Coming soon to a couch near you! We’ve been booking some intimate home shows in the Portland area this summer and are looking for some more homes to invade. So if you would like to host an Acoustic Living Room Concert please let us know!
Tag Archives love your neighbor as yourself
0 Being Content & Loving Our Neighbors
It’s amazing how siblings and little kids will always compare how much food or toys they receive compared to the child next to them. As adults we understand that life is not fair, and that we should be thankful and grateful for the blessings we do have as there are so many who go without. We often try to reason with such childish selfishness and help teach the child to be thankful, but do we really listen to our own advice? How often do we notice the bigger house across the street or the nicer new car parked in the driveway and covet those things for ourselves?
I saw this quote today posted on a meme and it struck me as such a good truth that I had to share it.
The only time you look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don’t look in your neighbor’s bowl to see if you have as much as them.
—Louis C.K.
This lines up so closely with Jesus’ words in Matthew when he said:
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
—Matthew 22:37-40
Truly we need to have a focus that is on others more than ourselves. God has promised us that he will provide for our needs:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
—Matthew 6:25-33
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
—Philippians 4:11-13
Instead of dwelling on what we don’t have and coveting our neighbor’s possessions, we should be more worried about our neighbor who is in need and make sure that we are God’s hands and feet to help them when required. We should learn to—like Paul—be content in all things; both in plenty and in want—when we have enough and when we are in need.
This is part of the message in my song “Jehovah Jireh” that speaks to God knowing our needs before we even speak, and being our Provider!
0 Without Love
Inspiration & Overview
I wrote this song on February 18, 2002 after being inspired by a recent Lindy Hop performance I had witnessed done to the swing classic It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington, with lyrics by Irving Mills. I spent a lot of time dancing and performing swing music as I was part of the OSU Ballroom Dance Troupe known as Cool Shoes for many years, as well as an all around avid ballroom dancer. The general theme of the song that nothing else matters if it doesn’t have that swing beat struck me as a parallel to what Paul is trying to express in 1 Corinthians 13 when he says the same thing about love. That it “don’t mean a thing if you ain’t loving” to put it colloquially on a part with the swing classic.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
—1 Corinthians 13:3 NIV
Not just some things. Everything. Because without love it truly doesn’t matter how successful we are or even what sacrifices or gifts we give to the poor and needy.
Do everything in love.
—1 Corinthians 16:14 NIV
Stop and really think about that for a minute. It doesn’t matter how long your list of good deeds is; without love they are meaningless. We shouldn’t be doing good deeds out of any motivation other than love compelling us to act. After all we are saved by grace, not by our works or any good deeds. Indeed, everything revolves around love, because God himself is love!
After all, we wouldn’t even know what love is or love God if he hadn’t first loved us!
We love because he first loved us.
—1 John 4:19 NIV
As John clearly lays out, God is love and he demonstrated that love by dying on a cross for us!
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
—1 John 4:8-11 NIV
What greater call to love could there be after that selfless example of Christ? Surely God has demonstrated his great love for us by showering us with his undeserved grace!
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
—Ephesians 2:4, 5 NIV
It all comes down to God demonstrating his great love for us by lavishing us with his grace. We can’t do anything to trump that. It is the most gihugenous act of hubris and pride to somehow think that our works or good deeds could somehow be of more worth than Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, that they could somehow earn us more favor or even be required at all!
Thinking that our works and good deeds can somehow earn us a seat in heaven diminishes God’s grace and Christ’s blood and seeks to elevate ourselves to a place where we are gods and have greater power than God to secure our own fate. God forbid! That is why Paul goes on to reiterate the fact that it is by grace alone we are saved—not by any work or deed on our part.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
—Ephesians 2:8, 9 NIV
That is the most freeing good news to ever be told when you finally grasp it. It’s not about us! The burden an onus is not on our shoulders to somehow be good enough—which we can never be anyway—or to somehow perform enough good deeds to achieve salvation. No! It is a gift that we could never earn, given in love—God’s grace!
As a result of being freed by his grace we should want to respond with acts of worship, and by doing good works—not out of any obligation or because we mistakenly think they are needed to earn us favor, but simply out of love, following Christ’s example!
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
—Ephesians 2:10 NIV
The first verse of this song goes back and pulls from the verse in 1 Corinthians 13:3 along with a similar corollary in Mark’s gospel that begs the question of the purpose of gaining all that this world has to offer, yet as a result losing everything in the end by not having the ultimate love—Jesus!
