At the back end of last year I was thinking about how we have all these visitors in our building and I was wanting to communicate something of what we are about. So I thought it would be a good idea to have a pop up banner. I thought it would be good to have the church logo, times of our meetings and what we are about. I also felt it needed some kind of strapline – slogan.
Eg making disciples reaching the nations
I was struggling a bit to think of anything that kind of said it all – truly expressing what we are as a church. Some phrases might focus on one thing but leave others out. Then I thought keep it simple.
Loving God. Loving People
Been in leadership teams that have spent hours trying to hone the exact right words
“impact our community with the love of God” or “show our community the love of God”
Jesus had a knack of keeping things simple!
Not the official slogan of the church
It encapsulates everything that we are about. Actually it sums up what being a Christian is all about and it sums up what church should be all about.
Everything is here in these four words.
I realised it echoed what we call the great commandment:
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’c ; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’d ”
Love God. Love People.
It’s in Luke 10.
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’c ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’d ”
28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
So this teacher of the law stood up and asked this question. Trying to catch him out. What must I do…
An expert in the Law – so Jesus referred him to the Law.
The guy gives the correct legal answer. Love God. Love People.
Jesus says – Go and do it.
Is it possible? Can anyone truly do that? Love God 100%? And love your neighbour? I’m guessing the teacher thought he did
Without realising, Now he digs himself a hole
Who is my neighbour? This was the kind of discussion that the experts in the law would have specialised in. Endless debate. The theological niceties of who is and is not my neighbour. You almost feel sorry for him! He thinks he’s setting a trap for Jesus and he is going to find himself caught it. .
So often Jesus tells a story rather than getting caught up in nuances of what words mean. Didn’t go into the root of the Hebrew word and it could mean this or that. He just told a story for the man to draw his own conclusions. The story we call the good Samaritan.
What Jesus says in telling the story would have shocked his listeners. He knew that every one of them would have despised the Samaritan and here he says that in this respect the Samaritan, the outsider, the one they despise, the one who they would not consider to be their neighbour is the one who fulfils the law. And the implication – not one of his listeners were actually fulfilling the law.
Yes they were loving their friends, there family, their close community, but not loving the outsiders the one who were persecuting them.
Jesus is saying – you may think you’re attaining the standard required by the Law– but no the standard is too high. Jesus is making it clear how hard it is to fulfil the law. Not just loving the people you like but loving the people who hate you and despise you. You Jews are failing the law. This fictional Samaritan who you despise, who you would have nothing to do with, is fulfilling the law more than you are with all your efforts of ceremonial cleansing, observing the Sabbath of careful tithing. Shocking.
Interesting – the parable is not about doing good to a despised person. Rather that a despised, unclean person is more righteous in his actions than the religious person.
Where do we fit in with this – what is it saying to us?
We as christians are in Christ. And Christ has fulfilled the law. We are no longer trying to achieve the standard of the law – Christ has done it for us. But also in Christ we are able to love God and love others because we are in Christ and because of his power with in us. – Eph 1:19 the power that raised Christ from the dead is in us who believe.
So what does it mean to us to love God with all our heart?
First we love God. And because we love god we worship him, we seek his face, we yearn for his presence. we worship him, we honour him, we give thanks to him, we make him lord of our lives
Then we love our neighbour – this expressed in what we do – for one another as church and for those who don’t know Christ in mission – showing mercy, care , compassion and bringing the gospel of Jesus to those who don’t know him.
LOVING GOD
What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind?
Loving God is not a sacrifice! It’s not a duty! Delight yourself in God (Ps 37:4). Joy. A privilege.
With the entirety of who you are. Don’t hold anything back. Not necessarily meaning four distinct parts.
Heart = emotion, affection, feelings.
Soul = God breathed life, your very being – often translated life. Love god with everything in you that expresses that you are a living being.
Strength = power, forceful not passive or weak
Mind =intellect, thought, reasoning, understanding
YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF
Yourself – did God make a mistake? Are you allowed to love yourself?
Who is the real you?
If we see ourselves as sinners we have difficulty, as we are then trying to love our sinful selves
Love the new self, the new creation that God has made you
Not love the bad things we might some times do. Not an excuse for what we might call selfishness. There are many scriptures that talk about putting others first before ourselves. We can still put others first while having a healthy love for the person that Christ has made you to be. In fact if you truly love yourself, it’s easier to put God first and others first.
How do we love God and Love people?
God – Worship, honour, thank, praise, serve
People – show mercy, honour, disciple, serve, care, encourage, witness, we speak the truth in love
– Both to the people of God and those who do not know him.
So what am I saying? Am I saying come on church we are not doing well enough? No!
I’m saying that by the grace of God we are on track. His heart is that we love him and love others. It’s a privilege to be a part of such a church. The phrase that I thought summed up who and what we are actually about is a fulfilment of the great commandment.