{"id":2061,"date":"2018-07-15T12:45:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T12:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=2061"},"modified":"2018-07-15T12:45:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T12:45:50","slug":"walking-in-the-way-of-wise-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=2061","title":{"rendered":"Walking in the Way of Wise Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twice this past year, I followed on Facebook as friends walked what is called the \u201cCamino the Santiago,\u201d or \u201cWay of St. James,\u201d \u00a0in Spain.\u00a0 One of them went to high school at the same time I did. The other is a Presbyterian pastor in Huntsville, Alabama. Ever since I saw the movie, The Way<\/em>, I\u2019ve loved the Camino and wanted to walk it. [1]<\/a> For centuries, Christian pilgrims have walked, among other routes, from southern France, across the Pyrenees into Spain, and on to the city of Compostela, in which the Apostle St. James is reputed to be buried.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Along one of the routes there is an old Roman road that winds down the side of a mountain to a ravine where it crosses an old Roman bridge. Then, the road winds up the other side of the mountain. Over centuries, thousands of people, including hundreds of thousands of Christian pilgrims, have walked that narrow path on their way to the grave of St. James. Centuries of pilgrim have worn the path deep into dirt and stone.<\/p>\n

Our lives are a kind of pilgrimage from birth to death, and the paths we choose to take in life profoundly impact who we become by the end of the journey.<\/p>\n

The Path of Wise Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

The apostle Paul was a learned rabbi and member of the Jewish ruling council before his conversion. He studied under the Rabbi Gamaliel, and was familiar with the Old Testament\u2014as familiar as any human being could possibly be. He was familiar with the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. He was intimately aware of the way in which the notion of human life as a journey in which we human beings must choose the path we will take\u2014the path of wisdom or the path of foolishness, the path of righteousness or the path of wickedness, the path of life or the path of death, the path of light or the path of darkness (see, Proverbs 1:20-22; 27,32;2:7; 12-13; 4:18-19; 9:13-18). [2]<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

This is important because in today\u2019s text Paul uses this same imagery to talk about the Christian life. Our text is from Ephesians 5 beginning with verse 1. Hear the word of God as it comes to us from the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians<\/u>:<\/p>\n

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.<\/strong>\u00a0And\u00a0walk in love,\u00a0as Christ loved us and\u00a0gave himself up for us, a\u00a0fragrant\u00a0offering and sacrifice to God. But\u00a0sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness\u00a0must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.\u00a0Let there be\u00a0no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking,\u00a0which are out of place, but instead\u00a0let there be thanksgiving.\u00a0For you may be sure of this, that\u00a0everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.\u00a0Let no one\u00a0deceive you with empty words, for because of these things\u00a0the wrath of God comes upon\u00a0the sons of disobedience. Therefore\u00a0do not become partners with them;\u00a0 for\u00a0at one time you were\u00a0darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.\u00a0Walk as children of light\u00a0 (for\u00a0the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and\u00a0try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the\u00a0unfruitful\u00a0works of darkness, but instead\u00a0expose them. \u00a0For\u00a0it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.\u00a0 But when\u00a0anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,\u00a0 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAwake, O sleeper,<\/strong>
\nand\u00a0arise from the dead,
\nand\u00a0Christ will shine on you.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,\u00a0making the best use of the time, because\u00a0the days are evil.<\/strong> Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what\u00a0the will of the Lord is.\u00a0And\u00a0do not get drunk with wine, for that is\u00a0debauchery, but\u00a0be filled with the Spirit,\u00a0addressing one another in\u00a0psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father\u00a0in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ<\/strong> (Ephesians 5:1-21).<\/p>\n

Let us Pray<\/strong>: God of Light in Whom there is no darkness, come now and enlighten us and show us your ways. Allow us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly. In Jesus Name, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is All About Wisdom and Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

This sermon could be summed up in a single quote from today\u2019s text: Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.<\/strong>\u00a0And\u00a0walk in love,\u00a0as Christ loved us and\u00a0gave himself up for us, a\u00a0fragrant\u00a0offering and sacrifice to God <\/strong>(Eph. 5:1-2). In the end, the Christian life is about following Jesus and developing a way of life patterned on the life of Jesus. If we can be more or less pattern our lives after Jesus, if we can walk through life the way Jesus walked through life, then we are equipped disciples.<\/p>\n

