King Jesus Above All: The Case for Christian Anarchy

What if following Jesus means rejecting the world’s obsession with power and control? In my latest blog post, I explore Christian Anarchy—not chaos or rebellion, but a radical allegiance to King Jesus above all earthly authorities. It’s about living out His teachings of love, humility, and nonviolence, even when they clash with societal norms or coercive systems like taxation and state power.

Drawing from Scripture and thinkers like Murray Rothbard and Tom Woods, I argue that Jesus’ kingdom operates on principles of voluntary cooperation and sacrificial love, not force or domination. Christian Anarchy challenges us to embody the Sermon on the Mount, reject idolatrous power, and bear witness to a King whose reign transforms hearts and communities.

Ask yourself: Where does your highest loyalty lie? Join me in reflecting on what it means to seek first the Kingdom of God in a world obsessed with power. Read the full post and share your thoughts! Read King Jesus Above All.

The Best Motivation

 Our motivations matter.

We can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, but eventually we will be discovered to be a fake.

On the other hand, we can do things wrong and make mistakes, but if we do them for the right reasons those things become lessons that help us get better.

There are many different reasons why a person would follow Jesus. 

Fear is a big motivation. We are afraid of going to hell, so we want to follow Jesus to avoid the punishment.

Obligation is another reason. We think, “Jesus died for me, so I guess I had better go to church.” Our obedience is something that we feel like we need to do.

Expectation might be another reason. Our family and friends are Christians, so we feel like we are expected to be Christians as well.

Reward is a motivation for following Jesus. Not only do we want to escape Hell, but we want to enjoy the eternal life God has created for His people. We keep the end in mind to remind us what it is important to follow Jesus.

While all these motivations have their place, they miss the most important reason for following Jesus.

The best motivation we can have when it comes to following Jesus is love.

John wrote:

Love is the best motivation for following Jesus because it is a response to the love Jesus had for us.

It was love that motivated Jesus to show compassion and heal people. It was love that motivated Jesus to spend time with those on the margins of society. It was love that motivated Jesus to stand against the oppressive behavior of the religious leaders. It was love that motivated Jesus to leave Heaven, become a man, and die a painful death on a Roman cross.

Love is what motivated Jesus.

The proper response to love is love.

This means that the more we experience God’s love, the more our understanding of Jesus grows, and the more the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts, the stronger our love for God becomes.

Fear may have been the reason why we first decided to follow Jesus. A sense of obligation might be the reason why we first started to be committed in our weekly church attendance. The expectation of friends and family might have been the reason why we started to worship. Our starting motivation doesn’t matter, what matters is the reason why we continue to follow Jesus.

One of the ways we know we are growing in our faith is because motivation becomes more about our love for Jesus than it does anything else.

There is no formula for learning to love Jesus. It happens as we study Scripture, as we engage in the work of ministry, as we sacrifice in our giving, as we spend time in prayer, and as build friendships with other Christians. Just like other relationships, love grows stronger the more time you spend with them.

Follow Jesus because you love him.

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Masks, Vaccinations, and Love

Jesus said:

“The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31, NLT)

There is no question that in order to follow Jesus we must love our neighbors.

This has been a common sentiment the last 18 months as we have endured the COVID pandemic.

I understand the thought. Part of loving people is not harming them. That means more than not physically hurting them. It means if we can do something to keep people safe we should do it.

Before I go any further I want to point out that I am not a scientist. The last science class I took was a community college biology class 30 years ago. My point is not to make a scientific case, but help us think through how we love people.

With that in mind, is this thought about masking wearing and being vaccinated the best way to love our neighbor?

In my mind this argument depends on assuming that wearing masks and being vaccinated are the only ways to keep people safe. Therefore, if we don’t want to harm to someone then that requires us to mask up and get vaccinated. 

The reality is that there are other things we can do to help keep people safe. We can wash our hands, we can cover our coughs and sneezes, and can stay home when we are sick. Those are all things that help keep people safe.

The key here is about motivations. You are acting in love, even if you decide not to mask up or be vaccinated, when you consistently and intentionally practice other ways to keep people safe.

If the reason you are refusing to mask up and to be vaccinated is because you are going to “protect your rights,” and you don’t do other things to keep people safe, then you are not loving your neighbor. 

As Christians, our primary task is to love people. That means that our greatest concern isn’t about our personal liberties, but the well-being of others. So, if our primary reason for not wearing masks and not being vaccinated is about our rights AND we don’t do other things to protect the health of others, we are failing to keep the most important commandment.

It all comes down to motivation.

This is also important piece of the puzzle.

