Love is What is Required of Us
Last week, I spent a good amount of time mulling over John 13:34-35. I thought of it in the context of our plans for reopening campuses and I am thinking about it in our response to the racial injustice our world is crying out to see corrected.
Last week, I got caught up in planning for our limited reopening this Sunday. I was feeling the challenge of leading our staff and congregation well toward a responsible, safe reopening for those who are ready and toward full facilitation of online services for those who are not. There had been in the week previous a bunch of news coverage on mask-wearing. People had very strong feelings and I mentioned to some friends that we will be judged right or wrong on the basis of whether or not we say “require” or “recommend” in regards to mask-wearing. Whatever the decision, half will think we are right and half will judge us as wrong. But whatever the preferred verbiage, the desire was the same. Both sides want the Church to stand as a light in the world around us.
So what makes us, the Church, look different to the world in a good kind of way?
Fortunately, Jesus, in his final private moments with his disciples, gives them the inside scoop on what they need to do to be seen differently by the watching and broken world.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
— JOHN 13:34-35
Whether we “require” or “recommend” matters but not as much as how we love along the way.
But here is where I am really going with this! Whatever my feelings about masks, I do have very strong feelings about whether or not we “require” or “recommend” when it comes to standing against injustice in the world and in particular racial injustice in our country. I don't only recommend we care; rather, I believe God's word requires that we care.
I have a confession to make. Last week, I was fully caught up in reopening plans and in trying to lead our staff well going forward. Don’t get me wrong, reopening well and wisely is important, but as the weekend approached I missed facing full on the grim reminder that America has long since been in the midst of the pandemic that is systemic racial injustice. I didn’t allow emotional capacity to do more than process within my family the murder of George Floyd. On the mirror in our bathroom is the name of Ahmaud Arbery, and I pray for his family often. I didn’t want to have to add another name to the long list of victims of injustice. In my distraction, I let the call to care be a recommendation for me rather than a requirement. When I do that, I am contributing to the problem and I am neglecting the New Command of Jesus—to be known by how I love. For that, I repent.
This week, let's make sure to love. That is our requirement. To be certain, the kind of love Jesus modeled is rarely the easy kind of love. Right now, there are all kinds of social/political toxicity in our world. Loving with a sacrificial, action-oriented love may not be easy, but it is the only right decision. Exactly what love in action looks like in your circumstances may differ in degrees, but if it helps, here are some things I am doing.
Repenting - As God and others reveal bias or blind spots, I am acknowledging them, repenting, and not letting shame keep me from trying again.
Praying - I need wisdom, courage, compassion, and strength to act in love with the long-term commitment that comes with love.
Checking in - I have been blessed with friends and family who are people of color. I have tried to get over having to have a good answer and just been OK with checking in and letting them know I care.
Speaking up - In the same way I need to be willing to hear the hard things, I need to have the courage to say them.
Finally, I don't think that it was simply the call to love that made Jesus’ command new. It was the radical, self-sacrificing nature of the love Jesus modeled and the totally unique context in which our love for each other would be lived out. Before Jesus tore down the dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:14), mankind was known by the walls around them, by what separated him or her from another. Suddenly, in the church, the walls are all broken down and rather than hostile differentiation, there is a requirement (a new command) that we love each other with the same love Jesus has lavished on us.
Let's remember how much we are loved, and then go live like it this week. Let's hurdle the rubble of the dividing walls of hostility and humbly listen to and learn from each other. My goal is not that we agree on all things, but that we love in all things. Love is what is required of us, and by God’s grace, we can love each other in a way that is good for the world.
John Parker is the lead pastor at Summit Church. He enjoys woodworking and boats and dreams of building his own boat in the coming years.