Christian life can be overwhelming. We go to church we after week, we hear sermon after sermon, we go to Bible study after Bible study, we read passages after passage, we have quiet time after quiet time\u2014we learn all this information. We learn about all the wonderful things Jesus did and all the wonderful things Paul did and all the wonderful things the great heroes of the faith in the Old Testament did, and we think to ourselves, \u201cIts hopeless!\u201d<\/p>\n

In First John<\/u>, there are two descriptions of God: First, \u201cGod is light and in him there is no darkness<\/strong>\u201d (John 1:6). Second, \u201cAnyone who does not love does not know God for God is love<\/strong>\u201d (I John 4:8). In the end, the fundamental principles of Christian life are simple: Live wisely and unselfishly love one another along the way. The problems of human life are complex. The consequences of bad decisions can be enormous. The solution, it turns out, is not all that difficult to understand. It is just incredibly hard to do! We just have love as Jesus loved and be wise. Jesus was loving, but he was also wise. He was wise in what he said, in what he did, and in who he trusted. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Love and Purity: Two Sides of the Same Coin<\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent years, it\u2019s been interesting to watch Christian pastors dance around the subject of moral purity. It\u2019s easy to preach about Grace. It\u2019s more difficult to preach about our Response to what God has done in our lives. It is the founding principle of Christian life that God loves us unconditionally and saves us by faith and not as a result of anything we do (Ephesians 2:8-9). This is not the same as saying God doesn\u2019t care what we do. Jesus, when he was on earth, constantly critiqued the silly rules of the Pharisees. But, he never indicated for a second that the moral law did not matter. In fact, he said things like, \u201cDo not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them<\/strong>\u201d (Matthew 5:17).[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

When we say Christians should live wisely and love one another and other people, we are not saying that His love is something different from His wisdom or that morality is separated from Faith, or anything of the sort. Just as God is both wisdom and love at the same time, so also the Christian life is a wise life of moral purity and grace. Love and purity, faith and morality, are two sides of the same coin. If we are filled with the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Jesus, then in our day-to-day lives, we will live as God wants us to live, which is as Jesus lived. God is love and God is light, and there is no ultimate discontinuity between the two.<\/p>\n

In researching the sermon this week, I found the following quote from George McDonald, who had a great impact on C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein:<\/p>\n

Love loves into purity. Love has always in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete \u2026 it spends itself to make more lovely that it may love the more; it strives for perfection. [5]<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no greater gift we can give our society than to simply live out our Christian faith as best we can in our ordinary, day-to-day lives and try to resist the pressures of our society to follow our natural desires for position, power, pleasure and plenty to their ultimate end.<\/p>\n

Walking the Walk<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This gets us back to the central metaphor of today\u2019s text. Paul urges us to walk as Children of God<\/u>, to walk in the Love of God<\/u>, to walk in the Light of God<\/u>, and to pay close attention to our walk<\/em>. As I mentioned at the beginning, in the Old Testament life is often analogized to a journey, and we have to choose the path we will take.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite poems is by the American poet Robert Frost:<\/p>\n

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
\nAnd sorry I could not travel both
\nAnd be one traveler, long I stood
\nAnd looked down one as far as I could
\nTo where it bent in the undergrowth;<\/p>\n

Then took the other, as just as fair,
\nAnd having perhaps the better claim,
\nBecause it was grassy and wanted wear;
\nThough as for that the passing there
\nHad worn them really about the same,<\/p>\n

And both that morning equally lay
\nIn leaves no step had trodden black.
\nOh, I kept the first for another day!
\nYet knowing how way leads on to way,
\nI doubted if I should ever come back.<\/p>\n

I shall be telling this with a sigh
\nSomewhere ages and ages hence:
\nTwo roads diverged in a wood, and I\u2014
\nI took the one less traveled by,
\nAnd that has made all the difference. [6]<\/a><\/p>\n

It makes al the difference what path we take in life. The earliest name for the Christian movement was \u201cthe people of the Way<\/strong>\u201d (Acts 9:2; 11:26). In the Old Testament, those who followed the way of the Law, the Prophets, and the Wisdom writers, followed the way of Moses.<\/p>\n

In the new Testament, those who followed Jesus and lived according to his teachings were followers of the Way of Christ. This new way was not a way of obedience to rules, though there is a moral law and there are are rules; it is a way of life patterned after the One who lived and died for our sins and to restore and renew his followers in the image of God. [7]<\/a><\/p>\n

