One Life by Scot McKnight // Book Commentary

From the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, whether we are working or playing or traveling; whether we are wondering what God designed for us to accomplish in the world; whether we are serving in a homeless shelter or whether we are pouring coffee into espresso cups, our various dreams have their meaning only when they are enveloped by loving God and loving others. When we live in love, we live in the kingdom society Jesus came to create.

McKnight refers to the “SHEMA” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 / Mark 12:29-31) as being Jesus’ vision for true spiritual transformation, and I couldn’t agree more! This topic has spoken to me repeatedly where I feel, by design, the Lord postponed this commentary to further reveal a simple focus for God’s mission set before us in our city, that sometimes we can lose sight of reality at the expense of others God has intentionally placed in our lives. I believe that God is tenaciously pursuing us to live this SHEMA lifestyle, compelled only by His love, living out a simple love and radical generosity. If all love is “substitutionary sacrifice”, I can whole-heartedly say that I haven’t attained, fully released or surrendered this daily revolutionary lifestyle.

“UBUNTU” is an interesting African community perspective brought up in this book. Scott describes this interconnected society as what God’s “dream society on earth” should look like. I couldn’t agree more, if the primary goal is the simple love of Jesus manifest in our lives together, giving birth, and taking root in all the different facets of “UBUNTU”. This paves the way for salvation and revival to explode powerfully, the world will wonder; what’s going on here!? That said, I sense sometimes we focus too much on our own strategies, at risk of packaging this “Kingdom Dream Society” McKnight speaks of, settling for just a normal, morally united comfortable community, rather than the supernatural growth of the Kingdom of God where sacrificial transparency is lived out, where healing and transformation take place exponentially!!! We have a tendency to control, contain, structure and box in what seemingly wants to explode through simply embracing and walking out the truth with love of God.

I believe our focus should be solely on this dream of Jesus, spawned through seasons of fasting, intercessory prayer and radical generosity. McKnight refers to this in various forms as God’s Kingdom Life on Earth (Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…), a “heavenly perspective” lived out, “Eden unleashed”, essentially caring about our real future spent in eternity praising Jesus with every nation, every tribe and every tongue. I strongly believe this is the Kingdom Dream of Jesus at its core:

”If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” – 1 John 3

Lastly, I want to tackle Scot’s perspective on dreaming and imagination. “Those who treat Jesus’ white-hot imaginative stories as a little more than illustrations will deprive themselves of an opportunity to set their own imagination free, it all begins with a dream big enough to capture the heart.” This perspective affirms my zeal to want more of Jesus in my life. I believe that Jesus has given us a dream of a just world (which is a pretty broad statement, if your coming from all possible angles), and the more I embrace intimacy, and dive into the Word; it’s not so much that the Lord squashes my imagination, He further implants vision and a desire in my heart to be partnered with others to live out a heavenly perspective through love! It’s beautiful and can only move forward through love, community, partnership, discipleship. Dream and imagination really at its core, committed to God’s purposes prayerfully, moment to moment, can only empower the upside down Kingdom revolution forward.

There is so much more I can take out of this book, but as in one of the points Scot makes; “Ordinary work is where God is at work.” BE LOVE. ONE LIFE!

Jesus offers to us a kingdom dream that transforms us to the very core of our being,’ says Scot McKnight. ‘His vision is so big we are called to give our entire life to it. His vision is so big it swallows up our dreams.’ Discover exactly what Jesus meant when he announced the arrival of God’s kingdom. Equipping you with a new understanding of that kingdom’s radical nature, One.Life shares profound, challenging, and practical insights on how to demonstrate its reality in your life.

BUY THE BOOK HERE!