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Fashion Confession

I do not understand fashion very well. I refuse to believe that this is simply due to the fact that I am a hetero-sexual man. I think it is because fashion is sometimes non-sense.

For example, I briefly visited the Gap with my wife today, and I came face to face with my most hated fashion trend: worn-out clothing sold as new clothing.

Why on earth would you want to buy something that people purposefully wore out? Why not just buy something new and then use it until it is thread bare? By this same logic, I should go out and sell my 1990 Ford Ranger for a hefty sum. No one would do that. Better yet, why doesn't Chevrolet start building trucks with dents in them? And rusty holes?

If you want the luxury of "holey" clothing, just hang on to the ones you have long enough and you'll have them. My wife throws out my old clothes, and then we buy worn out ones? I live in a crazy world.

Rebuked By a Five Year Old

I want to be a better father to my son. I failed to be the type of father that my heavenly Father would have me be this morning, and I am thankful that the Lord pointed this out to me in His ever kind and gentle way.

It is not unusual for my son to move like a slug in the morning while dressing for school. This morning was particularly rough for him. His mother told him to go and put on the pants she had gotten out for him, which he went to do with a little bit of whining. I looked in to check on him, and the boy was putting his pants on over his pajama bottoms.

He was already in hot water for back-talking his mothing, so he had one strike against him. When I told him to take off his pajamas first and then put on his pants, he dared to "huff" at me. This earned him a quick measure of justice to the backside which I immediately regretted because my attitude was sinful.

So, on the way to take him to his pre-school, I told him that I was sorry that I had gotten so angry. I told him that I wanted very much for him to see Jesus in me, and that my anger was not very Christ-like. So I said I was sorry again, and that I would try harder to be like Jesus.

My son looked at me and smiled. Then he he took on a serious look and said, "Papa, I know you want to be like Jesus. But you can't. Papa, you can't be like Jesus."

I was shocked. Of course, he was exactly right. Spot on right. Magnificently, convictingly, and to my everlasting shame, he was correct. I wanted to probe a little more to see what he meant.

I told him he was exactly right. Then I asked him what he thought about me that was most unlike Jesus. He looked at me and said, "Well, papa, you can't cook very good."

I blinked. Then I laughed and said incredulously, "Son, what makes you think Jesus was a good cook?"

He answered as if he were the one instructing a five year old, "Papa, Jesus can do all things."

Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. (Matthew 11:25)

The Truth about the Pope's Self-Mortification

The Pope, according to the Roman Church, is the successor to Peter's apostolic office. As such, he is the supreme head of the church on earth, and is the Vicar of Christ. He can make infallible pronouncements. He is literally an example to millions. He ought to be able to convey the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ better than anyone, you would think. And yet, we find this:

At a news conference Tuesday, Oder defended John Paul's practice of self-mortification, which some faithful use to remind them of the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

"It's an instrument of Christian perfection," Oder said, responding to questions about how such a practice could be condoned considering Catholic teaching holds that the human body is a gift from God.

In the book, Oder wrote that John Paul frequently denied himself food - especially during the holy season of Lent - and "frequently spent the night on the bare floor," messing up his bed in the morning so he wouldn't draw attention to his act of penitence.

"But it wasn't limited to this. As some members of his close entourage in Poland and in the Vatican were able to hear with their own ears, John Paul flagellated himself. In his armoire, amid all the vestments and hanging on a hanger, was a belt which he used as a whip and which he always brought to Castel Gandolfo," the papal retreat where John Paul vacationed each summer.

While there had long been rumours that John Paul practiced self-mortification, the book provides the first confirmation and concludes John Paul did so as an example of his faith. (Go here for the whole story.)

Let me be clear: self-mortification is neccessary. If by that you mean the putting to death of sin that remains in the flesh. However, beating yourself with a belt will not drive sin from your flesh. Nor will sleeping on a hard floor instead of in your bed. Indeed, the reason that we even strive to put the sinful flesh to death is so that people will see the glory of God's grace made manifest in our lives. The Pope's ideal of self-mortification only occassions boasting in the flesh and subtracts from the grace of Christ. Allow me to explain why I say that.

