MONTH THREE | SESSION FOUR
WATER: LOVE IS THE CONTEXT FOR ALL MISSION
In our last session, we looked at mission being the reason why we exist, both as individuals and a community. Every follower of Jesus is called to seek the lost and build up the movement known as the church.
However, what informs that mission is absolutely critical. If we have the right mission, but with the wrong context, the mission also becomes wrong or ineffective. For example, I know that disciplining my children is part of my mission as a father, and it is critical to their future success as people. When that discipline is informed by the context of my frustration with their actions, anger or exhaustion after a long day, that mission can go south really fast. Right mission, wrong context.
The church has a mission, and the context for that mission is love. Historically, that mission has sometimes been fueled by a lot of other contexts: fear, greed, power, comfort, etc. There have been a lot of painful consequences for those other contexts. But when the movement of Jesus is fueled by love, it is the most transformative force on the planet.
Love has become such an overused word in our culture. We say that we love ice cream, we love our significant other, we love our career, we love the color yellow. Defining words is critical in this conversation.
The love that is the essence of God is called agape in Greek. This is an unconditional and unending love that radiates from God to us. There are no strings attached, there are no limits, and it is undeserved. When we are connected to Him, that love fills us and becomes available to give outward to those around us. Why is this important?
Because our mission always involves intimate and communal relationships with other people, the likelihood that we will be hurt, betrayed, overlooked or in conflict is pretty high. In fact, I would say it is a guarantee. Think about it -- when we connect to Jesus, he knits us together as a community called the church. Then as a community, He calls us to go engage every community of people around us with faith, love and hope. That’s basically a setup for both beauty and breakdown.
Our own love has limits and a breaking point. If we rely on our own ability to muster up love for the mission, we will quickly find ourselves unable to fulfill the mission. As humans, our natural tendency is to want to protect ourselves from pain and suffering that could come our way. However, when we are filled with the agape love of Christ, we are then released to love without limits, knowing that our Savior will save us over and over again. With this agape love, the mission becomes unstoppable.
At the end of the day, love looks a lot like sacrifice. It is laying down our own agenda, preferences and desires for the sake of another. This is why the cross was the ultimate expression of love. There is no greater act of love than God Himself laying down His own life for humanity.
Love will be our guiding force as individuals and as a community. This is why we use this natural metaphor of water. Just as the human body cannot live without water, our souls cannot live without love. Have you ever been out too long on a hot day? Nothing satisfies like a cool glass of water -- like love. Water brings new life and sustains growth with every living thing. Without water, we die.
When we connect to Jesus and follow Him, as believers we are called into a sacred act called baptism. You will read more about this in your extra reading. However, it is this symbol of dying with Christ and coming back to life as a new creation. Baptism involves this “water grave” that represents what takes place at a heart level. This is a public declaration to the world that you have made a focused commitment to follow Jesus, but also that you are also being baptized into this community known as the church.
READ 1 JOHN 4:7-12
READ MATTHEW 5:43-48
READ JOHN 15:13
What does it look like to love fully, according to these scriptures?
How have you seen the power of God's love affect your own life?
Where does your own love fall short? Who are some types of people in your life that are difficult to love? Write down their names and what you find difficult to love.
Now write down how God sees them. What is His loving view of those people?
How did that change your capacity to love those individuals?
READ “GET DRENCHED” IN THE APPENDIX
PRAY
Allow Him to reveal any area in your own life where you rely on your own love, or where your love falls short. Ask that God would fill you with His unconditional love. Commit to Him that your life mission would be fueled by love.
DISCUSSION STARTERS
Have you experienced the mission of God being fueled by something other than love? What was the result of that?
What are some character traits in others that you find difficult to love? How can you partner with God in pressing past those limitations?
What would the church look like if everyone decided to love sacrificially?