Again, it is legitimate to think that these actions we are being asked to make, and in some cases that are being mandated, have little benefit. That doesn’t mean we can disregard the health concerns of other people. That is why it is essential, as we seek to love people, that we are consistent in doing alternative things to protect the health of people.

Another reason why I think this line of reasoning should be pushed back on is because we can use it as a reason to do other things. We can say that we want socialism because it promotes “loving our neighbor.” 

I would argue that a free market economy that promotes the free exchange of goods, services, and ideas is the best way to  love your neighbor. 

While the stated goals of a more socialist economy appear to be loving, in the long run it could lead to more hardship and harm, which would be unloving. 

This is why we shouldn’t pull out the  “love your neighbor” card when we are talking about policy. Something seem to be loving in the short term might have longer negative effects. So people who are opposed to government mandates for masks and vaccinations are opposed to them because of unintended consequences that will show up later, including greater governmental interference in our private lives.

It is important that followers of Jesus take the command to love our neighbors seriously. As you think through how to love people we also need to consider our motivations and the consequences for our actions.

 

You Can’t Hurry Love

Americans tend to fill every waking moment with activity. With our full schedules it is difficult to find time to squeeze one more thing into our days. 

When the opportunity comes our way to help and server some one, it often comes at us as an inconvenience. It is interrupting our schedule. So we try to hurry through it so we can do a good deed and still check off everything on our to do lists.

Sadly, this leads people feeling more like an inconvenience or an afterthought rather than feeling truly loved. 

To be different, Christians need to slow down and understand that one of the sacrifices that we make on behalf of God is the interruption of our schedules. By letting God disrupt our lives we are saying that His will is more important than our will. We are also saying that people matter more than our personal agendas.

Loving our neighbor can’t simply be blocked off on our schedules. These opportunities to love people will  appear in our lives during inconvenient times, forcing us to choose between our agendas and God’s command. 

For us to truly love people we need to sacrifice our time, our agendas, and our money to be present in the lives of other people.

This is how we can love our neighbors well.

In Spite of Our Sins and Flaws

 

I have given these two tweets quite a bit of thought the last few days. When I see things like this it causes me to stop and think, because I figure if one person is expressing the thought then other people are thinking it.

Each tweet has a thought that needs to be addressed.

First, Mayfield equates the expression of unworthiness with self-hatred. Now, there are times when I have heard worship leaders and pastors lay it on a little thick when it comes to reminding people about not living up to God's glory. Even when we take into consideration the over the top emphasis of our unworthiness, I don't think that equates with self-hatred.

You don't have to hate yourself in order to understand that the love another person has for you is totally undeserved. In many ways, that is the basis of true love. There is nothing you have done to earn the love of the other person.

Even in my best moments, I don't deserve the love my wife and children have for me. Too often I am selfish, moody, and inconsiderate of who they are and what they want. I am not hating myself to admit this reality, but rather grateful for the love they show me, in spite of my flaws.

To acknowledge that God loves us, even when we have rebelled against His will and have failed to bear His image in this world, is not a form of self-hatred. It can be an expression of gratitude for what God has done for us and the blessing He has given. It is an acknowledgement that in spite of our flaws God continues to loves us.

This then transitions into the second tweet. Murray makes the claim that self-hatred is at the heart of the evangelical gospel. Now, I realize that he is trying to say something about the gospel as American evangelicals typically teach it, but he also added "no matter how woke or kind the iteration is,"so I think it is fair evaluate this sentiment based on how I teach the Gospel.

Remember the Gospel is the proclamation of God's Kingdom coming into this world through the person of Jesus Christ. Watch the Bible Project video on Gospel.

To understand the Gospel we have to understand that God created human beings in His image. In other words, we are to be God's representatives in this world. We are to look after God's good creation using His wisdom, love, grace, and all the rest. The only way we can do that is to be connected to God so that His life is flowing through us. 

Sin severs the connection we have with God and instead of living with His wisdom and love, we live according to what we think is best. At the heart of the Gospel is God's love for humans and His plan for us to once again rule with Him in his Kingdom. Through the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, that connection is restored, allowing us to demonstrate God's character in this world.

Now, if you believe the Gospel is about a God who created people to try to live up to a ridiculously high standard and then condemn and punish them for not doing so,  I can understand why you think the heart of the Gospel is self-hatred. You will feel like Anakin Skywalker in The Attack of the Clones after he slaughtered the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine, "I'm a Jedi, I know I'm better than this." 

To feel like you need to be "better than this" and yet feel powerless to become better will lead you on the path towards self-hatred. Here is an overlooked truth: we can't be better than this. A life lived based on our definitions of good and bad, right and wrong will lead to a world filled with war, abuse, addiction, violence, and oppression. We don't have want it takes to become better.

