Love is known as the "greatest commandment." But if love must be freely given, how can you "command" love? In this episode we consider what the Law of Love is all about, why it is impossible for us to obey it, and how God empowers us to fulfill it in spite of our weakness.

Chip Brogden is a best-selling author, teacher, and former pastor who shares "real, simple, truth" about a Christ-centered faith that is based on relationship, not religion

If you’d like to get additional teachings, audio recordings, books, and other Christ-centered resources to help you grow spiritually, visit ChipBrogden.com.

Love is known as the "greatest commandment." But if love must be freely given, how can you "command" love? In this episode we consider what the Law of Love is all about, why it is impossible for us to obey it, and how God empowers us to fulfill it in spite of our weakness.

Chip Brogden is a best-selling author, teacher, and former pastor who shares "real, simple, truth" about a Christ-centered faith that is based on relationship, not religion.

If you’d like to get additional teachings, audio recordings, books, and other Christ-centered resources to help you grow spiritually, visit ChipBrogden.com.

True faith leads to fearlessness – boldness, confidence, and assurance – that, regardless of whether I understand things, regardless of whether I like them, regardless of whatever thing I am faced with or forced to go through, God is Who He says He is, and He will do what He says He will do.

Why doesn’t God do something? Why doesn’t God heal me? Why didn’t God prevent this from happening? How long must I wait? How long before the answer comes? These are a sampling of complaints from the frustrated soul, sometimes breathed out in prayer to God, often muttered under our breath to no one in particular, and frequently rehearsed over and over again in our mind. When we look at our environment, we are rewarded with Frustration. But even a negative emotion like frustration can be used for a holy purpose. It is a journey all of us must take that brings us from Frustration to Faith.

As we draw near to the second coming of Christ there is a prophetic urgency that brings both the same promise and the same meaning that John the Baptist did when he says that the axe is laid to the root of the tree. He is coming to thoroughly purge His threshing floor. He's going to separate wheat from chaff. Also, in Malachi it talks about how, “He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them as gold and silver are refined.” He’s going to separate the dross from the pure. Separate sheep from goats, foolish from wise.

Well, it happened once; and I believe it's going to happen again, and it is happening, as God raises up the same spirit and power of Elijah here in these last days: to warn God's people to "come out of her" so that they don't suffer the same judgment.

When you look to the Word of God – not to a man, not to a movement, but to the Word of God – you actually see that the condition of the church in the last days has already been prophesied. We know exactly what to expect. We know exactly what to look for. Not only has it been prophesied, but we actually have a spiritual parallel in the nation of Israel. We’ve been talking about John the Baptist, and how he prepared a place for the Lord in the wilderness, outside the camp. The whole story of John the Baptist reveals not only the spiritual importance, but also the prophetic significance, of the wilderness experience; and it teaches lessons you and I need to know as we also endeavor to follow Jesus outside the camp.

John the Baptist represents the spiritual journey of a person who is going outside the camp, outside of organized religion, and discovering the simplicity of Christ. John the Baptist had a profound revelation of Christ, and with that revelation came the realization that the religious system of Judaism could not be reformed or revived, but would have to be repudiated.

When you really look at the Word of God as a whole – not just one or two verses they like to quote in church all the time, but really look at the Word of God, and look at the history of Judaism – we see that there is much more written about the wilderness experience of coming out of Babylon and going into the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. Making that journey “into the wilderness” is just another way of saying “going outside the camp to be with Jesus.” It means you’re leaving behind the safe, comfortable, familiar world and you’re making a new, exciting, journey into the spiritual depths of Christ, where you are reduced to Jesus. Because you see, in the wilderness, you have to rely upon the Lord for daily bread, and water from a rock. Your spiritual life is revealed for what it really is, and there in the wilderness you learn the difference between a religion about Jesus and a relationship with Jesus.

