Back to the Basics

Surprise the World #4 — Learn

April 7, 2019
Commonwealth Bridge Worship

Habit #4

We have been going over a sermon series called Surprise the World, which focuses on fostering five different habits. We are what we repeatedly do. And we understand how important small habits are in our lives. Our small habits lead us to where we want to end up. If the result we want is healthier teeth, we create a habit of flossing daily. If the result is a healthier body, we take our vitamins, eat clean, and exercise regularly. Just doing it once or doing it whenever we feel like doesn’t get us to where we want to go ultimately.

I was a student-athlete for a brief time. In my freshman year, in my very first official collegiate game, I tore my ACL and meniscus in my left knee after playing 36 seconds. After the surgery, I noticed how my left leg was significantly thinner than my right knee. My goal was to get back to the court the next season so I could say that I’d played more than a minute of college basketball, even if it was at a Division III level. In hindsight, it was such a foolish goal, since I was just an ordinary walk-on. But it gave me enough motivation to change my life pattern. For a full year, I worked towards my goal daily. It all started from a simple movement of raising my leg from the floor. Then it became learning how to stand, walk, run, jump, and so on. I’ve never been so disciplined in my life. This one-year journey of full recovery made me realize anything is possible if you just put in small work one day after another.

For many of us, we desire a certain change in our personal lives. And we also desire a certain change in our communal and spiritual lives — especially in the context of a church. We are drawn to this church community called Commonwealth, because we desire something new, something different, something healthier, and something wholesome. And I firmly believe if we build small habits together, if we devote ourselves to do them repeatedly, then it’s just going to be a matter of time before seeing the fruit of our habits here in Fairfax.

Because of this, I challenge you to continue fostering these habits. whether in your family, small group, or friends, remind each other of these habits and keep each other accountable. The first habit is to bless three people a week. The second is to eat with three people a week. The third is to engage in silent prayer/meditation at least once a week — so that we may listen to the Holy Spirit. And today, the fourth habit is:

I will spend at least one period of the week learning Christ.

1 John 2:1–11

Today’s passage is a part of a sermon written to a church by John the Elder. And what he is writing here is how the knowledge of Christ goes hand-in-hand with the obedience to his commandments.

Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist.

What a strong accusation!

By “obeying his commandments,” John is alluding to the love commandment shared in the Gospel of John, where Jesus said (13:34–35):

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

So, in this sermon, John is saying, ‘If you say you know Christ, but do not love one another, then you are a liar.’ If you do not love one another, if you do not love your neighbors as yourself, then can you really call yourself a Christian?

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s book The Brothers Karamazov, a character named Ivan Karamazov says this.[1]

I could never understand how one can love one’s neighbors. It’s just one’s neighbors, to my mind, that one can’t love, though one might love those at a distance…

The question is, whether that’s due to men’s bad qualities or whether it’s inherent in their nature. To my thinking, Christ-like love for men is a miracle impossible on earth. He was God. But we are not gods. Suppose I, for instance, suffer intensely. Another can never know how much I suffer, because he is another and not I. And what’s more, a man is rarely ready to admit another’s suffering (as though it were a distinction). Why won’t he admit it, do you think?

One can love one’s neighbors in the abstract, or even at a distance, but at close quarters it’s almost impossible.

To Ivan, to offer that Christ-like love requires for us to feel another’s pain, because to feel another’s pain means to suffer with another — which is the definition of compassion. In Latin, compati means “to suffer with.”

This is why Ivan says that loving our neighbor is almost impossible because we cannot know another’s suffering, and some don’t even want to acknowledge another’s suffering. Compassion means someone else’s heartbreak becomes our heartbreak. Another’s suffering becomes our suffering. It is this compassion that opens our heart to the love spoken in the greatest commandant.[2]

Jesus, who was often moved by compassion, modeled this very love. And the cross exemplifies this very love in the most perfect way. Because Jesus loved us so much, he died on the cross for our sins, a God taking on the most real pain of a human being, in the form of most gruesome death for a human being. Making our heartbreak his own heartbreak. Making our suffering his own suffering. Why would the Son of God have to die on the cross? Because of compassion.

Why Are We Here?

