Love God, Love others

Do the ends justify the means?

It’s an interesting ethical question, one that people have debated and talked about for centuries.

Sophocles, a Greek playwright who lived from 496-406 BC, wrote, “The end excuses any evil.”

British author Aldous Huxley wrote, “The end never justifies the means because there is no end; there are only means.”

This ethical dilemma has been the basis of countless TV shows, movies, and novels. In the show Homeland, one of the main characters stabs a suspect in the hand to get him to confess.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier from the Marvel movies (which is still the best one in my opinion), government organization SHIELD developed an algorithm to predict bad guys and they are going to eliminate threats before they happen. We love the tension of seeing characters we like wrestle with this question.

While there is lots to debate about this concept and as many answers for it as there are situations we can contrive, I would say that, at the very least, the means by which we arrive at whatever ends we desire are crucial for us to consider.

The question asks us to evaluate our priorities and to question our character. And those are both good things to do if we want to live a life that honours God.

We have been in a series called Missio Dei where we have been examining our new vision, mission, and core values.

Because part of the goal of this series is to internalize our new statements, let’s read them out loud together:

Our vision is to see all people fully alive in Jesus and sharing His love with others.

Our mission is to empower people to grow in a relationship with Jesus through Biblical Preaching, Passionate Worship, Community Service, and Intentional Relationships.

Today, we are going to look at the first two of our four core values. If the vision statement is our destination and our mission statement is our gps directions, then our core values are our “rules for the road.”

When we were driving out here from Ontario last summer, we had to establish some unwritten rules for the trip.

Nothing longer than 6-8 hours per day. The journey was as important as the destination. The only time we violated this is when we tried to make up some time after a two-day delay in Billings, MT, due to car problems.

We wanted to see things that we had never seen before. So we stopped for deep dish pizza in Chicago, went on a high-speed river boat tour in Wisconsin where they drenched us, toured the Corn Palace in South Dakota, and stopped to see Mount Rushmore.

Every hotel had to have a pool for Hannah.

Try to eat at places we don’t have much. So we ate at Sonic, Culvers, Applebees, Olive Garden, and some local places that weren’t chains.

These rules for the road helped us to enjoy the journey we were on.

In the same way, our core values help us to enjoy the journey that we are on as a church. These are the means that take us to our end.

They help us to set our priorities and determine what things we value the most as we empower people to grow in a relationship with Jesus so that they can be fully alive in him.

Our first two values come from what is perhaps one of the most well known and also important verses in the entire New Testament. It’s a passage, which Helen read earlier that we lovingly call the Great Commandment.

So let’s set some context for this passage:

Have you ever played chess with someone who is really good? What usually ends up happening is that they create traps for you so that, in the end, you get stuck and have to forfeit your king.

That’s what this group of Pharisees is trying to do. They are trying to trap Jesus with the goal of discrediting him so that people would stop following him.

At the time, there were a lot of debates going on about which of the commandments were more important than others. For example, does the commandment to not kill someone weigh the same as the one to not wear clothing made of two fabrics? Both are laws, but is one weightier than the other? Which one then is the most important?

The Pharisees select an expert in the law to ask this of Jesus. Their hope was to trip up Jesus in this debate. They didn’t want to learn from him, but to beat him.

So what was Jesus’ response? He quotes the Hebrew Bible.

Remember how I said that our passage in Matthew is one of the most well-known and important verses in the New Testament? Well, it’s based off one of the most well-known and important verses in the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible.

Jesus’ quote is from the book of Deuteronomy and it forms the first part of what is called the Shema.

The Shema is a Jewish prayer that is recited out loud twice a day, once in the morning and once before bed. It’s called the Shema because that’s the Hebrew word for “hear” or “listen,” which is the first word in this passage in Deuteronomy. It’s a foundational part of Jewish liturgy and it’s one of the first prayers taught to children. In many ways, this is the key foundation of the Jewish faith.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NLT

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This verse affirms the monotheistic nature of God and declares that Israel follows the one, true God. In a world where every other culture was pluralistic or polytheistic, this affirmation helped them remain true to God.

In our passage in Matthew, Jesus took this passage from Deuteronomy and used it to answer the question posed to him by the “expert in the law.”

Jesus says that the greatest commandment comes in two parts. The first part is to love God with all your heart, soul and strength. It means that we are to love God with everything we have. We are to love God with our time, with our money, in our relationships, at our jobs, in our classes, with our choices in entertainment. With EVERYTHING we have.

The second part is also a quote from the Hebrew Bible.

Leviticus 19:18 NLT

18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

What a challenge to give people - to deny their impulses for revenge, for holding grudges and command them to love their neighbour. Note it doesn’t say love the fun, easy-to-get-along-with neighbours. The command to love is tied to the neighbour that has hurt or frustrated you. That’s tough. But that’s what being a Jesus follower is supposed to be about.

