I find myself balancing several desires and objectives on a daily basis. 1: I desire unity within the body of Christ. 2: I really do love people, despite how someone may feel about the way I go about certain things. 3: A healthy aspect of community and love is that we push one another and challenge one another.
All 3 of these points seem to hinge on my third point because it is the most misunderstood of the 3. I think people have the impression that living within a loving community means that we love people right where they are at and as true as that may be I have seen, and I know personally of people who have become numb in this mindset. Sometimes when we love people right where they are at we in turn encourage the bad in there lives. This love needs to be well balanced, kept in check, and always challenged. I am not here to justify myself or convince you of anything in this specific blog BUT, I am going to challenge your mindset and ask you to look at things through the lens of the gospel. How would the incarnate word of God, Jesus, view these things? This is a question people often dismiss by saying "we just gotta love one another" but there is much more going on here that just loving one another.
I worry that, as a whole, that we have associated the love of Christ with the love of the world. There are some important things about Jesus that we are missing and we are in fact being played the fools based on our narrow perspective of love. Can I challenge us to bring our objective away from JUST loving people but to also remembering that we are here to advance, and usher in the kingdom of God? Friends, the gospel is offensive. A good friend of mine once said "Sometimes loving people means tellin' em some shit they don't wanna hear". There have been numerous times in my life where I have had to tell people the truth, knowing all the while that what I had to say wasn't what they wanted to hear. But, I am much more concerned with them knowing the truth than entertaining them in sin. Sin distances all people from God! Let that sink in! Truth has a way of breaking the skin, and availing our hearts to the knowledge of God and his desire for His people and in fact all people! Christ said to serve one another ... Not to be doormats.
"love hurts"-Nazareth
There has to be something we are missing! What is it?
All 3 of these points seem to hinge on my third point because it is the most misunderstood of the 3. I think people have the impression that living within a loving community means that we love people right where they are at and as true as that may be I have seen, and I know personally of people who have become numb in this mindset. Sometimes when we love people right where they are at we in turn encourage the bad in there lives. This love needs to be well balanced, kept in check, and always challenged. I am not here to justify myself or convince you of anything in this specific blog BUT, I am going to challenge your mindset and ask you to look at things through the lens of the gospel. How would the incarnate word of God, Jesus, view these things? This is a question people often dismiss by saying "we just gotta love one another" but there is much more going on here that just loving one another.
I worry that, as a whole, that we have associated the love of Christ with the love of the world. There are some important things about Jesus that we are missing and we are in fact being played the fools based on our narrow perspective of love. Can I challenge us to bring our objective away from JUST loving people but to also remembering that we are here to advance, and usher in the kingdom of God? Friends, the gospel is offensive. A good friend of mine once said "Sometimes loving people means tellin' em some shit they don't wanna hear". There have been numerous times in my life where I have had to tell people the truth, knowing all the while that what I had to say wasn't what they wanted to hear. But, I am much more concerned with them knowing the truth than entertaining them in sin. Sin distances all people from God! Let that sink in! Truth has a way of breaking the skin, and availing our hearts to the knowledge of God and his desire for His people and in fact all people! Christ said to serve one another ... Not to be doormats.
"love hurts"-Nazareth
There has to be something we are missing! What is it?
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