Would you rather be Right? Or Loving?
What is the #1 best thing we can do for the world right now?
In 2007, a book was released called “Jim and Casper Go to Church.”
Jim Henderson had been a pastor for a number of years and had moved into a church consulting role. He had this idea. He wanted to find someone who didn’t go to church, who didn’t even believe in Jesus, and then travel across the country visiting different churches to see what they could learn about the church, what was working, what was meaningful, and to get an honest perspective from an “outsider” about their impressions of the church.
Jim connected with a guy by the name of Matt Casper. Casper is a self-proclaimed atheist. His background was in marketing and music. He didn’t grow up going to church and didn’t know a lot about church.
After traveling with Jim across the country to visit different churches, some of them being well-known megachurches and some of them being what you might call regular churches, you know what Casper concluded? Here’s one of his observations…
“A lot of times, Christians are more interested in being right than in being loving.” – Matt Casper
We love to be Right
We live in a world where people love to be right.
Pick any news channel you like, and you’re likely to hear people shouting their opinion, trying to convince everyone that’s listening that they’re right. Doesn’t matter what news station you pick. That’s true even if you’re watching SportsCenter!
Then you’ve got people who are only concerned with their truth. It’s not about THE Truth, it’s just their truth. Whatever they believe is true is their truth no matter if it’s true or not. In this post-modern, post-Christian world we’re living in, truth has become relative for many.
When it comes to church, we believe in truth. We believe we know THE Truth. We believe the “truth will set you free.” But what happens when the church becomes so focused on truth that they forget about love? What happens when a church is more concerned about being right than they are with being compassionate? What happens when a church forgets that Jesus came full of “grace and truth?”
At least for one person who was not a Christian, named Casper, what he witnessed in the church was Christians who were more interested in being right than being loving. And don’t misunderstand me… we care about the truth. We believe in absolute truth. We believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We believe His Word, the Bible, our Scriptures, is true. We are not going to compromise the truth in any way. Hear me say that loud and clear.
But… in a world where everyone loves to be right, what if we were equally concerned about being loving?
Final Instructions
Right before Jesus went to face the cross, He gave His disciples one last instruction.
He saved His most important lesson for the last class before He went to face the cross. For three years, they’ve been trying to take in everything He’s been teaching them. From how the first will be last and the last will be first. To the lessons about forgiveness and grace. He taught His disciple not to worry. If God our Father cares for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, how much more does He care for us?
They watched Jesus heal the sick, feed the hungry, and welcome those who were known as sinners. Jesus had taught them a lot over the past three years. It was a Master Class in what it means to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. But there was one more lesson His disciples needed to learn before He left them.
The cross is just hours away. Jesus is about to be betrayed. He has gathered with His disciples for one last meal before He’s arrested. They don’t know that all this is about to happen, but He does.
They’re sitting at the table getting ready to eat when Jesus gets up. Back in those days, the table was on the floor. Everyone reclined at the table, leaning on one elbow with their head near the table so they could eat and their feet behind them. Jesus got up from the table, got a towel and a bowl of water, and went around to wash the feet of His disciples.
Now, this was not His job. This was the job of the lowliest person in the room. Typically a servant of some kind. Everyone’s feet were dirty after having walked on the dirty, dusty roads. The last thing you want when you’re eating supper is to smell stinky feet! Amen?!
So Jesus took it upon Himself to do the one job that, honestly, nobody wanted to do.
The Apostle John was one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers. He was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He shares this story in John 13, and he writes that “the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus” John 13.2, and that “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything…” John 13.3.
So what does the most powerful person in the room do?
He becomes the greatest servant of all. He does the one job that no one else wants to do. The one job that everyone in the room thinks someone else should do. The one job that is the most humbling, you might even say humiliating. Jesus does that job.
He washed the feet of the tax collector. The zealot. The sons of thunder. The one who would deny Him. The one who would doubt Him. Even the one who would betray Him. He washed their feet. All of them.
The question is WHY?
I’m glad you asked. If you keep reading, Jesus tells us why. John writes in v12…
12 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.
Why did Jesus wash their feet? Because He wanted to teach them something. Something about truth? Or was it something about love?
Jesus gives them an example to follow. He doesn’t just give them a principle to live by, a verse to memorize, or an attribute of God that they should strive to imitate. He gives them a literal example. He washes their feet. He literally does the lowliest job. He has all authority over everything, and He becomes the greatest servant of all. Why?
Because… He wanted them to follow His example. To do what He did. He didn’t just want them to know the truth. He wanted them to live the truth. And the greatest truth a disciple of Jesus can live is love. What does love look like? It looks like this. It looks like washing feet. Jesus says…
15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.
Do As I Have Done to You
Question… What does this look like in your life?
What does it look like in a marriage when each person in the marriage, the husband and the wife, both try to out-serve the other?
I’ll wash the dishes tonight. No, honey, I’ll do that. No, really, I’ll do that!
I’ll take out the trash. I’ll clean the bathrooms. I’ll get the mail. I’ll __ fill in the blank. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be in a marriage like that? Where each person is constantly trying to out-serve the other?
