March 20, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor… follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children, and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 4.25a, 5.1-2)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

There have been a number of commercials on television lately centering on the idea that “Jesus gets us.” And it is true. God gets the dire situations we find ourselves in because we live in a world broken by sin. He got it so much that He sent His Son into the world. What was God’s hope? That we would get Him. Sympathy and empathy without transformation is merely commiseration. I love it that Jesus got the struggles of every person He came in contact with. He showed no bias in His ministry. He associated with sinners: tax collectors, prostitutes, drug abusers, cheats, philanderers, murderers and hypocrites. He even associated with those who were called sinners because of poverty, ethnicity, disease and gender. He even associated with those who were called sinners because of their abuse of power, their lack of integrity, their “holier than thou” attitude and their detachment from real life based on false interpretations of God’s word. He got them all. He understood how sin perverted the Word of God twisting it into something humans could manipulate to serve their personal agendas instead of complying with the only agenda that will ever truly and eternally matter: I will be your God and you shall be My people. There wasn’t anything Jesus didn’t understand about us or about God. He lived in both “worlds” as Son of God and Son of Man. But He understood the proper priority of living in this manner. He “got” the secret to successful living: love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then love your neighbor.

We do remember the answer to the inquiring legal expert of the Law who asked of Jesus “Who then is my neighbor?” Of course, we have to frame that question with the leading question: “Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?” Already we are put into the limelight of living according to God’s priority. Jesus did many things which seem miraculous to us and mostly impossible. Of course, all those things were possible to Jesus and are possible to us when we move through life with the proper priority. Our lives are filled with opportunity to be kind, good, gentle, loving, patient, merciful, joyful and under control. We know those characteristics as “fruit of the Spirit.” The truth of the matter is that if we are of “the Spirit” then our lives are facing a different direction. We would not be facing away from God and hoping to turn all eyes to us and our good works. We would be facing God and turning others view toward Him as well. Having the fruit of the Spirit is evidenced in our “getting Jesus.” If we “get Jesus” then we “get God.” They are the same as Father and Son. So, the neighbor is not limited to who lives next door, across the street, around the block, in the next neighborhood or another state, country or continent. The neighbor is anyone and everyone outside of ourselves.

Our ability to “get something” is based on our objectivity. Most of our life is spent seeing the world and meeting it with subjectivity. Don’t misunderstand subjectivity. It is often described as thoughts and actions based on feelings and emotions. What? You don’t think that feelings and emotions can be objective expressions? Subjectivity is the viewpoint one takes saying “this is how I feel about it.” Being objective takes the “me” out of the equation and in its place consider the situation with the facts of the matter which matter most. The fact that matters most to us and drives the course of our lives toward authentic success is “God’s love for righteousness.” God so “gets” righteousness that He wants us to “get” it, too. So, while it is wonderful that “Jesus gets us,” it means little if we do not “get Jesus.” In the end, it really isn’t all about us unless we “get” it is all about Him and us in right relationship for the right reason. We see that in the life of Jesus which Paul urges the Ephesian community of faith in Christ “to get.” That “walk in the way of love” was elaborated upon by Paul with “…as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” As Jesus got us, so we are to get Him. Once we “get Him” why would we settle for anything less?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.