Walking with God
Hannah Kaufold tells the story of signing up to lead a pilgrimage across northern Spain to visit the remains of one of Jesus’ BFFs: St. James. It was 500 miles long. She thought she was signing up for this cool adventure where she got to talk about Jesus and go for a long walk with a fun group of people. Every day, they woke up at 5 am to begin their walk before the sun was even up. Some days they walked about 20 miles; other days they only walked 10. Their path was guided by little yellow arrows found along the way, marking where their journey would lead them. Along the way, they told stories, they cried, they prayed and they patched up each other’s blisters. They laughed – a LOT and kept each other going. But it also was one of the most painful experiences she’d ever had. She tells of one day about midway on the journey when she’d never felt exhaustion like this before. They had been walking for almost 11 hours; that was longer than the amount of sleep they’d had in the past two nights combined. They were running out of water and it was the hottest part of the day. Every single muscle in her leg was screaming with pain and she literally didn’t think she could push myself anymore. But her friend said, “No, Hannah, I can’t let you stop now. It’ll only make it that much harder to keep going." She was right. They had no choice. They knew that putting one blistered foot in front of the other was the only way to get us to Villafranca – our destination for the day.
She thought this pilgrammage was going to be a lot of fun, and it was, but God said to her that’s just a perk, “I’m gonna change your heart.” He used the Camino to show her where I was broken and what finally needed to be surrendered. He used it to stretch her more than she ever thought possible: physically, mentally and emotionally. And all of it – every cramping muscle, every conversation, and every painful step was an opportunity to show Jesus how much she loved Him. That walk to Villafranca brought me one day closer to Santiago, but it did more than that. It brought me one step closer to my ultimate goal of the joy of heaven. And then she writes, “Every day – every moment – is just another little yellow arrow that guides us closer to His heart if we allow it. We should be able to look at our lives today and ask ourselves if we are one step closer to Heaven than we were yesterday. Blessed Mother Teresa walked The Way in Calcutta. St. James walked The Way in Spain. I (attempt to) walk this Way in Evanston, IL. Wherever we are is where Jesus invites us to walk this lifelong pilgrimage with Him.”
Second John was written around 95 A.D. from Ephesus where John served as the Pastor after being released from exile on the island of Patmos, where John received the revelation that he wrote down called, “The Book of Revelation.” If there is one thing to summarize the message of 2 John, it’s walking with God. 2 John teaches us how to walk with Jesus and he’s does it in 300 words. And if we will take what John says and do it, we’ll experience what he says at the end of his letter, which is, a “joy that’s complete” So how are we to walk with God?
First is with a commitment to truth. John mentions “truth” 5 times in the first 4 verses Here’s why: Because the only basis for us relating to each other is in truth. You don’t want to be around people who won’t tell you the truth. I think about the contrast between two famous sayings about the truth. One of them is from the movie “A Few Good Men” when Tom Cruise is examining Jack Nicholson on the stand (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FnO3igOkOk Starting at 33 seconds with “Colonel Jessup, did you order the Code red and ending at 47 seconds) and yells, "I just want the truth." Nicholson says, "You can't handle the truth!" Then there’s the saying of Jesus: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Now you have to decide if you're going to believe Jesus, or if you're going to believe Jack. Only one leads to freedom but there’s a downside: a commitment to truth first will make you miserable. Why? Because it’s never easy to share the truth with someone. I work out 5-6 times a week and so when someone new joins they’re pretty easy to pick out. A few months ago, we had a guy in his late 40’s join. He wore the Dr. Dre headphones which cancel out all of the other sounds in the gym. Well, it wasn’t long before he started to sing out loud. And it was a squeaky voice to whatever song he was singing. And worse yet, he was out of tune. It was the kind of voice that was like nails on a chalkboard. And every person in the gym is miserable…and annoyed. Everyone’s talking about it but nobody wants to say anything to the guy. And I got in a conversation with a few others and it went like this, “I’m not going to say anything, you say something…” We even went to the managers and they didn't want to say anything to the guy. Too often we’re loose with our words and we’re hesitant to speak the truth. Why? Because the truth is hard and it could lead to a confrontation.
There’s a truth about someone and their behavior but then there’s also the Truth of God by which we are called to live. For example, we should not murder someone because God’s Word says they are created in the image of God. The Bible is the place of Truth to guide our lives. When you have no truth, you have chaos. There’s a resistance to absolute truth today because people say it is relative: “what’s true for me may not be true for you.” This is odd part about truth: even those who say there’s no absolute truth, are making the point that there is in fact, absolute truth. To say, “No one can make universal truth claims” is a universal truth claim. “Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32) So here’s where it starts - get into the Word of God and study it daily. That’s when the lies that we’ve believed get exposed and God gives us the Truth by which to live. That’s why without Truth, we’re lost to try to figure it out on our own and last I checked, it’s not going so well with those doing that. If you want to walk with God and grow in your relationship with God, it takes a commitment to Truth and growing in understanding and obedience to the Scriptures.
