Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Jesus didn't say:
"love only the people you like"
"love only the people who look like you; dress like you; sound like you and act like you"
"love only the people who believe like you"
"love only the people who go to your church"
"love only the people who vote like you"
"love only the people who are happy"
"love only the people who don't disagree with you"
"love only the people in your 'camp'"
Jesus said,"love your neighbor as yourself". That means everyone. And He didn't say to just love them, He said to love them as yourself. That is taking it to the next level. All of those ways you love yourself....food, water, clean clothes, restaurants, cars, homes, dessert, manicures, the dentist, Starbucks, vacations. Those are just tiny examples of the way we Americans love ourselves. Can you image what would happen if we did a fraction of that for other people?
I am not talking about living in poverty, giving up everything so that you can give to others.(that's another blog :-) I am talking about doing for others, what you do for yourself. So next time you go pull out that debit card or (shame on you) credit card, think before you spend. And ask yourself, Would I do this for someone else? Could I do this for someone else? Have I done this for someone else? And if the answer is NO....then why not?
We are failing. We are teaching our children that love is conditional. That love is based on what people can give us and how they make us feel. What we must learn and teach is that Love can not be based on what someone can give us, but instead what we can give them, through Christ. We the Church must learn and teach that rules, coventants, creeds, and systems do not out rank love. Jesus ate with sinners, talked with sinners, walked with sinners, and died for sinners. Why? Because He loves us, the sinner. He didn't follow the rules He only followed His mission.
Love is a topic that is so HUGE I could go on and on. I think the biggest black and white issue on LOVE that we are missing is that love is an action. Love at it's truest form can only happen when we love because He first loved us. It can only happen when love is the overflow of a heart filled up with Christ. When we love each other BECAUSE Christ loved us, we can easily overlook peoples sins, people's skin color, people's religion, people's lifestyle choices, people's income, people's tattoos, people's attitude and we can see people for who God created them to be. We can love people and allow God to do the rest. We can love them and see the potential that God has created them for, not the payoff that they can give us.
Love is and action fueled by Christ's love for us. Being Judgmental is a reaction fueled by entitlement and pride. I by know means am saying that we ignore sins. I am just saying that we love first and then let's see what happens.
The "world" doesn't step into our churches because the "world" doesn't trust that we will love them first. That we will love them without judgement.
That we will love them like Jesus has loved us.
The world only sees that we have already judged them.
We have failed!
1 John 4:8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
John 13:34-35 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
1 Corinthians 13
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;t but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!
10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.t All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
~LL
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