The One Great Sign<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus encouraged his followers to love one another as the sign that their preaching and Way of Life were true and right when he told them to \u201clove one another<\/strong>,\u201d and in the same passage told them that the way the world would know that his teachings were true and right would be because of the love his disciples have for one another (John 14:33-35).<\/p>\n

In the first two centuries of the Christian movement, many segments of Roman society, including many of the aristocracy and ruling class, were hostile to Christianity. Nevertheless, Roman society took notice of the fact that Christians loved each other with a sacrificial love unknown them. The Christian apologist Tertullian reported that the Romans would proclaim, \u201cThose Christians, how they love one another.\u201d [8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Our society will also take notice if we love each other as Christ first loved us, and reach out into our world to share that same wise love with others as we experience it in our own lives.<\/p>\n

This gets us to the conclusion of our text today, where Paul tells us that truth and morality blend into songs of beauty and health. He urges is to sing \u00a0songs and hymns and spiritual songs making melody with our hearts–for the heart is the seat of our goodness and of our search for truth (Ephesians 5:19-20). It is out of a heart transformed by love that such songs emerge.<\/p>\n

Today, we are going to close with an old praise chorus, \u201cThey will Know We are Christians by our Love\u201d because it states the basic truth of Christian faith and the best way we can reach out as we are sent into the world. [9] <\/a><\/p>\n

The first line and chorus goes like this:<\/p>\n

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.<\/em>
\nWe are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.<\/em>
\nAnd we pray that all unity, may one day be restored.<\/em><\/p>\n

And they’ll know we are Christians,<\/em>
\nBy our love, by our love.<\/em>
\nYes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love<\/em><\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2018, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> The Way<\/u>, dir. writ. prod. Emilio Estavez, starring Martin Sheen (2010). In the summer of 2015, I waked a one week version of the Camino, during which I saw the old Roman road mentioned.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> This section is based on G. Christopher Scruggs, Path of Life: The Way of Wisdom for Christ Followers<\/u> (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> In Matthew<\/u> and Luke<\/u> Jesus says, \u00a0\u201cone greater than Solomon\u201d is among them (Matthew 12: 42; Luke 11:31). In John, we are told that Jesus did not trust himself to certain people because he \u201cknew what was in them\u201d (John 2:25). Jesus was no fool. In fact, he embodied a wisdom greater than human wisdom (I Cor. 1:18-25).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>In John<\/u>, Jesus says: \u201cAnd this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil<\/strong>\u201d (John 3:19; see also John 14.) In John 13:23-24, Jesus says,\u00a0\u201cIf anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and\u00a0we will come to him and\u00a0make our home with him.<\/strong> \u00a0Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And\u00a0the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> George McDonald, https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/535735-love-loves-unto-purity-love-has-ever-in-view-the<\/a> (Downloaded July 14, 2018).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Robert Frost, \u201cThe Road not Taken\u201d from Collected Poems of Robert Frost <\/u>(Dover Publications, 1997). Every person should own a copy of his poetry.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> This is the One of whom John said, \u201cIn the beginning was\u00a0the Word, and\u00a0the Word was with God, and\u00a0the Word was God.<\/strong>\u00a0He was in the beginning with God.\u00a0All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.\u00a0In him was life and\u00a0the life was the light of men.\u00a0The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it<\/strong>\u201d John 1:1-5).<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> See, History of the Christian Church<\/u>, \u201cLove without Condition\u201d (http:\/\/earlychurch.com\/unconditional-love.php downloaded July 12, 2018); Tertullian, Against Heresies<\/u> Chapter 39 (n.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Tertullian, downloaded July 12, 2018).<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Peter Stoltes, They Will Know We Are Christians By our Love\u201d (1966, Lorenze Corp). Stoltes wrote the hymn “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” while a parish priest at St. Brendan’s on the South Side of Chicago. At the time, he led a youth choir and was looking for an appropriate song for a series of ecumenical, interracial events. When he couldn’t find such a song, he wrote the now-famous hymn in a single day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twice this past year, I followed on Facebook as friends walked what is called the \u201cCamino the Santiago,\u201d or \u201cWay of St. James,\u201d \u00a0in Spain.\u00a0 One of them went to high school at the same time I did. The other is a Presbyterian pastor in Huntsville, Alabama. Ever since I saw the movie, The Way, … Continue reading Walking in the Way of Wise Love<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CzBH-xf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2061"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2069,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions\/2069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}