If you'll notice, Oder says that self-mortification is "an instrument of Christian perfection." There is, in fact, only one instrument of Christian perfection: the atonement of Jesus Christ. That is why the Pope's means of self-mortification is off the rails. I believe that his whipping himself is sort of like the opposite of the popular self-help movement. Self-help teaches: You are good. You are awesome. Believe that you are good and you will get even better. The Pope's way teaches: You are bad. You are evil. Punish yourself and you will get better. But this is what the cross teaches us: You are evil. You are sinful. Believe in me, and I will make you better. How does beating yourself with a belt teach anyone that Christ is sufficient? I am glad that the pope saw himself as a sinner. I am sad that he thought a personal whipping would cure it.

I want to say that the Christian way of self-mortification is more mortifying than the pope's, for his self-flagallation was not Christian in any sense. Here is why: the cross makes us utterly dependant upon Christ. That is, if I can come clean by beating myself, I am responsible for helping get myself out of this mess. However, the humiliation of the cross is that I can't do that. And since I can't do that, I can only believe that Jesus can. I would rather take a whipping than admit I am helpless. I would rather take a whipping than to make the Lord Jesus bear my shame. But bear my shame He must.

Peter saw this clearly when he said, "Lord, you will never wash my feet!" (John 13:8). Why? Because it was embarrassing to let the Lord wash off his grimy feet. Peter would rather do it himself than suffer the Lord Jesus to do it. But Jesus said, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me."

In response to the cross of Jesus, we ought instead to say, "Lord, I hang up my belt. I expose to you my shame. Make me clean. Save me from my sin. Only you can do it." How embarrassing that is. How shameful. How glorious it is of Jesus to wash my feet. How marvelous that He would stoop to clean one so dirty as I and ask nothing in return. Indeed, what would I give to one such as He?

God deliver us from a gospel, which is really no gospel, that would require us to beat out our own sins. Deliver us from a kind of perfection that depends upon our piety or our works. Teach us a gospel that glorifies Christ alone as the only sin-cleanser. For the sake of your own glory, do it!

iCovet

I have one Apple product: A refurbished iPod. However, I have been eye-balling the new e-readers for sometime, and until yesterday, my money was on the Kindle DX. But now, my wandering eyes have spied out the new Apple Tablet. (Here's a site that compares the iPad and the Kindle DX head to head).

I have books galore, and I covet more. I love books. I have books stacked to the ceiling on shelves at home, I have them in boxes in the garage with no shelf left to sit on, and I have them stored in a friend's shed due to lack of room. But in an e-reader, I can have thousands of books in my hand at once! <----insert mad scientist laughter here Some people are underwhelmed by the iPad. Like uber-blogger Tim Challies. Others, like Joshua Harris, think this may be the greatest thing since, well, the iPhone or iPod.
I mean, iBooks, people! iBooks!!! Imagine the possibilities. Most folks who are staying on the Kindle wagon are saying that the Kindle will win out because it does one thing well, and that it has e-ink technology. O.o Okay. Did I mention that there is an Application for the iPad that lets you use Kindle e-books.

iCovet.....heeeey...is that why the logo is a bitten apple?

Confessions of a Premillenialist

Okay, I confess. I am a premillenialist. But I swear, if it wasn't for the Bible I wouldn't be. I hate this neighborhood.

I hate bumper stickers that say, "In case of Rapture This Car will be unmanned." I hate the Left Behind series. I hate charts. Well, I don't hate these things, they just make me nervous. I always tell the folks at church that eschatology teachers are like bus drivers and when they start breaking out charts and talking about Russia or China or Middle Eastern leaders, I tell them that this is where I get off. There are a bunch of kooks living in my semi-dispy neighborhood. We have a bunch of weird uncles.

I have my stuff boxed up though. I'm looking for a house in the historic premil district. I just can't find a place to put the final "7 Years" bag that Daniel gives me in chapter 9. Well, at least 6 years of the baggage. It seems that Messiah doesn't get cut off until after the 69 weeks of years, which would put the crucifixion in the 70th week, which means....oh wait, there's the bus stop.

A Corporate Crushing

The first hint we have of the gospel in the Bible comes to us in Genesis 3:15. There, God tells that old serpent, the devil, these things, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." If you want to impress people at parties, you can call this passage the proto-evangelium, which means "first gospel." There, the victory of the seed of the woman over Satan is foretold for the first time. From there, we see the promise pass to Abraham (Gen. 12, 15), Judah (Gen. 49), then to David's line (2 Sam. 7).

