What happens if you see Christ in your next door neighbor? That’s easy if your neighbor is like Kenneth—who was my next door neighbor for a few years. Kenneth would do anything for anyone. All he asked for was a coconut pie. When Jesus says "love God and love your neighbor," people assume that means love those who are really good to you. So Jesus clarifies: “I say unto you, love your enemies… If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even scoundrels do that much. If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even the heathen do that” (Matt 5:46 TLB). To really love your neighbor is to see Christ in your neighbor.

What if we look for Christ even in those people we can’t stand? C. S. Lewis once said, “Don’t waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

Let me push a bit further. See Christ in that high school bully you can’t stand. See Christ in that job on the honey-do list you just don’t want to do. See Christ in the political party you think is barely American. See Christ in the boss you loathe, the father who never loved you, the Starbucks barista who never gets your name right, the person in the Ford F150 who cut you off without looking, and the little league coach who never plays your son enough.

What would we call it if we were able to see—truly see Christ in all? Well, we’d begin to understand what it means to love.

The sermon today is titled "Living Like Christ Is All." The Scripture reading is from Colossians 3:11. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on July 31, 2022.

These lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is the last in the 3-part series "Learning Christ," and is filed under Discover: A New Reality.

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