Love God, Love One Another
By Chap Bettis

Introduction:

As we begin a new work, it is easy to get caught up in the horizontal and the tangible. The teaching we think about in the first days will lay a foundation for our thinking in the days and years to come. We will spend a lot of time thinking about God’s intention for a church but there is a subtle danger in all that thinking.

When we were starting out in Cumberland, what is now called LCF, those who played a key role in starting our church spent a lot of time talking about how to do church. We thought and talked together about God’s purpose for the church, the officers of the church, the one anothers of the church. This emphasis laid a strong foundation that our church still benefits from today. However, at the end of that time, a problem soon became evident. We had new Christian who were rich in knowledge of church but poor in knowledge of Christ. They had strong opinions about the Biblical evidence for elders but a weak opinions of their own need for Christ. We were long on knowledge and short on humility.

I certainly don’t want that happen to us. We are going to spend a lot of time talking about how to be church. But how can we prevent becoming long on knowledge and short on humility? The answer is to keep our focus on the most important commandments. All the commandments were not created equal. If we keep our focus on the most important commands then the other things will fall naturally into place. What is the most important commandment? Jesus was asked that same question. Let’s think together about his answer.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matt 22:34-40

Our First Focus: Love God

Jesus says our first focus is to love the Lord our God. Do you realize that’s really what God wants of you and me day in and day out. Jesus says that this commandment sums up the whole duty of man to God. Sometimes we can make the Christian life so difficult. Our thinking can get so messed up that we need to reboot. Do you know what rebooting a computer is? It’s turning the computer off and then back on. When that happens all the computer starts fresh. When you reboot your life, the first thing that comes up on the screen is “Love God.” Love God with all your heart – all your affections and emotions. Love God with all your soul – (or life) – all that our life has. Love God with your strength says Mark 12 and Luke 10 – with all the strength of our body. Love God with your mind – Learn all you can about God and living to please him.

But that prompts the question, “How do I love God” Jesus gave the answer in John 14. Obey his commands. If you love me, you will obey what I command. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. If anyone loves me he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him. John 14:15, 22, 23 Love must start in the heart and come from the heart. But it is not directionless love. It is love that follows the train tracks of the commands of Jesus. Love is the fuel in the engine but the engine stays on the tracks.

Sin Reveals Lack of Love for God

Let’s turn this thought around. If we love God by obeying him, then any and all of our sin is ultimately caused by lack of love for God. Sin is an really an expression of love of myself rather than love for God. Do you find that hard to believe? Have you missed the vertical dimension of your horizontal sin? Let’s look at three people of the Bible that understood this.

When Joseph resisted the temptations of Potiphar’s wife, he said, “My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen 39:9) Notice that last sentence. Joseph is not so much concerned with his sin against Potiphar as with his sin against God. When David repented of his sin with Bathsheeba, he said to God “Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. (Psalm 51:4) Uppermost in his mind was his sin against God. Yet uppermost in our minds would have been his sin of murder against Uriah, Bathsheeba’s husband. Finally, when the prodigal son came back he said, “Father I have sinned against heaven and against you.” (Luke 15:21) He had seen the Godward orientation of his sin and confesses it to his father. Each of these three had a God orientation and realized that their sin was first against God. Anytime we see sin in ourselves, we see a lack of love toward God. Anytime we sin, we need to get a Godward orientation and ask ourselves how is this a sin against God?

Results of Focusing on Loving God

What will be true of our fellowship here if we focus on this commandment? First, there will be a right vertical focus. Starting a fellowship can be a very horizontal project. It is very easy to get caught up in the logistics of starting a church. Even if we are rightly motivated by our desire for the salvation of men, we still need to remember that the Great Commandment comes before the Great Commission. Keeping our eyes on loving God will also help us through the normal ups and downs of starting a church. If God has called you to be here, then you can be vertically obedient no matter what others do. If you focus on God: loving, obeying and fearing him. Focusing on God will bring you stability. Focusing on men will not.

I’ll let you in on a secret. Greg and I are going to make some mistakes. We already have and I’m sure we will make more It will not be on purpose. They will happen just as a function of stepping out beyond ourselves. We will need lots of grace and patience from you in the coming days. But if you keep your eyes on the vertical then you will see be able to see God’s hand in what is happening. If you keep our focus vertical, each one of us will do what God has called us to do.

If we focus on this commandment, not only will there be a right vertical focus, there will also be a genuine humility. Why will there be a genuine humility? Because we will see how far short we fall. As we concentrate on our walk of loving God more with all of our being, we will not concentrate on someone else. We will realize that we are the one in need, that we are powerless and need the Lord to change us. We will admit our faults to one another. And we will repent. The road to maturity requires much repentance. The road to immaturity just takes time. There are many older Christians who have long since forgotten how to repent and many new Christians who never learned it to begin with. May that not be true of us.

Our Second Focus: Loving One Another

But before we end I want you to notice the second foundational command. Along with the first commandment, Jesus says they sum up the whole OT. As we start this new work, Jesus says we are to love our neighbor. How much? Here it says as yourself. But in John 13:34 he goes beyond that and says, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”

What was true of the early church and what must be true for us is that we must love one another. The exact phrase “love one another” is repeated 11 times in the NT.

God is going to stretch you to grow in this area. Not only is he going to stretch you to grow in love for him, he is going to stretch you in your love for each person here. There are going to be times you are called upon to love one another in a greater way. If loving one another was easy, he wouldn’t have to command it, would he?

In fact, the most powerful evangelistic tool there is, is a loving church. Jesus says, “All men will know you are my disciples – not if we have right doctrine, not if we have the most powerful programs, not if we have a nice building, - but if we have love for one another.” If we love each other and love them, non Christians will see God. God is a spirit and cannot be seen by men but when there is love and acceptance men can know he is here. I’ve heard it said that God loves us as we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way. May the same be true of us. Let us love those that come in as they are, but also let us love them too much to let them stay that way.

Just as we can only love God with his supernatural power, so we can only love one another with God’s supernatural power. You do not have enough strength of your own to love each person here. Just wait until the honeymoon is over. Then the hard work will kick in. Then you will need to come back, face to face with this command and ask God to give you the strength to love the brothers and the sisters here.

True Christianity is Both

Notice, that Jesus was asked for only one commandment. He answers their question for one commandment with two. You can’t have one without the other. Over and over again, God connects these two commandments in the Bible. Even the cross, the symbol of Christianity has two bars, the first and the largest is vertical and the second is horizontal. Just as you can’t have a cross with just one bar – whether vertical or horizontal – so to have true biblical Christianity you need both, first the vertical, then the horizontal. Love God, love your neighbor.

If you have any questions, comments or observations, please call Chapman Bettis at 401 727-2367 or John Riley at 401-453-5550 or email at johnr@cornerstoneri.com