The beauty of the Gospel is that it is a declaration that God loves us and seeks to renew and restore the connection He has with us. It tells us that we can't be perfect and that we can't bear God's image apart from Him.

The Gospel helps us to understand how unworthy we are of God's love and declares that in spite of our sin and flaws God desires to be in relationship with us. God has not given up on us. Instead, He is working to restore His image in us so we can live out our calling to demonstrate His character in this world.

The Most Amazing Truth

Here is the most amazing truth that I know: God loves you!

Take moment and reflect on the reality that the Creator of the universe desires to have a relationship with you.

Not only does God love you, but He is willing to do whatever it takes to be in relationship with you. We can be confident of this fact because of the life and death of Jesus.

I know for some people the truth of God's love seems too good to be true. They don’t “feel” God’s love in their lives. Instead their lives are full of hassles and problems. In their minds, the presence of difficulties are evidence that God's doesn't exist.

I wish I could help them see that this is not true!

God loves us, and His love is all around us.

Now you may wonder how I can write about God’s love as if it were right out there within our reach.

That is because it is.

Rebecca St. James once wrote, “I really believe so many times God ‘calls out’ to us through everyday things and through His creation, and yet we don’t hear because we’re too busy or distracted.”

God’s love is seen in many different ways, but too often we miss it.

We miss it because we are either looking for something that God’s love isn’t, like a perpetual warm fuzzy, or the realities of everyday life have distracted us from what God is doing in our lives.

Remember: Just because you don’t “feel” loved by God doesn’t mean that God’s love for you isn’t real.

I know God’s love exists and I know that He loves me.

The evidence of God's love for me is found in the love of my family and friends.

I have found proof of God’s love for me through times of prayer, worship, and meditation.

God’s love has been revealed to me in the peace and confidence that I have in my life.

I can see God’s love everyday as I walk among His creation and marvel at what He has done.

All of this pales in the light of the great revelation of God’s love: Jesus.

Remember the apostle Paul's words from the book of Romans:

When were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:6-8; NLT)

You know why Jesus’ death is the great demonstration of God’s love?

• God is under no obligation to save us. There is no force outside of God that dictates that He has to save human beings. To save His creation is God’s choice. He saves us because of His character.  It is God's mercy, grace, and love that compels Him to save us rather than condemn us.
• God doesn’t need us. Humans do not fill some need God has for companionship. God, being three in one, has all the companionship that He needs. It is His faithfulness to creation and His desire for us to experience true life  that moves God save us. His love is totally unconditional. His love is not based on who we are or want we have done for Him, but based on His desire for people to experience what is best.
• God experienced pain.  This flows from the previous two. Saving us was not something God had to do, but it is something He chose to do. That choice involved a great cost. Our salvation involved real pain.  Pain that exceeded the physical pain of crucifixion. It appears that as Jesus took on our sins, he was separated from God. We will never fully understand the love it took for Jesus to go to the cross.

Does God love you?

He loves you more than you can imagine.

It is experienced everyday we walk with God. It is seen in creation, in our families and friends, and in circumstances as we surrender to God's will.

But that is the key.

If you are missing out on God’s love it is time to surrender your life to Him.

When you love someone you have the hope that they will respond to your love.

Rejected love is always painful.

The same is true for God.

God loves you, but for you to fully experience that love you need to surrender to Him.

We don't experience all the love another person has for us until we enter into a relationship with him. This also applies to God. To fully experience the love of God we have to enter into a relationship with Him. We do that by surrendering our lives to Him.

I realize that this is hard to do. We don't want to give up control of our lives or be committed to the will of another person, but that is what is required of all lasting relationships. Love will always move us to care more and more for the other person, which will cause us to sacrifice on their behalf.

The most amazing truth in the universe is that the Creator of the universe loves you.

When we grasp that reality, how can we not seek to love Him back?

God loves us.

His love is all around us, calling us to accept Him as our Father and Lord.

You can choose to see God’s love or you can choose to ignore it.

You have the choice to either reject or accept His love.

The choice is yours.

I urge you to accept this amazing truth and make the choice to love.

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Serve One Another

In Search of Fellowship: Part 4

One of the cries of our hearts is that of companionship.  We all long to be part of a group and to know that other people care about us.  This sense of companionship is best experienced when people come along side us and help us through the difficulties and problems of life.  When people sacrifice their time, money, and resources on our behalf we know that they value our relationship.

