godly, agape love has great power to transform us.  The agape love of God transforms us into children of God.  Read from First John chapter three:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (Verses 1-3)

God’s greatest expression of agape love was completed through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  Accept that love and be transformed.  Be adopted into the family of God as children.  What does it mean to be not only called the children of God but also to actually be the children of God?  We do not fully know.  That is what the author of First John tells us.

How do we seek a greater knowledge of what it means to be the children of God?  We seek to know Jesus through the Scriptures.  We seek to purify ourselves through the Word of God.  It is a continuous process that never is finished.  How else can we seek to know Christ?  How else can we purify ourselves?  It means extending our love for God to the love for God’s children.  Read from First John chapter five:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.  This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.  This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (Verses 1-5)

Did you notice how this passage begins and ends with a statement of belief in Christ as the Son of God?  That is the starting point of our agape love for the people around us.  Love for God is shown be obeying his commands; and, as we have already seen this past week, God commands us to love one another.

Our belief in the agape love of God expressed through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has the power to overcome any obstacle that Satan may place in our path.  Let us overcome, with the grace of God, the barriers to truly love other people with agape love.  Let us remove the barriers of jealousy, of entitlement, and of fear. 

Perfect agape love drives our fear.  Fear has to do with punishment.  Fear has to do with the unknown.  Perfect agape love eventually makes all things known.  And when we know Jesus as he is, we have no reason to fear.

What a grand ideal to be called to godly, agape love!  Let us start on that path together.

Today, we say goodbye to First John – for now.  I look forward to coming back again later.  There is so much more to learn from First John.  We truly have only begun to scratch the surface of the wonderful teachings for eternal life in First John.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Love Is Not... A Craving or Lust; First John

May the mumbling commence!

Welcome to day six of reading First John.  This is the third full day of defining a godly love.  So far, I have focused on what godly love is.  Today, I want to focus on what godly love is not.  Read from First John chapter two:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (Verses 15-17) 

Now, this passage can get potentially confusing.  On the surface, it looks like there is contradiction within the writings of First John and the gospel according to John.  Remember John 3:16?  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  If God loves the world, why are we called not to love the world?

Let’s look to the third sentence of this passage.  The third sentence defines the world as cravings and lust.  In the US, we have blurred the lines of true love with what are truly cravings or lust.  Think about some of the statements I make about my various loves…  “I love spaghetti.”  This kind of love is not the godly love that God calls us to through the Scriptures.  I would better say, “I crave spaghetti.” 

Or, I may see someone attractive to me and say, “I am falling in love with her.”  I might say this and not even know the person.  I may have never even met her.  I may have only seen an image of her or a video.  This kind of love is not the godly love that God calls us to through Scriptures.  I would better say, “I lust for her.”  I cannot truly love someone until I start on the process of knowing them.  Then I begin thinking about the world not as an object to fulfill my desires but as a part of God’s creation that has needs of her own.

In biblical Greek, there is no such blurring.  Greek has different words that designate the different types of love.  The godly love is expressed in the Greek word agape.  Agape, which you may or may not have heard of, is unconditional love that seeks out the concerns and interests of other people.  When the author of First John speaks of love, he exclusively uses this word.  Agape love touches deeply, where no other kind of love can.

There are other types of love.  There is phileo, which means friendly or brotherly affection.  This word is the basis for the name of the city Philadelphia – the city of brotherly love.  This phileo love can touch us deeply, too.

There is eros, which means sexual love.  We get our word of erotic from it.  Within the right context – marriage – eros can touch us deeply, too.  Each of these can make inroads to our spirit.  They can all feel like promptings of the spirit.  But they are not always promptings of God’s Holy Spirit.  That is one reason why the author of First John pleads with his readers to test the spirits.  Read from First John chapter four:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. (Verses 1-3)    

Love is a deeply spiritual part of us.  It is far too easy for us to confuse agape with phileo and eros.  We must test our love to see if it is godly agape love.  We must ask ourselves, “Would this love I am called to lead me to do things the Christ of God would approve of?  Is the focus of the love God?  If we can answer these questions yes, then we have found a way to illustrate the greatest love of all – agape love.  Agape love is godly love.

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

Love is... A Choice. First John

May the mumbling commence!

Day five in First John is upon us.  Did you think that this short five chapter book would get old?  I do not believe we’ve even scratched the surface yet.  Yesterday, I looked at how God defines love – as sacrifice.  We are not to hate our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are to love them.  What does this look like?  Read from First John chapter three:

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.  Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.  Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.  Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (Verses 11-18)

Why would the author of First John point to the story of Cain and Abel?  Cain offered God some of the fruits of his garden, while Abel offered the firstborn of his animals.  Cain was envious about God’s affectionate reception of Abel’s gifts because God did not look with favor on Cain’s gifts. 

How were Cain’s actions evil?  Did Cain offer God his leftover produce rather than the best of his produce – the firstfruits?  Second best is not good enough for someone you love.  Second best is often not a sacrifice.

On top of all this action, the author of First John wanted us to realize the lie that Cain assumed.  Here is the lie: I can judge my relationship with God by watching the relationship that God has with those around me.  No.  My relationship with God is judged by keeping my focus on God and His commands.  My call is to follow Jesus and no one else. 

It is all too easy to fall into this trap of looking at others.  Peter did after he was reinstated at the end of John’s gospel (21:20-22).  And that call to follow Jesus cannot be separated from the call to love our brothers and sisters.  Do not forget the thrice repeated question that Jesus posed to Peter in John (21:15-17) – “Do you love me..?  Feed my sheep.”

Yes, love is a sacrifice.  And in that sacrifice there is a choice that is implied.  Love is a conscious choice to leave selfish hatred behind and to pick up sacrifice.  The author of First John tells us to hate someone is like murdering them.  Sounds kind of harsh, doesn’t it.  That is a lofty goal.  Does it reflect Jesus’ way?  Read from the Sermon on the Mount from the gospel according to Matthew:

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'   But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, 'is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (5:21-22)

Time to leave hatred behind for love.  And love is a choice to hold our possession lightly because we know that they really do not belong to us.  “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”  Love is a choice that calls for action.  If we see someone in need and have the ability to help them and choose not to, we call short of the lofty goal of a godly love. 

By loving other people, we love Jesus.  It is the message of the parable recorded in Matthew chapter twenty-five, the parable of the sheep and goats.  Love is a sacrifice.  Love is a choice.  Let us choose to focus on Christ and to love him by loving all our brothers and sisters.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out