When we gather “in the name” of Jesus, we gather to love one another and to be loved, to serve one another and be served. That is why we “go to church.” The one sure mark of being his disciple was said by Jesus to be that we love one another in the way he loves us (John 13:34-35)… So when we “go to church,” we go to love those who are there and to be loved with his agape love. But that love is not confined to when we are “in church.” It is for everywhere in life. Church is for catching it and practicing it.

It is of absolute importance that you get this right if you are to know Christ. We know Christ in others. Reflect on what goes on within you upon first sighting another disciple. It may be a member of your family or someone at your job, or it may be as you approach your meeting place (your “church”). Is your first thought that they should be blessed by God in every way? That they should be “better” than you are (“In humility regard others as better than yourselves” Phil 2:3)? Are you prepared to serve them spiritually by lifting them to God in prayer for his utmost gifts to them and by assisting them in their needs? Do you earnestly long that their light should shine in such a way that others would see their goods works and glorify God because of them? (Matt. 5:16). It is out of such a heart and overall disposition that we spontaneously and without thinking “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). Or do we meet others more in the spirit of the Pharisee who prayed alongside the tax man?

The most important thing about our fellowship with other disciples is that Jesus, the trinitarian presence, should be in our midst. For that, we must meet “in his name” (Matt. 18:19); that is, we meet for his purposes, with his resources, and in his presence. This will no doubt require some serious readjustments, given how “church” is generally practiced today. But it can be done if you and I are willing to walk with Jesus in doing it and not get caught up in superiority and in condemnatory comparisons as we look upon those around us–especially upon those who do not agree with us or even attack us.

If we come together in this way, Jesus’s idea of evangelism and “mission” will fall into place: “I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). As Frank Laubach says: “The simple program of Christ for winning the whole world is to make each person he touches magnetic enough with love to draw others.” If we grow our fellowship in this direction, it will naturally affect those around us, whether in the fellowship or not. This kind of love and the “Presence” go with us wherever we go. They cannot be hidden. A “missional church,” in a wording often used today, is actually one that cannot be stopped from increasing, because it grows by contiguity–skin on skin.

• Find out what you can (in a Bible commentary or on the Internet) about the debate on divorce occurring at that time between the House of Hillel and the House of Shammai. How does this help you understand the passages?
• Concerning this exact passage, Dallas Willard writes, “One of the most important things in the male mind of Jesus’ day, and perhaps every day, was to be able to get rid of a woman who did not please him” (The Divine Conspiracy, 168). Why do you think we tend to read these passages as being restrictive of women today, rather than being liberating or protective of women, as they were intended to be at that time?
• How would you boil down Jesus words? What is the heart of his teaching on marriage and divorce?
• How can Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce help us?

“Thus, by proclaiming blessed those who in the human order are thought hopeless, and by pronouncing woes over those human being regarded as well off, Jesus opens the kingdom of the heavens to everyone. [...] In general, many of those thought blessed or “first” in human terms are miserable or “last” in God’s terms, and many of those regarded as cursed or “last” in human terms may well be blessed or “first” in God’s terms, as they rely on the kingdom of Jesus. Many, but not necessarily all. The beatitudes are lists of human “lasts” who, at the individualized touch of the heavens become divine “firsts.” The gospel of the kingdom is that no one is beyond beatitude, because the rule of God from the heavens is available to all. Everyone can reach it, and it can reach everyone. We respond appropriately to the beatitudes of Jesus by living as if this were so, as it concerns others and as it concerns ourselves.[...]

Even the moral disasters will be received by God as they come to rely on Jesus, count on him, and make him their companion in his kingdom. Murderers and child-molesters. The brutal and the bigoted. Drug lords and pornographers. War criminals and sadists. Terrorists. The perverted and the filthy and the filthy rich. [...]

If I, as a recovering sinner myself,accept Jesus’ good news, I can go to the mass murderer and say, “You can be blessed in the kingdom of the heavens. There is forgiveness that knows no limits.” To the pederast and the perpetrator of incest. To the worshiper of Satan. To those who rob the aged and the weak. To the cheat and the liar, the bloodsucker and the vengeful: Blessed! Blessed! Blessed! As they run into the arms of The Kingdom Among Us.

These are God’s grubby people. In their midst a Corrie Ten Boom takes the hand of the Nazi who killed her family members. The scene is strictly not of this earth. Any spiritually healthy congregation of believers in Jesus will more or less look like these “brands plucked from the burning.” If the group is totally nice, that is a sure sign something has gone wrong. For here are the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised of this world, whom God has chosen to cancel out the humanly great (1 Cor 1:26-31; 6).” (Willard, Divine Conspiracy, 119-125)

• Who do you think has the hardest time accepting Jesus’ message of the Kingdom? Who has the most obstacles to overcome?
• Who do you tend to exclude from the Kingdom? What kind of people do you have the hardest time embracing or thinking of as people God might love? Why?
• Stop now and pray for those people. Ask God to give you his heart for them.
• Also… There is a strong theme in these passages of the power of God coming to rescue and restore the broken and the hurting. Is our world crying out for that power? If so, how? Today, let’s begin to listen for that cry, particularly in the realm of the arts. Take the next 2 days to find a song, book, story, poem, movie, or piece of artwork that reminds you of The Beatitudes. Post it to the comments below.