I’ve really struggled with what to talk about tonight. I feel like a scratched record saying the same ole’ same ole’. But I’ve been trying to work through where God is taking us on this journey as we look at the golden rule with more depth. Love God, love people, Love yourself.

In two weeks time we’ll look at what it means to love yourself. It will be a delicate topic because I think that many of us, if not all of us, have areas of our lives that we hate, that we don’t love, that dare I say it condition many of our responses to life situations. And there is a sense where we are crippled even before we begin the journey of loving other people simply because we are unable to see past the hurt and anger inside us.

So tonight, I want to have another look at loving other people. And I wanted to do it through the very simple lens of two verses.

The first will tie in with the next time we speak, but is a good starting point.

“In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you…” It’s found in Matthew toward the end of the great sermon that Jesus preached on the side of a hill one day.

This is an interesting verse because it highlights the importance of ourselves as being able to judge good actions. That would strike you as odd if you’d been brought up to believe that you are desperately and totally evil. That the only ounce of good in you was what was given you by God’s grace. And while I accept this on one hand, it does go against the grain of the whole sermon on the mount that is about empowering and elevating the least respected people in this earthly kingdom.

It’s strange that we are the benchmark, and we’ll talk more on that next week, but there’s a couple of observations from this.

I accept that because of our sinfulness, we are not really that flash in the eyes of God. And that is not rocket science, because if we look around we can’t help but see that really, people are not that good at being nice all the time and in fact, are inclined to be quite nasty.

The problem of evil that is inflicted on other people is not just in our face, it is our face. We are actually part of the problem of evil in this world.

We can sit here quite happily with the paradox of being the people that have, compared to many people who have not. This is true. We sit here in paradox, and I doubt many of us spend a moment thinking about it.

It’s probably both a tragedy and a blessing that we can so easily switch off to suffering around us.

There’s a sterility about what we do here that often jars with me, though it cannot and oughtn’t be changed. We come into this nice building to engage with God who wants us to engage with all the other people out there. Sure we come to be refreshed perhaps, or because we want to simply embrace the hope that is to be had here, a slight engagement with God and his people, we come here to form his new temple, the temple of the holy spirit, made up of gathered believers who are here to celebrate this fact, to be encouraged and exhorted to improve themselves and this world around them.

But there is a sense where if we likened it to a battle, not in the devil vs God sense, but in the advancement of the kingdom of heaven sense, all the troupes leave the battlefield and come back to headquarters to hear the word of God. I would rather think that we were actually out there and being encouraged.

It would be nice if there was a constant encouragement stream taking place throughout the week as people are out there, facing the challenges of life, needing our prayer and needing our support. That the temple of the spirit of God would exist outside of these walls and especially outside of this time. That spirituality would not be something encountered simply with coming on a Sunday night, but something that is encountered throughout each day, and in every situation. That we permeate our society to powerfully, that people feel that they are in fact being drawn to the light of the world : which is not Jesus in this context, but us. “You are the light of the world.”

And how is this going to happen? By making judgements about how we treat other people.

And here is where the bitter irony is. It is interesting that there seems to be an imperative for us to love each other within this holy temple of the spirit. John points to it strongly : they will know you are Christians by your faith in God. Nope. By your well thought out arguments? Nope. By your love for one another.

We are the light of the world because we are examples of the divine community. Caring for each other, loving each other, nurturing each other, improving each other, working through the issues with respect for each other and being prepared to let Jesus mediate the process.

We are meant to not just be ‘nice’ people, but people who break into this world with a new dynamic. A dynamic that makes this world stop and take notice.

Instead we have divisions between churches.

One of the staggering things that I learned about at the youth pastors conference was that in Christchurch there is a movement that is crossing the boundaries of traditional organised Christianity.

Get Smart conference is now no longer being run in competition to a Baptist conference because they have talked about their similarities rather than majored on their differences. Many churches are rallying around the cause of making the Good News of Jesus be known. They are saying that they want to be more than tolerant of each other but to work together. They are praying together.

And this challenges me, and I’m sure it challenges others here, to think about my own prejudice toward other churches. Last week I talked about how I don’t dig the prosperity doctrine and that I have been quite quick to condemn people because of this. I have an essay on the web that I need to edit because it’s so condemnatory. It’s not helpful.

I did a book review on Brian Houston and I’m sure that I’ve been so unkind to him. He does treat the bible poorly in places, and in some places it’s just terrible what he done to justify his idea that wealth is a sign of God’s blessing on his life. Brian Tamaki shares this view. And I’ve been harsh on both of them. But put the shoe on the other foot!

