The Greatest Commandment of Our Lord(주님의 지상 명령)

Matthew 28:19-20(마28:19-20),John 15:4-16(요15:4-16)

 

 

 

 

 

1. Today's scripture is the greatest commandment of Jesus Christ who has been the head of churches. It was given to the group that followed him just before he ascended to heaven after his resurrection.

The gist of the commandment is "to make disciples of all nations." The true power of church comes not from the number of church members but from the number of disciples. Therefore, we should try hard to make disciples. It is the core task of a church. Today's scripture introduces two essential elements of being disciple of Jesus. One is the truth of gospel which is related to the commandment of "baptizing." Another is the new commandment of "love" which is related to the phrase of "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

2. I would like to confirm the fact through the words of Jesus that "truth and love" are the essential elements of being disciple of Jesus.

There is an old saying, "I would not mind dying in the evening if I realize the truth in the morning." Human is truth seeking existence. There are two ways of reaching the truth. One is to realize by oneself through self-study or self-meditation. Another is to be revealed by God in heaven. Christians believe that people can know truth through God's revelation. Jesus Christ, who was transformed from the word into flesh, was full of God's truth(John 1:14). Jesus who is truth itself(John 14:6) said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free(John 8:31-32)." The first step to be a disciple begins from faith. "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ(Rome 10:17)."

Truth here does not mean abstract knowledge. It refers to concrete character of Jesus Christ. God came to this world with the form of human being and exemplified God's love in full by dying on the cross. Therefore, the truth exemplified by Jesus is the "truth of cross." It is complete truth of cross which revives the life, makes one free, and makes one's life abundant through the words. When we remain in the truth of cross, we become the disciples of Jesus and such life will make us free. The truth of Jesus Christ makes us free and allows us to experience two kinds of freedom. The first is the "freedom from something" and the second is the "freedom for something." The former means the freedom from internal and external bandage which binding human being. Accepting the truth of cross as gospel, people acquire perfect freedom from the fear of sin and death, from the pain and desperation which come from daily troubles of life, and from the binding of Satan. The latter refers to the life of free men who respond to the calling of God. This kind of freedom is one of precious grace given to the disciples of Jesus. Martin Luther, who was a religious reformer, said in the preface of his book "The Freedom of Christian" as follows: "I became free from everything because of Christ. At the same time, I became the slave of everyone because of Christ." He said that he became free from everything such as money, prejudice, self-righteousness, desire for power all of which bounded him. Theologist Kanion said that he became free from at least five kinds of bindings such as sin, death, pain, desperation, and Satan when he remained in Christ. The life of disciples refers to the free life in Christ(1 Corinthians 3:7).

God clarified that the purpose of selecting us to remain in Jesus Christ, who is the truth itself, is to bear fruits. God says, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples(John 15:8)." The fruit in today's scripture refers to "the fruit of love." The greatest commandment from God for men to observe is "love." The new commandment given by Jesus is also "to love each other." He says, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." The new commandment "love" given by our Lord transcends the simple emotion which arises in human mind. The love is called "agape" which transcends "eros" between the opposite sex, "philia" between friends, and "storge" between parents and children. "Agape" refers to God's love which was displayed by Jesus' death on the cross. Such love of God(John 3:16, 1 John 4:9-10) is unconditional love. God initiated such love and it is the love of precious sacrifice through the suffering of cross.

3. There are some words that we should hear first in the greatest commandment of our Lord at this time.

First, We should hear the voice of God's love which seeks us human being. God seeks us not to judge but to save us. Many people avoid God because of the fear of judgement on their sins. But, as Berdyaev said, "God's yearning and love for people is greater that people's fear for God." Counting on the mind of God with the mind of parents waiting for lost son, we should obey God's greatest commandment to disseminate the gospel of salvation to lost people and to baptize them.

Second, we should obey God's greatest commandment with the imagination of God our Father who cannot conceal the pleasure of finding lost people. There are three parables in Luke chapter 15. The common thing of those three parables is that they are all about "lost things." The three parables of "lost sheep," "lost coin," and "lost son" introduce the message of "finding pleasure" in common. In the parable of lost sheep the bible says, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." In the parable of lost coin the bible says, "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Again in the parable of lost son the bible says, "we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

4. In today's scripture, we can find a commandment that we should obey for our being his disciple. It is the commandment to "remain in me." To remain is to live. It is not sufficient for a disciple of Jesus to hear his words and to be impressed through it. We should note the phrase, "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." The phrase requires us to set a channel of life to Jesus. There are three commandments that we should obey in today's commandment.

