Latest / In the Stillness Podcast / A New Standard of Love

Transcript

A New Standard of Love · In the Stillness Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey y'all, happy Tuesday. This is friendly.
• 0:04
  Welcome back to another episode on the pod.
• 0:07
  I actually went to say yesterday, but happy Holy Week.
• 0:11
  Truly. I have been praying over each
• 0:14
  listener, and just as we walk through this week together and
• 0:18
  as we reflect day by day on what Jesus so intentionally did for
• 0:23
  us leading up to Resurrection Sunday on Easter, my prayer is
• 0:28
  that we would never grow numb to this story, that it would never
• 0:32
  just feel like another one that we've heard before.
• 0:35
  And I think it's so cool that we're getting to do a deep dive
• 0:40
  in first, John, right now, because we're talking all about
• 0:44
  love, and God is love. And the way that we see this
• 0:49
  most clearly is through the life of Jesus.
• 0:53
  So before we read today's passage, just briefly, I want to
• 0:58
  talk about how this is Holy Tuesday, as it's called.
• 1:02
  And this is when Jesus was teaching the temple.
• 1:06
  He called out hypocrisy and he was sharing parables and
• 1:09
  continuing to reveal the heart of God.
• 1:13
  So as we move forward in First John and read about love today,
• 1:18
  keep in mind this is the same week that Jesus is preparing to
• 1:23
  go to the cross to be crucified for our sins.
• 1:26
  And so there is weight to everything that he says and
• 1:30
  everything that he does in the word.
• 1:33
  So let's go ahead and read in First John chapter 2.
• 1:37
  We're going to read verses 7 through 8 today.
• 1:41
  I'm not writing a new commandment to you, my brothers
• 1:44
  and sisters, but an old one that you had from the beginning.
• 1:49
  And yet in a sense, it is a new commandment, as its truth is
• 1:54
  made real in him and in you. For the darkness is
• 1:59
  disappearing, and the true light is already shining.
• 2:04
  OK, I love this because John says something that almost feels
• 2:10
  like a contradiction at first. He's like this command is not
• 2:15
  new, but also it is new and the command that he's talking to us
• 2:20
  about is love. If we look back into the Old
• 2:24
  Testament, it is not a new idea. Leviticus 19 verse 18 says love
• 2:30
  your neighbor as yourself. That was a rule that they were
• 2:35
  commanded to live by. But then Jesus comes in in the
• 2:39
  New Testament and he says in John chapter 13 verses 34
• 2:44
  through 35, a new command I give you love one another as I have
• 2:50
  loved you. And just to sit in that moment
• 2:54
  for a SEC, this is during the Last Supper.
• 2:58
  This is in the upper room after Jesus.
• 3:01
  Judas has already betrayed Jesus, and Jesus knows that the
• 3:06
  cross is right in front of him hours away, and this is one of
• 3:12
  Jesus's final charges to his 12 disciples.
• 3:17
  That is significant. So what changed?
• 3:21
  The command itself did not change, but the expression of it
• 3:25
  did. In the Old Testament, love was
• 3:28
  understood, but it was still somewhat of a shadow.
• 3:33
  In Colossians 2 verse 16 and then Hebrews 10/1, it talks
• 3:38
  about how those laws and Old Testament rituals, they were a
• 3:43
  shadow of what was to come. Because then we see Jesus show
• 3:48
  up and your love has a face. It is like lived out in a
• 3:56
  person. We don't just hear about it, we
• 3:58
  see it. We see it in how Jesus lived and
• 4:02
  how he served. And the bottom line, we see it
• 4:06
  on the cross. The cross is the greatest act of
• 4:11
  love that the world has ever seen and will ever see.
• 4:16
  And what that shows us is that following Jesus was never meant
• 4:21
  to be passive. It's not about checking the
• 4:24
  boxes or simply doing the right thing.
• 4:28
  Love is action. It takes sacrifice and
• 4:32
  servanthood. It's choosing others when it
• 4:36
  costs you something or when you're not getting anything in
• 4:39
  return. And then John says something so
• 4:43
  powerful that this truth, this reality, it's made real in him
• 4:50
  and in you. And in John 14 verse 6, Jesus
• 4:54
  says I am the way, the truth and the life.
• 4:59
  So Jesus is truth, that is His claim.
• 5:05
  And if His Spirit is truly living within you, you're not
• 5:09
  just learning truth, you're actually carrying it.
• 5:13
  You're breathing in the very nature of who He is.
• 5:18
  So that leads to some real honest questions that we need to
• 5:23
  face. Would others say that they see
• 5:26
  truth in you? Not just honesty, not just
• 5:30
  integrity, but is the gospel on display in your life?
• 5:36
  Do you stand firm in truth without compromise?
