Woah. Command. That’s a big word… Last time I checked, command means there really isn’t much room for negotiation. You hear and see in movies a commanding officer say to some lower ranking soldier, “That’s an order, soldier!” And usually, the soldier does as he’s told. It is a command after all.
How terrifying is it to think that Jesus is commanding us to love one another as He loved us? And then that He follows that command with the words: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Hm. There isn’t really much thought that needs to take place here. Jesus wants us to love each other as He loved us… and there’s no greater love than dying in place of your friend… Oh, crap.
Could it be that Jesus is saying live every day and love every day to such a great extent that you wouldn’t think twice before jumping in front of a bullet for ANYONE? I was talking to someone and we were discussing the cliché you hear so often that goes: “Live every day as though it were your last.” We both agreed that it was a stupid, almost meaningless quote.
Let’s be honest… If it was my last day on this earth, I would blow all my money shopping and traveling as far as I could to see as many things as I could. If I was completely immoral, I would kill all my enemies or do them great harm, I would take what I want instead of buying it. There are, after all, no consequences. It’s my last day. The next, I’ll be gone forever.
And then a thought occurred to me. What if we all lived every day as though it were someone else’s last? What if I picked a person each day and treated them as though I would never see them again or as though they were dying and today was their last day? Would people’s lives be transformed if we treated them this way? How would you feel people were expressing how deeply they cared for you and honoring you and making time for you? How would you feel if people were serving you?
In the end, it’s the “golden rule”. “Do unto others…” You know it as well as me.
This could turn into pages and pages of what Jesus was trying to say when He said: “Love each other as I have loved you.” But it’s in that sentence. He’s not trying to say anything. It’s right there. It’s self-explanatory. As I have loved you. You could try and derive more meaning from all of it, complicate it, twist it, whatever you wish to do with it. But the answer is in this one scripture.
God, how do you want me to love?
As I have loved you.
God, how do you want me to live?
As I lived for you.
Jesus said He only did what He saw His Father do. He only said what He saw His Father saying. Jesus wasn’t a mimicker or an imitator. He was a mirror. Your mirror doesn’t show an altered image of yourself unless it’s a mirror in a fun house at a carnival. Your mirror is an exact image of yourself. Every movement you make it duplicates exactly. There is no difference between you and your mirror image.
This is the life we’re called to live. Not to be imitators or replicas or second-rate versions, but mirrors. It’s an impossible command, an impossible par. But Jesus never said, “I understand that you’re human and fallible so just do the best you can, okay?”
NO!
He said: “This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you.” No if’s, and’s, or but’s. There’s no excuse. There’s no way out. He was making a command, a law, an order that He expects us to follow; that He COMMANDS we follow. Woah.
No, we’re not going to do it perfectly. And that’s where Christ comes in.
“That is why I loved you enough to die for you. I want you to have grace to make mistakes, to love imperfectly. But don’t try on your strength, because I can promise you that will most certainly fail if that be the case… Love as I have loved. Let me speak to you and show you how…”
The entire Bible is Jesus’ autobiography (or biography depending on how you look at it). It’s not like the Bible is comprised of just this one verse. He offers plenty examples of how He loved. And commands that we do the same.
“The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” –Gal. 5:14
Was this maybe sparked from a sermon from this weekend? ;-)
ReplyDeleteHaha, Oh God, I like how He works :-)
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