the way of love

I was watching some videos today about a Christian youth gathering in San Francisco. It saddened me and got me thinking a lot. One of the things that the guy on stage was preaching about was loving people when sharing the gospel but yet one of the things that they did with all the youth was go out to the court house and protest gay marriage and abortion. Then it seemed from the video that they were just yelling at people to just “get Jesus.” First of all I don’t think Christians should be out on the streets protesting, it just doesn’t seem like something I would ever think Jesus would feel the need to do. The youth conference was teaching that the students need be politically outspoken to change the culture around us because it is going downhill to fast and my generation needs to bring some morality. I am still undecided about how involved Christians should be in politics but I just think that trying to change our nation’s morals isn't going to do anything. The truth is that without Jesus, morals mean nothing and you cannot change how someone acts unless you change who they are at the core of their being and only God can do that. But I was thinking about the fact that most Christians preach telling others the truth in love yet we are not seen as loving people. I have even heard it stated that we need to just tell people about hell because the loving part is warning them about the impending doom. I am struggling with this issue because there has to be a balance but it is so hard to find. We must “preach” the word in the classic sense because it was what scripture teaches us and so telling people that they need to repent and receive Jesus is totally and completely biblical. However we must do it in love and I think that most Christians have forgotten what love is. I think we need to be sure we know what love really is. If we look at the life of Christ, he loved by caring for people. He hung out with the poor, the sick, and the despised. He not only preached truth but he went and embodied it by befriending the lowly. I think this is love. Love is caring about people, getting to know who people are, giving up your time to treat others like they are the only person that exists on the planet. I am amazed at how little I put other people before myself. I am a selfish person and this is a huge struggle for me. But the other point is that we should love to love the ones we don't want to love. We shouldn't do it out of obligation because that is not true love. To love someone just because they are human beings created in the image of God Almighty is something beautiful. It is such a tough balance but love has to be first.

Scripture just screams this idea


If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor 13:1-7 NIV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12 ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:14-40 ESV)

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8 ESV)

I sometimes just wonder what it would be like if Christians would just lay their selfishness down, I wonder if I could lay my selfishness down and just love people and care for people and give up my time to treat others like the human beings they really are. You know what the main problem with the evolutionary world view? In that viewpoint, human beings are nothing more than animals. If you say you believe that we were created by God let us treat each other like that is true.

When I say that I want to display the steadfast love of God, this is what I mean, I want to treat and love people like they are people just like me. People with hopes, dreams, desires, and hurts.