Transcript: What is Genuine Christian Love Based on Jesus' Teachings?

This is the third sermon in a series on the teachings of Jesus. In the first one, I stated, somewhat arrogantly I suppose, that there is no church on the face of the earth that is teaching people to obey Jesus, and that I could prove it. In the second one, I started with the easiest and most objective command of Jesus, and showed how even that one very simple command is not taught or followed in over 90% of the churches in the world today. In this video, I will switch to the other end of the spectrum, and look at what is called the greatest commandment, that is, the greatest commandment of Christ, and according to Jesus himself, the greatest commandment of all time. While some may feel that this one is also easy, the truth is far from that. For it is indeed the hardest of all the commands. For more than 40 years, I have challenged thousands of professing Christians on several continents to tell me off the top of their heads 10 or 15 things that Jesus told his followers to do. In all that time, I've found less than 10 who could list even 10 things, and no one so far who could list 15 commands of Jesus to his followers. In my opinion, this is evidence that Christians everywhere are not being taught to obey Jesus. If we don't even know what he told us to do, then how can we possibly obey him? However, the most common answer to my question is that Jesus taught us to love God and to love others. And if we do that, then we don't need to know the rest of what he taught. Technically, that's true. Jesus called love the greatest commandment, and he did say that it sums up everything that the Bible teaches. But does it really make the rest of Jesus' teachings redundant? The answer to that question hinges on two important questions. One, whether we really are able to practice such a command. And 2. Whether we understand the extent of the love that Jesus taught. The rest of what Jesus taught gives us the answer to both of these questions. It provides us with the way to love God, and to love our neighbor. And it defines what exactly is genuine Christian love. If we use the commandment to love as a defense for ignoring the rest of what Jesus taught, then the greatest commandment is almost certainly being used as a smokescreen for not loving God and for not loving our neighbors. At least not in the way that Jesus taught. Any attempt to seriously obey the greatest commandment just naturally leads to more and more interest in the rest of what Jesus taught. I want to love God more, and I want to love my neighbors more too. But to do that, I need to hear more of what Jesus said, in order to get it right. In theory, the world and the church says a lot about love today. But in practice, there's far too little love, either inside or outside of the church. So much that starts out calling itself love, ends up a very big disappointment. What I have found from listening to Jesus is that he can give us the power to show true love, and he gives us a much clearer picture of the extent to which true love will go. I'll start by considering two basic resources that are needed in order to love others, and then I will finish with a description of love as Jesus defined it. The resources that we need in order to love people are one, time, and two, material possessions. It takes time to help, or even just to listen to someone. And it often takes something material to do things like feeding or clothing people who do not have such basic resources. Empathy is important too, but empathy is easy to fake. Nevertheless, genuine empathy will lead to changes in our behavior, changes which reach out to and help those whom we love. If we have that important invisible ingredient, empathy, it will show in our actions. John wrote in his first epistle, Whoever has material wealth and sees others in need, and tries to justify not helping them how can you say that the love of God is in you? He continued, let's not love in words only, but in actions. Know that whether or not you have material wealth with which to help others in need, you do have time. Every one of us has 24 hours every day. How we use it says so much about where our heart is. Most platitudes about love fall flat when it comes to how we use our time. I do not even have the time to love my family properly if I spending it all working for money And I have even less time to love or help the poor and needy people of the world Yet people invariably argue that working for money will help them to get the resources that are needed to help the poor even if it does not give them enough time. Yes, true, money can be used to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, as Jesus taught. But is that really what we spend it on after we have picked up our paycheck at the end of the week? Most of us would have to say that what we are really working for are bigger and better houses, cars, toys, appliances, schooling, holidays, travel, in fact, everything that you could possibly spend money on. There is no limit. The more you get, the more you will want. And worse still, many if not most of us are paying off things that we've already taken possession of even before we had the money to pay for them. So, when it comes to loving God with all that we have, and loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves, the commandment of Jesus is demonstrably