June 2007-July 2007

VITAL SIGNS #2: Loving People

Second only to the command of loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is “Love your neighbor as yourself…” (Mark 12:31) But, what does it mean to love people?  A group of children were asked, “What does love mean?” I’ve noted a few of their descriptions:

“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” Chrissy-age 6
“You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it.  But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.” Jessica-age 8
“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.” Nikka-age 6

Even for those of us a bit older love is challenging to describe. Love can be something you “make” or “fall into”.  It can produce broken hearts, goose bumps, loss of appetite, tears, starry eyes, and has inspired some to die and others to kill.  Love can be so confusing. 

Ultimately Jesus describes love for people in John 15:13. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  The Bible describes loving people as “...serving others at their point of need, supporting and building one another up in the faith.  Relationships are fluid, networks inviting, and conflicts are addressed with maturity.” (Vital Signs bookmark)

Such love is deciding I will do that which benefits the loved one even at great personal cost and even when there is no response of love.  People can be difficult to love. Like the little boy in the comic expressed to his sister in exasperation as his mother in frustration stood by, “Thank goodness the Bible says to love my neighbor, not my sister!”  Why is it that sometimes sisters and brothers are the hardest to love resulting in tension, anxiety, and conflict?
But I’m sure I needn’t remind you that Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”  No matter how far relationships have deteriorated we can always begin at that point. 

Yet this Bible teaching on love seems so foreign to our life experience in the real world. I recall as a boy at home on the farm, often machinery would break down and, being the only son in our family, I was involved in the repairs at a young age.  While I resented it at the time, it was great training for life.  Sometimes I would help by removing the bolts.  Occasionally, especially on moving parts, the harder I tried to loosen the bolt, the tighter the nut seemed to become.  Then my dad would come over to help me.  He looked at the part for a moment or two and said, “Johnny, this has a left-handed thread.  It’s a reverse nut.  You have to tighten or loosen it by going in the opposite direction.”  Just when I thought I was learning the nuts and bolts of machinery, they change the rules!

There is a sense in which the Bible is a kind of reverse threaded bolt.  Everything in secular society that seems right comes out wrong in the Bible.  The way to exalted greatness is loving service!  The way to fulfillment in life is loving self denial!  Commitment to loving people in our life together is a reverse threaded nut!  We need to relearn and rework relationship principles. I Corinthians 13: 3-4 is a powerful tool.  “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”
Jesus is the Perfect Example of LOVE and His Spirit produces the Fruit of Love in each Believer's life. (Galatians 5:22) 
The application is obvious. You and I as disciples of Jesus Christ should be able to insert our name by each quality of love. 
I invite you, with me, to take the test.
____is patient.
____is kind.
____does not envy.
____not boast.
____is not proud.
____is not rude.
____is not self-seeking.
____is not easily angered.
____keeps no record of wrongs.
____does not delight in evil.
____rejoices in the truth.
____always protects.
____always trusts.
____always hopes.
____always perseveres.
____never fails.

How did you do? How do you feel?  If you're anything like me, you probably quit after the first few and cried out in prayer, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

Lord, produce the fruit of your Spirit, LOVE, in me (us) in greater and greater abundance, so that I (we) may love people, all kinds of people, as you do!

In our loving Lord Jesus Christ,
Bishop John

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