Dear Faith Family,
Several weeks ago, we started down the road of trying to answer the question all humans ask (and re-ask): Who am and what am I for? We've discovered (I hope!) that at the heart of our universal question is what we love, for who/what we are willing to give ourselves away.
Discovering that we know ourselves by first giving ourselves away to God and His desires--loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength--is certainly not a new revelation! The truth that we are created to desire what God desires, and to seek His desire (will) above all else, has deep roots in our stories and The Story of scripture. This "great and first commandment," as Jesus called it in Matthew 22:37-38, has been one that most of us have heard and sought to follow from the beginning of our faith.
And so, as we discovered last week, living in the light of who God knows and has crafted us to be and become is a heart issue. When our hearts are calibrated to His heart for us and His world, we are free to follow our hearts to our question's answer. Still, as John, the beloved friend and follower of Jesus, said, there is something new in this old truth that we need to pay attention to.
Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning…At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
(1 John 2:7-8)
Already, the darkness that keeps God’s intimately crafted knowledge of us is fading as the true light of what God desires for us and through us shines in the world. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), as the apostle Paul put it, adds a new dimension to the old command, for “it is God who is at work within us both to desire and to work for what He desires” (Phil. 2:13). But, John says, there is a way that we remain blind even in the fading dark: when our hearts are against one whose God’s heart is for.
…because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
(1 John 2:8b-11)
What often keeps us from living in the clarity of who we are and what we are for is not a heart that doesn’t desire what God desires, but a heart that, as the “old commandment” forbade, hangs onto a grudge, acting on ill will towards our siblings rather than loving a neighbor (see Leviticus 19:17-18). Perhaps that is why Jesus quickly connected the great first command with "a second like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39).
It is not enough to love God, to desire to do what He wants. It is our beginning and our end, absolutely. But, as Jesus said, we are also made to love what/who God loves. If we miss this, we'll find that we stumble or get lost in finding the answer to the question.
So, this week faith family, let us go one step further and join together in asking God to know our hearts toward those in our lives, and lead us in the clarity of His love for them.
Father, we come to You because our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake, and we are called Your children because of His love for us.
Father, we come to You because we desire what You desire and want nothing more than to live the fullness of Your life in us.
Father, search us and know our hearts. Show us if there is any violence or animosity, any bitterness or apathy towards those in our lives (even the ones we fail to see).
Father, create in us pure hearts, and let the love of Jesus lead us to see clearly the way before us.
Because Jesus lives and is pressing back the darkness already, we pray. Amen.
Love you, faith family!