Let Love Rule

Let's just bow our heads in prayer.

Father, Jesus has said that we are to love you with all our soul, all our heart, all

our mind, and all our strength.

And Father, we acknowledge that we cannot do this in and of our own power.

So we ask, Father, that you would bring these words of Jesus deeply into who we are, that

they might rule in our hearts to the end, that we will love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

three persons, one God, that we will love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,

and that we will love our neighbors as ourselves.

So Father, we ask that you would gently but powerfully do this mighty work within us.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So some of you who are familiar with Anglican worship, when you heard me read the text of

Scripture, you knew that it was something which, that most Sundays we say that text.

In fact, you might not have really known exactly where it came in the Bible, but now you know

it comes from Mark.

And it's a common place in Anglican worship to say it.

In fact, one of the problems with it is that because it's a common place, we might not really

sort of realize how, actually, how offensive it would be to many people in our culture if

they were to hear it.

And the other thing is not just how offensive it would be, but actually if you sort of just,

you know, take a moment to step back from people being bothered by it, it's actually very helpful

and wise because our culture is a bit, its understanding of love is complicated.

It seems simple, but it's complicated.

I'll give you two illustrations to help us think about the text, sort of ground our thinking

about the text.

A few years ago, I was involved in a discipline issue, not connected with this church, but

with another church.

And after the discipline issue and the ongoing consequences from it, I got different phone

calls and emails from leaders and family members to say that the person involved in the particular

issue had suffered enough that they'd had an active healing and they were sorry.

And what was now happening was not loving.

And I had to use, I should use my influence to show love and to help these people show love.

Now, what I've left out in the telling of this particular story is that the discipline issue involved the pedophile.

And I had a role in unmasking the pedophile and initially confronting him that his secret was known and that we knew that he had in fact been guilty of sexual touching and other types of things of young girls.

And what had happened was that the person involved, the man involved, had claimed that now he'd been healed, that he was very penitent, that he had been healed.

And four of the victims, four of his victims had pressed charges against him.

And so that's what led the pastor of the church and other Christian leaders and family members to ask me to use my influence to talk the four women out of pressing charges because they'd suffered enough.

And if I didn't do that, I was being unloving.

Now, this is a, this is actually a, this is a more relevant, I mean, I think it's a very relevant story to this text because in our culture, part of the thing which is a bit complicated in our culture is on one hand, we're told that love is love and that we are to love unconditionally.

But on the other hand, we also know that there's a large part of our culture that's involved, especially in matters to do with racism and other types of things, that if you say, no, no, no, love is love, or you need to love unconditionally, then that's actually viewed as being a violation of justice.

That you're not supposed to, in a sense, love in this particular case.

And the people involved in trying to pressure me in this particular case, all of the, all of them, I mean, you might, as soon as I say that now, you all would say, George, you did, because in fact, I didn't back down.

I supported the, the women in pressing charges against the, the men, that I did the right thing.

But in our culture, and for them, I, that would have been viewed that I was, that I wasn't loving.

So there's a bit of a, a problem in how we think about love and justice.

I don't know if it's as much a case in compassion, I haven't heard about it, but it probably is a case because it's been a constant critique of Samaritan's Purse and the Christmas shoeboxes.

That to encourage things like compassion or shoeboxes is a violation of justice.

So we shouldn't just be pre-giving money to children like this, or Christian, you know, we shouldn't be giving money to children like this.

We should be instead combating the structural problems and injustices that lead to there being poverty.

So this is not a completely abstract issue, especially on a Sunday like this.

There's another sort of similar type of issue is that the, the slogan, love is love, and the demand of us to love unconditionally isn't really very easy at dealing with the problems of sentimentality, like mere emotion, and with, well, with self-centeredness and selfishness.

I'll give you a particular thing.

One of the things that I would be required to do is if there was a man who came to me and he wanted to be, he comes with his, his young, his fiancee, and he wants me to do the marriage.

And I would ask him a little bit about other marriages and stuff like that.

And if I found out that, in fact, he had, in fact, been married for some 15 years, that he was, had three children from that previous marriage, that he'd now come to an end,

and that he wants to marry this woman who's considerably younger.

