Purple Church is just about the church. The question of the week, however, “How do we allow the love of Jesus to bring peace to America?” is talking about the wider society. Not just the church. And yet, the inclusion of “the love of Jesus” in the question narrows the answer primarily to Christians. Furthermore, my blog is written to Christians. Do any of my readers have a national impact? Maybe. But my guess is that most of you do not have a national impact. And that is okay. It’s normal not to have a national impact. That doesn’t make you any less important.
So let me reframe the question a bit: How can we allow the love of Jesus to bring peace to the people who live in our local communities? You and I rub shoulders with a variety of people each day. Our neighbors, coworkers, family and friends. What will it take to allow the love of Jesus to bring peace in the communities, workplaces, school, homes, where you and I actually live?
It will take selfless, self-sacrifice, in which we give ourselves in gracious love just like Jesus gave his life. Read Philippians 2:1–11.
That’s it.
In my book I talk about how sin, from a togetherness perspective, is selfishness. Selfishness is a very American way of thinking, because we are culturally conditioned to believe in the power of one, in individualism, in personal responsibility. I can do it myself. Like Mr. Incredible says in the Pixar film, “I work alone.” I need to do this on my own. There is something less about me if I have to ask for help. There is something wrong with me if I can’t figure it out. Have you ever thought any of those statements? I have many times.
Those individualistic ways of thinking are not all bad. There is something to be said for personal responsibility, for learning new things, for trying new experiences, for stepping out of your comfort zone. I have written about that often on the blog. I do believe that we need to step out on our own, start a new business, travel to a new place, volunteer for a new ministry, sing a new song. Discipleship to Jesus is hampered if we never try new things.
Adventuring and experimentation requires that an individual strike out on their own, at least in part, take a risk, and go for it. And when we do so, we learn and grow as individuals. Even when we fail. Maybe we grow as individuals more quickly and more deeply when we fail, if we have the humble teachability to learn from our mistakes. Suffice it to say, individualistic goals and achievement are not all bad.
But we can elevate the individualistic approach too high, as if individualistic focus is the most important goal in life. And that individualistic way of thinking, therefore, can have a negative effect on the way we view the world, including on how we think about God. If our view of our relationship with God is primarily about you and God, or too much about you and God, then you can miss out on how God views the mission of his Kingdom.
As humans we are not capable of having a complete view of God. His ways are ultimately higher than our ways. But we can have a much more complete view of God by pulling Jesus out of the pockets where we hide him, and allow him to show us how he views the world around us. And in Philippians 2:1-11, Paul does just that. Of course, as do the Gospels. Philippians 2:1-11 happens to be a powerful summation of Jesus’ example that I think is precisely the answer we need to the question. More on that in the next post.
Engaging Scripture 