Real, Abundant Life

When the Spirit moves us to speak in love, we are to do so. Recently while having lunch with my wife, I felt impressed to tell one of the waiters in our area that Jesus loved him. He didn’t reply but later I saw him telling some other staff what I’d said, which elicited some curious glances our way. Then an interesting thing happened. As we were leaving, a different waiter stopped me and asked if I would pray with him!

That is an example of the difference between religion and Jesus’ love. Loving Jesus means sharing his witness even when it might make you seem a little crazy — and then seeing the power of God move.

Some think that becoming a Christian requires you to know spiritual laws or pray a certain prayer. But that’s not how Jesus explained faith to Nicodemus, a Jewish intellectual well-versed in religion. Nicodemus had a hard time understanding what Jesus meant by being “born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb?” (John 3:4).

Nicodemus was trying to grasp God’s ways through his intellect, but Jesus pointed out that God’s ways are never accomplished through our flesh: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:5-6).

Friend, we have been given something much better than religion. It’s time to rise up and follow Christ to higher ground. The heart of what James calls “pure religion and undefiled before God” (James 1:27, my emphasis) is to take the love we’ve known and share it freely with others. It removes any fear about what we’re to “do for the Lord,” and replaces it with a heart to receive and give his love. That is real, abundant life!