And, well, I, I'd have to not love him.

I couldn't just accept that love is love, and I couldn't accept that I should just love him unconditionally.

I'd have to ask him some very, very hard questions.

They'd be questions that would leave me sleepless the couple of days leading up to it.

But I'd have to ask him, how does he plan to maintain his financial obligations to his first wife, and in particular to the three children?

And I'd have to ask him, how does he plan to maintain his family?

Why he left his wife?

Love is love.

Well, that's just, that doesn't really help at all with self-centeredness, and that's just a sentimental statement.

And if he was to say, well, you know, you're not loving me unconditionally if you ask those types of questions.

I'm offended.

Don't you all think I would have to press into that claim that I'm loving him, not loving him unconditionally?

In fact, I'm not loving him unconditionally.

He's correct.

If he wants to do what he wants to do, and I challenge him, I'm not loving him unconditionally.

So the question is, am I unloving?

Am I acting in an unloving way?

Am I acting in an unloving way?

Am I acting in an unloving way?

So in light of that, let's look at the text, hopefully briefly, and sort of listen to the words of Jesus.

It helps us to overcome something that at first glance, I mean, we don't really notice it maybe, but at first glance, it's something offensive to a lot of Canadians.

But the part that's offensive is actually deeply important and wise if we want to be able to love.

And here's how it goes.

So it's Mark chapter 12, verses 28 and following.

Mark 12:28

Mark 12, 28 and following.

And if you're using these little booklets, it's on page 76.

And the context of this is that Jesus has had a series of sort of gotcha types of aggressive questions by members of the elite.

And after a series of aggressive gotcha type questions, which don't work, this fellow has been listening.

And now we actually see somebody asking Jesus an honest question.

Like he's just curious.

He'd like to know the answer.

It's a non-aggressive, non-gotcha question.

And here's how it goes.

Verse 28.

And one of the scribes came up and heard them, that's the different arguments, and heard them disputing with one another.

And seeing that Jesus answered them well, asked them which commandment is the most important of all.

Now just to pause here for a second to remind you, a scribe, what on earth is that?

When you think of this, when you see the word scribe in the New Testament,

think of somebody who sort of is like in our culture would be a lawyer and a public intellectual,

and also someone, imagine somebody high up in the Privy Council, or just high up in the civil service,

maybe an assistant deputy minister or something like that, who has a basic sense about how the system works.

And so when you see the word scribe, think assistant deputy minister, public intellectual, and lawyer,

sort of all move together into one.

Somebody who knows how the system works, can speak into public matters, and is a bit of a legal expert.

So that's who's speaking to Jesus, and he asks them this question,

which commandment is the most important of all?

It's an honest question.

Verse 29.

How does Jesus answer the question?

Now actually, just before I read the answer, if you just pause for a second and think of it from a world perspective,

the answer is not obvious.

Like, if you were to ask people, if you were to do a bit of a survey,

and ask people, what do you think the most important moral command is?

I know one guy, not making this up.

He said, love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe.

Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe.

Look out for number one.

I mean, many people wouldn't come right out and say it bluntly,

but that would in fact be the moral command by which they organize everything else.

Always look out for number one.

And by the way, when I look in a mirror, I'm scene number one.

For many people in the world, like our friend, we have friends here from other culture.

For many places in the world, the main moral command that people would say is,

do not shame your family.

That is the prime moral command.

Do not ever shame your family.

For others, the main command would be, don't let others have power over you.

If you think about it for a second, there's not an obvious answer to this question

as to which moral command is the most important moral command.

So how does Jesus answer it?

Well, he answers it in a way which, at first, is going to be offensive to us,

but actually, if we think about it more, is profoundly wise and helpful.

Verse 29.

Jesus answered,

The most important is,

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your mind, and with all your strength.

And the second is this,

You shall love your neighbors yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these.

Now, what Jesus does here is he actually quotes from a text in the book of what we now know of as Deuteronomy

and a book that we now know of as Leviticus.

And it's a very small little side point,

but I think it's a really important one to notice.

He doesn't quote, in terms of what's the greatest moral command,

he doesn't quote something from the surrounding culture.

