Yesterday I asked you to define love.  One common way people today define love is to be as tolerant and permissive as possible, as long as the other person does not to hurt others.

See what a low standard that is?  Jesus defines love to a much higher degree, he says to love one another as oneself.  He knows we are self-centered…and Jesus uses that to teach us love for others.

Between loving God with everything, and loving neighbours as ourselves, Jesus has declared self-salvation to be impossible.  We may love God to one degree or another.  But with everything?  We can and should try, but we reach our limits since we are only human, and separated ourselves from God in sin.   We need help.

Equally true, we may make ourselves harmless and never say a word to anyone who isn’t harming another, but we can’t make ourselves completely  love others as ourselves – we always want more for ourselves than to be tolerated and put up with.  We can and should try to love others as ourselves, but we need the help of another to do this.

Jesus made himself harmless, and willingly sacrificed himself on a cross in the ultimate action of love for God and others.  He led the way, and did what would be impossible for humans, so we could follow him in love for God and love for others, rather than trying to trailblaze ourselves.

We’ll look at this more in this upcoming series on neighbours.

Challenge: How do your actions “hang’ under love of God or love of neighbour?  Is there anything you’ve done in the last week that doesn’t fit one of those loves?

Ryan Sim - April 18, 2013

Thursday - Act On It - Perfection

Will we ever make ourselves sinless and perfect? Not in this life. Our hunger and thirst for righteousness is meant to be ongoing But this really is God's plan for us. He wants to make us perfect by his Holy Spirit. We were made for perfection, but gave it up. Like a rebellious child who needs to learn from their own mistakes. But we were in such trouble, we can’t help ourselves out. God intends for us to enjoy his care, kingdom again. Made it possible by coming to earth as Jesus, the perfect man and perfect God, and destroying the power of sin and death to separate us from him. He's working on perfecting us, to be ready for his return. He will make us perfect. Open ourselves to him...ask him to...allow him to. To do the impossible. To love our enemies. To do everything else in the Sermon on the Mount so far! The underlying truth behind everything he's said is that he intends for us to be perfect. Become perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect. Become acceptable to him, to live in his kingdom of heaven. Back to Day 1: How do you react when you fall short of that standard? One way is to look for help. Jesus says he is the help we need: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me”. If you’re finding perfection, fixing yourself, trying to make yourself holy far too challenging, impossible….Jesus says, "Try me!, I’m the way!" He is the way, and the destination. He will help shape your life move in this direction as well…as long as you are willing to follow him. Challenge: Go through the last few weeks worth of examples. Anger, Lust, Lying, Retaliation, Loving Enemies. Rate out of 5. Which lowest? Recognize imperfect, and ask God to begin perfecting that area of your life.

From Series: Sermon on the Mount | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

Discuss the Daily Challenge

More Messages Associated With "God"...

Powered by Series Engine