As individuals we have the ability to choose how we will use the blessings God has given to us.  We can hoard our time and resources or can give them generously away.  The chooses we make reveal much about who we are and the faith we have in God.  The apostle Paul wrote:

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. (Galatians 5:13-15; NLT)

We have been given freedom and in that freedom God expects us to choose to serve each other.  This is how true fellowship is built.  It is not always easy to serve one another because rarely does it fall conveniently into our lives, but it is what God expects of us.

This reminds me of an episode in Jesus' life.  Jesus spent a day teaching and an evening in prayer.  The next day Jesus wanted to go to a quiet place with his disciples, but the crowds returned expecting more teaching and healing.  Jesus didn't send them away, rather, out of compassion, he served them.

Through our sacrifice people come to understand that we love them and desire to have a relationship with them.  The world is full of people who are to busy or don't care and so that makes it vitally important that we take the time to serve one another in love.  That is how true fellowship is born.

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Always Demonstrate Love

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God is Pro-Choice

God created people with the ability to choose.  In Genesis we discover that God gave Adam and Eve a choice, but He did not dictate their actions.  Even with so much at stake God allowed Adam and Eve to make the choice on whether or not they would obey Him.

When we examine our lives we recognize that God has given us the liberty to pursue whatever we think will make us happy.  Our choices will, at times, limit our freedom.  Addictions and bad relationships, which are the result of our choices, can hold us in chains which are difficult to toss aside.

God's desire is that we will surrender our lives to Him and follow Jesus.  This is the best way to live and it is the way to usher God's Kingdom into this world.  Even though God is the sovereign Lord of the universe He is not a tyrant.  Instead God allows us the freedom to choice our own path, even when that path is destructive to the world He created. God has given us the freedom to love Him or reject Him.

Satan abhors Love

Daily Thought: God Wants Your Affection

Do you know what God desires most from you?  It's the one thing no other person on earth can give Him—your affection.  Although a thousand other people can do the work, give the bucks, fill the gap...no one else can give God the unique affection that only you and He can share.

Louie Giglio, The Air I Breathe, Multnomah Publishers (2003), pp. 31-32

Daily Thought: The Lasting Effect of Love

Now a man may be a very good doctor and yet have no love for his patients. He may be a very clever and successful lawyer and yet have no love for his clients. A merchant may prosper greatly in business without caring at all about his customers. A man may be able to explain the wonderful mysteries of science or theology without any love. But no man can be a true worker for God, and a successful winner of souls without love. He may be a great preacher in the eyes of the world and have crowds flocking to hear him, but if love to God and to souls is not the motive power, the effects will all pass away like the morning cloud and the early dew.

D. L. Moody, To The Work, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

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Daily Thought: Love Expands When Given Away

From the very beginning you were made for love.

It may be hard to accept, but you are the object of God's love. You were created out of love by him, and though you may not yet realize it, your soul longs to know this love. But it goes way beyond that. You are a creature of love. You are designed to love and be loved. Our search for intimacy explains our need for community, relationship, friendship, and acceptance; it is expressed most deeply in our need for romantic love.

We all long to belong. We are created to know love and to give love. Our need to love, though rooted in God, is not limited to him. Love is not a limited commodity. Love expands as we give it away. Love dies when we do not.

Without love there is no life. To love is to be fully human.

Erwin McManus, Soul Cravings, Thomas Nelson (2006), Intimacy: Entry 4


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Daily Thought: God Loves Each

Doctrines, political philosophies, and material possessions come to be ends in themselves, promoting our superiority, rather than means by which we serve persons valued by God. Eyes straying from the goal, we lose grasp of a remarkable point, though great Christian thinkers of our time have directed our attention to it. This is the key which should leap out any time we are dealing with friends or enemies or both: God loves each. And when I say, “leap out,” I do not mean this point should sneak up from behind, catching us off guard. Rather, our mind should put it foremost.

Snow, Michael (2011-10-01). Christian Pacifism: Fruit of the Narrow Way (Kindle Locations 570-574). mikesnow.org. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: A Spirit that Looks Outward

There are those who are greedy for this world's goods. Once again only Christianity can banish that spirit. If we judge things by purely material standards, there is no reason why we should not dedicate our lives to the task of getting. But Christianity introduces a spirit which looks outwards and not inwards. It makes love the highest value in life and service the greatest honour. When the love of God is in a man's heart, he will find joy not in getting but in giving.

William Barclay, DSB: The Letters to the Corinthians, The Westminster Press (1975), p. 47

A Life Lesson from Tim Tebow and the Broncos

I am a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Boston Celtics, and the Denver Broncos. I don't pay much attention to sports outside of those teams.  You can imagine that I am pleased with the way the Broncos, led by Tim Tebow, have been silencing the critics for the last three weeks.  Now, truth be told, when the Broncos used a first round pick last year to get Tebow I was not very happy, and I still have questions on whether or not he can have success over the long haul in the NFL, but I am cheering for the guy.  Not only because he is a man of character and faith, but also because he is showing the world that you can be different and be successful.