He doesn't quote Plato.

He doesn't quote Aristotle.

He doesn't quote the Stoics.

He quotes the Bible.

Believe it or not,

Augustine,

1600 years ago,

over 1600 years ago,

he wrote a book called On Christian Doctrine.

But it's actually not a book about Christian doctrine.

It's a book about how to interpret the Bible.

And there, he tells you something.

When he's telling you this,

over 1600 years ago,

he's not sharing anything new.

He's basically sharing what people have known for a long time,

how to interpret the Bible.

And one of the keys that has always been the case for Christians about how to interpret the Bible

is that the Bible interprets the Bible.

The Bible interprets the Bible.

That you don't go to Freud.

You don't go to Jung.

You don't go to Jordan Peterson.

You don't go to critical race theorists.

You go to the Bible to interpret the Bible.

And we see that's what Jesus does.

To interpret all of the moral commands,

he goes to the Bible.

And he says,

these two particular Bible texts,

these particular moral commands,

this is the way.

These are the greatest commands.

These are the organizing commands,

so to speak.

And the other thing about it is,

and it's not,

the reason it's not translated this way,

like the translation's fine,

but it misses something which is in the original language,

which can't really be translated grammatically well into English.

And if you see,

look at verse 30 again,

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind,

and with all your strength.

You can misinterpret it and think it's instrumental language,

but it's not instrumental language.

It's source language.

In other words,

what it's saying is that out of all of my heart,

flowing from my heart,

all of my heart,

I am to love the Lord my God.

Out of all of my strength,

flowing out of my strength,

I am to love the Lord my God.

Out of all of my mind,

out of all of my soul,

heart,

out of.

The very center,

and by using these four languages,

it's saying out of us.

And it's a very,

very hard thing for us in our culture

to even think about how you love with your mind.

Like it actually sounds like the lead up of a joke

in a comedy special

to talk about loving with our mind.

But that's what Jesus is saying here.

And so in a sense,

because it's trying to capture all of us,

it's also saying that out with all of my money,

with all of my looks,

with all of my job,

with all of my family,

with all of my possessions,

with all of my sexuality,

with all of my time,

with all that who I am,

that out of all of this,

I am to love the Lord my God,

that this is in fact

the first and great commandment.

Now,

do you see the controversial bit

about all of this?

If you don't,

I'm going to circle back to it.

Because the fellow's response to Jesus

helps us to be clearer

about what it is that Jesus has just said.

Look at verse 32.

And the scribe said to Jesus,

you are right, teacher.

Actually, that should be rabbi.

You are right, rabbi.

It's easy for us to forget

that Jesus was Jewish.

You are right, rabbi.

You have truly said

that he, that is God,

is one.

And there is no other besides him.

And to love him,

verse 33,

with all the heart

and with all the understanding,

with all the strength,

and to love one's neighbor

as oneself

is much more,

is much more

than all whole burnt offerings

and sacrifices.

And when Jesus saw

that he had answered wisely,

he said to the scribe,

you are not far

from the kingdom of God.

And after that,

no one dared to ask him

any more questions.

So what's the presenting problem

with how Jesus answered it?

I think if I was to be sharing

this text with a group

of non-Christians,

the thing that would jump out

at them,

which they notice,

but we don't notice it

because we just say it

all the time,

is,

George,

are you saying that only

Christians can be moral?

I mean,

that's what Jesus says,

isn't it?

Look at verse 29.

You know,

what of all the moral commands,

what's the most important

moral command?

Hear, O Israel,

the Lord our God,

the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind,

with all your strength.

I mean,

that's offensive.

Like,

Muslims don't agree with that.

Hindus don't agree with that.

Buddhists don't agree with that.

In fact,

actually,

at the time that Jesus said that,

other than Jewish people,

no non-Jewish person

would have agreed with that.

The Romans and the Greeks,

the pagans,

they would have all said,

what do you mean?

To be moral,

I have to believe in this one God,

that he's the only God that exists,

to be moral?

See,

in our day and age,

of course,

we think that these things

are very separate,

that you have your views

of whether God exists,

and then you have your views

on morality,

and you have your views

on justice,

and you have your views

on love,

and these are all

very,

very separate things.

