Love is Here

The past few days God has been reminding me of and expanding on a huge aspect of my faith that I'd long forgotten, due to the pressures of the church I'd grown up in. 1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

The greatest of these is love. Paul captured the essence of Jesus' teachings in this statement. In all of Jesus' time on the earth, every second was spent loving God's people. His love for everyone was the greatest emphasis in his works. His ability to love even the worst of men shocked the world, and was intended to persuade his followers into lives of unconditional loving.

Today, we are called to be disciples of Christ. We are to go into all the nations and tell the world what Jesus has done for us, continuing his works. But I feel like society today gets caught up in the technicalities of religion and brushes off the most important part of the faith. Sadly, our modern day southern baptist churches tend to lean toward nothing more than a bunch of modern day Pharisees. We put so much emphasis on following the rules and doing good works that we neglect our real duties as followers of Christ: to grow in a relationship with God and to show his love to the world. I don't know about you, but it's been real easy for me to forget the "real" of Christianity and just focus on following the commandments laid out in the Bible. But when we do that, we harbor resentment and judgment in our hearts towards those who do not follow all the rules or say all the right things. Because we are so focused on the technicalities, we scorn those who are still lost, rather than being love so that they may understand and be found. Such hypocrisy! It's no wonder so many Americans are turned off by churches these days; we judge them before they have a chance to find God and be changed.

Jesus associated with the least of men, the tax collectors, thieves, and the greatest of sinners. He didn't discriminate, so what right do we have to stay comfortably within our small circle of "church friends" and ostracize the lost of the world? If we make love, sincerity, humility, and compassion the center of our lives, then being obedient will naturally follow.

The realization of how simple it can be to live for God and to be his light to the world gave new hope for my faith. My challenge for the world: be love.


And Matthew 22:37-39: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"