The Most Excellent Way

I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 2 John 1:5:

Sometimes we need to be reminded of the most important things; the foundations of our beliefs. That was the reason that John wrote the above passage, to remind us of a commandment that is the foundation of every other command that God has for us. Sometimes our thoughts and lives as Christians can become overly complicated and we can lose focus of what is really important.

The purpose of this book is not to introduce any new ideas about Christianity, because any “new” ideas are not from Jesus’ teachings, which are almost 2000 years old.

Instead, the purpose of this book is exactly what John wrote, to remind us that the most important commandment is that we love one another.

As Paul wrote:

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

1 Corinthians 1:12

²¹"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' ²³Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Matthew 7:22-23:

This is one of the most challenging, thought provoking, and scary passages of the bible for Christians.  Jesus’ response to these people is very unexpected, and it can make us wonder whether Jesus will have the same response to us: “I never knew you.”

The people to whom Jesus says this had done remarkable things – driving out demons, performing miracles and prophesising in Jesus name.  On these qualifications alone we would expect Jesus to welcome them into the kingdom of heaven.

But we are shocked by Jesus’ reaction when he says to these people that he never knew them.  Even more shocking is that he then calls them “evildoers”. Surely driving out demons, prophesising and performing miracles in Jesus’ name cannot be considered doing evil? Is it possible that Jesus has made a mistake?

But we know that Jesus is perfect, the exact representation of God on earth, and that he does not make mistakes. So instead, we should look at what Jesus is really saying, and how we can avoid Jesus saying to us “I never knew you”.

Jesus says two very important things in this passage that give us a hint as to how we can avoid the fate of these people.  Jesus says “only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” will enter the kingdom of heaven.  Just as importantly, Jesus says to these people “I never knew you”.

Accordingly, we are left with two questions.  Firstly, what is the will of our Father in heaven and how do we do it? And secondly, how do we know Jesus, and how can Jesus know us?  Fortunately, both questions have the same simple answer.

What is the will of our Father in heaven?

³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" ³⁷Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'^{[b] 38}This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'^{[c] 40}All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:34-40

Although we all have different paths in our lives, God’s will for all of us is clear in these words of Jesus.  There can be no dispute as to what the most important and greatest commandment that God has for us. Jesus did not allow there to be any confusion and stated it plainly.  In fact, it is recorded a number of times in the New Testament that Jesus stated that the most important commandment in to love God and to love our neighbour.  For example, very similar statements of Jesus are recorded in Mark 12:30. 

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ^{[f] 31} The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' ^[There is no commandment greater than these."

Not only is this commandment the most important commandment, but Jesus also says that all of the Law and the Prophets hang on these commandments. (The Law and the Prophets makes up the Old Testament of the Bible.  The Law is the first five books of the Old Testament, which were written by Moses.  The Prophets are the rest of the books in the Old Testament).  The importance of this should not be overlooked. 

A simple example of what Jesus means when he said that all of the Law and the Prophets hangs on the commands to love God and love others can be found in a simple analysis of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20.  We can see that the Commandments are founded on Loving God and Loving your Neighbour:

Consider the first four commandments:

"You shall have no other gods before ^[a] me.

⁴ "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵

    ⁷ "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

    ⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹

These commandments are founded on loving God and how to properly love God.

The next six commandments are based on loving others:

    ¹² "Honor your father and your mother.

    ¹³ "You shall not murder.

    ¹⁴ "You shall not commit adultery.

    ¹⁵ "You shall not steal.

    ¹⁶ "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.

    ¹⁷ "You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbour.

Paul confirms this point in his letter to Romans at 13:19:

The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not covet," [ Exodus 20:13-15,17; Deut. 5:17-19,21] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbour as yourself." [ Lev. 19:18]

Keeping the most important commandment in mind enables us to have a better understanding of the Old Testament. It should not come as a surprise that Jesus’ words brought new insight into the Law and the Prophets. After all, at Matthew 5:17 it is recorded that Jesus said:

¹⁷"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.

Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets, including helping us to understand the teachings more thoroughly

Not two commandments, but one

The commandments to love God and our neighbour are not separate commandments, but one. Jesus did not say that “the second is like it”, because they are both directions to “love”, but because these two commandments are inextricably linked and cannot be separated. 

