35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In case you missed it
Christ Jesus, the Messiah of Israel who has said, I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE, commanded HIS FOLLOWERS to LOVE ONE ANOTHER as the JESUS has loved them.
In While we wait… DEATH and Resurrection we examined this love of Jesus from the Good News of John at length. However, friend, our 21st century ‘christian’ attention span seems to stretch only about 30 seconds.
I ask (not command) you, friend, to love me enough to follow me, because I love you as our Lord Jesus has loved us. (You can do it now before my 30 seconds is up or whenever you finish reading my talk of Jesus, even without your much desired comment.)
What’s the point?
The Gospel of Jesus Christ may have more to say to you than just a few seconds of scrolling will allow if your heart has not become like that of Judas. For the Lord gave us a new command to “love one another, just as I have loved you.”
And before you hastily dismiss the Lord’s command, who does Jesus command here?
Is He talking to the CHURCH?
Now you may not be a Judas in the room where the Lord gave this new command, but we are at least like Peter, Thomas and other Disciples with frequent failures to pay attention to the Word.
So one of us is bound to ask a “Who is my neighbor” question of the Lord’s new command:
Who does Jesus command?
And thinking that it may be just the Eleven faithful Apostles in the room you dismiss this NEW COMMANDMENT in one of two ways:
Since the Lord was speaking to those who had followed already for three years, ‘love one another as I have loved you,’ applied ONLY to the Disciples. OR
Jesus new command, “that you also love one another,” is no different than His general command to “love your neighbor” or “love your enemy.”
Whether Jesus new command was just to the Apostles or a broad example I’m not going to be the one to ask, ‘And who should I love like You, Jesus?’ I’m really not up to that.
AND besides, who is the church? Who are ‘christians‘ that we should somehow be in the middle of this ‘new commandment?’
Whether for first century followers or a 21st century world of neighbors and enemies, Jesus command just applies to YOU and ME generally… RIGHT?
Ah, dear friend and saint, WHAT IF JESUS IS COMMANDING you and also commanding ME directly?
We interrupt the Good News of John for an urgent warning from the Prophet Amos.
“Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth
Amos 9:8a NASB
We are NOT IMMUNE to the #pandemic of sin!
A familiar forgotten history
Even though festival seasons of Passover and Easter approach, our casual celebrations may possibly be banned this year and diminished by the rulers of this world.
We know little of the first century church in this year of our Lord 2020, and struggles of the saints when Jerusalem fell not so many years after the Sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus.
Yet during this time of Jesus and the Apostles, scripture from Amos and other Prophets of the LORD would have been familiar to some.
Briefly, the historical background of the time of Amos reads something like more recent times before our most recent struggles of these last days.
Prosperity before the fall
Uzziah is King of Judah (792-740 BC)
Jeroboam II is King of Israel (793-753 BC)
Both kingdoms were blessed by tremendous wealth
Both kingdoms had powerful military which had defeated their enemies.
Both kingdoms had an aristocratic class who gained great wealth, enough to loan money to their poor neighbors.
Both Israel and Judah believed their kingdom to be permanently blessed by the LORD as a chosen people.
Israel and Judah believed themselves immune to judgment by the LORD.
Sound familiar?
It will to many of the suppressed working poor of first world nations.
Yet the LORD sent a poor shepherd of Tekoa, a hillside suburb of Jerusalem, to tell the nations why a judgment of the LORD would fall upon them.
It was a warning rejected, as we would have rejected such bad news just a short time ago when billionaires bragged of how good we have done under their affluent watch.
Amos speaks for the LORD
Perhaps you would like to sit still in dust and ashes, reading everything the Prophet Amos warns from the LORD – every call to repentance to a nation which has strayed far from righteousness. Here I can only list a few which may apply.
Jesus, the Messiah, and John the Baptist will both echo these same indictments to broods of religious vipers.
Peter, Paul, John and the Apostles of the first century church all encourage the saints, yet reprove the unrepentant who stray from teachings of the Lord.
The Revelation of Christ to John warns the church. To one local church at Sardis, Christ warns though John:
I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.
Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent.
If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.
“For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment…
Because they rejected the law of the Lord
And have not kept His commandments.
Their lies lead them astray,
Lies which their fathers followed.
Is your religious tradition more important than obedience to the Lord your God? A better perception of your own righteousness than the Perfect righteousness of the Messiah sacrificed for your redemption?
6 Thus says the Lord, “For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke its punishment…
Because they sell the righteous for money
and a needy person for a pair of sandals.
They trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground
and obstruct the path of the needy.
How sad the compassionless ambition of the rich who do not see the sufferings of the poor.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com
… And you commanded the prophets saying, ‘You shall not prophesy!’
13 Look, I am about to crush you in your place as a wagon crushes when full of grain. 14 Escape will fail the swift, the strong one will not maintain his strength, and the warrior will not save his life.
I’m not even certain that christians blinded by science fear the Lord our God, let alone those chosen of Jesus’ and Amos’ times who turned away from scripture.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
Hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt:
7 Indeed, the Lord God does nothing without revealing his counsel to his servants the prophets. 8 A lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who will not prophesy?
11 Therefore, the Lord God says:
An enemy will surround the land; he will destroy your strongholds and plunder your citadels.
13 Listen and testify against the house of Jacob— this is the declaration of the Lord God, the God of Armies. 14 I will punish the altars of Bethel on the day I punish Israel for its crimes; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
Perhaps some in this day will yet hear the indictment of our land, a warning to shepherds who lead the flock astray.
[You rich women] Who oppress the poor,
Who crush the needy,
Who say to your husbands, “Bring wine, let us drink!”
Are these not the leadings of rich women who lead their husbands by day and discard them by the darkness of divorce?
Yet we have not listened to the Lord who places the man over his wife; also father and mother over their children and youth, raised in God’s Law. Raised as rebellious children ourselves, we do not believe God’s warnings to return to fear of His judgment.
6 I gave you absolutely nothing to eat in all your cities, a shortage of food in all your communities, yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord’s declaration.
8 Two or three cities staggered to another city to drink water but were not satisfied, yet you did not return to me. This is the Lord’s declaration.
I struck you with blight and mildew… yet you did not return to me.
I sent plagues like those of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
11 I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick snatched from a fire, yet you did not return to me— This is the Lord’s declaration.
“Therefore thus will I do to you…
Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God…
13 For behold, He who forms mountains, And creates the wind, Who declares to man what his thought is, And makes the morning darkness, Who treads the high places of the earth— The Lord God of hosts is His name.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
15 “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. 16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’
JESUS IS THE LIFE!
(not this life you claim on the broad path)
What must you do?
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