In short, the entire hope of the prophets of the "Old Testament" is based on the seed of the woman, who will be the Immanuel, who will usher in God's everlasting kingdom, and who will take away the sins of the people. So the ultimate "bruising" of Satan comes at the hands of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

However, we should not think of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only bruising of the head of the wicked one. No indeed! In point of fact, the defeat of Satan is constant, daily, and eternal because of the Son of God. Satan has never overthrown a single plan of God. Satan has never ultimately defeated a single one of God's children. Every single day brings fresh defeat of Satan.

Every one of the devil's plans is frustrated daily. The Lord said to Satan, "On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life!" (Gen. 3:14) This is a picture of dismal defeat. That great enemy of God and man is seen licking the dust all the days of his life. Even in the restoration of all things, behold the lot of Satan! "The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain" (Isaiah 65:25). You see that? The wolf and lamb grazing together, not at war with each other. The lion, with his big pointy teeth, is eating straw like an ox. But the serpent? What of him? "Dust shall be the serpent's food." When all things are made new, the devil will still be eating the dirt of defeat. He will never feel victory. The win column will always be set to zero.

God has defeated Satan through the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ daily defeats Satan through His glorious bride the church. Even still, a day will come where every saint of God will gather before the throne of God and confess the victory over the world of Satan's schemes through Jesus Christ. This is why Paul has written, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20).

To sum up, the Bible teaches that Satan has been bruised, is being bruised, and will be bruised. He is an utterly pitiful person, full of rage and spite, eager to devour and consume, yet never achieving victory over his enemies. It is a most humiliating thrashing that old Beelzebub is getting. How I love it that he daily licks the dust. Eat your dirt, Satan, the Lord hath decreed it.

Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for a they loved not their lives even unto death. ~Rev. 12:10-11

What's On My Nightstand - January

Okay, there is this little "meme" type thing going on over at 5 Minutes for Books. The point of it is for us to list the books we are reading so others might see them, get interested, and buy them. Or, and I think this is more fun, you kind of find out what sort of people you're dealing with when you see their list.

Anyway, here are some books I am currently reading for this month.

1. The Meaning of the Pentateuch by John H. Sailhamer. This is a deep read, but probably the most worthwhile book you will ever pick up to help you read the Old Testament. I'm serious.

2. The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. Fantastic book for pastors/elders regarding the work of the ministry. The elders at our church are going through this together to help us focus on personal discipleship.

3. Calvin by Bruce Gordon. Biographies can help keep you fresh by both warning us of mistakes others have made and, most often in my case, shaming me for laziness. I look forward to gleaning some goodness out of this biography, it's supposed to be one of the best on Calvin's life.

I mean it This Time!!

Okay, starting tomorrow, I am going to blog something everyday for the next two weeks. I feel guilty not blogging, which may be some form of psychosis that I am not aware of. However, I feel like it might be some small encouragment to folks I know, and if it isn't, no harm done.

So hopefully I will have a thought worth sharing for our mutual edification tomorrow. If not, I will steal someone else's deep thought.

Thanks,

Mgt. (Aka: Brad)

Strange Team

This, my friends, may be the strangest duet since....well, ever. You decide.

The Little Drummer Boy

Ladies and Gentlemen, The President of the United States

This makes me wish we could find a new continent, go there as pilgrims, and start over again.

I just hope I'm on the Galactica when God sends the Cylons to attack us.

The BCS Stinks, Congress Says So

I read this and thought, "Is this really happening?" I mean, the BCS might be bad, but come on, should it be illegal? And also, I was just wondering if there weren't more important things to be worrying about right now...like maybe that health care thing...or that war thing...or something...you know?

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Yeah, so the Bible says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I believe it because the Bible says it (Psalms 139:14). Be that as it may, I am very much looking forward to "Brad's Body 2.0". Let's start with the brain and go from there.

I have a few diplomas behind me on the wall that indicate that I ought to be very educated. I went to school for roughly 22 years. Play school, elementary school, middle school, high school, five years of college, 3 or 4 years of seminary, and then some extra classes on the side. That represents a lot of time, money, and study. And what do I have to show for it?

At one time I had almost 1,000 Hebrew vocuabulary words memorized. I could just nearly sight read Genesis in the original language, as well as John in the Greek. I could tell you the distant-open rule from memory, why the "noon" in "ntn" keeps popping off, spot a deponant verb from ten steps away, and my BDB was never more than an arm's reach away. Also, I used to be fairly conversational in Portuguese, could read French, get around in mod. Arabic and Hebrew, and do Algebra in my head.

