08/23/2018
How are you walking through this life? Are you doing so while loving your family, perhaps some folks at church, and a few friends, but simply tolerating everyone else, or maybe even disliking some? We divide ourselves into groups... we belong to this church and not that one, we are from this town and not that one, we believe this and not that, we are this race and not that one, and the list goes on, and on. We love some, tolerate others, and dislike or even hate the rest. Does this describe you? Step back and take a good look in the mirror; be honest because your salvation depends on it.
“And 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 12:30-31 ESV
We read these verses and immediately begin to squirm in our seats! We start talking aloud to ourselves “love my neighbor as myself? What does that mean?”, and then we ask ourselves what the lawyer asked Jesus:
“But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"”
Luke 10:29 ESV
When we find ourselves lacking in love for those around us we begin looking for a more restricted meaning of Jesus’ words... the lawyer in us comes out... because surely Jesus didn’t mean for me to love “Them!”, or “Those people!”, and perhaps if He were here right now He would clarify which sinners I should love!
Suddenly we have taken the convicting words from the mouth of Christ that tasted so bitter on our tainted tongues, and rolled them in sugar, baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, poured sweet syrup over them, placed them on a spoon with our jam, and changed them into something we can swallow... but are we really eating the meat he intended us to consume? Is that sweet morsel we just placed in our mouthes the same piece of lamb that Jesus Christ provided us? Is it the same bread he offers us at His table?
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."”
John 13:34-35 ESV
I want to be known as a disciple of Jesus, and I want to stand with Him on judgement day and have Him know me as His. Can I do this and yet live in disobedience to the commandment of love? Will I be the vessel that embodies the fruits that are written of in scripture... the list that begins with love?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Galatians 5:22-26 ESV
So the message today is short, but I hope it isn’t sweet because of sugar and jam, but rather, because our tongues are pure and clean, and the scripture of the love for our neighbors is not bitter to us. How does the meat of Christ taste to you today? Do you need to brush the film of a bitter life from your tongue?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Word, and for the commandment to love our neighbor that Jesus delivered so poignantly to us. I pray Holy Father that I hear His voice clearly, and obey those words to perfection. Cleanse my heart and my tongue Lord so that your Word tastes sweet in my mouth, and brings peace to my heart. Help me to love all those you bring me into contact with each day. Let no bad taste find a home in my mouth, and cause any to pull back from me, or keep me from delivering the loving message of the gospel to those who need it so desperately. Help me Father to withstand the taunts and convictions of those around me as I dine with sinners as your Son did. Place me in the midst of the lost and give me the wisdom I need to reach them... let no neighbor go unsaved because I was unable to love them. Lift up your church Jesus as a home for love, and as a place where all neighbors can find rest in your perfect love. Gracious Father I praise your name, and lift you up by my love and forgiveness of others. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who shows mercy, who pours His grace over us, and who teaches us to love one another.
“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
John 15:10-11 ESV
Rich Forbes