(ill) After a long illness, a woman died and arrived at the Gates of Heaven. The gate keeper came by and the woman said to him "This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?"

"You have to spell a word," the gate keeper told her.

"Which word?" the woman asked.

"Love."

The woman correctly spelled "Love" and the gate keeper welcomed her into Heaven.

About six months later, the gate keeper asked the woman to watch the Gates of Heaven for him that day. While the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived.

"I'm surprised to see you," the woman said. "How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been doing pretty well since you died," her husband told her. "I married the beautiful young nurse who took care of you while you were ill. And then I won the lottery. I sold the little house you and I lived in and bought a big mansion. And my wife and I traveled all around the world. We were on vacation and I went water skiing today. I fell, the ski hit my head, and here I am. How do I get in?"

"You have to spell a word," the woman told him.

"Which word?" her husband asked.

"Czechoslovakia."

T/S: I laughed out loud as I read that because it reflects with some humor the complexity involved when we start to discuss what it means to love. When we say we "love" someone, what we mean often differs according to "who" that "someone" is. Right? We ?love' our spouse in a different way than we love our children from a different way we love our parents or siblings from a different way we love our friends. For some of those people loving them is as easy as spelling L-O-V-E. For others, it's like trying to spell Czechoslovakia.

So what did Jesus mean when He answered the question ?What is the greatest commandment?'' - in part with the words, love your neighbor as yourself? This is where we conclude the series of messages called I EXAM, using His answer to chart and clarify our own spiritual vision as we begin 2007. The passage, in its entirety, goes like this:

Hopefully, you have found some challenges to approach in your spiritual life this year, involving your heart or your will, and your soul, and your mind and your strength or body. Today we conclude with a look at what Jesus means by loving your neighbor. And I'd like to begin by very briefly looking at three sections of Scripture that address this issue specifically. And after that, we'll summarize with six benchmarks to measure how you are doing in loving your neighbor as yourself.

The most vexing question in our minds as we read Jesus' command, is WHO do I have to treat like this? Take comfort in knowing that, if you wonder along these lines, you are not alone. I'd bet the unnamed lawyer in Luke was only voicing what most were thinking: Who is my neighbor? And Jesus, in one of His most memorable parables, provides the vivid and clear answer: "Your neighbor has nothing to do with who lives next to you, or who your friends are. Your neighbor is the person whose path you cross and is in need of God's merciful touch through you." Being a neighbor is a job description, much like being a Christian or being a deacon or elder. Being a neighbor is not about who you are as much as it is about what you do."

The Bible, not surprisingly then, addresses very specifically what it is we are to do as we love our neighbor.

Have you noticed that from either of these passages there is more meat to hang on a sermon skeleton that we could chew in a month of messages? My goal is to use Jesus' words to measure our own status and progress in our spiritual lives. There is much ? MUCH .. that God has to say on this subject that you and I need to spend private time reflecting and praying over as we read God's Word. What I am anxious for us to take note of in Romans 12 is the breadth and width of love that God asks of us. Our love for neighbor is to be genuine, kind, impartial, consistent, passionate, unselfish, prayerful, compassionate, servant-hearted, inclusive, humble, forgiving and peaceful. ( I need to pray!)

And just as you might expect, when the vastness of love is recognized, knowing that we have the tendency to hoard and protect, the Bible also reflects one final, but vital instruction on the subject of neighborly love.

When Jesus introduces life in the kingdom of God, He blows everybody's mind by expanding the realm and reign of the kingdom beyond the boundaries that we generally set. Generally, we reserve the right to love for those closest to us. Jesus teaches us that love is to be expressed even to those who we would consider our enemies. Our typical response is when someone wounds us, verbally or physically, we react in anger and self-defense. Again, usually verbally, ranting or insulting or cursing . or in extreme cases feeling the compulsion to react physically. But Jesus said that responding in love, especially to those we call enemies, is the mark of a new heart and a new citizenship in the kingdom of God.

We may quibble over how we react to other people and their insults and persecution, but what Jesus does not levee much room for discussion for here, is WHO is to be loved under the category of a ?neighbor.' And that may be just what God is saying to you this morning, that loving your neighbor is less about what you do, as who you have been or have not been loving. (Let me try to summarize with some benchmarks that can serve as points of application for us.)

1. Serve unselfishly.

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car. Being a Christian, Jesus said, is demonstrated by loving your neighbor in unselfish service. God does not ask your ability or your inability. He asks only your availability."


For you have been called to live in freedom?not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. Galatians 5:13-15 (NLT)

Notice the foundation of unselfishness and humility that appear here. It helps explain why genuine Biblical love heals divisions and promotes unity. Conflicts resolve when unselfish service is practiced. Additionally, we ought to note the premise of the Good Samaritan - and the assumption that Christian love for neighbor is going to reach out and help people. Met their needs, ease their hurts - regardless of whether they deserve our help or return the favor. To further illustrate this teaching, think of Jesus' words in Matthew 25 about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and visiting the prisoners.

2. Forgive radically.

(ill) I read about a man whose wife was trying to break a bad habit, as many people do at the beginning of the year. For her, it was biting her fingernails. One day she told my husband about her latest solution: press-on nails. "Great Idea, Honey," he smiled. "You can eat them straight out of the box."

