9/18/24

“Loving God . . . Loving Others . . .” 

We’ve embraced this as our mission from the very beginning, and it’s a good one because it comes straight out of the Bible. One of the scribes asked Jesus what was the first or the greatest commandment of all, and Jesus replied: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).

That’s it. There it is. “Loving God . . . Loving Others.” 

God has called us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. What does that mean? 

Think in terms of those whom you love and see – your spouse, maybe. If you love someone, you want to spend time with them. You want to please them. You would never do anything intentional to hurt them. In fact, especially if you are wooing someone, you’ll go to outrageous lengths to show by your actions that you love them. 

It’s the same with God. We don’t love God because we want to get something from God – that’s more like a narcissist than a lover. Like a cat rubbing up against your leg, the narcissist is not really interested in you, but in using you to make him or her feel good.  No, we love God because it’s the natural response to what God has done for us! 

Remember back to the hours you’d spend on the phone with your girlfriend/boyfriend. What would you talk about? Usually whatever they wanted to talk about. And you’d talk forever. Even the most trivial details are fascinating when you’re fascinated. And if you love someone, you’re interested in whatever they’re interested in. 

I had a friend who dated a guy who was from “out west,” and he fully embraced the cowboy lifestyle. She went horseback riding with him. She would pull the chute for him when he competed in rodeos. I said to her, with an arched eye and a good dose of skepticism, “I had no idea you were so into rodeos.” She told me, “I’m not. I’m into him.” 

But it's interesting (at least to me; maybe not to anyone else) that when a lot of people become Christians, they do so based on what they’re going to get: blessings in this life, heaven when we die. And that’s the way the gospel is “packaged” to bring others to Christ. 

One of the images of the Church in the New Testament is of the Bride of Christ. If this is a marriage, and Jesus is our “husband” then we married Jesus for his money, and we’re just trying to get written into the will so we can “get what’s coming to us.” When that’s the case, we’re not really concerned about what’s going on with the husband here – in fact, what’s going on with the husband really doesn’t matter to us, because we’re too busy seeing after our own narcissistic selves. 

Will we pray? Will we listen for God’s voice? Sure. When we need something. But we don’t want to spend time with our “husband” and have little interest in his Father’s business. Our motivations are what we’re getting, instead of love for God, and when our motivations are centered on what we get from God rather than from a loving relationship with God, what does that make us?

Christian gold-diggers. 

And then we turn around and turn others into Christian gold-diggers because that’s what we’ve been taught Christianity is all about: what can I get out of it.  

And when the blessings seem to dry up, or they face hardship of some kind, or the call to follow Christ gets inconvenient or contrary to what they think will satisfy their hearts, or they get some sort of bigger better deal, then they’re gone! 

Of course, all of this is the absolute opposite of what we at Christ Church believe Christianity to be about! 

We believe God is recreating this world and is inviting us to be part of the mission. God created us in his image, as his representatives on earth, and gave us the responsibility of ruling over his creation. That vocation hasn’t changed. When God raised Jesus from the dead, he launched a New Creation and wants us, as his representatives, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, helping to bring about God’s vision for the world. 

Being God’s representatives means we concern ourselves with the things that concern God. If we truly love God, then we will truly love others, because that’s who God loves.

Christianity is not about what we can get from God. Christianity is about the lives we live in response to what God has done for us. The blessings are icing on the cake!  Jesus is our Blessing. 

What would a church look like that is truly committed to “Loving God . . . Loving Others”? That’s the question we asked when we started Christ Church. And the answer?

What we’re seeing at Christ Church: a church whose desire is to both see and be the change the world desperately needs.  

Blessings,
Pastor Terry