That 'Love Thy Neighbor Thing...' (repost)

In July 2007 I wrote a series of five posts called "That 'Love Thy Neighbor Thing...'," which was sort of my response to the billboard that essentially says that God meant it when He said it. I spent four posts building up to my main point, and I just thought I'd repost the final post in that series. If interested, the first four parts are here:
Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4

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Part 5
I hope by now I've made the point that to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is no small task. In fact, it's an impossible task! In this fifth and final post, I hope to address two things: "Why" would Jesus teach impossible laws and "how" are the commandments ultimately fulfilled in us?

Years after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, many things would be revealed to Paul that weren't necessarily understood during Jesus' life of ministry and teaching. Something that I think we often fail to grasp from Paul's writings is his teachings on the true purpose of the law.

Rom 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. NKJV

Gal 3:24-25 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor . NKJV

I've made a habit of often pointing out that the law's purpose is to stop every mouth and to make the world guilty before God. By the law is the knowledge of sin, but not the power to overcome sin, so no one can be justified by the deeds of the law!

Remember the lawyer, who "wanted to justify himself" by asking, "who is my neighbor?" And remember the rich young ruler, trying to justify himself by his law keeping with his words, "all these I've kept since my youth." When he found out the true depths of the meaning of the law, he went away sad. The law's purpose was indeed to produce sorrow, and much more. I like how Matthew (Daelon) commented on the previous post: "Jesus is laying such heavy loads of the law on these people so they will scream "I give up!", not so that they will try harder." That's well put.

But yet Jesus said He came not to condemn, but to save! (John 3:17) Why then would He teach the law, which only produces guilt and condemnation? We return to Paul's revelation of the purpose of the law from his letter to the Galatians. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. In order to come to Christ, the tutor of the law must first do its work! Jesus wanted people to come to Him in order to be justified by faith - didn't He? The law then had to first do its perfect work!

But somehow we have looked at the law and not seen it for the true condemning factor that it is. We've looked at it as a "moral guide." We've tried to keep it, and we've changed it and amended it and made our own interpretations out of it so we could try to justify ourselves with our own keeping of it. Jesus, I believe, came and laid down the true depths and meaning of the law, so that it would do its perfect work and fulfill its perfect purpose: to condemn and bring guilt, so that people would then turn to Him and be justified by faith. Once the law has finally done that in the life of an individual, he comes to this place: "After faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."

There are many, many examples of Jesus using the law, which the church today has turned into "teachings" or "principles" for Christian living. One example would be His words, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt 5:27-28)

We've "Christianized" Jesus' words that He spoke to those under the law, and since we see that adultery comes from the heart, and not just the physical deed, we've invented our own Christian principle by saying that we need to be very careful to obey Jesus' words to not lust. After all, what holy person would argue that lusting after someone else's wife is a good thing? But yet we miss the whole point! There are many, many people, even such as the rich young ruler, who have never committed the physical act of adultery. According to a simple knowledge of the law, they've "kept" that law. But Jesus says, "not so." This teaching of His, I would say, is a mouth-stopping, guilt-producing teaching to every person in the world who would justify themselves by their keeping of the law.

Jesus' words to the rich younger ruler, "sell all you have and distribute to the poor," were mouth-stopping, guilt-producing words to this man who considered himself justified by his law keeping. Jesus' words to the lawyer were mouth-stopping, guilt-producing words.

No one can be justified by keeping the law. That is the whole point of the law!

That 'Love Thy Neighbor' Thing... I meant that.
-God

Yup. He meant it alright! He meant it more than most people will ever realize!

So, how do we then walk in love? How do we fulfill 1 Corinthians 13? How do we agape God and agape others as we agape ourselves?

The answer isn't really a "how." It's a "Who." As Christians who have died to the law in order to be married to Christ, by faith, that we may bear fruit to God (see Rom 7:4), we seem to quickly fall back on law and principles as the means by which we live our lives and fulfill the call to love God and one another. But a person can know - and know well - all Christian principles in the world - and still have no power and still have no life and still have no love!

The "how" is really a Person - Jesus Christ. He is in us, and we are in Him. His life is our life. We are one spirit with Him. In Him we live and move and have our being. When it came down to the truth of living a godly life and bearing godly fruit, Jesus didn't say, "follow all these laws and principles and you'll bear fruit." He said, "He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit." Under the law and principles, we could bear no fruit. In fact, Paul says, "the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death!" (See Rom 7:5). But now that we've died to what once bound us (the law), we serve in the newness of the Spirit! The good fruit that comes forth is the Spirit's own fruit that He produces in and through us as we simply abide in Christ, not struggling to fulfill commands and principles. Maybe I'll put it this way: The commands of God and the principles for Christian living are fulfilled in us, not as we set out to try to do them, but as we rest in Christ and let His life in us take over and produce all of it. All of it!

I'd most certainly like to discuss all this with anyone who has any thoughts, questions, opinions, etc.

