Our Mandate

While reading my Bible and listening to the radio today, several things were impressed upon my mind. So, I started to blog. I was a little over half-way done, when we went to church. God really must want to imprint this on my mind, because He again hammered me with His mandate for me,
and everyone.

I’m sure some of you know what “Maundy” means, but I was enlightened from my ignorance today when I heard it explained on the radio. I just used to think of Maundy Thursday as the day of the Last Supper, when we would remember the Lord and what he has done for us by partaking in communion. Now this isn’t exactly a wrong view, but it only recognizes perhaps half of the significance of this day. “Maundy” is derived from the Latin word mandatum, which is where we get our word “mandate”.

It is very important to remember what Christ went through and did for us, but it is equally important for us to remember His mandate for us. What was His mandate? Consider the following:

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end…(Jesus) rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded… So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them… A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (Taken from John 13)

Christ showed His humility as well as His serving attitude by washing the disciples’ feet…He wants His followers to live with this same mind set:

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Phil 2:3-5 (NKJV)

It would be impossible to live for Christ if we didn’t have His perfect example set before us. He lived out that which He preached. Writing these blogs is sometimes very convicting. I can write them, but do I live them? Thankfully, God uses the writings, to help me refocus on striving after the way of truth. I am thankful that Christ not only told us the way we should go, but He lived it out Himself. He talked the talk, and walked the walk.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Eph 5:1-2 (NKJV)

Finally, Christ told His disciples a lot of things, but the mandate that summarizes them all is to love one another. Not to be mistaken with worldly lust, Christ wants us to love all with His kind of love- Love that will be for the betterment of others. In doing this, we fulfill all other mandates. If we walk in love, we will be fulfilling the command to be a humble servant to those around us. If we walk in love, we will be imitating our Perfect Example. God help us keep and honor this charge!

Daniel Wanschura