Together part 3
I've heard it said that boys look for reasons to be friends, and girls look for reasons to be enemies. I'm not sure if this is true--certainly it's not true 100% of the time--but it definitely seems like in the church world we want to make enemies with everybody. We seem to have thrown down a gauntlet that says, "Agree with me completely or don't speak to me at all." And I don't really understand this mindset. Because even as a pastor, even as someone who writes a daily Rant about Jesus, I've always felt like... I'm gonna love you, and if you want to know what I believe--if you ASK me--I'll tell you. Unconditional love is what God is all about. In fact, it's who He is. Watch this, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Christ didn't wait for us to choose Him. He chose us! When people say things like, "Let me clean up my act and then I'll go to church," I want to shake them and say, "How in the world are you going to clean up your act without the church!" (The church, of course, being the place where you go to hear the truth, the gospel, the good news... and the church being your brothers and sisters who edify you and love you.) What I'm saying is, Jesus already cleaned up your act. He presented you to Himself as a bride without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. He translated you out of the power of darkness and into His Kingdom. He did it all so you could get it all. And now that you have it all... it's your duty to share what you've got! Let me say it like this, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another..." (Romans 13:8). Love is not for people who fit in your box, or for people who believe the same way you believe. Love is for everybody. Because we're all in this together. And love is what binds us together. God loved us when we were yet sinners--before the cross. When we were unbelievers because we didn't have anything to believe in. The best we could do with what we had--the carnal mind--was to try to do good in order to be rewarded and not do evil in order to avoid punishment. But then Jesus took away the sin of the world. He took away the unbelief of the world by giving us something--someONE, Himself, love--to believe in! He showed us that we are in this together. That we are all different parts of one body. HIS body. And, "...no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Ephesians 5:29). When we love each other... THAT'S how we love God. Because we are His. He loves His own body by loving us, and we love our own body by loving each other. I'm telling you, when you love someone... that's the best, most real way to feel love. Because we're all in this together!