May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 1 Thessalonians 3.12
“Love is all you need….” Memorable lyrics from the Beatles that started rattling through my mind when I saw this verse. What kind of love, though? Maybe the sentimental, the erotic, or the bond of strong friendship? Not quite. That 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love? Yes. The love that comes from God that can increase and overflow. Love that sacrifices, serves and loses for the other. Receiving the love of God and participating in that love for others – spouse, friend, neighbor and enemy.
Is this divine love all we need? Yes, as long it is the divine love. Love can be seen in many ways. Not all that claims to be love is rooted in the divine, however. We claim to believe in love but do not put it in practice. We affirm to love our neighbor as our self but it never reaches the neighbor. Human attempts at love will falter and fail unless rooted in the humanity of God in Christ Jesus. God’s love is not some abstract concept removed from the world. That love put on human flesh, lived that love, died and rose again for us and the world. An eternal love that is ever so near….
The love of God revealed in Christ is a necessity. Without that love, the possibilities before us through creation, in freedom and in responsibility would come to nothing. Not an absurd, meaningless and senseless world, but nothing. We all need the love of God, whether we realize it or not. The alternative is frightening and hopeless, death. Yet we can face death (and how can we not?) filled with faith, hope and most of all love. A love that transforms death and ushers in the new creation. God’s love is over all and His love never fails.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Philippians 2.5-8
Often when we think of obedience we think of a list actions we do or don’t do or better yet, should do or should not do. We creep back into legalistic thinking, of keeping a law of our own making which may or may not have roots in Scripture. We equate morality, knowledge of good and evil, as a true sign of Christian faith. Christian faith does lead to obedience, yet this obedience is rooted in life and grace and any ethical element will draw from the life of grace.
We look at Jesus of Nazareth as living the truly human life, humanity as it was meant to be. Great humility and obedience were part of the life he lived in Galilee. He fulfilled the Judaic Law by fully loving God and loving neighbor. The cross He died upon was the result of such radical obedience. We can share in that humility, obedience (even to death) and the cross. The good news is death is not the final word.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Philippians 2.5-8
I have often thought that I would be willing to bleed and die for my brothers and sisters in Christ. This would be an extreme case today in North America yet the reality may be much further removed than I realize. I imagine such a situation would be the highest form of selflessness, yet it is only the end of it. The greater form is embracing such selflessness everyday.
We often think ‘sacrifice’ but in reality it is only inconvenience. Sacrifice means blood and death. Not much of that happening in America, if at all. So let’s drop the talk of sacrificing this or that (when it really is only an inconvenience). Let’s embrace service to one another instead. The path of love and service may or may not lead to sacrifice in its most final sense. We may receive some bumps and bruises to our ego and possibly our body along the way. We need to look beyond ourselves to serve others and be for them.
This path of loving service is the way of Christ. This way of Christ will also make us more human. Jesus became like us by taking on flesh and being a servant. Let’s embrace our humanity in its fullness in Christ and remember, it’s not about “me” but God and our neighbor.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Philippians 2.5-8
Have the same mindset, attitude as Christ, not an attitude like Christ but the same! This speaks volumes in our relations to one another. We get to participate in the attitude of Christ by His grace and mercy. Equality with God does not come with ‘personal advantage’ but of emptying out for the other. Kenosis is the Greek for emptiness and might possibly be one of the more important attitudes to have in the church today.
For too long the church, Christians and Christendom have embraced self-preservation and ecclessial prolongation at the expense of the Kingdom of God. For some silly reason we think it ends with us when the reality is, it began with God and will end with God. True, Christ is for us but that is not the end but the beginning of our journey. The inward work of the cross of Christ continues in our spiritual growth and becomes part of our emptying. The place of death, where even death died, is the place of utter abandonment and emptiness. This was an eternal moment that we can share in if we are willing, if we are willing, if we are willing….