N more friends, no more!! Where did all that stuff go? Last week, I chucked all my Hebrew vocab cards and started over. I have maybe 200 words left in the memory bank and I cannot remember why there is a yiqtol and a wayyiqtol. I can't remember if the Hiphil or the Hophal is causative. I can't recognize accusatives like I used to. And Arabic? Yeah. "Hoowah min Musr" is about all that's in there. As for Algebra, I had to stare at the word to make sure I spelled it right. *sigh*

So, my brain is a lousy thing really. I believe that if I had to option of remembering all that I have forgotten by paying with all I currently remember, it would probably be a nearly even trade.

If we move on from the brain to the body, it gets worse. I turned 35 the other day. In the grand scheme of things, that's fairly prime. I ran a half-marathon recently and competed in three triathalons. But I can assure you, I was much slower and it was far more painful than it was at 18. If I take a week off of training now...well, it is harder to get whipped back into shape. Suffice to say, this body is probably on the down-hill slide.

But these are mostly happy things if you aren't banking on stuff in this world. A forgetful brain and a body that will soon need propping up serve to remind me that this world stinks. Its dying. Death permeates it. This old tent I'm living in will be consumed one day and a new one will rise from its ashes. I will be given a perfect body. That one won't get tired, be forgetful, and best of all, beset with sin.

In the meantime, I'm still going to study. Study for God's glory honors God. And, I'm still going to swim, bike, run. I do that because I like it, and I do it because I believe it honors God. The body is a wonder; I do not deny that. I feel like a the body is sort of like your first car. Every red-blooded boy wants to see how the car he got performs. Just listen to a guy talk about his car. What kind of gas mileage does it get? Does it have a towing package? What kind of engine does it have? How fast..uhhh..will it get to the speed limit? I want to know that stuff about myself because this body is a gift from God. It's like He graciously tossed me the keys to this thing He made and said, "Why don't you take it for a spin?" Oh yeah, let's see what it will do. And then, as I have stuff my head with all that it can remember and as the body gasps after 13 miles I will think, "Yeah, and the Father has a new one waiting for me when I'm finished with this one."

Big Government Healthcare

I've been hanging out a bit over at Dan Phillip's Biblical Christianity, and the other day he posted this somewhat amusing I Guess I'm a Racist video. I thought it was somewhat amusing because, besides Jimmy Carter, nobody is saying that, right?

Well, I guess it isn't limited to Jimmy Carter. I saw this gem today by Senator Harry Reid. Basically, if you oppose big government healthcare you are a backwards Neanderthal on par with the goons who were pro-slavery. Yeah. I feel yucky now.

Comatose? Maybe not...

This report is frightening on many different levels. May the Lord have mercy on those trapped in this condition and the people who minister to them.

Big Winner

In case you didn't know, or have been living in Costa Rica for the past year or so, I had a run of fortuitous divine providence last year. As I was watching the Tour de France this year (Vive Le Tour!), I entered the Cadillac Ride of your life sweepstakes. I won first prize. Oh yeah. I won this sweet Cervelo S2 Bicycle you see pictured here. And yes, that's me in spandex. That's the Cervelo team jersey, and that's an autographed picture of Thor Hushvod I'm looking at. He's going to be my lead out man this year in the Tour de Albertville.

No, he's not, actually. He'll be busy riding a tour that pays more and against competition that can keep up with him for the most part. He could beat me on a unicycle.

War Stories part 1

There is a reason why many veterans do not talk about the war. This commonality used to baffle me as a child. I wanted to hear the war stories. I wanted to hear about the glories of battles fought and won. It seemed like high adventure to me then, but no more.

Recently the History Channel remastered some World War II footage. They put these videos into HD. It was a great labor to find these videos; they scoured the earth for them for two years in preparation for the making of this documentary. Most of the footage seems to have been taken by the soldiers themselves. I find it interesting that we are allowed to look at what they found interesting. Each commercial break is followed by a disclaimer warning that we are about to see graphic images that might be disturbing.

Though they are "digitally re-mastered," the videos are still a bit grainy, but they are often graphic none-the-less. Sometimes, the soldiers simply filmed the off-loading of tanks or the unopposed landing of tanks off of ships. But sometimes, they filmed the aftermath of battle.

