This is our concluding reflection on John 15:12 - 17. Our next movement in the Upper Room is John 15:18 - 16:4.
We have asked three questions regarding the love of John 15:12 – 17: What does this look like in the church? What does this look like in my own life? What does this look like in my family? Having pondered the second and third questions, we’ll now consider the first question (though we touched on it in our previous meditation).
Are our congregations (and denominations and movements) laying down their lives for others? Is my local congregation laying down its life for its community, for the world, and for other congregations?
The term “doctrinal distinctives” is often used to delineate one group from another, indicating what beliefs or practices set groups apart from one another. As I ponder this, I wonder where we get this mentality of defining ourselves by our differences, and I wonder how we justify such thinking. I wonder why we don’t emphasize our common faith in Jesus Christ and our call to unity in Him. How have we arrived at such fragmented thinking?
Jesus tells us that we are to have two distinctives, one is that we love one another as He loves us, the other is that we are One as the Trinity is One. Both of these distinctives are contrary to our cherished doctrinal distinctives – our doctrinal distinctives separate the Body of Christ, the Divine distinctives of sacrificial love and unity “perfect us into one” Body (John 17:23; Ephesians 4:1–16).
Whatever our doctrinal distinctives may be – and I think we should acknowledge that whatever they are, they are likely imperfect and incomplete – the test of their validity is whether they are Christocentric, rooted in Christ. Since we cannot be rooted in Christ without also being rooted in His Body, any doctrinal distinctives that do not result in service and preference for the Body of Christ lack validation.
Consider a wheel with many spokes. Are the spokes leading to the hub or away from the hub? When we seek to emphasize our unity, the spokes lead to the hub, Jesus Christ. When we emphasize and identify with our so-called distinctives, we move away from the hub.
Nowhere do we see Jesus teaching us to move away from Him and our brethren, in fact, throughout the Bible we are taught to live for one another in Christ. How is it that we have come to celebrate division? How is it that pastors see no need to know one another and to lead their people by example into the glorious fellowship of the Body of Christ?
On the congregational level, are we collectively living sacrificial lives for others? How are we spending our money, our time, our resources? I have often shared the story of a trustees’ meeting in which I said, “I would not want to appear before Jesus with this budget and financial statement. It is all about us.”
I have known folks who thought that if they volunteered so many hours a month at church that they would not need to give money. I have known others who thought that if they gave money that would not have to give time or talent. Where does this thinking come from? We are either living for Jesus and others or we are not. We are either living in relationship with the Trinity and others or we are not.
Years ago there was a church in Richmond, VA in the midst of a building program. They were ready to begin the next phase of the program and they had the money for the project. However, they had also promised a church in Haiti that they would provide funds for a building. They only had enough money for one project. The church gave their funds to their Haitian brethren. That, my friend, was the turning point for the Richmond church. The church became a center for outreach to the world, supporting churches throughout the world, sending missionaries, and (the last time I had contact with them) sending about 25 short-term mission groups every year. Because they put others first God was able to use them for His Kingdom. (Also, as I think about this particular church, even though it was a member of a denomination, it never had a denominational feel to it, it had the feel of the Body of Christ.)
Just to be clear, I am not talking about being “non-denominational,” whatever that means. I think whether or not a congregation is associated with a denomination is like circumcision, the Bible says it doesn’t matter whether you are or you aren’t, what matters is that we have “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6; 6:15). We are all products of traditions and practices and ways of looking at things, and folks who make a big deal of being non-denominational are ignoring the obvious and often leading their people in ways that lack foundation, that have no continuity with the transcendent Body of Christ. Of course, this disconnect with our past is the norm across most congregations and institutions, even those who profess otherwise – we are so “in the moment” and reactionary that our congregations are ships without rudders and navigational charts. We are more like bumper cars than vessels on a carefully charted course.
What does the Royal Inclusio look like in my life? In your life? In our marriages? Our families? Our congregations? Our denominations and movements?
Are we laying down our lives for others in love as Jesus laid down His life for us?
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