Purpose: Love in Action
When all is said and done, what do you want to be true of you?
Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.
– Mother Theresa
Some people want to make sure they’re remembered and at the same time, want to bring a smile to your face.
That was true for voice actor Mel Blanc who was the voice for beloved characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, as well as several other Looney Toon characters. On his tombstone he had these famous words inscribed: “That’s All Folks!”
Merv Griffin, who spent many years in television hosting game shows, talk shows, and more put this as his epitaph: “I Will Not be Right Back After this Message.”
And then there’s Frank Sinatra. We still enjoy his music to this day. At his grave you can find these words: “The Best is Yet to Come.”
Now I love that!
When All Is Said and Done
When all is said and done, what do we hope people will say about us?
How do we want to be remembered?
What do we want to be true of our lives?
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that a lot of us, myself included, spend too much time wanting for, working for, longing for, and striving for things that are temporary, trivial, and largely unimportant.
It’s easy to get caught up in things that don’t really matter. To spend our time, money, and energy on things that really won’t matter 10, 20, or even 100 years from now.
What we want, at least what we think we want, is to live our lives in such a way that we can know that our lives mattered. That we made a difference.
So what if we could live our lives in such a way that the way we spent our time, our money, and our energy made a difference in peoples lives and in this world? What if the impact of our lives did matter 10 years from now, 20 years from now, a 100 years from now?
You might think that in order to have that kind of impact you would need to be famous, have a huge platform, or at least have your own wikipedia page!
The good news is you don’t. If you’ve ever thrown a rock into a pond you understand how this works. It doesn’t matter what kind of rock, the color of the rock, or the size of the impact it made on the water, whenever a rock hits a body of water the ripple effects begin.
And if you’re willing you, too, can have an impact in the lives of others and in this world that will create ripple effects for generations to come. That happens when we center our lives on what matters most.
What Matters Most According to Jesus
What matters most?
I think Jesus crystalized what matters most in what has become known as the Great Commandments and the Great Commission.
In Matthew 22, Jesus is in Jerusalem in conversation with different groups of religious leaders. At this point in the story, they want Jesus gone. They’re conspiring to have him killed.
It’s complicated because they don’t have that kind of power. They can have Jesus arrested, but not killed. They’re operating under Roman rule.
Still, they know even to get him arrested they’re going to need to find a way to get the people on their side. Jesus is a popular teacher, healer and miracle worker.
So in order to trip him up they try to test him with questions. If they can get him to stumble in his theology they might be able to dissuade the crowds from following him.
Here’s what happens in Matthew 22.34-40:
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
The experts in religious law were always trying to trap others with God’s word instead of allowing God’s Word to transform them. By the way, this is still the practice of some religious people today.
Jesus always uses God’s word, and is God’s Word, as an instrument of peace, transformation, and healing.
Jesus knows they are trying to trap him. The Pharisees had broken down the law of Moses into 613 different commands. How could Jesus possibly pick only one, or prioritize only one, above all the others. Yet Jesus answers their question about what is MOST important.
The Great Commandments
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
What matters most?
If you want to live your life in such a way that you will know that your life mattered and that you made a difference… Jesus says do this… “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Everything else hinges on this.
This is what life looks like with Jesus at the center of your purpose.
And here’s what’s interesting, both of these appear in the Law of Moses. The Pharisees already knew these two commands. These weren’t new. Jesus had put them together.
By doing so he was making a point to them and to us. What matters most is loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength AND… And loving your neighbor as yourself.
And watch this… the second command which is equally as important as the first when put into action proves the first.
In other words, how do you know you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?
As Mother Theresa would say, “Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.”
When we love our neighbors as ourselves by serving those around us in love, we are proving our love for God!
Love is a verb!
Is love without action really love?
Is love void of service really love?
What matters most? According to Jesus it has something to do with loving God with everything we are and everything we have. This is what Jesus teaches us in the Great Commandment.
The Great Commission
But HOW do we that? That is what Jesus teaches us in the Great Commission.
If you have your Bible you can turn a few pages to Matthew 28. At this point, Jesus has faced the cross, the grave, and has experienced resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s about to ascend to Heaven but before he does, he gives these important instructions to his disciples.
Matthew 28.18-20
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
WHAT matters most?
Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength AND loving our neighbors as ourselves.
HOW do we do that?
By making disciples. By teaching the truth in love. By baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Has it ever occurred to you that the most loving thing you can do for someone is help them in their journey to know Jesus?
And how can we best reach those around us who, for whatever reason, are far from God?
How did Jesus do it?
Look at his life.
Look at Jesus
Yes, he taught the word of God and the way of God to anyone and everyone who would listen, to those who had ears to hear.
But his words and teaching were never divorced from his WAY of serving those around him in love.
Feeding the hungry, healing the sick, holding the children, helping the outcast.
What is our purpose? LOVE.
But not just the idea of love. Not just the feeling of loving others or being loved by others. Of feeling loved by God or feeling love for God.
Yes, it’s coming to know this love. But what’s more, it’s putting this love into action through serving those around us in love.
Love One Another
When all is said and done, what do you hope will be true of you?
When Mother Theresa passed away on September 5, 1997, she was buried at The Mother House Of The Missionaries Of Charity, Kolkata, India. On her tombstone you can find these words…
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
If those words sound familiar it’s because they are the words of Jesus found in John 15.12.
It would be impossible to know how many people have come to know Jesus because of someone like Mother Theresa. But it’s not impossible to know why.
It wasn’t because she was a compelling speaker or author, although people always listened when she spoke and still read the words she wrote.
It wasn’t because she lived a lavish life or had a massive social media presence or following. As far as I know she lived a life of poverty by choice and had no social media accounts.
She was rich not because of what she had but because of what she was able to share. She was more concerned with who she was following than who was following her. And if you ask anyone about her life what you’ll hear is a story about a woman who gave the entirety of her life to serving the least of these with great love.
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
Engage in What Matters Most
Jesus didn’t just speak those words, he lived those words. From serving the lame, the sick, the blind, the deaf, the outcast and the diseased. To feeding the hungry, helping the hurting, and washing the feet of his own disciples. To sitting at table after table with sinners and self proclaimed saints.
Jesus lived a life of serving those around him in love.
And as he did, as Jesus served those around him in love people came to know the great love of God. As he served those around him in love, more and more people became disciples.
More and more people drew near to God. More and more people understood that his message was true and his intentions were pure.
People who just want to be popular and famous don’t serve those around them in love. People who want people to know Jesus are eager to serve those around them in love.
This is why we must engage in what matters most by serving those around us in love.
Because when we do, as we do, we have the opportunity to make Jesus known. To make disciples. People will want to know why do do what we do, why we live different. And we’ll have the chance to say it’s all because of Jesus.
Serve Those Around You in Love
Find a way to serve those around you in love. The ripple effects of your love will last for generations.
Here’s the Good News, God wants this too. God wants us to succeed in this. He wants us to engage in what matters most by serving those around us in love.
When we pray for this, work for this, give to this, God is WITH us. We join God in what he’s already doing and what he wants for us. We participate in making things on earth as they are in heaven.
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