John explains that we cannot love God without loving our neighbour, and we cannot love our neighbour without loving God.

¹⁹We love because He first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4)

John clearly states that we cannot love God unless we also love our neighbour, and if we claim to do so we are liars.  John also briefly mentions the difficulties that we can have as humans in demonstrating our love to God because we cannot see God.  We generally associate showing love with doing something or giving something tangible for another.  However, because we cannot see when God needs something from us it is more difficult to demonstrate our love to God. That is, we can’t feed God when he is hungry or look after him when he is sick. 

However, every day presents us with an opportunity to do acts of love for our neighbour because we can see them and their needs.  And Jesus says that doing acts to help our neighbours, even the least of our neighbours, is actually loving God:

³⁴"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

    ³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

    ⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' (Matthew)

Jesus is the King that he speaks of in this parable on the day of Judgment. Jesus says to those people those who say to God “when did we see you sick, or hungry, or thirsty.  When were you ever a stranger, a prisoner or in need of clothes.”  Jesus says that what we do to others, even the least, we actually do to him.

Not only do we have an added incentive of what we do to help other people we are actually doing to God, but the people that we help will benefit not only from the physical needs that we are providing them with, but they will also see God in us.  Of course, Christians are not the only people that cannot see God with our eyes.  All people cannot physically see God. Some have never heard of Jesus, or know little about him.  A lot of people are completely disinterested with God, and see Christians as weird or “bible bashers”.  Even if these people think that God exists, they often think that God doesn’t care about them or their problems.  However, if we love them because of God, and they see that we love them, often for no other reason than that we love God, they will see God in us.

Remember that some of the times when we feel closest to God can be when a friend of ours has helped us and loved us for no other reason than that they love God.  We feel close to God because we can see God in them.

So knowing what God’s will and most important commandment for us is, how can we then avoid Jesus saying to us “I never knew you.”

How do we know God and how does God know us?

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Luckily for us, whether or not we know God, and whether or not God knows us, can be very simply answered by whether or not we love.  The above verse shows that the way to know God, and for God to know us, is to love.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. ¹⁷In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

Remember the prophesiers and miracle doers to whom Jesus said “I never knew you.”  These people obviously knew of Jesus, as they used his name to perform miracles and even called him “Lord, Lord”.  But even though these people intellectually knew about Jesus and the power of his name, they did not know Jesus and Jesus did not know them.  Even more astonishingly, they were able to perform miracles in Jesus’ name, but yet still they did not know God. 

The reason for this may be found in 1 Corinthians:

   ¹If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

As Christians we all know that Jesus, the son of God, died in order for our sins to be forgiven.  Intellectually, anyone can know this, but that is not what saves us.  We have to believe in Him in order be given eternal life.  And in order to believe in Jesus, we must know him, and he must know us.  And the way to know God, and for God to know us is to love.

It is important to keep this in mind when considering what God wants us to do in our life. The question of whether God wants us to mission in another country, or a particular ministry, or whatever we may be questioning as Christians in our life.  It is important to keep in mind that if we do not love, all of our good work is meaningless.

So the first two questions have been answered. Firstly, what is God’s will and how do we do it.  Gods will for us is found in his greatest commandment, the commandment that all of his other commandments hang upon.  That is to love God and to love one another.

Secondly, how do we know God, how can we avoid Jesus saying “I never knew you” to us.  The way to know God is to love, because everyone that loves knows God, because God is love.

The next important question to answer is who is our neighbour, so that we can love them?

Who is our neighbour?

Luke 10    The Parable of the Good Samaritan

    ²⁵On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

    ²⁶"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

    ²⁷He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'^[c]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'^[d]"

    ²⁸"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

    ²⁹But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

    ³⁰In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins^[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

    ³⁶"Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

    ³⁷The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

      Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Not surprisingly, Jesus was asked “who is my neighbour?”  The above passage from Luke 10 is known as ‘the parable of the good Samaritan’.  But what it shows is who is our neighbour.

