What if ...?

Did Jesus live just so that he could die?

I'm beginning to believe that as evangelical followers of Jesus, we have focused so much on the death and resurrection of Jesus that we have forsaken all (or at least most) of his teaching and life examples.

I'm reminded of the saying of being "too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good."
It's a little disturbing that we have such a focus on salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus that we will do anything, say anything to convince others of it -- except actually demonstrate God's love.

Ultimately the one thing that Jesus asks of us is to become his disciple -- to study his life and his ways, and to follow him. Part of following him is calling others to also become disciples.
Jesus never asked us to condemn others, to judge others, to threaten them with eternal hellfire, to scare them into heaven, nor to abandon them. He simply says to love others -- all others!

It is so unnatural to not have rivals. Nature has set us up as competitors. As individuals we compete for survival. We naturally compete for food, for mates, for territory, and we protect what we have. In community we compete for the same things (except the mate). We use and abuse power to keep what we have and to get more for our side. If someone from "their side" suffers, it's not on us to care for them or to meet their needs. Our responsibility is to our own.
If earthy success and status is our end game, then I guess that makes sense.

But how do you feed your spirit? How do you protect your heart? Do you look to acquire more spiritual territory or is the spiritual realm so different that we have to --
Learn to feed other spirits by giving away spiritual fruit?
Make spiritual acquisitions by sharing our spiritual gains and territories with others?
It is difficult to love like Jesus when we are still focusing on getting ahead in this realm. Paul writes that we should take on the mind of Christ; that we should love like Christ Jesus and be concerned about the needs of others -- both the earthly needs and the spiritual needs.

The ancient Jews had 613 commandments to follow. Jesus was asked which is the most important. He gave them two. He said the most important one is to love God. He said the the second most important is to love others. Then he told them that all of the other commands were based in these two.
I would have a difficult time remembering 613 commands, much less obeying them. Two I can handle!

What if we change how we look at the life of Jesus?
What if we begin to see that he lived to teach us to love?
What if we study his life so that we can know the true nature of God?

I think this is the simple gospel --
He lived so that we can love.
He died so that we can live.

John <><