Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “A Step in Faith”. So ends this quarter’s lesson on “Witnessing”. I hope the whole quarter has been helpful to all as it has been to me. And this week’s lesson is no exception to that. We are encouraged to “step-out” in faith and… love. To love our fellow brothers and sisters… our fellow sinners. Just as God has loved us, so we are to love, too. As the quarterly states, “to follow Jesus means that we love as He loved, serve as He served, and minister and He ministered” (Quarterly for September 20). Amen and amen!
Yet in various places the quarterly keeps injecting the idea that our motive for this love, service, and ministering is the joy of heaven. But this is not what motivated Christ nor what motivates His followers. “The apostle Paul encourages us to ‘let’ or ‘allow’ or ‘permit’ the mind of Christ to dwell in us” (Quarterly for September 20). And Christ’s mind is clearly revealed in Philippians 2: 5-11. He did not hold or grasp to heaven but “revealed Heaven’s law of love to the entire universe and, eventually, performed the ultimate act of love on the cross. He gave His life to save ours, eternally” (Quarterly for September 20). Christ sacrificed His place in Heaven out of love for you and me. And so are we to have this mind, too.
So much of our “gospel” message is colored by our extreme sinfulness. We interpret Christ’s coming, living, dying and rising to newness of life from our own sinful motivation of saving ourselves. We sinners want a life of self-centeredness and heaven, too. But a life of love-less-ness and selfishness unfits us for a life with the Supreme Lover, the Supreme Self-less One. So when the Quarterly does this (uses heaven as a motivator), I cringe inside. This motivation smacks of such self-centeredness that I just want to scream sometimes. I so hope the quarterly would stop writing this way.
When Christ talked plainly about following Him and the cost associated with that following, almost everyone left Him. All but the twelve (see John 6: 66). So when He tells us that following Him will mean loving others (especially those who have grievously wronged you) to the extent of sacrificing your own place in heaven for those ones, then you and I may also be tempted to turn away. Many people “follow” Jesus for a while in order to gain heaven. But once they find out that following Jesus is not gaining a home of eternal retirement but loving others enough to sacrifice your own place in heaven for others, then many will turn away. And sad to say, Christendom has been peddling the attainment of heaven as a motivator for a long time. We Adventists, of all Christians, should be immune to such base motivation.
Our lessons each quarter and the messages we preach need to be founded on our best understanding of our Father and of the way of love. When it appeals to our base desire to save our puny selves in a heavenly state of bliss, it misses the mark and perpetuates our luke-warm state of luke-warm love. If “Me” is my highest goal, then I will never love as God loves and as Heaven loves. My love for others will only extend until I am discomfited… and no further.
God’s love poured-out for me (and you) on the cross, showing us the depths of God’s love and healing while we were yet sinners, is what delivers us from our luke-warm state. "We love, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19. It is His love that will change us, if we will.
So the question for each of us is, “how far will we go in following Jesus”? If we do not follow Him all the way, but are content in our luke-warm state, the heavenly Watcher has strong words for us. He says, “I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Halfway following Him is the same as not following Him at all. “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). Tough words. True words. Let us ponder these words and consider the cost. Are we willing? Will we consent to be completely filled with Him and His love?
With brotherly love,
Jim