Doing Things that Matter: Love Recklessly - Monday Morning Devotions (Week 4)
(c) http://doingthingsthatmatter.com/
Readings:
Matthew 22:36-40
1 Corinthians 13:1-7
1 John 3:16-18
Luke 6:27-36
(additional verses at the bottom)
I’m not sure that we treat the great command like it’s the greatest commandment. I have the conviction that if love isn’t easy, we don’t give it. Often, we only offer our love when it doesn’t require much effort. We love our families, our hobbies, and we love donuts. We love the things that are easy, but this world needs people who love in face of disagreement, rejection, and even hatred. I wonder what would happen if we had an out-of-control type of love—one without conditions, fears, barriers, qualifiers, or protectors. What if we loved when it wasn’t easy or convenient? What if we loved God and others recklessly?
We’ve all had moments where we could have extended and given our love away, but instead, we chose to do nothing. Doing nothing is the silent killer of the gospel. It’s sort of like boiling our faith down to reducing sin—we can easily think that not doing certain things make us good and holy…but it’s the opposite! It’s doing something that makes us faithful followers of Jesus!
Love sits at the center of a life engaged in doing things that matter!
In the parable known as “The Good Samaritan,” Jesus paints a picture of what it means to love recklessly. The Samaritan didn’t only see the need, but he chose to do something! The story compares the Samaritan’s actions to a Priest and a Levite, who chose to do nothing. It’s interesting that these two people were “religious” people who claimed to love God, yet they avoided the messy, hard situation. How many of us do this in life? We love when it’s easy, we are good people but seem to go neutral when reckless love is required.
The danger for most of us is not that we’ll become bad people who don’t care about things that matter. No, the danger is that we’ll become good people who don’t do anything that matters! Within you lies a person who desires to love. God’s Spirit is pulling you and inviting you to become more of that person. The Spirit never guilts you, shames you, or bullies you to become loving.
He compels you!
Won’t you be my neighbor?
From the 1960s until the early 2000s there was a show on PBS called Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. For decades Mr. Rogers ruled kid TV. He began every show by singing the same song; “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR A NEIGHBOR. WOULD YOU BE MINE? COULD YOU BE MINE? WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?” For Fred Rogers, this was not just good for the show, instead, this was something he believed! His faith led him to believe in this simple, yet huge idea that we ought to love our neighbors!
Loving God and loving our neighbors—everything hangs on these two commands! Jesus actually connects these two commandments in what he defined as the greatest commandment and essentially makes them one by saying, “If you love God then you better love your neighbors too!”
What if we took this idea of loving recklessly to our literal neighbors? Meaning the people who live closest to you. The truth is the vast majority of us have little to no relationship with our neighbors. Most of them are nameless faces that we know more about how good or bad they are at yard care than about who they really are. We occasionally wave, or we may have had a conversation with them, but most of us don’t even know our neighbors’ names. We call them – “Hey maaannn and Hey girl!” A study found that the vast majority of people know 0-2 of their neighbors’ names and only 5% of people know 8 or more names of their neighbors (8 households). So many of us are ignoring the people right next to us!
Perhaps loving your neighbor isn’t as difficult as we make it. It can begin by learning names…because that matters. It can lead to caring for your neighbor…because that matters too. Getting to know their story, bringing them cookies, inviting them over for dinner, hearing their needs, sharing your life, befriending them…all those things matter! Often the greatest and most profound things God will do within you are discovered in the simple obedience of you doing the things he said mattered and Jesus clearly said that loving your neighbors matters!
If loving your neighbors is hard, what about your enemies?
In our world hatred, revenge, grudges, and anger seem to be around every corner. We find those things in politics, racism, families, and even churches. Jesus said that the greatest command is to love God and love your neighbor—most of us can get with that, but he also calls us to love our enemies! What does that even mean? Are we talking about political enemies? People who’ve wronged us? People we disagree with? Do we really need to love them and if so…how?
In 1956 Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking at a rally when, around 9 pm, a boy interrupted him and shouted that King’s house had been firebombed by the Klu Klux Klan. King ran out of the rally and found his house still on fire! The police and fire department were there, along with a large angry mob of citizens from Montgomery, Alabama, there to support King. They surrounded the house with rifles, baseball bats, and other weapons ready to retaliate. The people were looking to get an eye for an eye!
King stepped onto the porch of his home and said these words, “I want you to love your enemies. Be good to them, love them, and let them know that you love them. We must meet hate with love. What we are doing is right, what we are doing is just, and God is with us. Go home with love in our hearts, with faith, and with God in front, we cannot lose.” As he spoke these words the angry mob, put down their guns and baseball bats and spontaneously broke into singing Amazing Grace. They sang, they cried, and they peacefully went back to their homes.
When we return hate with hate it never ends well, but when we turn the other cheek…even to our enemies…that’s when change is on the way! MLK brought change to the world by seeing things as Jesus saw them. The kind of love Jesus calls us to is not always easy, but it is always right! Those who choose to love God, our neighbors, and our enemies with a reckless love will be the ones who change the world!
What is something practical you can do to show love to a neighbor?
Who is someone that is difficult to love—perhaps an enemy or someone you have anger or hatred towards? Pray God would soften your heart and give you the capacity to love them.
Additional Reading:
Matthew 22:36-40
Luke 10:25-37
John 13:34-35
Romans 13:10
1 John 4:7
John 15:12-13
Matthew 5:38-48
Romans 12:14
Read Week 5: Lead Courageously
We would like to thank Tim Mannin and OKC Community Church for providing this plan.