Work with what you have

 This week's verses are 1 John 4:20-21:

 If anyone says “I love God” and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too. 

John is talking here about the topic of godly love. It's something that comes up a lot in church. We all freely say that we love God. But John gives us a test to measure whether that is true.

 Do we love our fellow Christians? Most of us don't, really. We gossip and form factions. We keep things fake and shallow where we can. We come up with excuses not to give. We avoid eye contact when they're looking for help and volunteers. Our needs always come first. We can rarely even justify spending a few minutes in prayer for each other.

But Jesus asked us to love each other and care for his sheep. When you think of the Christians around you, does your behavior and attitude towards them look like that of a caretaker with a vested interest in their well-being? But acting like a shepherd is what we're called to do. It was Jesus' express wish for us as his church.

It's easy to say you love God. Only you and God know if that is true, so there's nobody around you to hold you accountable. It's a throwaway statement we make to justify ourselves. But John turns that back on us and says there actually is a way to know if that is true: If we don't do the main thing God asked us to do, the thing he himself demonstrated for us, how can we say we love him? That's common sense: Do you routinely ignore people you truly love and do whatever you want, even stuff that hurts them and the people they love? Of course not!

So, our fellow imperfect Christians are a kind of visible test to show how capable we are of love. They are difficult practice with instant feedback. If we can't get it right with someone who is right next to us, how can we expect to make it work with God whose voice is quiet and sometimes distant? If you want to be a master chef, you start by learning to cook an omelette.

It's easy to say you love someone if you don't ever interact with them. It's like a teenage crush. You have no idea who that stranger is, but you love the idea of  them. Or maybe you just love the idea of loving. But when you actually get to know the person, it's a lot more difficult. This is why some marriages fail, because they love the idea of getting married, but don't consider the costs of supporting and caring for another flawed human being. When confronted with the reality of our fellow Christians' depravity, that's when we are really tested to see if we can love another being truly.

But Jesus loved us and even endured torture and died for us. That is the model that he presents to us as love.  It is not a shallow throwaway statement. It isn't some two dimensional fantasy. He placed everything at his disposal to support and care for us completely undeserving Christians, knowing most of us would never even so much as say thank you, let alone follow him to the cross. He put up with not just a handful of Christians but all of us.

So, that's the test for being a real Christian: Are you able at least to work with what you have right in front of you? Can you love the person you cross paths with? Are you willing to sacrifice what is good and even necessary to see the less fortunate do well? Are you available even when you don't have to be? Is your response to their flaws compassion instead of self-righteous withdrawal?

 Lay John's template in front of you this week and see how you do on his test of godly love. I hope you score well!