{"id":900,"date":"2019-04-09T04:38:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T04:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=900"},"modified":"2019-04-09T12:38:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T12:38:43","slug":"god-fine-quit-worrying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html","title":{"rendered":"You and God are Fine, Quit Worrying About It!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"unsplash-logoPriscilla
Priscilla Du Preez<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The night before Jesus died, as he sat down to enjoy a last supper with his disciples, he gave his disciples a new command that would change everything!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA new command\u00a0I give you: Love one another.\u00a0As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.\u201d<\/b><\/span> John 13:34-35<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the big deal about this new command?\u00a0<\/span>Well, in the previous covenant with Israel that Jesus had come to fulfill and replace, the 600+ commandments were how you kept on God\u2019s good side. It\u2019s how you ensured that He would protect you and bless your crops and expand the borders of the nation. It was a conditional covenant: if they obeyed, God would bless them. If they didn\u2019t, God would curse them.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you read the Old Testament, and I hope you do because it\u2019s a fascinating history of God\u2019s interaction with humanity before Jesus, you\u2019ll discover that humans, even religious ones, have a really bad track record of obeying God. No matter how hard we try, we can\u2019t. We can\u2019t be good all the time. We can\u2019t be good enough on our own to stay on God\u2019s good side.<\/span><\/p>\n

And for some of you, that\u2019s what\u2019s made religion, even Christianity so exhausting. You try your best to\u00a0<\/span>do what you\u2019re supposed to do. You try to get up every morning and read your Bible, you pray as often as you can, you stay away from bad stuff and bad people, you try your hardest to be nice to your family all the time. You come to church every time the doors are open, you give to the church and go on mission trips, all trying to stay on God\u2019s good side. You assume that if you obey enough, if you work hard enough, God will bless you and protect you. The problem is, working to stay in God\u2019s good graces is exhausting. Religion is absolutely exhausting. And at the end of the day, you\u2019re still not going to be good enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s fascinating is that this one new commandment has nothing to do with God. It has to do with each other. Did you catch that? <\/span>If Jesus was introducing a new religion you would expect him to give in fine detail exactly all the things we should do to earn God\u2019s favor and blessing. How much are we supposed to pray? How much are we supposed to read our Bibles? How much do we have to go to church? How much money are we supposed to give back to God? Is it really 10% or is there a loophole in there somewhere?<\/span><\/p>\n

The disciples wanted to know, just like we want to know: how can we be made right with God? How can we earn God\u2019s favor? What do we need to do?\u00a0<\/span>Jesus gives them the one commandment and it doesn\u2019t even mention anything about God. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus would say: you\u2019re missing the whole point. I\u2019m taking care of everything between you and God. I\u2019m the sacrifice, once-and-for-all. Once I do what I\u2019m about to do, you\u2019ll never have to worry about being good enough for God again. <\/em><\/span>I\u2019ve done the hard work. I\u2019ll make the sacrifice. Just believe in me!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So why did Jesus give his disciples only one commandment, which had nothing to do with God, but with each other? Because Jesus was trying to get his disciples to understand, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about your relationship with God. Don\u2019t worry about obeying God to earn His favor or blessing. I\u2019ve got you covered. Don\u2019t worry about your relationship with God. You\u2019re good! Go love each other.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Wow! What a message. If you read the New Testament letters, you\u2019ll discover that early Christians struggled with this revolutionary concept. If you read the book of Galatians, it\u2019s the Apostle Paul reminding Christians that they don\u2019t have to earn God\u2019s favor anymore. Jesus took care of that! You can\u2019t earn God\u2019s favor any more than you can earn salvation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus took care of it all!\u00a0Quit worrying about your relationship with God. You and God are good through Jesus! Love each other.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The night before Jesus died, as he sat down to enjoy a last supper with his disciples, he gave his disciples a new command that would change everything!\u00a0 \u201cA new command\u00a0I give you: Love one another.\u00a0As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[391,27,65,61,392],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-command","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-love","tag-worry"],"yoast_head":"\nYou and God are Fine, Quit Worrying About It! - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Religion can be absolutely exhausting, working every day trying to earn God's favor and stay on His good side. Jesus came to change all that!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You and God are Fine, Quit Worrying About It! - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Religion can be absolutely exhausting, working every day trying to earn God's favor and stay on His good side. Jesus came to change all that!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-09T04:38:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-09T12:38:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2019\/04\/priscilla-du-preez-1488410-unsplash-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"You and God are Fine, Quit Worrying About It! - Next Steps","description":"Religion can be absolutely exhausting, working every day trying to earn God's favor and stay on His good side. Jesus came to change all that!","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"You and God are Fine, Quit Worrying About It! - Next Steps","og_description":"Religion can be absolutely exhausting, working every day trying to earn God's favor and stay on His good side. Jesus came to change all that!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html","og_site_name":"Next Steps","article_author":"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","article_published_time":"2019-04-09T04:38:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-04-09T12:38:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2019\/04\/priscilla-du-preez-1488410-unsplash-200x300.jpg"}],"author":"Josh Daffern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joshdaffern","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html","name":"You and God are Fine, Quit Worrying About It! - Next Steps","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2019\/04\/priscilla-du-preez-1488410-unsplash-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2019-04-09T04:38:31+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-09T12:38:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c"},"description":"Religion can be absolutely exhausting, working every day trying to earn God's favor and stay on His good side. Jesus came to change all that!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2019\/04\/priscilla-du-preez-1488410-unsplash-200x300.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/files\/2019\/04\/priscilla-du-preez-1488410-unsplash-200x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/04\/god-fine-quit-worrying.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"You and God are Fine, Quit Worrying About It!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/","name":"Next Steps","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Josh Daffern","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c","name":"Josh Daffern","description":"Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. Enjoy the blog!","sameAs":["http:\/\/joshdaffern.com","facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","https:\/\/x.com\/joshdaffern"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/author\/jdaffern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}