Believe and Love

1 John 3: 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Sometimes things in life are simple! Let me say that again: sometimes things in life are simple! It can be very difficult to hear these words at a time like this, with all the craziness running rampant. But this is not the first time things have been crazy in our world. This is part of the pattern that human beings seem to repeat again and again.

The world seems to breed crisis. Crisis serves a function in God’s economy. He uses the crisis to tear away everything that we have trusted apart from Him. All the trappings of this life get ripped right out of our fingers. We struggle to hold on, but the force it too great, and away they go.

We have been a minority culture for decades. The world is filled with governments that greatly restrict what their people can and can’t do. We have been relatively free to make choices. But I think those days are coming to a rapid close. Life is about to get much more complicated for us a Believers in Jesus.

That is why it is important to get back to the simple basics. We need to understand what is really important and what can be jettisoned even before they come to pry it from our fingers. Some of what we cling to just needs to go; it is getting in the way of our faith even as we speak.

Recently we completed a flight into Germany. Several days before the flight I tried to confirm my reservation only to be told that my flight had been cancelled, and I had not been informed of the cancelation! So here I am, only a few days before we are supposed to fly to begin serving as missionaries, and we don’t have a confirmed flight!

You can imagine the mental gymnastics that went on in my head. I called the travel agent, and with no sense of urgency on their end, I was informed that the flight had indeed been cancelled by the airlines. So I asked, “OK, What am I supposed to do?” To which they replied, trust us. Trust you! You are the people that didn’t inform me that my flight had been cancelled. You don’t have the greatest track record of trustworthiness.

Well, after a few phone calls and that dreaded waiting, we did get tickets and we were able to fulfill our months long mission.

So why bring this up? Sometimes things in life are simple! We need to remind ourselves that life isn’t always this complicated. We won’t always have to remember to take a mask with us when we exit our homes. We will be able to sit down at a restaurant and eat a meal. We will be able to meet in a large crowd without protesting something!

John, the writer of our text today, tells us that our faith is simple. It is two-pronged: believe in Jesus and love one another. Simple. Believe what the Scriptures declare about who Jesus is and what He has done, and then love each other as a response to God loving us. These two things form the core of the Christian faith in action.

Today is a day for simple things. Find the simple things and enjoy them. Trust in Jesus and love each other. Simple commands that can be simple to fulfill.