Always Be An Amateur

Despite being an amateur, Bobby Jones dominated the golfing world in the 1920s. There were many who tried to emulate him because they admired him and wanted to be like him. He was once asked when he was going to quit being an amateur and go professional. He answered by explaining that the word, “amateur” comes from the Latin, meaning, “To love.” He played golf because he loved the game, not to make money. What is our motive for serving Christ? It should be because we love Him. If we are a true believer we love Him and want to emulate Him in thought, word and deed. How can we be more like Christ more and more? It would be by loving Him more and more, and we prove our love Him by obeying Him (I Jn.5:2-3). This love is not just emotional, but demonstrative. We prove our love to Him by loving one another just as we love ourselves (Mt. 19:19). Do we feed, clothe and shelter ourselves? To love our “neighbor” as we love ourselves is impossible within ourselves, it must come from God as we choose to love. In Luke 10:25-37, a lawyer asked Jesus what he could do to obtain this “eternal life.” The lawyer even could quote the Old Testament scriptures, but he did not know their “true” meaning, so Jesus gave Him a living example of “loving others as we do ourselves.” This story is about “The Good Samaritan,” and an unidentified man who had been beaten and robbed, and left to die on the road. Read the story about the Samaritan who was the only one who offered help to the dying man. Samaritans were half breeds who were despised by the Jews. The Good Samaritan treated the dying man (possibly his enemy) as he would have wanted others to treat him if he had been the one lying by the road dying. This is a perfect picture of the “Golden Rule,” – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matt.7:12). We can only love like this by first “knowing” Jesus as Savior, then by choosing to “walk” with Him and obeying Him, then we love Him more and more, and His love flows through us to others, even the most unlovable. We may not love their ways, but we can love their eternal souls and don’t want them to be lost in hell eternally, just as we love our eternal souls. This is how we can emulate Jesus – “He loved us while we were still sinners,” and walking far away from Him (Rom.5:8). Jesus doesn’t love our sin and can’t fellowship with us while we choose to continue to sin, but all we have to do is to “confess our sin, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). Only by choosing to love Jesus Christ can we choose to love one another. Do we love the murderers, the human traffickers, the child abusers, the Isis, etc.? Of course we do not love their sin, but we must love their eternal souls and pray for them (Mt.5:43). There is something about praying for those who hurt us and others that changes the way we look at them. We do not agree with their actions or want to be with them, but as children of God we must choose to love them as one of God’s creation who has an eternal soul which will live eternally either in heaven, (if they choose Christ), or in hell (if they do not choose Christ). Love is a choice, we choose to accept and love Jesus Christ and then we can choose to love others as ourselves. We should always choose to be “Amateurs” for Jesus!