Now, when we look at Jesus’ response to the Pharisee, we might be tempted to see these commandments as separate. But Jesus ties them together. He says that the second commandment is like the first - it’s equal to it.

It’s not love God OR love people. It’s love God BY loving people. Church, you cannot love God and hate a person that God loves, that God made in his image, that Jesus came to save.

Let me read you a teaching of Jesus. It’s a bit long, but try to track with what Jesus is saying and how it embodies the command to love God and love others.

Matthew 25:31–46 NIV

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

We are to love God and love others. This is central to our faith. And it’s the heart of our first two core values here at BPAC. If our vision is to see all people fully alive in Jesus and our mission is to empower people to grow in a relationship with Jesus, then we want to make sure that along the way we love God and love others.

Core Value #1 - Connecting with God through prayer and worship

We chose the word “connecting” because it signifies relationship. God loves you and wants to connect with you. We believe that to be a Christian is to express your love for God by connecting with him.

Your love for God and his love for you is made manifest when you are in each other’s presence. And church, you are always in the presence of God.

Jeremiah 23:24 NLT

24 Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord.

So, every moment is an opportunity to connect to God.

How do we connect to God? Through prayer and worship

These are not two things - this is one thing - worship is prayer and prayer is worship

Worship is to give to God the glory that he is due. To adore him for who he is. To praise him for what he has done. To trust him with our needs with our future. To lament the tragedies of our world, while still recognizing his divine sovereignty and goodness. To live according to God’s precepts and say no to the evil in our world.

Prayer is the primary expression of our worship. It’s how we communicate with God and convey our love to him.

Psalm 63:1–4 NLT

1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.

As we travel along the road towards our destination of seeing all people fully alive in Jesus and sharing his love with others, we want to make sure that we connect to God through worship and prayer because he is our life and we delight in loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength.

Core Value #2 - Loving our neighbour

If my heart is right with God, every human being is my neighbour.

Oswald Chambers

As we saw earlier, Jesus adds the principle of loving our neighbour as a part of how we love God. The two are inseparable. And yet, the church has failed at following this command far too often. And as individual Christians, we have also failed to follow this command far to often. Maybe that’s why the apostle John wrote:

1 John 4:20 NIV

20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

So what does loving your neighbour look like? I don’t know. It will depend on the neighbour and what their needs are. But I do know that we need to.

Love them when they offend you.

Love them when they are hurting.

Love them by praying for them and, when appropriate, sharing the love of Jesus with them.

Love them by serving them practically.

Love them by setting boundaries that will promote their growth.

It can be so hard to love others. Whether the neighbour is a family member, someone from church, or a literal neighbour whom you live near, this command of Jesus and core value here at BPAC is not easy.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbour- act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."

As a church, we are going to be looking for ways to love our neighbours. And, I’ll be honest, I don’t know what that specifically will look like. I need a team of people to gather with me to brainstorm, plan and execute some ideas.

But this church isn’t just about what we do here. Pastor Don’s old vision statement, in some ways, still applies. We are to be a church without walls - a mobilized church on mission where, as individuals and families, we seek to bring the hope of Jesus to others through loving our neighbours. This value affects what WE do AND it should affect what YOU do as a follower of Jesus.

Conclusion

The OT law had 613 separate commandments for the people of God to follow. Jesus summarized them all in four words: Love God, love others.

Sounds easy. And yet, we have all failed to fulfill those four words in some way. We have all made a decision, or done something that was not an act of love to God. And we’ve all done something unloving to another.

But praise be to God who gave us Jesus, who fulfilled those two verses perfectly and through his death, made a way for us to be right with God - all we need to do is believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord of our lives and we are saved!!

And if today, you are ready to surrender your life to Jesus for the first time, I want to encourage you to pray with me.

Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your words are true. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Savior. Amen.

If you prayed this prayer honestly with me and gave your life to Jesus today, please let us know - come and tell me or one of our elders and we would love to welcome you to the family of God and talk with you a bit about what’s next.

As a church, our vision is to see all people fully alive in Jesus and sharing his love with others. Our mission is empower people to grow in a relationship with Jesus through Biblical Preaching, Passionate Worship, Community Service, and Intentional Relationships.

But our core values - our rules for the road and the things that we will prioritize on this journey- start with connecting to God through worship and prayer because life is found in Him and if we don’t connect to Him, then all the activities we do won’t mean a thing. That’s why Jesus says

Matthew 7:21–23 NIV

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

On this journey we will connect with God through worship and prayer. And we will love our neighbour. We will inconvenience ourselves for their sakes. We will pay the financial cost, the time cost, the emotional cost and the physical cost to share the love of Jesus with our neighbours, both as a church, but also as individuals.

So, church - what is loving your neighbour going to look like for you?

Love God, love others. Four words which form the core of what following Jesus looks like and what our church is going to do along this journey.

Pray.