God is love. We can only love because God first loved us. God's love (and Christian love, agape) is sacrificial (John 3:16; I Corinthians 13:1-6), God-centered, and action oriented. God's love means to fulfill the law of God in relationship to another person (Romans 13:8-10). It means to do the will of God - i.e., to obey the commandments of God (John 15:9, 10).
As stated in my last blog “The Agenda,” the Christian community over time has cherry picked certain “sins” to be more egregious to God than others, and I would dare to state that any action taken by men that is devoid of love is “dead” to God. In Corinthians 13:2 Paul says, that even if I have the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing!
The church has been wrong at times with regards to racial, gender, and socioeconomic exclusions, while promoting those of proper breeding, influence, and power to a higher status. Jesus clearly did not condone these actions. There are church’s like one in KS that promote hate and discrimination yet have no clue what their own scriptures say about loving their neighbors. Jesus did NOT say, “Love your straight neighbors, but hate all others!" God forbid! Yet like Saul of Tarsus, I am confident that these people think they are right in the center of God’s “will," despite what the Word of God says.
With approximately 30,000 - 40,000 Christian denominations in existence today, the Church is probably the most divided religious organization in the world! Ironically many of the denominations believe their core tenets are truth and the others are "heretics." We quibble over Catholic or Protestant, Calvinism or Arminianism, Tithing, Tongues, Baptism, Gifts of the Spirit, and 'once saved always saved,' yet many of us miss the Heart of Jesus. He just said, TO LOVE... over and over and over again! His assertion to us is to love, forgive, have mercy, give grace, receive faith, speak hope, and seek joy!
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus equates hate to murder, a lusting heart to adultery, and in 1st John 4:8 it says “whoever does not love does not know God, for God is Love”. I have known a lot of people and pastors in churches that are unloving, cold, and full of judgment/legalism. With a repentant heart I admit I have been there myself. I am not sure any of us can say we are innocent of malice, unforgiveness, and lust (at times) in our lives. So woe to us that cast the 1st stone. My heart in “The Agenda” was not to harm, but to alarm, it was not to condemn, but to rightly divide the Word of Truth. It was a call to the body of Christ to wake up! 2 Timothy 2:15
So when it comes to issues like pride, divorce, gluttony, hatred, gossip, heart lust, material and physical idolatry, disregard for the Sabbath and many others as lesser sins then we should stop and take a moral inventory. We need to challenge our modern disposition that has a propensity to charge violently at the "major sins" (as we see them), and instead ask God for His eternal perspective.
The point of this blog is not to poke a finger in the eye of the Church, but rather to gently and respectfully ask her to remove the plank, so that she can help others with "the speck.” If our heart is truly for people to know The Lord, and for others to be drawn to the Church, then we MUST radiate the love that Christ lived, died, and rose again for! Moses face was “radiant” when he was in the presence of The Lord. Imagine if the Church partnered toward that same beauty filled endeavor, it would be awesome! Let us remember we aren’t just living to die and go to heaven, but rather, we live to love, and we will fight to lay hold of the prize! And one day we will be Immortals in the Thousand Year Reign of Christ back here on a New Earth. We will reign with Messiah in the New Jerusalem, with full access to the New Heaven. Take heart, Jesus will war again to finalize this epoch of history!
So let us be mindful not to marginalize or exclude. No sin should ever be swept under the carpet of our post-modern cathedrals, because sin in its simplest form, still separates us from our Fathers heart. Let us strive to create love where there is hate, acceptance where there is ostracism, forgiveness where there is judgment. If for any reason we cannot extend a hand of grace, then haven’t we but reduced ourselves to mere “posers for Jesus?” It’s time to Rise. Christians' Rise!
It is a fine line to walk, as we are called to love unconditionally yet there is spiritual warfare all around us. As persecution abounds, we will feel the dichotomy of being inclined to fight in the physical sense of the word while trying to balance things like, loving our neighbor, extending grace, etc.. There will be times when God calls us to fight but that should be the exception not necessarily the assumption. We will win far more hearts and minds with love. We can never lose focus of the world around us, and this is the harvest that Jesus called us to. I am urging us all, to take a good look in the mirror and remove our own planks, before trying to remove the speck from someone else. I am trying, I am pressing in, and with God’s help I will see clearly. People will remember how we treated them long after they forgot what we knew.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love suffers long, and is kind; Love envies not; Love does not boost, is not proud, Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; Bears all things, believeth all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
“If you think you know the truth, but can’t yield it to others in love, then you only have a half-truth...and that might as well be a lie.”
Jay Frier
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