Relationships are interesting.
Nothing beats a good relationship.
There are different elements to relationships, and I believe there are different stages of relationships, based on me brief time on the earth.
While I was working through some personal issues in the transition from Bletchley to Derby, I started thinking about stages of relationships. A few months ago I was asked to lead some discipleship studies, and it was a good time to begin noting down some of the connections between the stages and what it is to follow Jesus together.
A verse that continues to challenge me is found in Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples before His crucifixion.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34, 35
I read those words and think again about the activities and services and the such like that is done to ‘win’ souls, when the actual element Jesus identifies as the means by which we identify ourselves as His is missing.
Looking at the words I check the phrase – as I have loved you – this marks out exactly the type of love Jesus is looking for His disciples to replicate.
My contention is that the type of love with which Jesus loved His disciples is such a profound intimate serving love, and evident whether in washing the disciples’ feet or sharing the life in the Kingdom with them. This type of intimate love is not just about what we do – though it certainly involves that – it is a deliberate, intentional involvement in our lives with a basis of commitment to each other that is far more important than any disagreements and disappointments.
Although I have had a number of those disagreements and disappointments, I can testify to benefits in seeking to develop those relationships that go beyond presence, contact and engagement but go towards something at could be the intimate type that Jesus refers to in His instruction.
Here is the thing – I believe Jesus is commanding His disciples to do something they will be capable of doing by the power of His Spirit. That is to say – it’s not impossible. It certainly isn’t easy because Jesus’ love is very different to the expressions we might have experienced.
I recently asked a group of people to talk about love. One person said it was about a selfish and need based issue. They referred to their experiences of love and thought it was a rather selfish enterprise and you only tended to love for what you got out of it.
Hearing that made it all the more important for me to express – in deeds more than words – that the love life Jesus calls us to is about the giving of self rather than seeking our own benefit. Discipleship relationshuips are the ones that live out this commitment to each others’ welfare in a way that reflects that love with which Jesus loved us. People see that in action, and people can identify that as a different – and purer – love than they have experienced before.
People living that in action is the heart of what discipleship is about. Learning to live the life of Christ, is living out the love life that was in effect from before creation, and gloriously made known to the disciples in His time on earth.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 