I would be quite annoyed if someone wrote the way I wrote, about something I’d written. I’ll say that again but slower.

I have not done to another person what I would like them to do to me.

What do you reckon. Think of anyone like that in your life? Yep. I’m sure you do. And some people we feel quite strongly are just stupid, or mean. And there is justification for it because of how they have treated us.

But ours is meant to be a higher way. And most of the time we are quite capable of making these judgements ourselves. Most of the time, we know when we’re being mean spirited, derogatory, backstabbing, thieving, conniving, spiteful, treacherous, plotting, scheming, and deceitful. Most of the time, we don’t need God to judge this for us. We know damn well what we are doing.

Which is why we are able to use ourselves as a benchmark for loving other people.

But let me tell you something interesting. The very next thing that Jesus talks about after he’s just told us that :

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.

For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

And there’s the truth of it. And often the truth hurts. This life of Christianity is no easy road. It’s full of self analysis, humility, beseeching God’s guidance, praying for his wisdom, seeking his will, wanting to find ways to improve this world, his people. It’s a life that is a constant struggle because we are choosing to engage with the disease of sin on a meaningful level, we are not compromising and making excuses for our evil, our lack of love, our waste. At the very least we are acknowledging the sadness of what it means to be a person on this fallen planet, engaging with these fallen people around us.

We are acknowledging that we come from a position of moral weakness not strength, that we are reliant on the holy spirit and the strength of Jesus, and the love of God so much that we do need to be reminded of this in environments like this. This is a hard road. It is not the recipe for happiness, but it is the recipe for life to the full.

There will still be tears and sorrow, but there will be a reference point. There will still be disasters and trouble, but our framework for grief has changed. There will still be our own failings and disappointments, but our success is measured by our humility. There will still be sin, but we know we have hope.

And that hope is a beautiful hope. It’s one that draws us closer to God. It is a hope that firmly sets itself in the knowledge that somehow and inconceivably this God who created all this, who is by his very definition unknowable by us mere people, has chosen to reveal himself to us. That this God who is by his very definition absolute holiness like we cannot understand, has chosen to cross that enormous chasm by walking with us. That this God who by his very definition is Justice in it’s most purest sense, should show us mercy that we can worship at his feet.

Doesn’t that do something to you? And here we share it, in this community, this temple of the holy spirit. and though the way is narrow, and there will be some who miss it and choose and easier road, if we hold firm to the hope just described, we are safe! We’re in!

And we come to the second verse I want to share tonight.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

And it’s that last part that we need to take note of.

I think that there is a sense where Jesus is telling us that the measure of our faith is how it looks within this community. How can we love Jesus, but hate our brother or sister?

If we cannot model within this temple of the spirit the love of Christ, then how can we possibly expect that we will show love out there in the world, how can we possibly expect to be a light to this world, how can we possibly expect to be the hands, feet and heartbeat of Jesus in this world?

Jesus did not model hate. But love. And if we are slinging mud at other churches, if we are backstabbing people in our own congregation, if we are holding grudges within this community, then we are undermining, severely undermining the power of the message of Jesus and it’s impact on our lives.

So what must we do? Paul writes it far better than anything I could ever preach.

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice,

and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Notice how he is actually instructing us to do this as though we have the power already. And we do. We are being told to put this stuff to one side. It’s not good enough to say that this is too hard. It mustn’t be, though I think it is hard.

This is heavy stuff. This is not easy teaching. But if we want to be making a difference in this world, then love should be shining in this setting here.

I don’t know if there are divisions or grudges in this congregation. I suspect that there aren’t too many, and that’s what I like about it. I celebrate that fact. This isn’t the issue for me.

I know there is back biting, slander and wrath and anger and all of that nasty stuff going on, because I often find myself engaging with it myself. And I often don’t do too well with biting my tongue, though I am trying. But I can do better, and so can many of us.

I also would love if there were visible signs of interaction between people here, crossing genuine barriers of generation or culture, where we take a genuine interest in how people are coping with this life, their faith, their relationships. Where we are offering to pray and support each other. Where we can risk enough to be vulnerable with each other.

I feel privileged to be part of this congregation, and I know that I’ve been on the receiving end of some of this stuff. And I’m thankful, but I really want to know that there is some other stuff going on too.

They will know we are Christians by our love. I’m wanting to go on this journey, shall we all go together?