Just like us, the teacher of the law knew what God desires from us (that is to love God and to love our neighbour), and was probably wanting to know who his neighbour was to save himself from loving people unnecessarily.  (It would be terrible to love someone that you don’t have too!). 

If we take a narrow interpretation of the word “neighbour”, following Jesus’ commandment is easier to follow.  If our neighbour is just the people that we associate with such as our friends or family, who are similar to us and have similar interests to us, it is mainly easy to love others.  But Jesus said that loving your neighbour is a lot more than this and he knew that the expert in the law was trying to test him, so he told this parable. 

Two of the highest held members in society at the time featured in this story, but they were not the people that were the neighbour to the man who was robbed.  Priests and Levites (from the tribe of Levi – all priests were Levites) were considered to be the higher spiritual leaders in society. But in this parable they did not act neighbourly towards a man who needed their help.

The person that acted as a neighbour was a Samaritan.  Remember that Jesus was talking to a group of Jews, people that did not associate with Samaritans, and who had long standing hostilities towards the Samaritans.  This story would have shocked the Jewish audience, as Jesus, himself a Jew, was saying that it was a Samaritan that acted neighbourly towards the man and that the priest and the Levite did not.

Jesus is saying in this story that anyone can be our neighbour if they need our help.  In law, there is a principal known as the neighbourhood principal where in essence, anyone that you may reasonably foresee that your actions could effect, that they are your neighbour, and you have a duty of care unto them.  This is a good test for what Jesus was saying too.  Put simply, Jesus was saying that anyone that we might encounter walking down the street is our neighbour. 

Jesus expanded on this concept of loving your neighbour in Matthew

⁴³"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour^[h] and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴But I tell you: Love your enemies^[i] and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus says that God causes the sun and rain to shine on the righteous and unrighteous. God does give blessings to the unrighteous and the righteous so we should do the same.  In doing so, the unrighteous may come to know God, because they have received Grace from God and us in the form of blessings that they do not deserve.  Jesus also says that anyone can love those who are our brothers and sisters.  But as followers of Christ, we have a higher standard of Love, that is, to love our enemies. Just as Jesus loved us and died for our sins while we were still enemies of God, we are called to love our enemies.

In order to briefly summarise thus far, we know that in order to know God and to keep his commandments we must love our neighbour.  And we know that our neighbour is not just those people like us, but even our enemies.

We know who to love, the next question is what is love and how do we love and what is love?

 What is love?

    ⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

I have been to several weddings which have used this verse as a standard of the perfect love that a man and woman strive to live up to as they enter into a marriage. But it is not just for love between a man and a woman but for everyone at every time in our lives. 

The type of love that Paul talks about in his letter to the Corinthians is not the romantic kind of love between a man and a woman.  The Greek verb that Paul used in the original text is not phileo which expresses friendly affection, or eros, which is the physical passion (not mentioned in the bible), but agapao, the commitment of devotion that is directed by the will and can be commanded as a duty.

In fact when Paul was writing to the Church in Corinth, he was trying to protect the early Church from becoming divided with arguments.  Paul was writing that he will show the most excellent way to live – to love one another as a commitment of devotion which is directed by will.  This type of love is everlasting and is not dependent on how other people treat us or how physically attracted we are to other people of the opposite sex.

So with this in mind, we can look at the above passage from 1 Corinthians and see that we are to love in a way that is kind and patient.  We are told not to be envious, boastful, rude, self-seeking or easily angered.  We should delight in the truth, always protect, hope and persevere.

Put simply, Jesus said at Matthew 7:12:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

To love others is to do to others what you would have them do to you. It is not to do to them what they do to you.  This is an important distinction.  We may think that if someone treats us poorly, we are entitled to treat them in the same way.  This is not what we are commanded by God.  We are commanded to treat others as we want to be treated.

Not Judging Others

The two greatest things that Jesus did for us were to save us from Judgment and to forgive us from our sins so that we may have eternal life with God.  As Christians, we know that these concepts of not being Judged and being forgiven are inextricably linked.  Jesus’ death in our place means that he was judged for all of our sins and we do not have to be judged because our sins are forgiven. 