What would it be like to be in a family like that? Where the kids are arguing over who is going to clean up the kitchen after dinner? Who’s going to vacuum? Who’s going to pick up? Ok, some of you are wondering if I’m dreaming now!
What would it look like to be in a friend group like that? Where every person is trying to out-serve the other friends in the group?
How about this? What would that look like in a church? Where each person in the church is trying to out-serve the other people in the church? Where we never have to ask for volunteers? Where we never need teachers, or greeters, or coffee makers, or people to prep communion, or people to help out with the next event, or people to visit and pray with those who are sick? What would it look like in a church where everyone is looking to wash someone’s feet, to do the job, whatever it is, that needs to be done to serve other people in the church?
Jesus said, 15 “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.”
Love As I Have Loved You
And then He said…
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Jesus says, “Do as I have done to you.”
And then He says, “Love each other. Just as I have loved you…”
And He calls this a new command. What’s new about it?!
Before this, Jesus had been asked about what was the most important commandment. Here’s what He said…
30 “‘And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Mark 12.30-31
But now, right before He goes to the cross where He will sacrifice His life for the salvation of the world, Jesus gives a new command and says…
“Do as I have done to you.”
And, “Love each other. Just as I have loved you…”
What makes this a new command?
Before, Jesus said we should love God with all we are and with all we have. With all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.
But now, Jesus says the way we are supposed to love each other, the standard by which we love each other isn’t love of self. The way we love each other now, the new standard, the new command, is to love each other the way Christ has loved us.
And how did Christ love us?
He washed the feet of His disciples. Then He went to the cross where He laid down His life for us. This is sacrificial love. This is the new command. The new way to love. To love each other in self-sacrificing ways.
And Jesus says, when we do this, when we love each other this way…
35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
What would happen if we loved each other, really loved each other, with this kind of love?
What would happen if you loved others, really loved others, with this kind of love?
Christians in the 2nd & 4th Century
In the 2nd Century, there was a man named Tertullian who was a Christian theologian, writer, and apologist from Carthage in North Africa.
At that time, the church was under persecution by the Roman Empire. You would think, because of the danger and constant threat that Christians were living under, the church would be shrinking. Maybe even dying. But the exact opposite was happening. The church was growing. And Tertullian wrote about this. He wrote that those who were outside the church, those he described as the heathen, said this about the Christians…
“See, they say, how they love one another.” — Tertullian, Apology 39.7
This is what people said about Christians because of the way they loved one another, cared for the poor, took in abandoned children, and shared everything they had while living under persecution. They were even ready and willing to die for one another.
Fast forward to the 4th century, and now times have changed. Instead of being persecuted by the Roman Empire, the church became legal, favored, and even the state religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine. During this time, a man by the name of Chrysostom who, was a Christian thinker, writer, and bold preacher, complained that the Christians of his time showed all too little love.
He wrote, “Even now, there is nothing else that causes the heathen to stumble, except that there is no love among Christians… Their own doctrines they have long condemned, and in like manner they admire ours, but they are hindered by our mode of life.” – John Chrysostom. (Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily 65. In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 14. Edited by Philip Schaff. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994, 241.)
For Tertullian, the greatest witness to the watching world for the church was the way the church loved each other. They loved each other so much and so well that those who were not Christian took notice.
For Chrysostom, the greatest detriment to the watching world for the church was the way the church did NOT love each other. Their LACK of LOVE was a stumbling block for those who were not Christian.
I wonder today which church we’re more like? Are we more like the church of the 2nd century or the 4th century?
Is our love for one another a witness to the world around us for Jesus? Or is our lack of love for one another the very thing that keeps people away?
Loving Each Other Like Jesus
What would it look like for us to grow in our love for each other?
What would it look like for you?
What do you do when you hear Jesus say,
“Do as I have done to you.”
And, “Love each other. Just as I have loved you…”
When you love those around you with the love of Jesus, you point the world around you to Jesus.
So here’s what I want to encourage you to do today: love somebody. Really love somebody. And you get bonus points if it’s someone you don’t know very well or even know at all. You bet bonus points if it’s someone who is different from you in some way. Ok, there’s no points. But you get what I mean. 🙂
In a world that is so divided, WE are called to LOVE EACH OTHER.
In a world where people have never been more connected but never felt more alone, WE are called to LOVE EACH OTHER.
In a world filled with contempt, hate, and despair, we choose to live a different Way and WE are called to LOVE EACH OTHER.
When we devote ourselves to washing one another’s feet, to loving each other in self-sacrificing ways, we point the world around us to Jesus. And who knows, we might even have someone like Casper here today. Someone who doesn’t believe in God and doesn’t know what to make of church, but when they see the way we love each other, they know there’s something different about us, and they want to know more. What they really want to know is why. Why do you guys do that? Why do you love like that?
And then, we get to tell them about Jesus!
The #1 Best Thing
What is the #1 best thing we can do for the world right now?
I would suggest the number one thing we can do as a church right now is LOVE each other the way Christ has loved us.
This is our greatest opportunity to witness before a watching world about what it means to follow Jesus and know Jesus.
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