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 and sisters. – 1 John 3:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 11, 2015): 1 John 3

It is the one thing that ISIS and other terrorist groups understand that the rest of the developed world misses, the idea that it is good to lay down your life for your brothers and sisters. It is at the heart of every suicide bombing, and every battle against larger and better equipped forces. But none of that makes sense to us. We protect our own lives with a vengeance and there is seldom any thought of the other. Yet the forces that we fight against, especially the ones who are causing the developed world problems in the Middle East, definitely do. And that may be our biggest weakness.

It is also one of our biggest weaknesses as Christians. The contemporary church seems to be tied up in knots trying to make all of its component parts happy. We demand to have our own way, throw temper tantrums when we can’t get it. Life is about us. While we have often proclaim that Christ is at the center, the reality is that we are still at solidly in the middle of our own lives. And we expect the world to serve us, and can find no reason why we should sacrifice anything.

One of the silliest arguments that the church has been through in the past half-century has been over the music that is played on the inside of its services. For some (and age isn’t as much of a determining factor as we might believe) it is the music from the past couple of hundred years that is designed for the church. Recently I sat through a service (one that I hadn’t planned) and, just for fun, thought I would check when the songs we were singing were written. Of the five songs we sang in that service, all were written in the 1800’s and four were written in the 1850’s. The question that I wanted to ask was simply what in the world happened in the 1850’s that made songs written in that decade so holy. For others, if it wasn’t written in the past ten years, it doesn’t matter anymore. But the problem with both points of view is that the arguments center on us. And Christianity is not supposed to be about us.

I love the way that John 3:16 and 1 John 3:16 fit together - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 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 and sisters (John 3:16, 1 John 3:16). Our faith is built around the idea that Jesus refused to save his life at our expense. His love for us ended with his own death on a cross. His death was not theoretical or hypothetical, it very real – and all because God loved the world. But according to 1 John, his sacrifice didn’t end there. The sacrifice extends to us who follow, and we are supposed to lay down our lives for each other.

But, if we insist on fighting over things as small as music or the color of church walls or any one of the myriad of things that we fight over, that will never happen. And the only one in the center of our lives – will be us. Christ will be left on the outside. And that is just not the way that it is supposed to be.        

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 John 4

Personal Note: Happy Birthday Dad, I hope you have a great day.