Welcome to the Daily Disciple podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Together on Mission podcast, where we are friends that are friends of Jesus. I love the newness of the week. I like the early morning, the newness of the day.
I even like the beginning of the year, kind of the newness of the year. I like when it's new and when it's fresh. So, anyway, if you're new to the podcast party, we're thrilled that you're here. You're gonna need a Bible and a journal and a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, because it's early in the morning.
And find a spot, a place, you know, that you can count on. Some of you might like to walk, you know, as you're connecting with Jesus in the morning, but try to find a place and a spot, even a time where. All right, this is where my conversation with Jesus starts. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna turn to the Gospel of John in just a minute, turn to a gospel passage.
I'm gonna make a few comments about it, and we're gonna enter into a time of prayer and meditation. We're gonna pray as we can, not as we can't. No pressure. We just start a conversation with Jesus.
And then at the end of this morning time, we're not gonna say amen, because we're gonna continue the conversation with Jesus throughout the day, because that's what friends are in the reference of Jesus, too. And then when we're falling off to sleep tonight, right before we go off to sleep, we say amen because we spent the day with Jesus. And so that's what I've been doing. And we're going to continue to do it this week.
So John, chapter 13, you can turn there. And the title of the podcast is Simplify. And the question I just want to ask this morning to get us into the space that I think this passage draws us into is simply this. Do you think that the Christian life is complicated?
Have you ever thought, yeah, the Christian life is a little bit complicated? I mean, can I do this? Can I do that? How much of that can I do?
And when can I do it? Am I allowed, you know, to do this? Is it okay to do that? And then, you know, there's all of those questions I just mentioned apply to the moral front, and then there's the kind of the relational front, and then there's the liturgical front, like when we're meeting and entering into Corporate worship.
Can I do this? Can I do that? And to make it more common, it seems like it differs depending upon families and different pastors and different nominations and traditions. You know, like, is alcohol okay or is it really not okay?
Is Halloween okay or is it not okay? Can I talk or check the score of the game during worship or not? Like, is that not spiritual or is everything spiritual? And so I can ask my friend a question during worship, or I can check the scores of the game during worship.
Do I need to pray before every meal? So on and on it goes. Can I express when I'm sad and bum and hurt? Can I question God or do I have to keep up appearances?
You know, and again, I could keep going. And you could probably add to all of those musings. But does the Christian life seem sometimes to you to be a little bit complicated? Now imagine if you were a first century Jew and you had the Old Testament.
I haven't counted recently, but I've heard that there are 318 commands in the law of the Old Testament law. And then there were all these commentaries on all of the commands. And sometimes it seems that the Christian life can deteriorate into a bunch of do's and don'ts. Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch.
And sometimes we can still kind of feel that even though they've been walking with Jesus for a long time. And sometimes we're not even sure you know what to do and what to don't. Because sometimes the Christian life seems complicated, confusing. And maybe, you know, maybe you are guiding someone through the Christian journey, maybe children or a group or a community.
And sometimes you just don't know what to say or how to die because it seems complicated. Well, here's the good news that great teachers tend to make things simple. Not simplistic, but simple. And that's exactly what Jesus of Nazareth did.
And so in John 13, Jesus is with his disciples and they're eating together. And Jesus says this in verse 34, a new command. Notice command is singular. A new command I give you just love one another as I have loved you.
So you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciple. If you love one another. And then a couple of moments or maybe 30 or so minutes later in verse, or, sorry, chapter 15, Jesus says in verse 12, my command singular is this, Love each other as I have loved you.
And then down in verse 17, this is my command singular, love each other. So the disciples were thinking, what one command? We used the 380 and all kinds of commentaries and Midrash and all of the commands making who knows how many. So they're thinking, what one command?
Just one? Well, what about all the 318? And I think Jesus would say, well, the relevant parts of all of those 318 commands are summed up in this one command. Love one another as I have loved you.
And so think about just one. I mean, Jesus, the brilliant, brilliant teacher, Messiah, simplifies everything. That's it. You know, how can I love?
That's the question. What does love require of me? That's the question. Of course, there's a whole world in that, right?
The adventure of love and learning how to love and growing in love. And this adventure is relational with a relational God, it's relational with people. But Jesus says, you know, that's what it is. And Jesus also says, that's all it is.
It's no more than love, and it's no less than love. And so it's time to simplify it. I mean, that's what Jesus is calling us to do. He's calling us to simplify.
And maybe things have become complicated for you, and maybe traditions have been handed down to you. And maybe as we began to keep this one command, we can actually unlearn much of what we have learned and begin to walk in this new way, this new covenant with this one command, this command to love. So here's the question, and it's simple. Not simplistic, but simple.
What does it look like to love myself, my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my spouse, my kids? What does it look like to love my enemy, that person that I may not want to love? What does it look like to love? And sometimes, honestly, I'm thinking about my life.
You can think about your life. Sometimes love will involve me getting exactly what I want right now, and isn't that nice? And sometimes love delayed gratification so that I can actually get what I actually want a little bit later. But the simplicity of this allows our minds and our hearts to rest a bit, to enjoy the journey, to enjoy ourselves, to give ourselves grace, to enjoy other people.
So let's just reflect on this for a moment. Jesus says, I gave you this one command. Love one another as I have loved you. And it seems like sometimes Christians are the most heavily on people around the place.
And I think that's sad and it's a bad witness. I think it might be because we tend to make Christianity so complicated. Jesus comes along, he's like, now there's a new covenant, a new command, just love One another, just love. It's simple.
And, you know, Jesus says, love one another's I love you. So that gives us a little bit of insight. Like, if we want to know what love is, we can look at Jesus. This is a whole other podcast.
And honestly, this is what we've been doing. We've just been looking at Jesus. But he says, if you want to know what love is, just look at me. I'm showing you what love is.
I'm showing you the simplicity of the life of the kingdom of God. And then he says, this is how people will know that you're a follower of Jesus if you love. So anyway, simplicity is what this podcast is all about. It's what this passage is all about.
And I think it's time for us to clear away the clutter, you know, maybe unlearn some of what we've learned. Let's leave the religion of do's and don'ts behind and enter the simplicity and the relational reality of love. So the question is, what does it look like to love? And honestly, that might bring clarity to a situation or a problem or a decision or relationship.
Right now that you're in the midst of one of my mentors, who I don't know because I only own through books, he says, here's the question. Ask this. What does love require of me? What does love require?
Let that question be the guiding light to everything as we allow Jesus to just simplify Christianity so that it becomes the, you know, attractive, the restful, powerful journey that Jesus of Nazareth invites us to join him on. So here's the question. What does it look like to love? We'll talk tomorrow.
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