36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Why is this such a difficult principle for modern Christianity to follow. I look at the church and am increasingly distressed with the statements of prominent thinkers and writers that do anything but edify the body of Christ. This troubles me all the more, because when they talk down a fellow believer, they are in turn talking down themselves. When one member of the church is dragged down, all of the church is dragged down. This is a vital aspect of Christianity, and humanity itself, that the modern church has lost.
We seem to view relationship with Christ as a personal matter, and on one hand it is. We are all very good at says that we love God, and then we turn and do anything but love our neighbors. We become so concerned with how we and God are doing, that we lose sight of how we're doing with others. I think that it's impossible to be rightly related to God if we aren't loving our neighbors, especially our Christian neighbors. Jesus said that we will be known by our love for one another. Last I checked, we weren't doing so good in that respect.
I use the pronoun 'we' because it is a corporate problem. If a fellow brother or sister in Christ is not loving on the rest of the body, we all have a problem. When Christians that are aligned with a political view attack some other view, we have a problem. When one denomination attacks another, we have a problem.
I know this won't reach many people. I am merely a small voice. But I'm making a call for change. If Christianity is to grow in the coming century, we have to fix the dissent and divisiveness that was present for the last several decades. We must come together and participate in dialogue. I am not saying we need to sacrifice our beliefs, hold fast to those. But do not let your beliefs blind you with anger or hate. That is a favorite tactic of the enemy. When Satan can get us fighting, he gets us from being what we are meant to be. He keeps us from being the salt and light to the world.
2 comments:
Capital first post, sir.
"I use the pronoun 'we' because it is a corporate problem. If a fellow brother or sister in Christ is not loving on the rest of the body, we all have a problem. When Christians that are aligned with a political view attack some other view, we have a problem. When one denomination attacks another, we have a problem."
I have been discussing this idea as of late.. the unity of the body and what that means to each of us. It becomes apparent to me to see how one sin of one person can affect the entire body.. and how one hateful stance in a sea of peaceful stances can destroy what we have worked to build.
I'll join your voice. And maybe if someone else does, and someone else, and this continues.. it could be a big voice.
Agape - Shalom,
Stephanie
yay... Ive been thinking about switching to a real blog... it's just going to be a painful conversion!!!
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