The simplicity of love
Sunday (3.25.07) I will be preaching on the first few verses from Colossians Chapter 2.I have spent time thinking, praying and studying these few verses and I am so touched by what I find. First, the simplicity of what God is after. No matter how many times I come back to it, the beauty of love still, after many years grips me. Here in this passage Paul speaks of his struggle to impart to the Colossians a subtle, but plain truth: A great deal of our experience of Jesus is imparted to us through the quality of community we have as a local body of Christians.
Does it blow your mind that Jesus comes to us through these relationships? That as we pray with and for each other, as we encourage, correct, listen, worship together, serve and admonish one another Jesus is made manifest. Someday we will see the Risen Jesus face to face, that is a glorious dimension of the Blessed Hope we have in Christ. But until that day so much of His life is mediated to us through the sharing of our own lives. This is why we are told to speak the truth to one another. It is the sharing of our real lives, with all the inadequacies, insecurities and weakness that Christ becomes present. It is because of this that Paul challenges us to be knit together in love. It is as we allow our lives to be knit together that we begin to experience dimensions of the person of Christ that cannot be experienced in any other way. I believe that the heart of God breaks when he surveys how many of us live lonely lives, lives of boredom, lives of drugery and even despair all because we are not being knit together with others. I also believe that all around us are relationships broken from neglect, betrayal, abuse, and even by cruelty. Where is the hope of redemption for all this brokeness? Where is the possibility of change and restoration? It is through Christ, his very presence manifested in loving relationships, in patient endurance and faithfulness. Paul says that in Christ are hidden all the riches of knowledge and wisdom. He also says that it is by being knit together in love that we are able to reach those riches. I believe that God very much wants to pour out a powerful refreshing of his Son’s life in the church, and that refreshment, that awakening to the supremacy of Christ will lead us back to the simplicity of love. And that love will bring many sons and daughters to God. Come Lord Jesus, Come.