Second, remember Love (v. 5-6). 2 John 1:3 says, “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.” And the Gospel of John 1:14 says, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” I believe that that not only are the words of the Bible inspired but the very order of the words are inspired as well. I want you to notice that in both these passages, it’s grace before truth. We always need to lead with grace before we ever get to truth. Here’s an important principle: Love without Truth is hypocrisy and truth without Love is Brutality - we need love and truth together. Having truth is not enough - we need to have love. None of us responds to truth without love - we respond to the truth in love.
So how do you speak the truth in love? Here’s 3 ways: First, care before you confront. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Second, use your words wisely. Too often we’re loose with our words and that’s why we get into trouble. We must measure our words and infuse them with love. The person to whom you speak should sense that you are speaking out of love for them. Third, relationship first. The closer you are with the person and the longer you know them, the deeper the conversations and the truth you can share. Strangers will never listen to you even if what you are saying is true but friends are more likely to. Make sure you earn the right to speak Truth into their lives.
Third, Walking with God Takes Biblical Wisdom. Verse 7-13. Here’s why wisdom is so important: John is warning this woman to steer clear of false teachers of the Gospel teaching false beliefs. In that time, there were people who didn’t believe that Jesus came in the flesh. They were called, “Gnostics.” Other teachers were saying all you need to do is believe in Jesus but you don’t need to change your lives to become like Jesus. In other words, keep on sinning because you’re already saved! You can imagine the problems this caused. So why is this important for us? Because our beliefs affect everything we do. Our beliefs guide how we live.
Larry Osborne writes, “It’s no newsflash that some smart people can do some pretty dumb things. But a lot of time we forget that smart people can also believe some pretty dumb things. What possessed a military genius like Napoleon to think that the harsh Russian winters would be no match for his troops? …What caused leading scientists and thinkers of Galileo’s day to ignore evidence they could see with their own eyes and brand him a heretic…? And why would an otherwise brilliant leadership team at IBM bet the farm on mainframes and practically give away the PC as well as the underlying operating system to Bill Gates?...What happened? In each case, an otherwise intelligent person badly misinterpreted the facts, made an incorrect assumption or relied upon information that we know to be completely false-with disastrous consequences….Admittedly, the consequences of some spiritual misconceptions are aren’t particularly devastating…But far too often (they) are…Think of the disillusionment that sets in when someone writes off God for failing to keep a promise that He never made. Or the despair that follows a step of faith that turns out to have been a leap onto thin ice.” And so what often happens is that people believe in what Larry Osborne calls spiritual urban lessons. “It’s a belief, story, assumption or truism that gets passed around as fact. In most cases, the source is a friend, a Sunday School class, a Bible study, a class, a devotional or even a sermon. Because they sound so plausible and come from a reputable source, (they)…are often accepted without question.”
Some of those spiritual legends include faith can fix anything and change outcomes. Yet we know, we can have faith and our loved one’s never get healed, tragedies still happen and bad things happen to good people. Faith isn’t about changing things, it’s about changing us to trust God enough regardless of what happens. Another is Christians shouldn’t judge others. Refusing to call sin a sin is not what Jesus asked us to do. In fact, he did it all the time and he asks us to do the same. Refusing to do so leads to costly spiritual consequences for others. A third is everything happens for a reason. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.” It doesn’t say God causes all things. If God did, he would violate his own law of free will given to us. Believing this spiritual legend can lead to people be angry at God, people glossing over sin because God caused it or even lead people to take ridiculous risks thinking that God would save them. Another is that the dead go to a better place. But Jesus was very clear that those who are wicked or who don’t believe don’t go to a better place. They go to hell. The fact is that some people don’t go to heaven and if they thought all people go to heaven then that is terrible price to pay. And if we believe that the dead automatically go to heaven, then we fail to share the faith with others. And essentially, their eternity is hanging in the balance and in our hands.
Our beliefs affects everything we do. Rick Richardson tells the story of Rachel who had a heart for reaching other women for Christ. She met Jana at an Intervarsity small group. It became very clear that Jana was hostile toward Christians as she peppered Rachel with questions about why God was called Father and how the church could repress women and deny their gifts throughout the centuries. Rachel didn’t argue with Jana. Instead, she said, “You know I’ve wonder about a few of those things as wel. I have my questions too. “Can we look at Jesus biography (the Gospels) and see what He has to say about those things?” Rachel suggested they meet on neutral turf in the student union. And together they began to read about Jesus and see how he addressed their issues and questions. At the end of each discussion, she asked what application their discussion and Jesus’ teaching might have on their life in the coming week. She encouraged Jana to try on and put into practice some of Jesus’ teachings. It was amazing to see the impact on both of them! Each week, they gathered and looked the teachings of Jesus and by the eighth week, it was obvious that Jana was struggling. Rachel observed out loud, “Jesus is getting under your skin, isn’t he?” Yes, Jan responded. “You’re really beginning to fall in love with Jesus, aren’t you?” It was then that Jana protested, “But I can’t! There are things I don't want to give up!” Rachel said, “Do you want me to show you how I chose to trust in Jesus and began to work out my questions in relationship with God? It won’t answer all your questions, but Jesus will walk with you through your questions with His wisdom. I think you’re ready for that.” Jana soon chose to put her life in the hands of God and asked Jesus to be at the center of her life. Her theology wasn’t all worked out. But she knew she wanted to love, follow and trust in Jesus and His wisdom for her life. And thus began her walk with God in wisdom. Amen
