Loving Others As Jesus Loves Us
Sometimes my spirit sinks when I hear certain things preached.
When you truly connect with the truth and the power of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, you realize that so many things that are
preached are nothing more than humanistic religion. So it is
with the topic, 'loving others,' -- or even better, 'loving
others as Jesus loves us.' A preacher can go anywhere with the
topic of loving others.
They can build a great legalistic sermon that can bury people
under piles of religious rules! And have you seriously
contemplated 'loving others as Jesus loves us'? That was Eve's
temptation in the Garden of Eden: "You shall be as God."
Believing the preaching that we can love like God loves,
approaches spiritual absurdness!
Jesus does SAY we should love others the way he loves us (John
15:12). But the question is: what does he MEAN by this? He
doesn't mean for us to do this in the flesh: 'Try to be like
God.' But there is a sense in which we can at least BEGIN loving
others the way Jesus loves us. This is with regard to our
demands and expectancies.
HOW does Jesus love us? He begins by not accusing us (John
5:45). If we are in him, we have NO condemnation (Rom 8:1). How
many times are we told NOT to judge? Jesus accepts us as we are
-- no matter how bad we are. Jesus doesn't demand that we 'clean
up our act' before he loves us. While we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. And we are still sinners, made righteous by
the blood of Jesus.
We ALL need to change! None of us is perfect... "No, not one."
If you question whether you need to change or not, just ask
someone close to you. We ALL should change! But it is not
demands, expectancies or condemnation that changes us. God's
love changes us -- by NOT imposing demands and expectancies upon
us!
If we don't experience God's love and acceptance, we feel he is
demanding and critical. Too often we live by a type of 'reverse
golden rule' -- we do unto others as we perceive God does it
unto us. If we don't know his love, then we feel he is
demanding. If we feel HE is demanding, then we are demanding.
"Children live what they learn" is the subject of the next
Gospel Snapshot.
Are you willing to accept those close to you the way Jesus
accepts us -- with no strings attached? It's not easy to let go
of our demands and expectations, but this IS what God does for
us. This IS loving others as Jesus loves us.