• 5:39
  Or are there any areas where maybe you are shrinking back or
• 5:44
  suppressing truth? Are you living authentically
• 5:48
  around everyone, allowing Christ's light to shine through
• 5:53
  who you uniquely are, your personality, your giftings, not
• 5:59
  just putting on a face Because that true light that John is
• 6:03
  talking about, it is the revelation of God seen through
• 6:08
  Jesus. We understand the heart of God
• 6:11
  by looking at how Jesus lived. And something that I've really
• 6:17
  been sitting with is love is not just about being nice.
• 6:22
  It's not just respect, it's sacrifice and it's service.
• 6:28
  In Matthew Chapter 11 verse 28, Jesus says come to me all who
• 6:33
  are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.
• 6:38
  That is the heart of Jesus. He's inviting us in a gentle and
• 6:42
  self giving way. And when we let Jesus increase
• 6:47
  in US, like John 330 says, he must increase, but I must
• 6:52
  decrease, and we truly let Him teach us, Love Actually starts
• 6:59
  to become more natural. It's not because we're having to
• 7:03
  try harder or that we're striving.
• 7:06
  It's because we are becoming part of who we are in Christ.
• 7:12
  And here's where I think it gets real.
• 7:16
  Jesus calls us to love, not just our friends, not just family
• 7:22
  members or people that we see every day.
• 7:25
  It's not just the easy people, but even the ones who have hurt
• 7:30
  us, who have harmed us, whether that is physically or mentally
• 7:34
  and emotionally. Matthew 5 verse 43 through 48
• 7:39
  goes into talking about loving our enemies and praying for our
• 7:43
  persecutors. Y'all, that kind of love, it's
• 7:49
  radical, it's incomparable, it's supernatural, and honestly, it's
• 7:55
  what sets true believers apart. Love is meant to be the
• 8:01
  identifying marker of a Christ follower.
• 8:05
  Like someone should look at your life and think there is
• 8:09
  something different about them. And it's not a weird kind of
• 8:13
  different, it's an attractive, undeniable kind of different.
• 8:17
  It draws people into the heart of Jesus.
• 8:22
  But I do want to touch on how loving like Jesus does not mean
• 8:26
  agreeing with everything. We're not just called to affirm
• 8:31
  what the world calls right if it goes against God's truth.
• 8:36
  We are to share truth because we care for those around us and we
• 8:40
  genuinely desire for them to know the same kind of love and
• 8:44
  freedom that we do. Truth and love.
• 8:47
  They're not opposites. They actually go hand in hand.
• 8:51
  So I believe the question can become, am I demonstrating
• 8:56
  Christ like love? That's not agreeable love, but
• 9:00
  truthful love and something else that cannot be ignored.
• 9:05
  We cannot grow in a relationship with God, we cannot grow in
• 9:10
  intimacy with the Father if we are constantly holding on to
• 9:14
  things like bitterness, like jealousy or envy and
• 9:18
  unforgiveness. Galatians 5 verses 19 through 21
• 9:24
  puts that clearly, and Hebrews 12 verse one says to throw off
• 9:28
  everything that hinders in the sin that so easily entangles,
• 9:34
  because those are things that weigh us down, they distract us
• 9:38
  and they divide our hearts. So it's worth asking yourself,
• 9:43
  am I clinging to anything that's not from the Lord?
• 9:48
  Have I truly made it my goal to pursue reconciliation?
• 9:53
  We'll go further into this kind of topic and different
• 9:57
  relationships tomorrow, but this is just dipping us into all of
• 10:03
  it a little. And I want to go out and close
• 10:06
  out in prayer. So Jesus, thank you for
• 10:15
  embodying true love, for showing us what it really looks like.
• 10:21
  You did not just tell us how to live, You demonstrated it
• 10:25
  through your life and through the crucifixion on the cross.
• 10:30
  I pray that you would increase in US.
• 10:33
  I pray that we would decrease. Teach us how to love the way
• 10:39
  that you love Jesus, with truth, with sacrifice and service, with
• 10:46
  humility. If there is anything that we're
• 10:51
  holding onto that is not from you, that's not pure, that's not
• 10:57
  holy, would you help us to release it?
• 11:01
  Let your light shine through us in a way that draws people to
• 11:06
  you so that we can be set apart. Followers of Jesus, sanctified
• 11:13
  by your Spirit. God, we love you.
• 11:16
  Thank you for loving us first so that we can in return love those
• 11:23
  around us. We ask this all in Jesus name,
• 11:27
  Amen. OK y'all?
• 11:29
  Well that is today's episode. Praying that the Lord speaks to
• 11:33
  your heart that you can reflect on these things and get some
• 11:38
  good takeaways and just learn how to love others the way that
• 11:43
  Jesus first loved us. I will see y'all on the next
• 11:46
  episode.