Sand Mountain Sermonette 24
John 13:34; Luke 10:27
Chemistry 103
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34
In order to receive my undergraduate degree in Secondary Education, my course load had to include two freshman-level courses in chemistry. I took these courses: Chemistry 103 and 104, at Snead State Jr. College in Boaz, Alabama in the early Seventies. And it was in Chemistry 103 that met the original “Nutty Professor” as far as I was concerned, by the name of Dr. Johnson.
I will never forget my first class. There were about twenty-five students in their seats as Dr. Johnson walked in all dressed in his neatly pressed lab coat. As our professor began to lecture, a girl sitting to my left leaned over and called my attention to an unmarked silver gallon-sized paint can complete with lid snapped tightly shut, sitting on a table to our teacher’s left. And then she said, “Keep your eyes on that can because in a few minutes the lid will blow off the top of it high into the air.” Well, we both laughed but all the while I found myself attempting to look at my teacher while at the same time fixing my eyes on the can on the table!
Well, with only about ten minutes left in class and believing I had been played, the class heard a “BOOM!” accompanied by the lid on that can popping high into the air! Naturally, we were stunned! Then, Dr. Johnson who never once looked over to that can during his lecture asked us what we thought had happened to cause the reaction we had just observed, and after several students gave their answers, he proceeded to teach “chemistry” to us. He made learning fun, and there was always a “surprise” around every corner! (Oh! When asking the girl seated to my left how she knew the lid was going to blow off the can, she said she had had Dr. Johnson for class before).
Whether in a chemistry class in college or High School, most of us have probably heard of the acid test which is a proven way of identifying a substance. The acid test for the Christian life is John 13:34. Jesus had given us what He would call “The Great Commandment” found in Luke 10:27 which reads, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” But Jesus knew loving others as oneself was at its best at the level of the old commandment (See Leviticus 19:18). Jesus knew we needed a new and fresh expression of His Father’s unlimited, unconditional, unselfish, and unchangeable love that had always been around but now could be unleashed in us via the Holy Spirit in our day to day experiences. Therefore, on the eve of His crucifixion, He called His disciples to a new level of love that is the oxygen of the Kingdom, and the acid test for identifying what motivates the attitude and the actions of Jesus’ true disciples today. To love as Christ loves also blows the lid off stale Christianity becoming a mighty witness for Christ to the lost and dying world around us!
Pastor Louie