And yet,

Jesus says

that this is the most important

of the commandments,

and the second is like it,

that you love your neighbor

as yourself.

So,

is Jesus saying

that only Christians

can be moral?

Well,

quickly,

no.

He's not saying that.

He's not saying that at all.

Any Christian

who knows their heart,

and any Christian

who knows other Christians,

will know that it's

definitely not the case

that only Christians

are loving or moral,

or that we are more moral

or more loving

than people

who are Muslims

or Buddhists

or Hindus

or atheists

or agnostics.

There's all sorts of reasons

why we do moral acts

and why we fail

to do them,

and the Bible,

Jesus here isn't saying

that unless you believe in God,

you're going to be immoral.

He's not saying this at all.

But,

what he is saying,

if you just take a step back

from it for a second,

is actually something

which we all agree with,

we just don't necessarily

think of it

in terms of

how it connects to God.

So,

just think of it

in terms of this.

Imagine for a moment

that you were in Las Vegas

on a holiday

or for work

or something like that,

and,

you know,

during your,

every time you went down

to the hotel buffet

or whatever

for your meal,

you always notice

these two young guys,

and you notice

these two young guys,

you notice how they talked,

you notice how much

they were drinking,

you notice how they

dealt with other young women

and stuff like that,

and you might roll your eyes

thinking,

yeah,

yeah,

that's why they say

what goes on in Vegas

stays in Vegas.

And then if afterwards

he discovered

that one of the two of them

was single,

you'd say,

well,

he's probably going

to stay single

if that's how he sort

of lives his life

and deals with,

treats women.

Or if he doesn't stay single,

he should stay single

if that's how he treats women.

But then if you discovered

that the other fellow

was married,

you'd have a very,

very different,

you'd have a very different

set of moral evaluation

of him.

The existence

of the marriage relationship

that you,

that how one person

acts who's single

and how another person

acts who's married,

you're going to have

a very different type

of moral assessment

of them.

So you see,

what you've just established

is you understand

that if there's

a relationship involved,

it changes the moral universe.

And the fundamental claim

that Jesus makes

and that Christian makes

and Christians make

is not that I happen

to like the idea

of the Christian God

more than other ones,

just like I happen

to really like

French vanilla ice cream

more than any other

ice cream flavor.

It's not that,

yeah, you know,

French vanilla ice cream

is the best ice cream flavor.

Barbecue potato chips

are the best type

of barbecue chips

and the triune God

is my favorite type of God.

No, it's not like that at all.

We are making,

Jesus is making a claim

that God the Father,

God the Son,

God the Holy Spirit,

three persons,

one God,

that that God

actually truly exists.

That he exists

just as much

as any one of us exists.

In fact,

not only just as much

but vastly more.

And that therefore,

every human being

has some type of relationship

with that God

whether they realize it or not.

And just as being

in a relationship

changes how you should be

living your moral life,

if there is in fact

a God that does exist,

it should change

how you live your moral life.

We've already accepted

the principle.

To give you

a different example,

imagine that you go off

on a camping trip

or a hiking trip

with some people

from some inveterate

hiker types.

I won't start mentioning names

but you sort of know

who you are.

And you think you're out

on Crown Land

or you believe

you're in Crown Land

and you get a little bit lost.

Maybe more than a little bit lost

but you don't want

to get worried.

And as you're a little bit lost

and you now didn't come back

to your cars

at the right time

but you find

an abandoned building

on Crown Land.

And so you believe

it's an abandoned building.

It looks a little bit run down.

It definitely doesn't look

as well kept up

as your house

and there's nobody around.

And the fact is

you're cold

and et cetera, et cetera

and there's some stuff

in there

so you make yourself

at home in the building

and you maybe even

rip up some of the things

in the house

to make a fire

so you can be warm.

And that's one way

of living

and we would all view

how you live

in that house

in light of the fact

that it's an abandoned

unowned property

on Crown Land.

But if in fact

it turned out

that you had left

Crown Land

you're now

on private property

and this isn't

an abandoned property

but it actually

belongs to somebody.

