Andy Stanley — Letting Go
Jesus’ arrival signaled an end to one way of relating to God and the beginning of something entirely new. Jesus instructed us to love one another as well as those who won’t love us back.
Over time and across cultures, different churches have tried to live that out in different ways. But when you reduce church to its irreducible minimum, it is a group of people doing their best to follow a teacher —Jesus— that we believe was sent from God to clear the way to God.
The arrival of Jesus signaled an end to the temple model and the beginning of something entirely new—no more sacred places and no more sacred people.
The Old Testament was fulfilled and its laws reduced to a single verb—love—to be applied to God, neighbor, an enemy. The church got off to an incredible start, but over time the temple thinking resurfaced. It’s still with us today. It makes the church resistible. But together we will resist it.