absent, pointedly ignored, blasphemously contradicted, and cruelly silenced in just about every church in the world today. We have no time, because we are busy working for money, and we have little or nothing for the poor because we have use of all in ourselves. In contrast, Jesus said to his followers, sell what you have, and give the proceeds to the poor. Now I ask you, is anyone teaching that? Yes, everyone is saying that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. But when it comes down to dollars and cents, we're too busy trying to catch up with the Joneses to think about those neighbors who have less than us. Jesus said, don't work for the food that perishes, but work for the eternal things of God. Where is that being taught? Jesus said, you cannot work for two employers at the same time. You will end up cheating and hating one or the other. You cannot work for God and money at the same time. Now you won't hear that in a church I know of either. Jesus said, the whole world worries about where they are going to get food and clothing. But look at the birds, and the flowers. They don't have jobs or bank accounts. They do not make clothes or plant crops. Yet God feeds them. Won't he feed you too, if you stop worrying about those things? Spend your time building God's kingdom of love, and he will take care of your basic material needs. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm saying that Jesus told us how to love. He said that if we would stop spending our time working for money, and spend it instead building God's kingdom of love, We will have the time to love God and others the way that he and his first followers demonstrated their love. Is any church in the world teaching us to do that these days? Only the teachings of Jesus will give us the kind of time that is needed to truly help others, and to truly make the world a better place. Ah, but what about the material needs of the rest of the world? How will we be able to meet those needs if we stop working for money? Ironically, my experience has been that actually letting go of all that we have results in more opportunities to help people materially than ever came when I was spending my life working for money. Look at it this way. If you sold your house and car right now and gave the proceeds to the poor, wouldn't that already be more than you've given to the poor in the last 20 years? during which time you've been doing it the other way? The argument is that if you make more money, you will be able to give more to the poor. But it isn't where the money goes, is it? It goes into more and more things for yourself and for your family. The poor only get the crumbs, if they get that. Now look at the dollar value of the top preachers in the world today, and you'll see where the church has gone wrong. Unlike Jesus, these preachers are multi-millionaires. in a world where starvation and malnutrition are ever-present realities. From Kenneth Copeland, who is rumored to be worth close to a billion dollars, down to the comparatively poverty-stricken Billy Graham, who's worth a mere fifteen to fifteen million dollars, all of the evidence shows that these Christian leaders, who have set the pattern for the rest of us, are not treating anyone outside their own families to a lifestyle that is the same as the one that they think they personally deserve. Love your neighbor as you love yourself? Does that sound like what these people practice? Of course not! On the other hand, if we would do things God's way, we would have the time to learn practical ways to help people materially. We may also be surprised at how many times what they need even in dire situations is just someone to stand beside them and share their load in one way or another We may be able to help them create real wealth at the same time that we redistribute the resources that are now available by sharing everything we have with them. All of these actions would, according to Jesus, represent wealth that has been laid up in heaven where it will never be lost. Now, let us look at the quality of the love that Jesus was talking about. In fact, we have already been doing that just by observing how he and his disciples lived. But it goes farther than that. Love of one form or another is taught in many places, and in many religions. Even in the Old Testament, people were taught to love. Yet Jesus had the audacity to say that he was teaching a new commandment. What made his commandment different from all the rest comes in the last few words. Listen to them. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. There are so many ways that love can be expressed. But Jesus expressed it in his fullness. choosing to love even the people who tortured him to death. If you love those who love you, he said, what reward should you get for that? Even the heathen do as much. But I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. No other religion in the world teaches such love. A Jewish friend of the famous writer, Leo Tolstoy, admitted that Judaism does not teach such love. But he added to Tolstoy, who was a Christian, your religion may teach it, yes, but who practices it? When it comes to practice, you Christians are no better than us Jews. And this is exactly the point that I wish to make in this series of sermons. From the smallest command, call no man on earth father, to the greatest, love God and your