There is a Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy is looking out of a window at the rain and expresses her fear that the rain may not stop and the entire earth would be flooded.
Linus tells her that it cannot happen because God promised that he would never destroy the earth by water again. Lucy replies that knowing that is a great comfort to her. Linus replies, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.” It is important to understand the purpose and meaning of sound theology.
When Jesus said the world would recognize us by our love, he didn’t just leave it there. Jesus defined the love that would be recognizable as the same love that he had for us. His love was the kind that bore a cross for a world that hated him. That is sound theology.
When we substitute our own definitions for words, we often get the Biblical definition wrong. Most of us wouldn’t say we hated Jesus, but he puts the definition of our love for him in those stark terms. As one old preacher said, “Jesus isn’t just first on the list, He is the entire list!” The Greek language has many words for love. In English, we are not so different, but we tend to use words in many different ways.
Love can be for family, for friends or we might even say we love some particular aspect of our lives. The kind of love of which Jesus spoke and commanded his disciples is more than simply a good feeling or even a deep affection. It is AGAPE, a Greek term that generally means the kind of love that sacrifices, although that definition isn’t deep enough to do it justice, either. Do we love Jesus? According to Jesus love for him must be obedient. He told the disciples that to love him was to keep his commandments.
The kind of love we are to have for one another, if we are to follow Christ, is the kind of love that will make sacrifices up to and including our lives for those around us. That’s a tall order, but the Apostle John trims it down to something we can understand in his first letter to the churches when he tells us that we have a moral obligation to lay down our lives for one another, but then asks the question that perhaps hits a little closer to home. If we are in possession of the world’s goods, he asks, and are unwilling to help another in need, how then does the love of God dwell in us? You see, while the sacrifice of one’s life was more common in the first century, it was still not so common that every Christian would be called to do so. It is certainly not so common today.
What is common, however, is to see our brother or sister in need. If we are practicing AGAPE, we are helping those in need in the manner in which they need (which may not correspond to the manner in which they want or the way in which we want to help.) The kind of love of which Jesus spoke is also concerned about doctrine. One cannot be obedient – a requirement if we love him – and be unconcerned about the doctrines of Christ.
It is a kind of love that drives us to be like Jesus, not just outwardly, but inwardly. We should be driven to seek his ways rather than our own. We should be driven not only to order our lives after the divine pattern, but also the teachings of his church should follow his instructions.
What about the apostolic instructions? After all, only four of the 27 books of the New Testament cover the life and teachings of Jesus, right? Should we only follow the “red letters” – the words of Jesus (which in older Bibles were often printed in red.) Keep something in mind. Jesus didn’t write the “red letters.” The apostles and prophets recorded what he said and expounded on it in the epistles. Furthermore, Jesus prayed in the garden on the night he was betrayed for the apostles and for those who would believe in him through their teaching.
Finally, Jesus told the 12 that it would be by their teaching that the world would come to know him. If we love Jesus, it should follow that we love one another and that we follow the instructions from the apostles and prophets as revealed in the Bible.