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When God created the capacity of emotions, He had love in mind. Most of what I have to say is not what you call “chaptered and versed”. It is a truth throughout the Bible that is seen explicitly through the life of Christ. I just want to share my heart on the matter of what it is to allow the love of Christ to work in our lives specifically by allowing ourselves to be known.
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12
Jesus set an example by action before His disciples. These words were said directly after Christ had just shared His last supper with the Twelve and had washed their feet. He had walked with them for three years, teaching and leading them. Now after all of these examples that He had set, He then gives the command. “Now that I have shown you through action how it is I desire for you to live, I command that you go forth and continue to love each other in the same way that I loved you.” It is an extraordinary task that is of course impossible in our own means. We must surrender to His Spirit to love in such a way. This love has many facets and was expressed through the works of the life of Christ in many different ways. I desire to focus on one particular way that Jesus showed and shared His love. It seems to be a simple idea. For the most part, we already understand the implication of this basic foundation of love, yet we find ourselves lost in the understanding of its application to our life. It is the idea of loving and letting ourselves be loved by letting ourselves be known to each other.
“[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:7
If we are to live by the grace of Christ, then our attitudes toward each other as brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ should very closely resemble 1 Corinthians 13:7. Love always protects. It seems like as a family, it is natural instinct to be protective of each other and want to stand up for those that we care about. Love always trusts. Within this family there are always people wanting to lend an ear to each other and want to assure each other that they can be trusted. Love always hopes. The default consolation for someone who is going through a valley of darkness is almost always a repetition of “I’m sorry’s” and “I understand” and “It will all work out”. We never falter in having hope for each other. Love always perseveres. There is a sense of fulfillment in being there for your brothers and sisters. When their hearts are sunken, it is in our hearts to want to stick it out with them and push forward by their side, as we feel needed to be the strong one. While all of these are present within our family, and while they all sound like an image of love, it honestly couldn’t be further from the mark of the Love of Christ as it should live in His Body.
Our initiative most often begins with wanting to look out for someone else, but then we struggle with turning aside our pride and allowing ourselves to take shelter in another’s protection. We desire so deeply to be trusted but in turn we often can’t quite bring ourselves to trust enough to reveal our own selves. Hope is never a scarce resource when it is I offering it to another, but then a part of me cringes a little bit when I think of accepting hope that seems so superficial from someone else. And really we excel in perseverance, but certainly not perseverance in love. We continually persevere to be filled enough with sermons, worship music, and good books to allow our walk to continue without the crutches of having to lean on someone else’s strength.
Not until April 2010 had I ever known what it was like to have a group of friends who were all Christ-followers. I had been accustomed to being friends with people who were almost anything but Christians in any respect. The cultures of the two groups of friends are so drastically different that it feels surreal going between the two and seeing the hearts and minds and motivations of the people in either group. I grew up with skepticism against churches and the people who made church their regular Sunday destination. I’ll be honest and admit that I had not moved on past all my skepticism when I first started going to church again in August 2009. But all of my reservations were soon dissolved after hanging out with these new friends for a couple weeks. I saw that they had nearly all the same struggles as all my other friends. The major differences were that these new friends knew Christ, knew righteousness, and craved to be better because of it. But still, the part of love that requires us to be known is a difficult hurdle each of us battled, regardless of our position with God.
“But if we walk in the light, as [God] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…” 1 John 1:7
Culture today is made up of communication predominantly based on the smallest use of words possible in order to convey what brief thought you are currently contemplating or in what activity you may currently be involved. Through these constant modes of transmitting thumbnail-sized snapshots of ourselves expressed in 15 words or less, we have some false security of thinking, “people may know who I am now”. When I use the phrase “know who I am”, I don’t mean the acknowledgement of my existence. I mean this phrase in the sense of knowing my heart, my mind, and my spirit. I mean it in how a parent would know their child or how a brother would know his sister. It is a level of intimacy that can only be reached by truly knowing someone and being known by that someone.
Walking in the light is terrifying. It should be no surprise that the exposure light brings can in all instances be anything from humiliating to absolutely liberating, and most times will progress from one end of the spectrum to the other. Light brings transparency and transparency brings vulnerability. Vulnerability leaves us relying solely on the healing power held within love that can be described just as 1 Corinthians 13:7 does. Letting ourselves be known is forcing ourselves to need the love that protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. It’s the kind of love that can only be found in Christ Jesus as it is expressed through our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Body of Christ. Darkness no longer has a place in our lives and when we attempt to conceal the pains and struggles of this life, we rob ourselves of the love brought by the light of God. As David wrote in Psalm 4:6b, “Let the light of your face shine upon us, Oh LORD”. And as that light shines, I pray that we allow ourselves to be known.
“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Christ shared Himself entirely with His closest disciples. To the Twelve, He invested His life and wisdom in order that they may know Him and by knowing Him they might know the One who sent Him. This was a pinnacle of the teachings of Jesus. With only hours left with these intimate friends, Christ told them that if they knew Him they would know the Father. He was revealing a truth of love to them that they could only grasp until after His resurrection. Jesus made Himself so known to them through His life and His Spirit in a way that allowed the Twelve to know intimately His joys, His heartaches, His strength, His passions, and His Father. By allowing Himself to be transparent He allowed them to see Him and in doing so He showed them a love that was unknown to the world. It was a love built on the idea of letting your heart to be known rather than your status. It’s letting your spirit to be known to your intimate friends so that they may love you as Christ loves, not as this world loves.
Christ loves us as He sees our entirety. This world most often fabricates a sort of love that responds in certain situations that seem appropriate and preferably short-term and temporary. Jesus exhibited a love that was enduring, persevering, and everlasting. And it is most powerful because He knows us. My hope is that within myself and within my family of believers there may be a hunger to look deeper into what it is to be known. I’d pray that we could see the areas of our heart that we prefer to keep in the dark so as to not show our scars in the light. Then I’d pray that we could let the light shine on those wounds and reveal ourselves to each other so that the everlasting love of the Healer can act in our lives through the expression of the Body of Christ.
“This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love on another.” 1 John 3:11
To love is to be known. If I do not allow my brothers and sisters to see and know me entirely with all my wounds and hurts, then I am robbing them of a very real love that Christ desires to work in both them and me. When I attempt to conceal my pains instead of relinquishing them, I am refusing love and risking the hardening of my heart to deceit. So please, I implore you, let yourself be known. Christ lives in us, along with His healing love. The Great Physician desires to heal you. But the Body of Christ must know where the wounds lay open. So I ask you to love. I entreat you to be known.