T/S: While his eye didn't swell too much, she did later forgive him. God loves us, so God forgives us. It is one of the core concepts of Christian love, that we extend mercy and forgiveness.

'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:18 (NIV)

As long as God has been in relationship with man, He has expressed the heart of love in forgiveness. Because someone insults you, or embarrasses you, or wounds you - does not, according to God - give you the right to wound or embarrass or insult them back. Christian love says we need to shorten our memory where other people's mistakes and faults are concerned.

(QU) "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

That could be many of us, who secretly - or not so secretly?harbor grudges and hold past mistakes against people. Jesus says, forgive them, do not try to even the scales yourself. Because love forgives.

 

3. Give generously.

 

 

So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you and encourage you to complete your share in this ministry of giving. Since you excel in so many ways?you have so much faith, such gifted speakers, such knowledge, such enthusiasm, and such love for us?now I want you to excel also in this gracious ministry of giving. I am not saying you must do it, even though the other churches are eager to do it. This is one way to prove your love is real. 2 Cor. 8:6-8 (NLT)

4. Pray fervently.

(ill) Old Jeb is the laziest man in the county. One day his best friend drove by his farm and noticed his barn was on fire. "Your barn's burning down," he yelled.

"I know it," replied Jeb.

"Well, ain't ya gonna do somethin'?" asked the friend.

"Do somethin'?" responded Jeb. "'Bout what?"

"Why about puttin' out the fire, ya durn fool." answered the friend.

"I am doin' somethin'." replied Jeb.

"What the heck are you doin', jist sittin' there 'n all?" asked Jeb's friend.

"I ain't jist sittin'," replied Jeb, "I'm sittin' here prayin' for rain."

T/S: let me be clear that prayer should not be the safe haven that you run to so that you don't have to actually do anything and help someone. James warns about meeting someone in need, and saying ?God bless you" without meeting their need.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. James 5:16 (NASB)

Love involves intercession. Loving you neighbor means looking with Jesus' eyes around you, and listening with Jesus' ears so that you recognize needs when you se them. And then lifting those needs in prayer, and being attentive to God because sometimes He answers our prayers by saying "Go and take care of that " (Prayer bulletins on the back table.)

5. Live authentically.

You might also say, ?live diligently.' The idea that I'm trying to express is one that shows up in many ways in the Bible, but comes down to the importance of loving your neighbor by loving God authentically. What we sometimes call our ?witness' is, I believe, a measure of how we love our neighbor. Our passion to spread the Good News of Jesus' redemption - what we sometimes call evangelism- is loving your neighbor.

But be careful that by using your freedom you don't somehow make a believer who is weak in faith fall into sin. For example, suppose someone with a weak conscience sees you, who have this knowledge, eating in the temple of a false god. Won't you be encouraging that person to eat food offered to a false god? In that case, your knowledge is ruining a believer whose faith is weak, a believer for whom Christ died. When you sin against other believers in this way and harm their weak consciences, you are sinning against Christ. Therefore, if eating food offered to false gods causes other believers to lose their faith, I will never eat that kind of food so that I won't make other believers lose their faith.1 Cor. 8:9-13 (GW)

You may talk about growing the church or spreading your faith or sharing Jesus - but it is only talk if you don't love people. And the measure of your witness in loving people is onoe that is established daily, as you live authentically and diligently before the Lord.

(QU) "It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis." - Margaret Bonnano

I take that to mean that I need to approach my spiritual life - and loving my neighbor - one day at a time. Listen, what I've outlined today is more than any of us can swallow, AMEN? But if each of us leave here convicted of something - probably something different for each of us - that we can work on every day this week ?.. our witness will be more appealing and our lives more Christ-like.

 

 

6. Love impartially.

Last benchmark. Maybe the toughest one, and the one I see emphasized so strenuously in Jesus life and teaching. Don't love according to appearance or social status or skin color or economic standing.

(ill) "Whoever said there is no such thing as a stupid question has never worked in customer service."

T/S: let's be honest - people my be created equal and have equal value and standing before God, but they are different. They look differently and they act differently --- and if you've ver had o deal with the public very long, you know some act as if they were REALLY DIFFERENT. Impartial love does not ask you to NOT SEE the differences, because sometimes that's beyond our ability. Impartial love demands that we REFUSE TO ACT on what we see.

Impartial love really requires that we ask for humility - that we subordinate our pride and arrogance and ego.

The TEV translates that verse like this:

God looks at the heart of people and as we become more like Christ, we should be doing the same. Along the way to perfection though, we are obligated to rein in our sinful, human tendencies to see and value people from the outside. Love looks deeper. Love intentionally refuses to act with partiality and favoritism. Love dismisses the "isms" of our day - racism, sexism, age-ism, homophobia, nationalism. Love reaches out as God does - to all. (And I sure am glad God feels and acts that way.)

(ill) A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the cl ay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

T/S: It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person. We haven't loved them.

This week ? love with the love of Christ. Let His Word sink into your heart and change you, making you capable of a love that is deeper, purer and more powerful than you could have imagined. Because that's how He loves you.