The command to love vs. the law of love

This past weekend at the Radical Sonship Conference in Atlanta, Steve McVey asked a question that went something like, "Do you know what the most legalistic teaching in the church is?" I mean, if you were to survey all the legalistic stuff you've ever been taught, which do you think would be the most legalistic? Well, Steve went on to talk about the man who came up to Jesus and asked Him what the greatest commandment in the law is. Jesus, of course, replied that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

And so there you have it. The greatest LAW is to love God more. Therefore the greatest LEGAListic teaching in the church is teaching people to love God more. We can teach people that they're supposed to love God more, but there is simply no power to be found in a law, rule or principle to actually do it!

About a year and a half ago I drove past one of those "-God" billboards.

That 'Love Thy Neighbor' Thing... I meant that.
-God

Well of course He meant it. After all, it's the second greatest commandment! But to teach it as a Christian principle or rule, just as with the greatest commandment, is to miss the point entirely!!!

The command to love is bondage, as is any and all of God's law. But the "royal law of love" is something that is fulfilled, not as we look to commandments, but as we abide in the Vine and as we submit ourselves not to our own attempts at loving others, but to God's very life that we've been made alive to!

I ended up writing a series of five posts in July 2007, based upon what I saw on that billboard, and building up to the impossibility and futility of trying to keep the commands to love. I essentially took four posts to show how our attempts at keeping the commands don't work, and then in the final post I made my point that it's all about a "Who," not a "how," when it comes to loving God and loving people. My next post will be a repost of the final post in that series.

Love is supernatural

My post the other day, We All Wanna Be Loved, was inspired by several thoughts that I've had over the past few weeks and months, as well as by the conversation that happened on Day 5 of the week that Steve McVey was a guest on the Canadian program It's A New Day (a couple of weeks ago). I enjoyed every program that week, and if you haven't checked it out I highly encourage it! If nothing else, do take some time to check out the link and take in all the wisdom, vulnerability, brokenness and love shared on Day 5.


Jesus was put down, criticized, persecuted and hated for eating and drinking with tax collectors, prostitutes and all kinds of other "sinners." He loved the unlovable. He spent time - eating and drinking - with "bad" people. He had loving, close, friendly fellowship with them. He wasn't afraid of being contaminated by them! He didn't care what people said about Him. I believe He was compelled by LOVE to love them, touch them, heal them, accept them, befriend them, share wisdom with them, sit with them, hug them, talk with them, listen to them, give to them, mourn with them, defend them, take their burdens, take their guilt, take their shame.

He was so unlike the religious people of the day. The religious people were there to make sure the people stayed in line. They wouldn't dare be seen with the "sinners," but they sure laid down the rules for the sinners. They put heavy burdens on people. They condemned people. They pointed fingers and pronounced people guilty. They even added their own rules and laws and stipulations onto God's laws. You know what? It's EASY to do all of that! It's easy to talk about how bad other people are and how good you are. It's easy to protest the sins of others and even pass laws against their sinful behavior. (Your own sins, of course, don't need laws... right?)

What's hard, though, is loving others unconditionally! In fact, "hard" is too soft a word. Loving people unconditionally is impossible. The commands to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself, are impossible commands to obey. I've heard people quote these commands quite nonchalantly, as if true love for God and others is so simple. To love as Jesus loved - and really He was showing the love of the Father - is something that can't be done through trying to obey commands.

Love - that is, agape love - is supernatural. It's not of this world. It's not of the flesh. It's of the Spirit. No law or rule can cause love. No set of disciplines or principles produces love. The kind of love that loves unconditionally doesn't come from obedience to a command. It comes from the very love and life of Christ in us. Love cannot be faked. If you have to "fake it till you make it," it's not love.

To love others like Christ loves others is a supernatural act of God that wells up from inside a weak clay jar and overflows miraculously into the lives of others and back to God. To be vulnerable, and to be real and authentic is the same. As I look at the list of various people on my We All Wanna Be Loved post, I see that I've carried some fleshly fears, prejudices, pride and self-righteousness - and quite simply, a lack of true love - into the way I view others. I can't deny any of it... but I also can't fake any of it away! In order for me to love others as God loves them - without conditions - it can be nothing less than a supernatural, miraculous work of Christ in me. And it can't be rushed, so I rest peacefully in Him knowing His love is working a perfect work and bears its fruit in due time.

Lighten up - I love you!

I think it's been years since I've heard a Robert Plant song, and then suddenly I heard two within a couple of hours today!

The former Led Zeppelin front-man did some solo work as well as some work with a band called The Honeydrippers (which also consisted of other former Zep members Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page). Today on the radio I heard Tall Cool One by Plant, as well as Sea of Love by the Honeydrippers. I've always loved those songs.

What stuck out to me in Tall Cool One as I listened to it today was the phrase that's repeated throughout the song, "Lighten up baby, I'm in love with you!" How many of us really just need to lighten up - relax, take a load off - and just love God and be loved by Him!

Robert Plant - Tall Cool One