Loving Your Neighbor with Nana Dolce
On today’s episode, we’re chatting with Nana Dolce about loving our neighbors, even in the midst of challenging times like we’re facing right now with COVID-19. This conversation is packed with biblical truth. We think it will be such a help to you as you seek to walk in obedience to Christ’s commands to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Nana Dolce teaches women and children in her local church--where her husband is the Director of Discipleship. She has a Master of Arts in Theological Studies and serves as an instructor for Charles Simeon Trust Bible exposition workshops. Nana writes for various ministries, including Christianity Today, Risen Motherhood, and The Gospel Coalition.
Can you tell us a little about who you are and what you do?
How did Jesus love his neighbor during his time here on earth?
How does considering the ultimate act of self-giving, his death on the cross, speak to us when we find others difficult to love?
What would it look like for us to draw near to others, just as Christ drew near to us? How can we love as we've been loved?
What do you do when you want to pull away from loving others because it feels too hard or too costly?
What's the difference between thinking of justification as personal versus communal? Why is it important to consider both?
How does the cross move us toward others, through acts of service and through evangelism?
How would this change the way we view the people in our neighborhoods? In our pews at church? In our community groups? In women's Bible study?
What does it look like to love others who are different than you? What would it look like to do that well?
What would it look like to embrace our limitations as we go about the rewarding, yet difficult work of loving our neighbors?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“Jesus is sitting there telling the story of the good Samaritan, but he himself is the ultimate good Samaritan. He’s the one who sees his neighbors, or sees his enemies really, dead. They are completely dead in their sins. Jesus doesn’t pass by but he extends mercy.”
“We are a people who have rebelled against our Creator in sin from the very beginning. In his coming, Jesus emptied himself. He takes on the form of servant and in mercy he draws near to us. He draws near to neighbors who are in fact sinful enemies.”
“Jesus comes and he is touching people. He’s healing them. He’s feeding them. He’s teaching them. He’s praying for them. Ultimately he will die for them.”
“He rescues his enemies. He lives a perfectly obedient life. He is the one who loves God and his neighbor perfectly. He satisfies every command of God and he exchanges his perfect righteousness for our sins. He takes those sins and suffers the penalty for them, and the judgement that is due me he takes the penalty. He credits his perfect obedience to me. He reconciles me and makes me from an enemy to a friend.”
“Jesus is an amazing neighbor in how he loves us by giving himself completely for the sake of our redemption.”
“Christian love isn’t shaped by a desire simply to be nice to others. It goes much deeper than that. Christian love is motivated and defined by the gospel. It is us loving as we have been loved, because we live through the ultimate good neighbor, the ultimate good Samaritan.”
“All of these are neighbors: classmates, coworkers, brothers and sisters in Christ in my church and the global Church, strangers, people who may not like me, people who cut me off on the road or take my parking spot - all of these are neighbors. I’m called to move near them in love in view of the gospel because of the one who moved toward me in love, even when I was in my sins, as an enemy of God. I love as I am loved.”
“I know that I’m supposed to love my neighbor but there are old voices in my head and besetting sins in my heart that get in the way of that. I will protect my time, resources, and heart from people.”
“God isn’t calling me to safety, he’s calling me to total love of him.”
“How much do I trust God? Am I resting completely in him or still trying to keep myself safe and trust myself?”
“How much am I trusting myself to God and being secure in him and giving in a way that are really vulnerable to other people?”
“The story of the widow of Zarephath shows us that she is ultimately sustained by God’s promise and not by that handful of flour. She believed God’s word would sustain her, and she fed Elijah out of the scarcity of her pantry. And God proves faithful. We are sustained by the Lord himself. We are not sustained by what we have, our resources, our energies, our capacities. It is the Lord who keeps us.”
“Pray for grace.”
“He is a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He was made like us in every way. He has been tempted in every way, yet is without sin. We can praise God for the uniqueness of our Savior. Jesus is truly God and truly man who has walked the dusty earth. He loved neighbors when it was hard to love neighbors. He gave himself when he was tired and hungry. He pursued people who betrayed him. He understands the temptations we face when it’s costly.”
“We are all sinners, but individually I am a sinner standing before a judge who judges sin. All of my sins deserve an exact right judgement because he is just. But he’s also so faithful and merciful. In his mercy, he does execute perfect justice against my sins through the death of Jesus on my behalf.”
“Our judge has become our justifier. We are now children who are encouraged to come near.”
“You are declared righteous but called to live out that righteousness within community with others. If you are declared righteous, he then empowers you with his Holy Spirit to progressively show some actual righteousness of your own through your daily life with others. To the extent that you are justified freely by his grace, you are called to extend that same grace to others. Christians are a people of love, a community that is supposed to be known by our love.”
“Remembering how Jesus has loved me, helps me to draw near to others.”
“His sacrifice is what I’m called to imitate. It’s the Lord I’m serving.”
“Take it to the Lord in prayer. Pray in all things about everything.”
“We are called to love those who are different from us in the same way that Christ, who is very different from us in sinlessness, loved us.”
“The examples of saints in the past, Scripture, and the example of our Lord himself helps us to pray for whoever we feel like we can’t move to.”
RESOURCES
Pray for our hearts to remember Christ and what he has done for us
The Story of Samuel Kaboo Morris
ep. 61 | Growing in Godliness with Nana Dolce
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What does it mean to love your neighbor as Jesus modeled for us?
How is Christian love for our neighbor distinct from a general desire to be kind to others?
What are the difficulties you face in loving your neighbors?
What would it look like to love your neighbors this week?
How does knowing God change who you are and how you interact with the world around you?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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