And then not only

does it belong

to somebody

but that as you

go into the house

and start to make

yourself at home

and start to break up

the furniture

and start to make up

the fire

you hadn't realized

that the owner

of the house

had just been in a bush

a couple hundred yards away

and they come into the house

while you're doing

all of that.

Well you'd understand

that that's a radically

different way of living.

You're not in an abandoned house

you're in a house

that's owned by somebody

and that the owner

is present.

Well it's the exact

same type of thing

with what Jesus is saying.

Once again

if God doesn't exist

then it's

God doesn't exist

we are so wasting

our time here.

Like if he doesn't exist

we should just leave

and go do something fun.

Right?

But if in fact

there is a God

that does exist

and therefore

in a sense

every human being

is called to have

some type of relationship

with him

if the triune God exists

and if this isn't

if the world

that we find ourselves in

isn't abandoned

and with no owner

but there actually

isn't an owner

and he's present

then that has to change

how we live in it.

And to know the owner

or to know the one

that we're in a relationship

with

and what they're like

becomes unbelievably important

if you want to try

to figure out

what it means

to live a good

and moral life

a just life

a life that flourishes

a life of beauty

it matters deeply.

And the second thing though

in fact

if you think about it

for a second

especially

I don't have time

to develop it

but it

you know

as I've said

many times before

only the Christian God

really provides

a proper basis

for love

that from all eternity

the Father

has loved the Son

and the Son

has loved the Father

and the Holy Spirit

has loved the Father

and the Holy Spirit

has loved the Son

and on and on

and on

and only

the Christian God

only the Christian God

is truly a God of love.

And then

doesn't it make sense

that what Jesus said

I'm sort of changing

how he says it

but getting the sense

love

love

if you want to love

your neighbor

if God is love

then doesn't it make sense

that if God is love

that to love

with all of who you are

love himself

that that will help you

to love your neighbor.

In fact actually

to go even further

because

Jesus is

Emmanuel

he's God with us

he's speaking these words

and it's very interesting

he's speaking these words

not the day

two days before

he closes a business deal

that will make him

the modern equivalent

of a billion dollars.

He's not making

these comments

two days before

he goes to war

and is going to lead

troops in a battle

that will end up

conquering

half of the known world.

He says these things

a day or two

before he dies

on the cross

which is a day or two

before he rises

from the dead.

So if you think about it

doesn't it make sense

that if you want to love

your neighbor as yourself

you need to love

love himself

if you want love's help

to love your neighbor well.

Like that's just wisdom.

Another part of it

that's very very wise

is how it changes

your mental

and spiritual

and emotional

universe

to understand

that God is big

and you are small.

The fact of the matter

is is we live

day by day

assessing

who's big

and who's small

and if our problems

are big

and we feel small

we'll feel

very very anxious

and that big problem

or that big person

ends up dominating

our imagination

and dominating

how we make decisions

and we feel

very very very small

but if God is big

and we are small

that means

that everybody

everything that we're

dealing with

is going to be small

compared to the big God.