The first shocking graphic is the picture of the dead soldier. Flies buzz around the bloated corpses of GI's and Japanese soldiers. Their bodies are entangled in heaps. Their eyes stare upward blankly. Their mouths hang open. The bodies are ghastly and sometimes nearly unrecognizable as they lie strewn about the fields. The viewer is exempted from the smell of rot, and the feeling of what it must have been like to have caused that mess of death.

The second shocking graphic is only for those that pay attention to the faces of the living. In the footage of the fighting for Guadalcanal, we get a look at the bright faces of the arriving re-enforcements. They look young, brave, and happy, ready and willing to take the fight to the enemy. As the little hand-held camera passes from the new arrivals to the veterans, the difference in demeanor is obvious. Instead of looking young and spry they seem distant and tired. They are a grim lot. Men accustomed to the fatigues of malnourishment and grief. They look at the new arrivals with what appears to be a sense of bitterness and sorrow. Bitter that they have lost something of what the new arrivals have, and sorry for the fact that those new boys will soon lose it as well.

Some of the documentary follows the inglorious job of the battlefield surgeons and nurses as they try to save the living and comfort the dying. One nurse recounts a particular young man looking up and saying, "How am I doing?" She bent down, kissed his forehead and said, "You're doing fine." He smiled and said, "Just checking." Then he died. She went out and wept privately. She said they always cried privately. "Never in front of the boys," she said, "Never in front of the boys."

The reason that many men say so little about battle and war is because it is sickening. Over the thrill of victory hovers the specter of loss and horror; the day of triumph is darkened by the memory of the long march through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Eventful Weekend

I got to run my very first half-marathon this Saturday. I am proud to say that it is Tuesday, and my knees have finally started bending again. Yeehoo!

The World Will Never Be Your Friend

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you...A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John 15:18,20).

In the previous post, we looked at what Jesus expects Christian friendship to look like. It is self-sacrificing, deliberate, and it perseveres. This passage is going to talk about the opposite of friendship: hateful opposition. This is, inevitably, the sort of treatment that every friend of Jesus will receive from the world.

First, if you are a Christian, you need to settle a very important fact in your heart: you will never be better than Jesus. That may seem very obvious, and most Christians would immediately protest that they would never even entertain such a notion. Yet, the truth of the matter is, we think that we are more clever than Jesus all the time. Here's how we do it.

Most of us like to get along with others. We want everyone to be our friend. We exert a great deal of energy being politically correct, choosing our words carefully so as not to offend, and generally avoiding conflict as if it were the mother of all sins. We are artists as pacifying and befriending others, often in harmful ways.

As Christians, we know that it is our duty to proclaim the gospel. We also know that, if we speak the gospel, it is going to bring conflict. If we present the gospel to an unbeliever, some nasty things are bound to come up in that conversation:

1. We actually believe that if the other person does not repent and believe in Jesus that they will die and go to hell.

2. We actually believe that they deserve hell.

3. We do not think that they are good people. We believe them to be wicked.

That's just to name a few of the potential deal-breakers if we are honest about what we believe. Jesus said things like this all the time. The Bible clearly teaches that man is sinful and that apart from the risen Savior, there is no hope at all. The Bible is clear about the reality of hell and it is equally clear that those who reject Jesus Christ deserve to go there. We know that. We believe that.

However, we believe that we may present these truths in such a way that the world will still like us. And if we believe that, if we try to fool ourselves with that notion, then we are really saying that we are better than Jesus.

Let me be crystal clear, Jesus Christ was the friendliest, wittiest, sincerest, cleverest man to ever walk the face of the other. He also happens to be the greatest preacher in the history of the world. He was also a divinely gifted healer. Jesus caused the blind to see, the lame to walk, and he cleansed people riddled with deadly disease. You and I cannot do anything better than Jesus. And what did the world do to Jesus? They murdered him because they hated his guts.

So please, let's dispel the silly notion once and for all that we may somehow coddle wicked worldlings into liking us to the point that they won't be mad when we tell them that they must repent and believe in Jesus. Here's what Jesus said:

1. The world hated me.
2. If you are my friend, the world will hate you too.
3. You are not better than me. If the world hated me, it will hate you.

If your church is presently scheming to plan services to make lost people feel comfortable in the service, they have to betray Jesus to do it. Period. You can make people feel welcome, and you should. You can fluff them a pillow, give them a nice footstool, let them sit in a Lazy-Boy during the service, and you can even make them nice lattes for the service. No matter how kind you are, if your pastor stands up like a man after God's own heart and preaches the gospel, worldlings will spew their lattes at you and leave unless the Spirit of God does a miracle in their hearts. It's sad but true. We don't want them to react that way. We grieve that they react that way. But they do, and they will. Every single time.

