Living the Love

Introduction

Scripture

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Galatians 5:14 NIV

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

What is love?

Agape - Love that needs no love in return, that is intelligent and purposeful, always directed to the need of the other.

In 2009 a number of pastors around the city of Denver gathered together with the Mayor and Assistent City Manager. The pastors told them “How can the church serve the community?” And the Mayor shared a grocery list of things that needs improvement in Denver (drug abuse, poverty, growing demographic of at-risk youth and shut in and depressed seniors). He concluded by saying “the majority of these issues would be eliminated or drastically shrunk if we could just figure out a way to become a community of great neighbors.” To which the pastors perked up, they felt positive, thinking “Okay, we just need to teach people to be better neighbors!” “From the city’s perspective, there isn’t a noticeable difference in how Christians and non-Christians neighbor in our community.” And that was a punch to the gut. Is that true of the church in Abbotsford? When Jesus calls us to “Be in the world and not of it” are we supposed to operate incognito? Indistinguishable from the rest of the world? I don’t think so. And neither did the early Christians

“The Manner of Christians” Chapter 5

For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs.They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life. This doctrine of theirs has not been discovered by the ingenuity or deep thought of inquisitive men, nor do they put forward a merely human teaching, as some people do. Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man's lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. It is true that they are "in the flesh," but they do not live "according to the flesh." They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require. They love all men, and by all men are persecuted. They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. They are dishonoured, and in their very dishonour are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated. They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought to life. They are treated by the Jews as foreigners and enemies, and are hunted down by the Greeks; and all the time those who hate them find it impossible to justify their enmity.

Chapter 6

To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but does not belong to the body, and Christians dwell in the world, but do not belong to the world.

From The Letter to Diognetus, Circa 2nd Century