Loving Brothers and Sisters

“Loving Brothers and Sisters”

August 22, 2009
Larry R Evans

Reflective Introduction

In Genesis 2 we have an amazing story. It is all about God and us but mostly about a genetic identity that was placed within us. Soon after God breathed into man the “breath of life” (Gen. 2:7) he became a living being reflective of God Himself (Gen. 1:26). At that point he was simply a “work in progress.” Our beginning was carefully defined but it was only that. More was to come! The next great event in Genesis 2 was the placement of this new creation called Adam in a carefully crafted garden. Within this garden man was to find the setting for his true self-discovery. Two very important and related events happen to bring about this discovery: a security check and the creation of companionship. The security check was established first. It was a test of allegiance to God. A single tree in a vast garden was to be off limits. The privilege of personal decision was built into his psyche. The next part of his self-discovery was relating to someone else similar himself. God saw that it was not good for him to be alone (Gen. 2:18). There was something about being created in the image of God that could not develop in isolation but this need brought about a brand new challenge. Could Adam relate responsibly to both His Creator and to other created beings? Whatever the outcome, these two components were essential for Adam’s self-discovery. They were part of his and they are part of ours. So at the heart of any honest self-discovery today is the need to ask: What is my relationship and allegiance to God and secondly, how do I relate to those around me in light of this allegiance? Love in its fullest extent is essentially defined by the combination of both. It has been said that, “The behavior of the fully human being is always unpredictable—simply because it is free.” (John Powell) That is the core of our study this week. Our behavior is unpredictable if we abandon our “genetic code” and side step the questions God asked Adam and Eve after their fall, “Where are you (in relation to Me)?” and the question he asked of Cain after he killed his “brother”, “Where is your brother?” Both questions get to the very heart of who we are and how far we have migrated from the divine plan. This week we address the relational component—How do we treat others knowing that God first loved us.

Reflective Quiz

1. It is hardest to love when your best intentions are perceived as self-serving. [1Jn 3:11-16; 13:53-58; Matt.27:46; 26:6-13] True

Have you ever experienced that—your good intentions given the worst interpretations? If there is any good news in this it is that this practice has been around a long time and isn’t unique to you and me. Consider two different cases: Abel’s and Mary Magdalene’s.

1Jn 3:11 For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other.

1Jn 3:12 We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous.

1Jn 3:13 So don't be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time. (Message)

Matt 26:6-13

6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. 9 "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor."

10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (NIV)

2. Some confuse the meaning of love by using people and loving things. [Mk. 8:37,38] True

Mark 8:34-38

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." (NIV)

Jesus had a way of penetrating to the very core of our being. He knows how we were created. He knows the subtle and sometimes not so subtle plan of Satan to altar our spiritual genetic code. The slide from loving God and others to loving things was the pit fall of ancient idolatry. We’ve simply modernized it. Whenever we distort God by turning Him into a large bottle of Bayer Aspirin we run the real risk of not only seeing Him differently but ourselves as well.

3. Supreme love for others is shown when one is willing to die for a cause. [1Jn. 3:16; Matt. 27:5] True and False

What is this passage telling us?

1 John 3:16-18

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (NIV)

Did Jesus lay down His life for a “cause”? What makes His cause different than say the “Democratic” or “Republican” or the “radical Muslim cause in which a suicide bomber anticipates a paradise with 72 virgins?”

What insights do we learn from Judas who had a cause but later hanged himself?

“Love means saying “No” to one’s own life so that somebody else may live.” In the case of Jesus it not “simply a demonstration of love in the sense that we might say ‘He must have loved very much in order to suffer all that.’ This is not how we know love. Rather, the point is that we experience the benefit of life given to us as a result of the death of Jesus, and so we realize that the love was for us.” (J Howard Marshall in NIC on NT, The Epistles of John, p.193)

Perhaps a parallel passage is the story of the Good Shepherd in John 10 – Contrast the difference between the “good” shepherd and the “hirling.”

Matt 27:3-5

3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4 "I have sinned," he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood."

"What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility."

5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. (NIV)

4. John writes much about love. In doing so he makes it clear that anyone who has the power or the means to stop suffering and does not do it sins. (If that is true is God sinning?) (1Jn. 3:14-20] True (could be False depending on rationale)

1 John 3:16-20

17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.(NIV)

Emptying out bank account is not what John is talking about. “John is talking about a feeling of pity which expresses itself in action.” (Ibid. p.195)

5. God’s law was given out of love, therefore, anyone who keeps the law shows love. (1Jn. 2:4, 9) (Could be True and Could be False)

1Jn 2:4 If someone claims, "I know him well!" but doesn't keep his commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words.

1Jn 2:5 But the one who keeps God's word is the person in whom we see God's mature love. This is the only way to be sure we're in God.

1Jn 2:6 Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

1Jn 2:7 My dear friends, I'm not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you've known it from day one. It's always been implicit in the Message you've heard.

1Jn 2:8 On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you--the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!

1Jn 2:9 Anyone who claims to live in God's light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. (Message)

In the devotional book by George Knight, Lest We Forget” we find this insightful if not troubling insight:

Speaking of the aftermath of the Minneapolis conference of 1888:

“One of the most noteworthy things about the Minneapolis spirit is that it resulted from a desire to protect Adventism’s old doctrinal “landmarks.” Ellen White deplored the fact that “a difference in the application of some few scriptural passages makes men forget their religious principles” (MS 30, 1889). “God deliver me from your ideas . . . “ she declared, “if the receiving of these ideas would make me so unchristian in my spirit, words, and works” (MS 55, 1890).

The tragedy of Minneapolis was that in seeking to preserve Adventism’s doctrinal purity and its traditional scriptural interpretations, the Battle Creek leaders had lost its Christianity.” (p.241)

Reflective Conclusion

Love is a gift. To love those who have hurt us is a miracle. To once see ourselves as we really are and not be overwhelmed with guilt and shame is to accept the gospel. To see both ourselves and others in the light of the cross is the hope so desperately needed by the world today.

“From the beginning God has wrought through His people to bring blessing to the world. To the ancient Egyptian nation God made Joseph a fountain of life. Through the integrity of Joseph the life of that whole people was preserved. Through Daniel God saved the life of all the wise men of Babylon. And these deliverances are as object lessons; they illustrate the spiritual blessings offered to the world through connection with the God whom Joseph and Daniel worshiped. Everyone in whose heart Christ abides, everyone who will show forth His love to the world, is a worker together with God for the blessing of humanity. As he receives from the Saviour grace to impart to others, from his whole being flows forth the tide of spiritual life.” (Ellen G White in Acts of the Apostles, p.13)