Can we trust God to bring the right people into our life? Hopefully we will learn sooner, rather than later, than whenever we go out and try to “make something happen” we tend to make a mess of things. Our hunger and thirst for fellowship opens us up to the possibility of entering into relationships with people who will do us more harm than good. Lonely people are easy prey for wolves in sheep’s clothing. If we look to the Lord to meet all our needs – including our need for social interaction and fellowship – then He will certainly bring the right people into our life, at the right time, and for the right reason.

Jesus said that He is in the midst of two or three who are gathered in His Name. For all the talk about “gathering together” it really isn’t that difficult, if you just eliminate from your mind the old institutional obsession with large numbers. Jesus is not so interested in numbers. He is very non-specific – He says, two or three. Could be as little as two. Could be as many as three. Just two or three. Very small. Very insignificant in terms of what we have come to expect a “gathering” is supposed to look like. Jesus says He is in the midst of as few as two or three who are gathered together in His Name. I just think that is very liberating. Very freeing, that we do not have to gather dozens or hundreds or thousands of people together and put them in a box. You can call the box a church or a house church or a group or a conference or a meeting or a gathering, but whatever you call it, that “box” often gets in the way of the simplicity of Christ.

in First Corinthians 11: 17, Paul says, “Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse.” And I think the describes most of the meetings and services and gatherings taking place today – they come together not for the better, but for the worse. Perhaps because they have already lost the simplicity of Christ, and they have turned the Christian life into a series of religious meetings and services – and I don’t just mean organized religion, I mean house churches and home groups as well, because they can be just as religious and dead as the denominational systems they claim to have come out of.

But what made their gathering together so much for the worse that Paul said I can’t even praise you for gathering together? What were they doing wrong?

I know all about Hebrews 10:25, and I’ve taught from that passage many times over the years, from the perspective of the pastor trying to scare his members into coming to church, as well as from the perspective of someone following Jesus outside the camp with no church agenda, a little more wisdom, and a lot more maturity, so I can rightly divide the Word of God and not let my “yeah, but” get in the way of what the Holy Spirit wants to say.

What does Hebrews 10:25 mean, in context? Have you forsaken the assembling of yourselves together when you stop going to church? Let’s see what the Word of God has to say.

Jesus says you have fallen. Why? Because in all this busy, busy, busy, doing, doing, doing, you lost something along the way: you lost your first love. That’s just an absolute tragedy. And there it is, right there in the New Testament! You want a New Testament pattern? Here is it right here: a church-centered faith became more important than a Christ-centered faith, Jesus got lost in the middle of all these works being done in His Name. Same pattern that has repeated itself for 2,000 years now, the same pattern we see in Churchianity today.

What is the difference between religion and relationship? I think it’s something we need to seriously consider. You know, I use that word relationship quite a bit, and I think most people assume that having a relationship with God, and being religious, is just about the same thing. 9 out of 10 church people, if you ask them if they have a relationship with God, will say, “Well yeah, of course I have a relationship with God. That’s why I go to church once, twice, three times a week.” And if you ever get a chance to talk about your relationship with God, they will look at you funny and say (either to themselves or sometimes out loud), “How can you have a relationship with God if you don’t even go to church?” So you see, I don’t think people have the right appreciation for the difference between religion and relationship.

Today I think it is very possible that large numbers of people are just Christians by default. They don’t have any revelation, so they have never experienced a revolution. Maybe they went to church, go convicted, cried some tears and now they go to preaching on Sundays, but have they really met the Lord?

Paul was a very, very religious person. And as a religious person, he had a lot to boast about. But one day, on the Road to Damascus, Paul met Jesus, and that triggered a revolution in Paul. It changed his beliefs, it changed his behavior, it changed the way he saw himself, the way he saw his religion, the way he saw the world. Later on, they would say that Paul was turning the world upside down. But what I want you to see is that before Paul could turn the world upside down, Paul’s own world was turned upside down.

Welcome to Outside the Camp, the podcast for people who are learning what it means to follow Jesus without going to church.

If you are burned out on religion, if you are fed up with church, if you don’t feel as
if you fit in to the popular Christian culture, and you are hungry and thirsty for truth on a deeper level, then my message to you is simple:

"You are not crazy, you are not alone, and now is the greatest opportunity of your life!"