I had a discussion with my Sunday School class this past week about our responsibilities as Christians, which is something I have been considering of late.
Obviously, the biggest call on the life of a Christian is to show the world God and God's love. As First John 4:8 says, "Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love."
Ephesians 5:1-2 expounds a bit on that: "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
Now while we are supposed to show God's love, there is something more to this: If we are to be imitators of the God who is love, then we should be doing everything we to actually be love for others.
We turn to 1 Corinthians 13 to find out the characteristics of what love, and therefore what we as Christians, should be:
Love: is patient, is kind, is not envious, is not boastful, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, does not keep records of the wrongs against it, does not delight in evil things, rejoices in the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, and never fails.
By the same token: love is not passive, and love is not "tolerant" of evil.
When we stop and take measure of our lives as Christians, do we measure up to God's standard of love? I hope so, I hope we are trying to.
Peace and grace, brothers and sisters.
Amen. I don't think it's mere sentimentalism that seeks to boil down to the essence of the gospel and finds it to be all about love. Yes, there are many things about which the Church should concern itself, issues of justice, truth, righteousness, etc., but I think a comprehensive look at the New Testament cannot help but recognize the centrality of love. From the words of Jesus about "the greatest commandment" to His issuing of "a new commandment", to Paul's testimony of the necessity of love in 1 Cor. 13 (translation: absolutely nothing matters if love is absent) as well as in Romans 13 ("love is the fulfillment of the law") to the Apostle John's epistle: love is not one of God's several attributes, rather GOD IS LOVE. I don't think I've yet come close to really comprehending the depths contained in that statement.
ReplyDeleteSo, in light of this, a question: Do you think we have overemphasized other aspects of the gospel (justice, righteousness, etc.) at the expense of holding love central?
I'm not saying that the Church should refuse to call out evil in the world and proclaim the victory of God in Christ, or treat sin like it's some out-dated cultural construct. But if love is the characteristic of a Christian (and I believe Jesus intended it to be so: "By this will men know you are my disciples..."), it seems to me that we're not very good at being Christians these days. I don't hear very many people today saying "See how these Christians love one another!" Rather, I think most outside the Church see us (with some justification) as always arguing with one another while striving to stamp out sin (mostly the sin of others) any way we can.