Currency of the Kingdom

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” - John 13:34-35 (NLT) 

This November will mark 20 years that I have been walking with Jesus. I came to Christ at a church on the East side of Tucson called Pantano Christian Church on November 30th, 1997. Through the years, I have been led by Christ to focus on a lot of different things depending on the season I was in. At times, I found myself focusing on serving. At other times, I would explore different disciplines of prayer. There were times of Scripture memorization and times of deep exegetical study. After 20 years of walking with Christ, I believe that the most important thing to God, the very currency of the Kingdom of heaven is, Love. 

We see first of all, that when Jesus merged into creation, it wasn’t to overthrow the oppressive Roman government (as the Jewish people so hoped and believed He would). Instead, we find the most famous passage of Scripture that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” - John 3:16-17 (ESV)

Jesus stepped forward to a people that “once were alienated and hostile in mind [towards God], doing evil deeds” (Colossians 1:21)” and “show[ed] his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Jesus shows us that love is the most valuable currency of His Kingdom. It’s not Biblical knowledge, serving, prayer, faithful church attendance or tithing; it is Love. 

We are called to be a highly relational people who love despite differences, greet each other with joy and desire to live harmoniously with one another, forgiving whatever grievances we have with one another. God didn’t sacrifice His Son so we could merely tolerate one another, but to desire to make deep relational and spiritual connections with one another, to draw in the outsider, to be a movement of love-in-action that looks very different than the polarized world we see on the news. God doesn’t look for reasons to exclude us from His Kingdom like we do with those different than us. 

This weekend, we are starting a relationship series. What holds you back from loving those different than you? Are you rich with the currency of the Kingdom? 

We will be singing Because of Your Love to remind us that we love God and those around us as a response of God’s love for us; He loved first, we follow His example. We will then sing What a Beautiful Name It is to remind us that no matter how difficult our relationships are, we are called to follow the example of Christ and Christ alone and suffer long with those who offend us. Finally, we will be introducing a new song called Glorious Day because we are a new creation. When we were under our guilt and shame, we had no choice but to defend ourselves. However, in the new glorious day that we live in, we are free to spend the currency of the Kingdom recklessly to show the world the love of Christ.