For some reason the Church is divided on how to be Jesus in a modern age, to a modern people, without forsaking our biblical principles. I think Jesus gave us a simple solution. Like all our "simple" biblical ideas, they are usual deep, in that they require us to dig within ourselves and work on us....that's always the most complicated aspect of our Christian faith - facing ourselves and allowing Him to change us. Notice I said Him change US and not Him change them..... Exactly.
Christ said ABOVE ALL....LOVE. Not love ourselves, not love our traditions, not love our dogma....but LOVE God and LOVE others. 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.’40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments" (Matthew 22). So what does loving God mean? Does it mean be as the Pharisees and Sadducees were? Teaching and taunting and never connecting with the people they said they were there to reach? Does it mean knowing as much information as we can cram into our brains? What does loving God look like? REALLY?
What does loving others look like? Do we love everyone that we point a finger at and condemn? Do we love our kids when we demand they love God but we call them names and rip away their confidence? What does loving someone else REALLY look like? 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 (1 Corinthians 13). It's not rocket science...it's not hard in concept, it's hard in practice. It's hard for every believer. It's a daily choice we make. It's something we must desire more than we desire our own way, more than we desire to be right, more than we desire to "win" a debate.
The reality is the ONLY people Jesus ever showed frustration toward were religious people. He never grew frustrated with the "dirtiest" of people He came across. He wasn't even mad when He told Peter that he would deny is Lord three times before the rooster crowed. Jesus had patience for people. The only thing that made Him furious were people who claimed to have the interest of God as a priority and who truly did not (See: Matthew 23 and John 2 to name a few). Church...we have a call to be like Him and the ONLY things that really matter to Jesus are PEOPLE. At what point do we give up our own agendas, reach across the racial isle, the political isle, the traditional denominational isle, and LOVE like He did. Souls are in the balance.
Let Him be our guide.
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God,is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. (John 1).
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