Loving One Another Pt 2: Love as Christ Loves Us

Two days ago I posted about Loving One Another: Loving Yourself. Today I want to take that a step further because you can't love others simply by loving yourself. There is more to it of course. So here it is: to love one another we must love ourselves in Christ and love each other through Christ.

We are to love as Christ loves us, but the question is how? How can I possibly love as Christ loves us? How does Christ love us?

Through looking at the conversation in John 13:31-38, here is my observation:

The conversation is about Christ leaving. The command to love one another is in the middle. Peter quickly comes back in saying, “wait wait wait!! Where are you going?” 

Jesus then says that Peter will not follow him now, but will later. Where did Christ go after this?  The answer is simple. He went to the cross and to the father. 

Peter ironically says he’ll follow Jesus even if it costs him his life. Though Jesus responds by questioning Peter’s devotion, Jesus knows Peter will follow him. Later Jesus reinstates Peter (after Peter disowned Jesus) saying this: ‘“I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God’ (John 21:18-19a).  

What did Jesus mean then when he said that the disciples could not come now but will later? He meant that he was going to die for them (and the world). And then go to be with the Father.  Later they would die for him and the sake of his kingdom. 

Back up now. What does it mean to love one another as Christ loved us? Christ laid down his life for his friends. This is how he has loved us. He gave his life for us. Is this not our call as brothers and sisters in Christ: to give our life for one another. When we give a cup of water we bless Christ. Jesus said this: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Jesus then calls us friends, not servants . . . if we do his command. What is his command? “Love each other” of course (John 15:17).

This is a sacrificial thing. This thing called love is not mere feelings, but actions. When you have a child it takes time, money, time, money, care, time, money. This is a sacrifice. This is love. When you promise to love your spouse for better or worse it means to sacrifice for them in better and worse. We get lazy in the better part and forget to love our spouses. Then, when it comes to worse we have forgotten that love takes work. If we would only love, sacrifice ourselves on behalf of the other, in the better times, I bet we would see less divorce and pain in marriage in the worse of times. This is just a theory. 

This is the same for the church. If we would love one another more in the better times, there would be less church splits in the worse. There would be less offense in the worse. The Karen people of Burma take a while before they trust you. But when they do, it is for life. If you screw something up, they don’t stop being your friend. They forgive and move on, because they trust you and know you make mistakes. 

This is not the same for our culture. We are easily offended people and do not let people into our lives. We are protective wolves, guarding our very hearts. If someone gets a bit close and we see them make a mistake we instantly put our guard back up. This is especially true for a church who has lost many pastors in the past ten years. The trust is not there. 

I see that many churches are good at guarding. This is a great thing. Protection is key to a community. But what about when it comes to letting someone in to the most private areas of your life. I know that I have problems sharing with people the secrets and painful areas of my life. I can deal with it on my own. Pause! What am I doing? I am not allowing other people to love. I am not sure our problem is that we do not love one another. I believe our problem is that we don’t want anyone to love us. We crave it and cry for it at night or when no one is watching, but yet we are terrified to let people in and sacrifice for us. After all, what if they hurt me?  

My answer: We need to grow up. We need to not worry when people hurt us and we must continue to love, continue to be open for love. If you are perfect then stop reading this because I am only talking to the majority, known as the imperfect. 

Jesus’ Answer to “What if they hurt me?” is this: Forgive as I have forgiven you. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all apart of one head: Christ. We don’t have love, but once again, like loving ourselves, we can love with the love of Christ. Look at how he has loved us. Absorb his love into your system and let it flow from you. “This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.” So then, “let us love one another, for love comes from God” (1 John 4). Remain in Christ and his love and you will be able to love one another. In fact, you wont be able to help but love.

Winnipeg: A Cross Cultural Life Change

Reflecting is helpful when attempting to live an honest life. It helps to see what went good and what has gone very wrong. Like the time I destroyed my sisters Barbie doll for sport. How was I suppose to know it wasn't for blowing up with my army men. Her head can be removed AND replaced very easily. But now I see: If you mess with your sister's Barbie doll your dad will crush your favourite Hot Wheels car.

Anyway. This reflection is on Winnipeg Challenge: A Challenge to reach out to Winnipeg with the love of Christ and to grow spiritually as well. Of course when you think missions trip you automatically think, "MEXICO" or "AFRICA." Not this time. This time we thought, "CANADA." Going, I thought we would be working with mainly muslim families in the inner city, but was I ever shocked when I realized who were working alongside: the Burmese people. Who knew? Who knew that I would be shocked to discover a new culture, shocked to find their boldness in prayer, and shocked to find that God broke my heart for them.

Most of the people in the Church we worked with are refugees. There are a large number of Karen people and some Chin as well. Both are people groups from Burma.

Here's the issue: The Burma (or Myanmar) government decided the Karen people are insignificant and are raiding their villages, raping their women, and stealing their children for soldiers. The Karen people are then displaced from their homes and farms to then be refugees in Thailand. Here is a link for a video about some of this: http://www.freeburmarangers.org/

Alongside of these beautiful people, I had the privilege of reaching out to their city: Winnipeg. We did prayer walks, met people, invited them to puppets, movie night, music, climbing wall, games and even to church. We learned about Islam and Buddhism. We reached to prostitutes and homeless. Is it not ironic that we were not reaching out to the Karen people, but working with them? They have seen the love of Christ in finding themselves alive from gunfire and raiders. They have seen, therefore they show the love and character of Christ.

I was blown away by all of this. This was a refresher because I had to leave my wife at home. Though we talked every day, it was difficult to understand why she had to stay behind. She did the paper work, paid the money, everything. Then this stunned me more: About 5 or 6 years ago my wife went on a missions trip to Thailand and you'll never guess where she spent a bunch of time. She spent it with the Karen Villages that are displaced in Thailand. God stunned me. He wanted to give me an experience and a heart for the Karen and Burmese people, similar to Nadine's experience. I am still blown away by God's wisdom.

There is too much to write, but there are two main reflections I observed: 1) The irony of working WITH the Karen and Chin people and 2) God giving me a similar experience to Nadine's.