Welcome to the War Zone

I've been chewing on a portion of the Bible known as the "Upper Room Discourse" from the Gospel of John from the last year. One of the things I've noticed is that Jesus if getting his disciples ready to live in a spiritual war zone. Listen to this from John 15:

¹⁸"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. ²³He who hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'

Doesn't this sound like fun? I think that if most of us were asked why we became a Christian, we wouldn't say because we get to fight in a war where we'll be hated and attacked. Yet this is exactly what Jesus is preparing them for. He even reminds them that if they had stayed "in the world" as in a member of the community that is made up of those who are not citizens of God's kingdom, they would be loved by the world - aka nobody is shooting at you.

I asked my kids in family devotions how that sounded? They looked at me with bewildered eyes. Why would anyone choose to put themselves in harms way like that? Worse than that - why would Jesus choose us to be placed in harms way like that (verse 19)?

Perhaps there is another way to look at this. I described a scenario where a person goes to boot camp for 6 weeks. They're ridiculed, yelled at, sleep deprived, pushed to their limits. At the end of the camp, the drill instructor walks over and informs you that you have shown yourself to be a soldier with enormous promise and they are recommending you for special operations. You then go to a school where you train in the most recent techniques in modern warfare.

The day comes when you are being dropped in enemy territory for your first special operations mission. Sure, it's a battle, but you find yourself honored to be given such an opportunity to serve.

The Thursday night that Jesus delivers this discourse he can hear the missiles being fired by the enemy. Satan has entered Judas, Satan has asked to sift Peter like wheat (see John 13). Jesus even states that the prince of this world (Satan) is coming (see John 14). The battle rages all around and is just going to get hotter. The disciples initially will run like little children in only a few hours from this discourse when the angry mob comes to arrest Jesus.

Yet, not soon after, they will stand and deliver the truth of the Gospel in the face of enormous opposition. All of them except one will be martyred for the cause. Judging from the spiritual battle raging around Jesus that night, I'm certain that they sustained spiritual wounds as well. At some point, they realized that it was worth it. That, in fact, they had been specially chosen to endure the hardships that they would face for the purpose of battling for their King.

If you are a Christian and find yourself wondering why you are having to fight so many battles. Maybe even wondering if your doing something wrong in the way that you are carrying out your Christian life. Take heart, you have been especially chosen for special operations here on planet earth.

We'll talk more about the ways of this war in the following post . . .

High Octane Obedience

I was recently looking at a quote from Jesus in the Gospel of John chapter 14:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14 verse 15)

I think most Christians have a knee jerk reaction to this verse. It's a reaction of guilt. It goes something like this - "I don't do everything that Jesus commands therefore I don't love Jesus and therefore I am a bad Christian or worse than that, I'm not a Christian at all." We then go about "applying" the verse by trying really hard to obey the commands of Jesus to prove to him that we love him. Does that sound the least bit Christian?

Jesus is teaching his disciples about a new, high octane, fuel for obedience. It's called love. Look at all the times he mentions it in chapter 14 alone:

"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." (verse 21)

"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love me will not obey my teaching." (verse 23,24a)

"but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me...." (verse 31)

I'd say Jesus is trying to get something across. That the motivation, the fuel if you will, of obedience is love and not fear or guilt or duty. Notice how he frames this concept in verse 31. He compares our loving obedience to his obedience to his Father. Jesus let's us know that what he is about to do the very next day on Good Friday is an act of love toward his Father.

It's here that we know for sure Jesus it not trying to induce guilt with his statement of "if you love me you will obey". Can you imagine Jesus obeying the Father through the gritted teeth of guilt and obligation? I think not.

So how are we supposed to apply these verses? Certainly Jesus is calling us to obey his teachings, but how can we "decide" to be fueled by love in our obedience? In a nut shell, receive what Christ has done for us. John writes in 1 John 4:19, "We love because He first loved us." This fuel that Christ speaks of is not something we can muster up but something that is the by product of drinking deeply of the gospel.

It's pictured beautifully in our experience of communion (Lord's supper, Eucharist). The food and drink is offered and we can do nothing but receive it. As it's received, the food and drink are taken into our body as nutrition which gives us physical strength. It's a symbolic experience that reminds us of our acceptance of the Gospel. A spiritual nourishment that fuels us into a life of loving obedience.