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
—Mark 8:36 NIV
Verse 1
Though I gain the whole world
All the riches it contains
And though I feed the poor
Do good deeds in your name
Even if I gave my body to the flames
Without love, it just wouldn’t be the same
(I’m still finishing part of this entry here…)
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
—James 1:22 NIV
But if that word isn’t spoken in love it will just be like a clanging gong as Paul declares.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
—1 Corinthians 13:1 NIV
Without love it’s not enough to carry my words along
It’s in one ear and out the next it’s gone
Cause without love, I’m a clanging gong
Even when spoken in love with a right spirit of grace, rather than self-righteous judgement, our words can fall on stony soil or be choked by weeds. (Matthew 13:3-23) But that isn’t our job! God softens hearts and prepares the soil. Our job is just to be faithful in speaking truth in love when we are called to do so.
And we need to beware lest we become puffed up in pride or put focus on ourselves and what we are accomplishing, rather than recognizing there is no good in us but only God working through us. This verse is spoken a bit tongue in cheek and rhetorically, but rather God forbid that we try to minister out of selfish reasons.
What hidden motives do I hold here in my hand
To receive recognition from my fellow man
If selfish ambition drives me at all costs
You might as well just write me off
Cause I’m already lost
My hope and prayer is that this should always be a rhetorical question filled with sarcasm and scorn as Paul does in Galatians:
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
—Galatians 1:10 NIV
Are we trying to please people or God? Are we looking for our name in lights and recognition from men or from God? I love YWAM’s adopted slogan “To know God and make him known.” That is what we should be seeking and striving; seeking his kingdom first! As it states in Matthew:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
—Matthew 6:33 NIV
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t use the gifts that God has given us to share his grace and truth and love. It means we need—myself included—to check our hearts and motivations and make sure we are always acting out of love and not selfish motives. We need to make sure that any word that is spread about our actions always points to God and his glory—not our own. Not to toot his horn, because I know that is not what he is about, but I love the title of one of Ross King’s albums: “To Make God Famous”.
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
—Matthew 6:1 NIV
It all comes down to this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
—Galatians 5:13, 14 NIV
And we need look no further than Jesus for how we are to carry out this kind of love.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
—John 15:12, 13 NIV
Jesus was our perfect example of this when he loved us so much that he laid down his life on the cross to take our place!
When Jesus Christ, well he became a man
He showed us all his father’s great command
Acted out for all to see
When he hung upon that tree
Where he bled, he died, and he rose for you and me
For truly we are called to live and love as Christ’s example shows us; with compassion and grace, forgiveness and kindness.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
—Colossians 3:12-14 NIV
I hope this song is a reminder to daily check our motivations and actions, and to ensure they come from a place of love for our neighbor as Jesus commanded us. But not only our neighbors and friends, we are called to the even higher standard of extending love and forgiveness to our enemies and those who have mistreated, persecuted or wronged us.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
—Matthew 5:43-47 NIV
For if the world is to truly know us by our love we need to do more than love those who are good to us—even the world finds it easy to love that far. No, we need to show love and compassion even to those who persecute us and extend forgiveness to those who have wronged us just as Jesus did for us!
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
—John 13:35 NIV
And it all comes back to love which binds everything together and perfectly sums up the Law and the Prophets.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
—1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV
Truly “Without love it’s not enough!”
Lyrics
Without Love #183
02/18/2002
Though I gain the whole world
All the riches it contains
And though I feed the poor
Do good deeds in your name
Even if I gave my body to the flames
Without love, it just wouldn’t be the same
Cause without love, (do-wap) it’s not enough
No, without love, it’s not enough
Without love it’s not enough to carry my words along
It’s in one ear and out the next it’s gone
Cause without love, I’m a clanging gong
What hidden motives do I hold here in my hand
To receive recognition from my fellow man
If selfish ambition drives me at all costs
You might as well just write me off
Cause I’m already lost
Cause without love, (do-wap) it’s not enough
No without love, it’s not enough
No without love, can’t buy me no l-o-v-e selfless givin’ love
Cause without love it’s not enough
It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t lovin’
Shoo-wap a-dap…
When Jesus Christ, well he became a man
He showed us all his father’s great command
Acted out for all to see
When he hung upon that tree
Where he bled, he died, and he rose for you and me
Now that’s love, that kind of love
That’s what we need, that kind of love
Can’t buy me no l-o-v-e selfless givin’ love
That’s what we need more of, that kind of love
No it don’t mean a thing or two, not three not four
Better walk out the door, if you ain’t got no love no more
Cause you ain’t got nothin’ at all
Without love
Copyright © 2002 Dawson Cowals.
Scriptures referenced by this song:
Here is a version of the song we recorded and released on my 2008 CD Coffee Shop Songs.