Live Love

Live Love

Have you ever sat in a chair, in silence, doing absolutely nothing for an entire day? Do you think you could? One of the most common whiny complaints of children is, “I’m bored.” We’re always looking for something to do. It feels unnatural to us to do absolutely nothing.

This innate desire to do something is so deeply ingrained in our psyche that we often bring it with us into our lives in Christ. As a consequence many in the church feel that they need to dedicate themselves to being active for Jesus. There is often a sense that we must convince others that they should believe and “win souls to Christ.” This propensity for doing is one of the reasons that legalism (a mixture of Law and grace) is preached so frequently.

Jesus did not ask us to work harder for Him. He did not charge us with convincing anyone of anything. Only the Holy Spirit can change someone’s heart. Instead, He pointed out that keeping the Law was impossible since its standard is perfection. (see Matthew chapters 5-7) To the Pharisees He said, John 5:39-40 (NKJV) “39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

Jesus asks us to come to Him. Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV) tells us, “28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."” He asks us to come to Him, take His yoke upon ourselves, and learn from Him. The reasons He gives for this are astounding. We are to come, yoke up, and learn because He is gentle and lowly in heart. Seriously, what has that got to do with anything?

We are to come.
If we are living according to the flesh, we are not thinking about Jesus. We are thinking about gratifying the desires of the flesh. We learn this from Romans 8:5-6 (NKJV) “5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

In order for us to come, we need to change our mind about Jesus and about the flesh—our worldly way of responding to and dealing with life using our senses. The flesh tells us to do more, Jesus says “come, and I will give you life, peace, and rest.” This is repentance. Metanoya is the word in Greek, the changing of our mind. Romans tells us that the kindness, or goodness, of God leads us to repentance. (see Romans 2:4)

We are to yoke up.
“A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two animals like oxen or horses so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restrictions that a teacher or rabbi would place on his followers.” (NET Bible) It is easy to understand this aspect of His statement in a very legalistic way. Since yokes are used on oxen to connect them to farm implements, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the reason we should yoke up is so that we can start pulling and laboring, working for the Lord. But that is not at all the reason Jesus gave for us taking His yoke upon us, and that is why I appreciated the note I quoted above from the translators of the NET Bible.

Jesus is very clear that His yoke is easy and that His burden (the restrictions He places upon us) is light. In fact, rather than spurring us toward labor, He says that He will give us rest.

Lastly, we see in this passage that we are to learn from Him.

To gain some insight into this aspect of Jesus statement I want us to look at a few things that John, the disciple Jesus loved, reported that Jesus said and how he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to encourage us to respond.

First, notice what we are told in John 13:34-35 (NKJV) “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."” Our love for one another is a witness to others. That is important. It shows one way in which we glorify God simply by living our lives. You have probably noticed an increased propensity to love others with whom you come in contact. Christ is our life. Christ loves. Therefor we love; and in so doing, we glorify Him and serve as His implements to draw people to repentance—to change their minds about Jesus and themselves.

Next, look at John 15:12-17 (NKJV) “12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

Three times in these two passages we have been told that Jesus’ new (and only) command is that we love one another. But there is another component to this love. It is that we love as He loved us. Here is the “learn from me” aspect of Jesus’ statement. We cannot love as He loved without paying attention to and learning how He loved.

1 John 4:7-19 (NKJV) tells us, “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (God loved us by coming in the flesh to give us abundant life; to set us free; for our good.) “10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Here is the crux of the matter for us. If we are like Jesus in this world (and we will see in a moment that we are); if the Spirit of the Living God lives within us; if we are born of God—children of the Father, then it is now natural for us to love others—for their good.

Carrying on with verse 12 “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” (His love has been perfected in us because just as Jesus showed the Father’s great love, now like Him, we all show it.) “13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”

“By this (in this) - by our residing in love so that we reside in God and he resides in us - love is brought to perfection with us.” The result of this perfection of love in believers: In the future day of judgment they will have confidence. The difficult Greek clause would then give the reason for such confidence in the day of judgment: because just as Jesus is, so also are believers in this world - they are already currently in relationship with God just as Jesus is.” (NET Bible)

Now on to verse 18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

An interesting point that came to mind here is that very often the enemy uses fear to try to get us to walk by sight instead of by faith. To live according to the flesh and our senses rather than according to the “non-sense” of the Spirit. Fear does not come from God. We know this for sure because God is love and perfect love casts out fear.

Finally, verse 19 declares, “19 We love Him because He first loved us.” The word “him” is in italics in the King James. That is because it is not present in the Greek and was inserted by the translators. Many translators disagree with that rendering, preferring instead to render only the words that are present in the Greek. If they are correct, the verse reads, “We love because He first loved us.” In either case, His great love for us is the only reason we can love Him. It is the only reason we can sacrificially love others too.

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NKJV) “13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”