“‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.’”
Matthew 22:36-40
In this series, we’re seeking to uncover the essence of true living as understood from a Christian perspective. So far, we’ve explored what it means to take up our cross and follow Christ. I said that to follow Christ is to embrace the paradox of dying to live. While that concept initially seems self-defeating, its truthfulness becomes more apparent the deeper we press into its reality. Indeed, the gospel message proclaiming good news is good only because of the paradox of life wrought through Christ’s death and resurrection. It follows that, as Christ’s disciples, there is a call to embrace paradoxical living expressed by pursuing life through dying. But that’s not easily pursued–we need motivation to engage in something of this magnitude.
Therefore, we concluded that one motivation was joy. We learned this from Christ in Hebrews 12:1-3, where Christ thought little of the shame of dying because the other side of the dying was life. Dying is seen through the lens of joy because of dying’s purpose. In other words, according to Hebrews 12, one aspect of Christ’s motivation for dying was knowing that His death would accomplish or bring about life. Thus, it was a joy set forth. Consequently, when Peter tried to prevent Christ from dying, he was rebuked.
However, are there not times–knowing and believing all that was previously written–that we don’t feel a sense of joy and, therefore, are unwilling to sacrifice or die to ourselves and our interests? Is it possible in relationships to forgo the best on the altar of the comfortable? Listening. Encouraging. Waiting. All these and more are ways we can serve and love someone in a relationship, but what if those things are at the fork in the road of other interests that seem to take precedence? In other words, what if joy isn’t set forth in our minds and we resist?
“What if we don’t feel joy?”
Another way to put this question is: What if we don’t feel like pursuing a dying-to-live lifestyle because we don’t have the experience of joy motivating us and pushing us forward? Is there another element that must be united with joy?
Answer: Love.
How does love express itself and move us deeper into walking closer with and knowing our Lord more?
Sacrifice. Service. Surrender.
Sacrifice
The very idea of sacrifice is tied to the heart of God. It was a sacrifice that covered Adam and Eve, inaugurated and perpetuated the Aaronic priesthood, and satisfied God’s wrath against mankind’s sin on the cross. It follows that sacrifice is how God enacts His love for His humanity.
Thus, as love motivates God toward us, so does love motivate us toward others.
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph. 5:1-2).
Service
Implicit within service is love because (1) it seeks the betterment of another at the expense of oneself. (2) It appropriates authority such that instead of lording over someone, it stoops beneath them so that they may advance. When Jesus remarked in Mark 10:45 that “He came to serve and not be served,” He laid down one expectation for expressing love: Christ died to advance our reconciliation with God.
Thus, to serve is to do more than meet a need; it is also to love the advancement of others in a relationship.
“So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” (John 13:12-15).
Surrender
The Christian, of all people, understands that God emptied Himself (Phil. 2) for man to be full. Though temporary, surrendering His glory was God’s exampling the only path to true life. Consequently, we will ever truly live only when we fully embrace that a life surrendered to God instead of man’s praise is a life only able to love rightly.
Thus, to love rightly, my life must be put in the same surrendered life as Christ’s: I must be crucified with Him, which includes my right to prestige, power, and position.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).
— May 30, 2024