mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing
(1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
It is in this Great Commandment to love God and to love others where we find the Father’s mission. His desire for us is that wereceive His love and give it away, thus fulfilling the Great Commission.
The Great Commandment to love God and love others is a call to intimacy; the Great Commission to go and make disciples is a call to fruitfulness. Intimacy is to precede fruitfulness. The Great Commandment must precede the Great Commission and is an inseparable part of it. When intimacy does not precede fruitfulness, we easily become subject to our own mission and become focused upon religious duty, hyper-religious activity, and aggressive striving that leaves an angry edge in our life and relationships.
How do you recognize a person who truly knows and loves God? By how well he or she can preach? By how many people fall down in the Spirit when they pray? Because they have faith to move mountains? By how they relate to others at church on Sunday? By how much Bible they know? No. You recognize a person who knows God by the life of love, compassion, and tenderness he or she shows behind closed doors with family and peers when no one else is looking. A person who loves God is one who seeks for the love of God to be made mature and complete in his or her daily relationships. I love the way The Message Bible paraphrases it:
“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us
.” (1 John 4:17-18, TM).
What is the key for the world to come to know God’s love?
Agape
, a love that seeks the low place of humility, service, honor, and value. And that’s where we find God’s mission. The Great Commandment is to be fulfilled before the Great Commission. But those with orphan thinking are easily deceived, as I was for many years, into placing the Great Commission ahead of the Great Commandment. They become more committed to justice, duty, or ministry than to intimacy. Intimacy must precede fruitfulness. When it does not, we usually end up becoming subject to our ownmission, often leaving behind us a trail of fractured relationships where we have misrepresented the love of God to our families, peers, and to the world.
Any time you put the Great Commission (your ministry) before the Great Commandment (your relationship), you step outside being subject to Father’s mission, and death starts working its way into your relationships. I’m not necessarily talking about physical death, but the great “numb-numb-ville” on the bow on the sea of fear (see Chapter One), frozen with no ability to move or to free yourself from the entanglements that come when you’re subject to your own mission. You trade the security of home and sonship for the fear and uncertainty of homelessness and an orphan heart.
Exposing the Root of the Orphan Heart
Every one of us has to deal at some point with the manifestations of an orphan heart. It doesn’t matter whether you were raised in a dysfunctional home or a stable, well-established home. Even growing up in a good home filled with a father’s unconditional love and acceptance does not necessarily mean that you will not struggle with orphan thinking and be subject to your own mission.
Consider the examples of the prodigal son and his older brother in Luke 15. Although they were surrounded by the deep compassionate love of their father, each of them had an orphan heart that prevented him from enjoying intimacy with his father. The older son was angry and saw his father as someone to obey, while the younger son saw his father as someone who could give him things. Neither son related to his father on an intimate level. It took the younger son
(1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
It is in this Great Commandment to love God and to love others where we find the Father’s mission. His desire for us is that wereceive His love and give it away, thus fulfilling the Great Commission.
The Great Commandment to love God and love others is a call to intimacy; the Great Commission to go and make disciples is a call to fruitfulness. Intimacy is to precede fruitfulness. The Great Commandment must precede the Great Commission and is an inseparable part of it. When intimacy does not precede fruitfulness, we easily become subject to our own mission and become focused upon religious duty, hyper-religious activity, and aggressive striving that leaves an angry edge in our life and relationships.
How do you recognize a person who truly knows and loves God? By how well he or she can preach? By how many people fall down in the Spirit when they pray? Because they have faith to move mountains? By how they relate to others at church on Sunday? By how much Bible they know? No. You recognize a person who knows God by the life of love, compassion, and tenderness he or she shows behind closed doors with family and peers when no one else is looking. A person who loves God is one who seeks for the love of God to be made mature and complete in his or her daily relationships. I love the way The Message Bible paraphrases it:
“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us
.” (1 John 4:17-18, TM).
What is the key for the world to come to know God’s love?
Agape
, a love that seeks the low place of humility, service, honor, and value. And that’s where we find God’s mission. The Great Commandment is to be fulfilled before the Great Commission. But those with orphan thinking are easily deceived, as I was for many years, into placing the Great Commission ahead of the Great Commandment. They become more committed to justice, duty, or ministry than to intimacy. Intimacy must precede fruitfulness. When it does not, we usually end up becoming subject to our ownmission, often leaving behind us a trail of fractured relationships where we have misrepresented the love of God to our families, peers, and to the world.
Any time you put the Great Commission (your ministry) before the Great Commandment (your relationship), you step outside being subject to Father’s mission, and death starts working its way into your relationships. I’m not necessarily talking about physical death, but the great “numb-numb-ville” on the bow on the sea of fear (see Chapter One), frozen with no ability to move or to free yourself from the entanglements that come when you’re subject to your own mission. You trade the security of home and sonship for the fear and uncertainty of homelessness and an orphan heart.
Exposing the Root of the Orphan Heart
Every one of us has to deal at some point with the manifestations of an orphan heart. It doesn’t matter whether you were raised in a dysfunctional home or a stable, well-established home. Even growing up in a good home filled with a father’s unconditional love and acceptance does not necessarily mean that you will not struggle with orphan thinking and be subject to your own mission.
Consider the examples of the prodigal son and his older brother in Luke 15. Although they were surrounded by the deep compassionate love of their father, each of them had an orphan heart that prevented him from enjoying intimacy with his father. The older son was angry and saw his father as someone to obey, while the younger son saw his father as someone who could give him things. Neither son related to his father on an intimate level. It took the younger son
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