See that's why

I think

that

the words of Jesus

which at first

seem sort of offensive

to us

and to our culture

not to Christians

necessarily

are very very wise

because if God is big

and we are small

that begins

as the more we understand

that the more

we grasp

that we are to meditate

upon the fact

that if we want

to live well

justly

and love well

and to be generous

and to be kind

that we need to love

God himself

with all of whom we are

and to love him

properly means

to also understand

just how big he is

that he is the sovereign God

of the entire universe

and that starts

to help us

to be a non-anxious

presence to others

because God

is the biggest thing

the biggest one

not that problem

or not that

particular person

it becomes a guard

against our love

being self-centered

and narcissistic

to understand

that we

ultimately

are dealing

with a God

who is vastly

bigger than us

and bigger than

any problem

we are going to fix

to deal with

I have to

just about

I have to

sort of wrap this up

one of the things

about this text

which is very

very helpful

as well

is

and this also

is a protection

against narcissism

and being self-centered

that if

the more you

meditate upon

this text

you realize

this is really

hard

this is far

harder

than just

keeping some

moral rules

like

what human being

could say

that they have

perfectly loved

the true

and living God

love himself

with all their heart

with all their mind

with all their strength

with all their soul

that they have

done that

forever

that they have

loved their neighbor

as their selves

that this

these two words

of Jesus

they

they should

be heard

in a way

that humbles us

that makes us

realize

that we haven't

been able

to live up

to this standard

yeah yeah yeah

we have been

you know

maybe good at

you know

we have been

an attentive

son

and an attentive

husband

and maybe

an attentive

enough dad

and well liked

at work

and from these

other types

of moral rules

we can look

like we've

accomplished

a very very

high level

but if you hear

these searching

words of Jesus

you realize

that you

haven't

actually lived

by the most

important moral

rules

you haven't

met them

and that therefore

you need a savior

in that very

very first story

that I gave

about the pedophile

one of the

mistakes

that the people

made

when they were

dealing

with me

was that they

sort of tried

to play off

against

justice

the need

to love

unconditionally

I wasn't

to act

in a just

way towards

the victims

because I was

to love

unconditionally

and it's

one of the

things which

is very

confusing

in our

culture

how you

still have

justice

and how you

still have

love

and part

of the

problem

is that

that word

unconditional

love

unconditional

love

means

you don't

think about

justice

that's what

unconditional

means

and so

we're

sort of

caught

in our

culture

increasingly

about how

you combine

justice

with love

and it

seems as if

really you

have to

almost be

bipolar

that you

either have

to be

justice

or you

have to

be

love

but you'll

notice that

Jesus doesn't

say that

love replaces

the commandments

what he says

is that love

of God

and love

of neighbor

is what

all of the

commandments

hang on

these

doesn't mean

that because

of love

sometimes

because of

love you're

not just

or because

of love

you're not

generous

or because

of love

you don't

care for

the poor

no no no

no no

you have

all these

other moral

commandments

often if we

exercise justice

without love

the justice

can be very

very hard

and can be

very very

cruel

and can be

very very

unfeeling

and can forget

about the

real people

who are there

and so what

Jesus is saying

here is that

you remember

the existence

of the triune

God

and you desire

to love him

first and

foremost

he is big

and you are

small

and in light

of that

you love

your neighbor

as yourself

and in light

of that

that's then

how you

sort out

how you

be generous

and how you

be just

and how you

be merciful

and how you

be honest

and how you

be penitent

and how you

be prayerful

and how you

observe Sabbath

and how you

deal with your

wife and with

your children

and how you

deal with

singleness

and how you

deal with

everything

it's not

that love

removes all

the other

commandments

because that

puts us

as a culture

and us as

human beings

and this

crazy type

of thing

where we

either have

to throw

love away

to be just

or you

know

or like

that's just

crazy

but Jesus

says no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

no

to the oppressed. Look at the issues of being compassionate towards the poor. Look at the

issues of being generous to the spread of the gospel. Look at all of these other issues,

all from the perspective of love. All from the perspective of love.

Let's bow our heads and... I invite you to stand for a moment. Let's stand and bow our heads in

prayer. Father, we acknowledge before you that when Jesus said these things, he was on his way

to the cross. And Father, we know from Jesus' own words that it was him dying on the cross which

most fully reveals who you are. And it not only most fully reveals, Father, who you are,

but it's also an act by which we are redeemed and made right with you.

Not weighing our merits, you pardon our offenses. Not thinking how wonderful and beautiful we are,

you bestow upon us a wonder and a beauty in the righteousness of Christ which clothes us.

We ask, Lord, that you might fan into flame within us a deep longing and yearning to love you with

all our mind and all our strength and all our soul and all our heart and love our neighbors as

ourselves. And we ask, Father, that you would bring this word home deeply to us as we think about how

to deal with the powerful, how to deal with the weak, how to deal with children, how to deal with the

aged, how to deal with the unborn, how to deal with those close to death, how to deal with those in

great need and those who have much, how to deal with generosity, how to deal with faith, how to deal

with forgiveness, how to deal with taking action when action is called. Father, we ask that these

great principles would be that with the help of your Holy Spirit in the presence of Christ,

that you would form us to be people of love, to live life well for the glory, your great glory,

for our true good, and for the good of our neighbor. And we ask this in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Amen.