“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself'” (Galatians 5:14).

Because we are human, because we are selfish, because we are all sinners we are going to hurt others by our words and actions. It’s not a matter of if we hurt others but a matter of when. It goes with being a sinner.

Just as we hurt others, others will hurt us.

What a fine world we live in!!! What are we to do? How then can we live?

How can we live in a way that honors God and honors one another? How can we love our neighbor as ourselves?

Here is the key: You absolutely have the right to be hurt when others injure and betray us. But you never have the right to be cruel and mean.

Because we are sinners, we are going to hurt each other. We will offend each other. We will betray one another. That’s bad enough. If you add to hurt, offense, and betrayal meanness and cruelty? Wow. Forget it. Relationships are destroyed.

“The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: love your neighbor as yourself.” Protect one another. Give each other the benefit of the doubt. Pray for one another. Do your best to honor God by loving God’s children.

You can hurt, but you never have the right to be cruel and mean.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

Be strong. Be courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged.

Hmmm.

These are all commands. God commands Joshua to be strong and courageous, not to be afraid and discouraged.

Hmmm.

How does one do that? When one is feeling weak, cowardly, afraid, and discouraged how are you supposed to not feel these things?

It’s kind of like saying to someone who just stepped on a piece of lego with their bare feet and saying, “Don’t feel pain.”

How? How is someone not supposed to feel what they are feeling?

That’s a great question. It’s just the wrong question.

God is not telling Joshua to feel this thing or that thing. This text has nothing to do with feelings.

God said, “BE strong. BE courageous. Do not BE afraid. Do not BE discouraged.”

This is about being. No matter the circumstance, you can choose strength, courage. You can choose not to be afraid and discouraged. These are choices.

These aren’t choices that are made in a vacuum. These are choices made with the understanding that we are never alone because the LORD our God is with us wherever we go. You see, the source of strength and courage is not in us. It is in the LORD our God. God is our strength and courage.

How does this work? It has to do with your eyes. What are you looking at? If you focus on the problem, the discouragement, the struggle, that’s what you see. If you focus on God, that’s who you see.

What are you looking at?

God said, “BE strong. BE courageous. Do not BE afraid. Do not BE discouraged.”

“They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch’……Returning the third time, he said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!'” (Mark 14:32, 41-42).

By the time Jesus went to Gethsemane Jesus already knew that he had come to Jerusalem to die on the cross. Jesus knew this was God’s plan from the beginning. Jesus knew that he would be the atoning sacrifice for sins.

Yet, we still see Jesus struggling at Gethsemane as Golgotha, the crucifixion, and bearing the sin of the world bore heavy on his heart and shoulders.

Jesus even prayed, “Abba, Father…everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).

Jesus pleaded with God to see if there was any other way besides the cross.

We don’t know what else Jesus said in prayer. All we know is that he was there most of the evening praying with God. By the time we come to the end of this pericope, Jesus has set his mind, heart, and determination on the cross.

Have you ever wondered what he and God must have talked about that night? What made Jesus so steely determined to go through with the cross?

Certainly it was because this was the will of God.

But, why was it the will of God? Because this was the only way for sinners to become children of God.

So picture this: Jesus looking at the cross…then looking at you…declaring “You’re totally worth it!”

You are God’s beloved. Jesus could not imagine eternity without you.

There are many for whom Jesus died who have no clue what Jesus did for them. That’s a travesty!!! That’s our mission. That’s what the church exists for – to make disciples and grow disciples who share the love of Jesus with all people.

Let’s keep the main thing the main thing. Make new disciples and grow faithful disciples who share the love of Jesu with all people.