neighbor. Disobedience within the so-called Christian churches is virtually universal, and nothing, not one little thing, is being done about changing it. The hierarchy and the masses react as one against anyone who dares to promote the teachings of Jesus. Well over 90% of so-called Christian churches go so far as to officially teach that it is okay to kill your enemies, as long as you do so under the leadership of the country that you live in. There are good brethren who hold that it would be wrong, sinful, to take the life of another person, even in self-defense. And some of these are people that I love and I highly regard. But I come to a different conclusion when I read the scriptures. Most of them will tolerate members who think otherwise, but even that tolerance disappears quickly if pacifist members start teaching other members to boycott war. The same restrictions are not there with regard to the warmongers glorifying and glamorizing war and making saints out of the troops we send to do the killing for us. They pray for victory on the battlefields and they ask God to bless their bombs as though he is on their side and no one else's. The armed forces provide employment to thousands of full-time Christian teachers and priests from almost all denominations. Religious leaders who can be trusted to inspire the troops to go out and kill for God. Can you imagine what would happen if you had an army chaplain teaching the troops to love their enemies? Do you see the truth in what I'm saying? The greatest commandment, love, is certainly not an easy one to practice. Not in the way that Jesus taught it. And that is because it sums up all of the others. The greatest commandment is by far the hardest. We have become used to letting the word love roll off our tongues so sweetly and naively without ever really counting the cost of what it means to love our enemies. Hatred for Muslims today, like so much religious bigotry in the past, comes most naturally from supposedly Christian activists. The most liberal Christians teach that Muslims are not terrorists, and because of that we should trust them. But the truth is somewhere between the two extremes. Any Muslim who subscribes to the Quran and the Hadith must support terrorism. Our love for Muslims should not be built on naive ignorance about what they would do to us in the name of Allah if they could get away with it. They would kill us all, but still, Jesus tells us to love them. There seems to be this huge chasm between those who want to kill the Muslims before they kill us and those who haven't got a clue about what the Quran actually tells Muslims to do to those of us who have not accepted Muhammad as God's replacement for Jesus. To sum up we need two things to be able to truly love others We need time and we need resources like food and clothes Jesus taught that we will only find time to help when we stop trying to get these things for ourselves and when we start trusting our Heavenly Father for our material needs. When we do this, he also provides us with enough to help others as well far more than we ever had when we were working for money instead. Jesus further instructs us to express this kind of love, not just for our brothers and sisters in the faith, but also for our enemies. By doing that, we will turn the world upside down, and conquer the hearts of those who have so far never seen such love demonstrated in the churches of the world. I would urge you to click on the link to a very short video listing 21 differences between what Jesus taught and what the churches teach, or a quick run through many of the other commands of Jesus, I think you will find it enlightening. Open your Bible and read the four Gospels for yourself. As you read, ask yourself this question, What would it be like if I lived like this today? Then, and only then, can you really decide whether you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Thank you. Deep down in every one of us, we hope for a world where justice, truth, and kindness prevail. Well, we can work towards it right now if we let love be our motivation for everything that we do. When love becomes our philosophy The PNA to dishonesty Everyone will speak truth with their neighbor When love becomes our philosophy The PNA to hypocrisy Our love will shine through our behavior When love becomes our philosophy Becomes our philosophy Becomes our philosophy Picture the world When our children are starving Cause everybody shares their friends Picture the world Without any money We'll be forward for love instead You and I We can make it happen If we make today become the day when love Becomes a philosophy The DNA to dishonesty Everyone will speak truth We can deliver when love Becomes a philosophy The DNA to hypocrisy Our love will shine through our behavior When love becomes a philosophy Becomes a philosophy Becomes a philosophy Picture the world With no other fighting Forgiveness is found everywhere Picture world, picture world But kindness is shining And everybody shows they care You and I, we can make it our fun If you make today become the day When love becomes our philosophy The being there to dishonesty Everyone will speak truth with their neighbor When love becomes our philosophy, the DNA to hypocrisy, our love will share through our behavior. When love becomes our philosophy, becomes our philosophy, becomes our philosophy. Thank you. Thank you.