People who cover the NFL tell us that you need to be a drop back pocket passer to be successful, and that is not who Tim Tebow is.  The Broncos tried that, and in his second start this season, Tebow and the Broncos got embarrassed by the Detroit Lions.  That sent John Fox and the Bronco coaching staff to the drawing board to come up with a scheme that will enable Tebow to have success, and in the last three games they have.

That is the lesson that we, as followers of Christ and as Church Families, can take away from this.  In a world of sameness, God often requires us to be different.  For us to be obedient to the call God has placed on our lives requires us to use the unique skill set He has blessed given to us.  That is part of what being a member of Christ's body is all about:

For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don’t have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, if prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or service, let us give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching; or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, let him do it with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness (Romans 12:4-8; WEB).

We don't have to be a great preacher, writer, singer, or missionary to make a difference in the world for God's Kingdom. What we need to do is be faithful in using the gifts He has blessed us with to build His Kingdom. Our Church Family doesn't need to adopt the same programs that the successful church across town or across the country uses, but rather we need to think of creative ways to use the spiritual gifted and talented people who make up our Church Family. We are not called to copy our neighbor, but to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us.

People who are successful in athletics share a couple of traits regardless of their skill sets.  First, they work hard and develop their physical talents.  You can't be successful without hard work.  Second, the don't give up.  When they get knocked down they get back up and try again.  To follow Christ requires us to share certain traits with our fellow followers.  One is to live with faith, faith like Abraham's faith.  Regardless of your skill set this is a must, for you can't follow Jesus without it.  A second one is love, for love, we are told, is what defines us as followers of Jesus.  Love for God and a love for people.  As we use our talents in the context of faith and love we will discover that we are being transformed into the people God created us to be.

Linkage: Our Besetting Sin

As a scholar I appreciate what Dr. Ben Witherington has to say.  His commentary on Galatians, Grace in Galatia, proved to be a real guide to me as I preached through that Pauline Epistle.  His political commentary I find very frustrating since he writes it from a more left wing perspective.  With that being said I think this post, Our Besetting Sin, which deals with the Occupy Wall Street and the issues surrounding that movement is worth reading.  This thought, which is found towards the end, is the essential point that we need to remember: "The only cure for narcissism is a real conversion. Not just a change of direction, or a change of a few ideas, a real conversion which allows one to give up the self-centeredness and actually love God and neighbor."  Ultimately this isn't about a change in politics, it is a transformation of the heart, and that can only happen when we surrender our lives to Jesus and learn to love God and those around us.

I was watching the television interviews of some of the Occupy Wall Street young people. In this particular segment they seemed to only be able to find 22 year olds. That is, those just out of college who have not been able to find a job. The latter is understandable since the unemployment rate of 18-22 year olds is somewhere in the neighbor- hood of 25% or worse. They are angry. They feel they have been sold a bill of goods. They have been told, ‘get a good education and you will find your job and place in life’. Only that isn’t so much happening these days. There are a lot of unemployed college graduates, and the number of unemployed high school graduates who did not go on to college is astronomical. Your odds at least are better if you have a college degree. Looking around for someone to blame for this mess, the Occupy Wall Street crowd has fixed on Wall Street, on the Bernie Madoffs in our world (as in made off with our cash). And of course there is some truth to the rumor that greedy people on Wall Street caused the crash of 2008. But it is not the root of the problem. Nor is the root of the problem laziness. Nor is the root of the problem a lack of hard work. Americans still by and large are very hard workers, compared for example to the Greeks. No, none of this gets at the root of the problem.

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Daily Thought: Love is the Present Future

"That is why love is a virtue.  It is a language to be learned, a musical instrument to be practiced, a mountain to be climbed via some steep and tricky cliff paths but with the most amazing view from the top.  It is one of the things that will last; one of the traits of character which provides a genuine anticipation of that complete humanness we are promised at the end.  And it is one of the things, therefore, which can be anticipated in the present on the basis of the future goal...which is already given in Jesus Christ.  It is part of the future which can be drawn down into the present." ~ N. T. Wright, After You Believe, p. 183

Daily Thought: Love is Our Destiny

"Love is the language they speak in God's world, and we are summoned to learn it against the day when God's world and ours will be brought together forever.  It is the music they make in God's courts, and we are invited to learn it and practice it in advance.  Love is not a 'duty,' even our highest duty.  It is our destiny." ~ N. T. Wright, After You Believe, p. 188