Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
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Parable of the Thermostat
Jesus said, “Love each other just as much as I have loved you.”
I like how the KRSV paraphrases it: “How I have loved you is how you are supposed to love each other.”
When asked what is the greatest commandment or behavioral expectation for people that really love Him, Jesus said, “Love God with your head, heart, and gut – everything that you’ve got - and you prove that by loving everybody just as much as I have loved you.”
Back to the KRSV: “You can sum up following God like this. If you love God, you love everybody with the kind of love that God has enfleshed in Me. That’s agape love which is praying and laboring for the highest good for everybody regardless of who, what, where, when, or why without the need or expectation for response, regard, or reward. That’s how you prove you belong to Me and not the evil one and his world.”
Getting really specific, Paul fleshed it out: “Here and now and forevermore, the only thing that counts is faith expressed in love; and love overflows into all of our relationships with grace, mercy, and forgiveness. That’s what Jesus does for us and that’s how we love others to prove how much we love Jesus.”
The parable of the thermostat comes to mind.
On the very first Sunday that the new pastor led worship, people complained even before the call to worship.
“Turn down the heat! It’s too hot in the sanctuary for me.”
That represented about a third of the worshipers.
“Turn up the heat! It’s too cold in the sanctuary for me.”
That represented about a third of the worshipers.
“The temperature in the sanctuary is just right for me.”
That represented about a third of the worshipers.
The new pastor did not say a word.
He knew they hadn’t yet learned that love cares more about others than themselves.
Being a pastor can be very difficult.
While pastors want people to pay attention to God, too many people want their pastors to pay attention to them; and pastors know their tenure expires when the minority that hates them for trying to get people to pay attention to God becomes the majority that wants them to pay attention to them.
So the pastor didn’t say a word about the temperature in the sanctuary.
Then, one early Sunday morning before anyone arrived, the pastor discovered someone had broken the locked plastic cover over the thermostat to change the temperature setting in the sanctuary.
The pastor was angry…then sad…then angry…then sad…then…
He was angry and sad that no one had ever told that church that true Christian agape love cares more about others than themselves.
He said so that very Sunday.
The third of the church that thought it was too hot for them and the third of the church that thought it was too cold for them and the third of the church that thought it was just right for them were united at last in being mad at the pastor for saying people that love God love like God and care more about the needs of others than their own needs.
No one even asked who broke the locked plastic cover over the thermostat; though the Holy Spirit had revealed the man’s name to him in a dream.
He was a sneaky man with a mean wife whose sister was even meaner.
Before and after he broke the locked plastic cover over the thermostat, he could never look the pastor in the eyes.
Some people are like that.
It goes back to the garden.
Sneaky.
Always complaining.
Breaking things – even relationships – when they don’t get their way.
The new pastor became the old pastor and the old pastor learned big lessons from the thermostat that helped him help others to pay more attention to God.
People have a hard time loving Jesus by loving like Jesus.
Everybody needs Jesus to save them – especially those that care more about themselves than others - and He does because He is the best at loving with grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
Even people that are told don’t always learn.
Thermostats can teach us a lot about what we still need to learn and what Jesus means to those that never learn.
Blessings and Love!
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