For clarity's sake let me say that just because the world is hateful, that does not give us cause to be hateful. We were all once worldlings. We were all once lost and spiteful to Christians and Jesus. Our proper response is grief, long-suffering, patience, cheek-turning, and above all, prayer. Prayer that God will open eyes, ears, and hearts to the gospel for the glory of Jesus Christ. That was the response of Jesus, and it is to be our response as well.

Put to death the notion that you will be more clever than Jesus by getting the world to be your friend. If you do, you are a compromiser.

James said it this way, "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4). James really knew how to coddle people, didn't he? Here's one from Paul, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim. 3:12). That little word there translated "all" is the Greek word pantes. It literally means, "all". Which is exactly how it translated in every translation I've ever seen. And "all" means you, beloved. It means you and I will be persecuted if we are the friend of Jesus because the world will hate us like it hated him. If the world doesn't hate you, it is because you are acting like it and they can't tell you are Jesus' friend. You people pleaser! You are fooling around with the enemy and betraying your best friend to make friends with wickedness. It's despicable behavior unbecoming a follower of Jesus and you should repent immediately.

I don't know what else to say about that. I confess that I'm given to wimpiness in the face of the world. So pray for me for boldness. I didn't say a thing here that didn't convict me; I write as the chief of sinners.

The Type of Friendship Jesus Expects

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

There is much wonder in this verse. There is wonder here because Jesus goes on to say, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." That is the sort of thing that ought to make the Christian stop and think. The long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God and Co-Creator of the Universe calls those who love him "friend." Jesus is, indeed, my friend. And he is your friend as well if you do as he commands.

Paul points out the sort of friendship that Jesus displayed towards us in another familiar verse, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that m while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:7-8). Isn't this the train of thought that we normally take as we think of John 15:13? That Jesus is the great friend of sinners? This is, obviously, a profound truth, a wonderful truth, a truth worth meditating on. I believe it to be so profound that, if we are not careful, it will divert us from the point that Jesus is making.

Jesus wants us to know about friendship, not only with himself, but our friendships with one another. A closer look at John 15:12-17 will reveal that it is precisely our friendships with one another as believers that Jesus is emphasizing.

We are so sin-sick that we do not know how to love properly, or serve properly, or even be the type of friend that we ought to be. So here, in John 15:12-17, Jesus is saying, "I want you to love each other. I want you to be friends. And this is how I'm going to show you what it means to be a true friend: I'm going to lay down my life for you. I'm going to die for you. Now, you do the same."

In this passage, Jesus is not simply telling us how much he loves us, though he is certainly saying that. Follow Jesus' words carefully. He says, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." See that? That is the command. Love one another as I loved you! And how did he love us? He died for his friends. So let's connect the dots: Jesus commands us to love one another as he loved us. Then, he illustrates how he loves us by saying he laid down his life for us. Finally, he says that if we want to be his friend, we must do as he commands. And what is the immediate command in this context? Love each other to the point of death.

This is Christian friendship. We are to love each other fiercely, even to the point of death for each other. It is no wonder, then, that Jesus could say, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Christian love is a death-defying love, sin-defying love.

By sin-defying I mean this: Christian friendship does not keep a record of wrongs. In other words, we love on as friends in the face of sin. We defy sin to separate us from the ones we love. I do not mean that sin can never be a fellowship breaker. What I mean is that a brother or sister who sins against us does not immediately become a castaway. I mean that it is sin-defying in the way Paul meant it when he said, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Eph. 4:32). It means that our friendship towards others is greatest when they deserve our friendship the least. A Christian friend turns the other cheek. A Christian friend overlooks slights. A Christian friend is never petty. A Christian friend does not abandon. A Christian friend forgives seventy times seven. A Christian friend is the first to apologize. A Christian friend is slow to anger and quick to reconcile.

Have petty troubles separated you from a Christian brother or sister? Are you always ready to reconcile? Do you believe the best of your friends intentions instead of assuming the worst? Christian friendship is not optional; it is commanded. Our first impulse when reading John 15:13 is correct if we meditate on the unfathomable, gracious friendship Christ Jesus has shown us. But our meditation fails if it does not lead us to action in loving others.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).