Perhaps, what we desire here as a church is compassion. Perhaps, the motivation that brought us together here is compassion. We’ve wondered why compassion isn’t available to people who do not look like us or act like us. We’ve wondered why compassion isn’t offered to people who do not dress like us or eat like us. We’ve wondered why we didn’t give out that same compassion to those who are different. We’ve wondered why we didn’t receive that same compassion as others did.

Is compassion something available only for the exclusive members of a club? Is compassion something available only for those who have a ticket to the table?

Let’s go back to John’s sermon again, looking at today’s passage in three different sections:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

This is what Christians believe. And this is where Christians find comfort. Yes, Jesus knows our suffering and sin. Yet, Jesus cares about us and desires to redeem us. Yes, Jesus suffered and died for our sins, so that we may have the gift of new life, abundant life, eternal life, and salvation. This is why knowing Christ is so important for Christians. This is why so many people flock to church on the day of Easter. This is why people go around and ask, “Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?” Because what is offered and shared is God’s free gift, not just for us, not just for the chosen few, but for the whole world.

Let’s look at the second section.

Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.

To love God means also to love another — for all people are created in the image of God. And to be loved by God means also to be loved by another — for all people are created in the image of God. This means we can share our stories with one another. This means we can share our wounds with one another. This means we can share our suffering with one another. This means to acknowledge the suffering of one another. This means to feel the pain of one another. This means to be vulnerable with one another.

Yet, as a people and as a society, this is often the last thing we want to do and the last place we want to go. This goes back to Ivan Karamazov’s remark: loving one’s neighbors is almost impossible.

Here’s the last section:

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says, “I am the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a person or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

The membership of early Christian communities was “remarkably diverse, prone to factions, yet heavily dependent on one another for the fulfillment of basic needs.”[3] And this is the situation the church whom John is writing this sermon to. The church was going through a crisis amongst one another.

To this church, John encouraged them to go back to the basics. This is what I believe John was saying to the church: we are not trying to do something new, but rather we are going back to the basic of the basics — to love God and to love neighbors — and let’s do this again in a fresh way — by loving God and loving one another again.

John the Elder’s call for this particular church seems remarkably fitting to our context. We acknowledge the failures of the church and its disobedience to God’s calling to love our neighbors. We recognize and grieve the pain the church has caused different people in its history and to this day. And so, we have gathered here to reimagine something new in a different way — which is, in fact, going back to the basics, to love God and to love neighbors, in the most primitive way. We desire a healthier church — not only for our soul but also for our community.

Back to the Basics

This abstract vision based on Jesus’ abstract commandment sounds almost impossible — thus we need accountability, leadership, directions, and support. That’s where relationships come in. That’s where small groups come in. That’s where leaders come in. Just how people take workout memberships for a healthier body, take group classes to develop new skills, and attend accountability meetings to break off bad habits — we do this together step by step. When these elements work together by taking a small step together each day (1 John 1:7) when our compassion becomes a habit, that’s when this almost impossible commandant becomes possible; that’s when our faith gets to move mountains.

And by going back to the basics, last week I encouraged you to go back to God in prayers, and this week I encourage you to go back to Scripture. At least take a moment once a week and read the Bible, or read about Christ through various literature, or even watch videos about Christ and listen to podcasts about Christ. Going back to the basics means going back to the Word (John 1:1–5). To know what God’s desire is and is not requires our embeddedness in Scripture. Without such embeddedness, we are doing an impossible task of loving another simply with our natural sympathies or human inclinations, and we know that these are not sustainable enough to love on others, especially those whom we have a hard time loving on.

I’m going to start gathering a library of resources — including books, videos, and podcasts — to support you on fostering this fourth habit of spending at least one period of the week learning Christ. And also, I’m going to start offering an online group on Wednesdays at 8 PM where we do interactive Bible study together through video chat.

I pray that my assessment of your motivation for being here with us is accurate, that you are here desiring something healthier and something compassionate. If that’s who you are, I’m glad you are here. Let’s go back to the basics together. Let us pray.

[1] Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

[2] Susan Frederick-Gray, “To Love One’s Neighbor.”

[3] C. Clifton Black, “The First, Second, and Third Letters of John,” NIB Vol. X, 819–20.