It seems to me that one of the most serious sins of our body is our disobedience to the New Commandment of Jesus.
After Jesus washed the disciples' feet, He said the He was now giving a new command. The command: Love one another.
After He announced the command, He offered commentary to explain the command's significance.
"As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
The use of the past tense there is extremely meaningful. The cross was, at that time, still in the future. He could not have been referring to the crucifixion, the atonement.
The expression of the love of Jesus in the immediate past was His washing of their feet, a humble act, a slave's act. The task given to a servant. In fact, an act so revolting that Peter argued with Jesus about it.
Clearly, Jesus explained the love He was commanding as the necessity that people who follow Him will be known by their slavish devotion to each other. As Jesus said it:
"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
And these days, we're not known by our love for each other.
What I see up here from 40,000 feet, we don't obey the New Command.
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Nearly 45 years ago, the popular music group, Fleetwood Mac scored their first top ten American hit with a song whose chorus proclaimed,
"You can go your own way."
(If you're old enough, you're welcome for the ear worm.)
And, in our body, for all practical purposes, that's our anthem.
You can go your own way because you can take it to the bank, that I'm going to go mine!
We are so hepped up by our need to join in the old sin: "...everyone did what was right in their own eyes," that we refuse to love each other with the submissive heart Jesus summoned in Himself when He took a towel and basin and, in abject humility, washed the feet, even of Judas.
What we do is rebellion. It is sin.
The Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing isn't blessing us.
Honestly, can you even begin to wonder why.
So many of us do what is right in our own eyes. Certainly, we are a people who do what we think is right.
But, we lack submission to one another out of reverence for Christ.
We have tolerance, but not unity...because we refuse to love as He loved, and as He commanded us to love.
We must repent. We must obey His command.
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