commands | Wayfarer

In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…
1 John 5:3 (NIV)

In today’s chapter, John states that loving God means keeping His commands.

Stop right there.

When I read “keeping His commands” what immediately, unconsciously sprang to mind in the twinkling of an eye were things like:

Going to church.
Giving 10% of your income to the church.
Don’t [insert that most guilt producing behavior here].
Stop [insert that nagging bad habit I know I should break].

Jesus said there were only two basic commands:

Love God.
Love others as you love yourself (btw, if I don’t love myself well in a healthy way, then I’m handicapped in both the loving God and loving others part.

Everything flows from love, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the flow originates from God, not from me. This is not a one-way relationship unless I choose not to love God back. The love is always, has always flowed towards me from God. I can ignore it. I can misinterpret it. I can twist it into something it’s not. I can deflect it. I can resist it. I can actively work against it. I can think about it endlessly, and even mentally acknowledge it is there.

It’s only when I receive it that something changes in me.

Along my spiritual journey, this is the one thing that I observe most people not understanding about being a follower of Jesus. I always think it’s about me “obeying His commands” in order to earn His love like a merit badge. I behave like God is miserly standing at His faucet of love ever determining how much love the Ol’ Miser is going to let flow out the spicket (from a limited supply) based on how good I’ve been. That’s often the way it works in human relational economics, I’m afraid. So, it’s easy for me to project that onto God. But, Jesus never taught that.

The love is always flowing to me from the unlimited source.

It’s only when I receive that it makes any difference.

In the quiet this morning, I remember Jesus’ criticism of the religious rule-keepers:

“Instead of giving you God’s Law [Remember: Love God, love others. -TVW] as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help.”
Matthew 23:4-5 (MSG)

Then I hear Him say:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)

When I received His invitation. Things began to change.

Along my spiritual journey, that’s the thing I have to continually remind myself. It’s not about me being good to earn a trickle of love. It’s about me learning to receive freely from the unlimited flow. It’s then that love changes me and directs the flow back to God, on to others.

Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your God.Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. Deuteronomy 14:21 (NRSV)

One of the lessons I learned on the playeground was that not all kids were raised with the same standards and rules as were held fast at the Vander Well household. Certain words that were unacceptable in our house, were perfectly normal and common vocabulary for some families. What was expected behavior in my home was not expected behavior in friend’s homes. When I quizzed my parents about these discrepancies, I was informed that other families were free to choose their own standards. As a member of our household, however, we were expected to obey the commands of our home.

I was fascinated to come across this addendum in today’s chapter to the ancient rules God gave His Hebrew children. The rule was for His children, with the understanding that not everyone chose, or was chosen, to be God’s children. While God told His children not to eat roadkill, there was the understanding and acknowledgement that roadkill might be considered an acceptable feast for others. His children could give the roadkill away to neighbors or sell it to foreigners. The rule not to eat was between God and His children.
I observe that people in our culture are increasingly intolerant of any who disagree with their beliefs, choices, or the rules of life to which they ascribe. As I read through the news of the day I find ISIS terrorists, politically correct liberals, Christian right wingers, and adherents to any number of religious or political persuasions seem to be given to the same desire for everyone submit to their way of thinking, believing, and living.

I am reminded this morning that the world is a big playground and Jesus readily accepted that people would choose not to follow Him and His prescribed dictates for conducting our lives. In fact, Jesus was downright discouraging to certain individuals who said they wanted to do so. This is consistent with the roadkill rule in today’s chapter. If Father God is accepting of the fact that not everyone on the playground will follow our house rules and our way of thinking then shouldn’t I, as a child of His household, also be accepting of that reality? Loving and accepting those who live life by the same life rules and principles as I do is relatively easy. I tend to believe that the true mark of a Jesus follower is how well we love, accept and treat those who don’t.