First, our Lord commands us to "remain in me(John 15:4)" if we believe in the ability of gospel. We need to remain in Christ in order to be his disciple. To remain in Christ, "faith" is absolute condition(2 Corinthians 13:5) to be linked to Jesus Christ who came as the Lord of our life(John 14:6). Our Lord promises; "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you(John 6:53)." "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me(John 6:56-57)."

Second, our Lord commands us to make "my words remain in you.(John 15:7)" The life that remains in Christ refers to the state that the words of Christ remain in us. The words of Christ ① is the word of life which create faith(Rome 10:17), ② has the power to strengthen our life continually(Hebrews 4:12), and ③ enable us to see God by purifying our mind(Ephesians 5:26, Matthew 5:8). In order to continue our life in the words of Christ, we should recognize the existence of God in all affairs(Proverbs 3:6), and place the words of Christ in our thoughts. Then we can stand firm in the truth.

Third, our Lord commands us to "remain in my love" to live the life of disciples (John 15:9). Holy Spirit will lead us to bear the fruit of love when we have interaction with Holy Spirit God within the words(Galatians 5:22). In the three parables mentioned above, "the lost" refers to the "lost of right position or relationship." The sheep should remain within the fence of owner, the coin should be remain in the purse of the owner, and the son should live in the house of his father. These are right positions and relationships.

Creating the world, God placed human being within three relationships among God, people and nature. Sin means the destruction of these relationships and corruption means the state of destroyed relationships. The salvation testified by gospel of Jesus Christ means the restoration of broken relationships. Therefore, christianity means the restoration of one's position from broken relationships. Faithful life means the recognition of God's sovereignty and responding properly within the relationships among God, human, and nature in all affairs of our daily lives.

Fourth, Korea Presbyterian Theology University had a worship service and international seminar in memoration of its 100th anniversary on last Wednesday. In his sermon at the worship, Dr. Moffet who was a speaker of the seminar emphasized that "the criteria of judging the success of missionary works is not the number but the truth and love of believers." Recalling the world history, we can find that people tried hard to disseminate gospel but to leave social matters unattended in some period. But in some period, people emphasized social services as the missionary work and tried hard to achieve a kingdom without a king. Missionary works were not satisfactory in either cases. Dr. Moffet emphasized the balance of truth and love for desirable missionary works.

Fifth, Apostle Paul compared church to the body of Christ and said, "speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ(Ephesians 4:15)." When we compare a church to a organism, truth and love equal to the two legs of organism. To make the two legs move in balance, the body should be moved by the direction of head. Thus, Apostle Paul says, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus(Philippians 2:5)." Jesus Christ, who is the head of church, was "full of grace and truth(John 1:14)." All the divine character like truth, love, and holiness were full in the body of Jesus(Colossians 2:9). Jesus tells us, "I am the vine; you are the branches." A community is necessary for fruit bearing disciples. Although Jesus provided his life on the cross to redeem the sin of whole human being, however, most of his public life was invested in forming a community centered around the twelve disciples. Finishing his duty of salvation, he ascended to heaven and left the commandment of "make disciples of all nation." To achieve the commandment, he extended his incarnation, along with the advent of Holy Spirit, by giving birth to the community of "church" as his body. Church is one body the head of which is Jesus Christ. When we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord of faith, remain in the words of Jesus Christ, and love with each other within the recognition of each others' values, we can form a community of disciples centered around Jesus Christ and can live the life of witness. Here, we can find the existential reason of church as a place for training.

Sixth, John Calvin who was the founder of Presbyterian Churches termed church as "the mother of all believers." He said that church is the place where God gather his children in his breast, nurture and govern the child-like believers like a mother, and lead them into faith. In broad sense, church is the path for human training, which is established by God, and through which God nurture and train his people. John Calvin understood education as the most substantial function of a church and thus he called a church as a school. As the life in Jesus Christ is pregnant and born through a church, a church is a delivery room of faith. Church is the cultural institution of faith in which many community members express and customize their faith, bloom the culture of God's country, and develop the culture of faith. Church is also the training camp which train believers as the disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus emphasizes being good tree in order to bear good fruits. Apple tree bear apple and human being bear human being. As the branch of the trees planted in God's garden of life, we should try hard to please God, and after that, we should bear the fruits of disciples. God expects us such fruits. For these, we are required to have the "practice of remaining in Christ" like Apostle Paul who obeyed Christ by torment himself everyday, the "life custom remaining in the words of Christ," and the "training of practical life remaining in the love of our Lord." When we have Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of faith and who makes us perfect, as our head and continue our life in him, our two leges of truth and love will move forward solidly according to the Jesus Christ's commandment of "make disciples of all nations."