In reading the Bible, we are given a strong instruction that because Jesus did these things for us, we must do the same for others, that is to forgive others and to avoid judging others.  It seems crucial to God that we must emulate what Jesus did for us, if we truly want to love our neighbour.

Jesus says

  ¹"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ²For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

However, we make judgments about people every day.  Often judgments are made on what people look like, the clothes that they wear, their skin colour, and people that they associate with. 

However, consider that God will judge by the measure that we judge others. Can you imagine if God judged us on our appearance, the clothing that we wear or the style of our hair?  Can you imagine if God was as fickle in judging as we are with fashions?

But we know that God does not want to judge us in this way. 1 Samuel 6:7 says “Man looks at the outward appearances, but God looks at the heart.”  We know that fashions come and go continuously, but what is in our heart is eternal. God looks at the eternal, not the temporary.

So as ridiculous as it is to think that God would reject us because of our outward appearance, it is ridiculous for us to reject others because of the way they appear.

During Jesus’ life on earth, he was constantly judged by the Pharisees for associating with “sinners” and the lesser members of society. In the Gospel of Luke 7, Jesus is anointed by a “sinful” woman, while having dinner at one of the Pharisee’s house. 

³⁶Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. ³⁷When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, ³⁸and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

    ³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

    ⁴⁰Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."

      "Tell me, teacher," he said.

    ⁴¹"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,^[d] and the other fifty. ⁴²Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

    ⁴³Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
      "You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

    ⁴⁴Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

    ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

    ⁴⁹The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

    ⁵⁰Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

In this story, Jesus gives us several important lessons.  Firstly, Jesus tells us that it is often the people that are “sinners” that need us to love them the most.  They owe a lot, and have a lot to be forgiven for, just like the man that owed five hundred denarii to the money lender.  Once they find out that they can be forgiven for their debts by Christ and by us, they will love more, because they have been forgiven much.

Secondly, if we automatically judge people as sinners and think that it is not right to associate with them, just as the Pharisee did, they will not be able to know that they will be forgiven. Just as Jesus said that it is not the healthy that need to see a doctor but the sick.  Even in Churches, sometimes we see other Christians associating with “sinners” and we say to ourselves that it is not right for a Christian to be seen with such people. 

But, as long as these Christians are not being influenced into sin, they are doing exactly what Jesus did. Christians that only associate with other Christians are not living the way that Jesus did. Jesus did not just associate with his disciples (who were initially sinners), but he was constantly reaching out to sinners, and even more that that, often those who owed the most. 

Take for example, the story of the woman caught in adultery as described in the Gospel of John (8):

    ¹… Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. ³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

    ⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

    ¹¹"No one, sir," she said.  "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Jesus literally saved this woman’s life, just like he can save ours.  Although today our laws do not impose such harsh punishments for sin, we know that the wages for sin is death and that we will not have eternal life unless we believe in Jesus.

Although the Gospel does not say what Jesus wrote, it is thought that Jesus wrote names of sins in the dirt and as the people that were gathered around ready to stone the woman saw the sins that they had committed being written by Jesus, and they realised that they too had sinned like the woman, they could not stone her.  Like us, we can look at what Jesus wrote and see sins in our lives, and therefore we should not condemn others.

Jesus also spoke about this as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.  Jesus continues:

    ³"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Jesus knows that all have sinned against God more than anyone could have possibly wronged us.  And God has not judged us, therefore we should do the same to others who have wronged us.

Secondly, Jesus says that once we are able to remove the sin from our life, we are actually more able to help our brother or sister with sin in our life.  Note that Jesus doesn’t say that we are to point the finger at our brother or our sister, but to help remove the speck from our their eye.

Focusing on other peoples sins takes our own focus off our sins.  But Jesus says not to do so.

It is important to note that Jesus does not say not to help others struggling with sin. When we remove the planks from our own eye that represent the significant sins from our life can then we see clearly the speck sins in other peoples eyes.  And when we can see the speck in our brother’s eye, we are not meant to point our finger and tell the person that they have imperfections or that they are sinners. Jesus tells us to remove the speck of sawdust in our neighbours eye. To love them enough to help them with the sin in their life.  And when we help God to help others in conquering their sin, we are called to restore them gently, rather using heavy handed tactics such as making them feel guilty about their sins.