One thing that has gotten my attention lately is the polar differences in the posts I have been seeing. And to add to it, the bumper stickers I have been noticing lately too. It occurred to me that they all have one thing in common... no matter what the content... and that is love. Whether they are talking about the need to love people who are gay, or the need to care for those who can't care for themselves, or the need to care for the environment. The main theme is love. Now, I don't agree with all the posts that I see. There are some that I disagree with quite strongly, but the love part... I can only say a whole hearted 'Amen' to that. After all, isn't that why JESUS came? Isn't that what HE preached in His short but powerful ministry? Didn't He time and time again look past all the 'details' of who His children were... be they tax collectors or prostitutes, adulterers or lepers, and see to the heart of the one He loved? Didn't He allow Himself to be humiliated and tortured, nailed to a tree all in the name of love? He didn't come and make the ultimate sacrifice so that we could turn to our neighbor and see only their sins, or their weaknesses, or even simply the ways they are different from us. He made that sacrifice so that we would know what unconditional, limitless love looks like... and DO something with that knowledge.
Now before I get any grumpy comments...I don't mean that we shouldn't live the way GOD tells us to. He gives us some pretty clear instructions about how to live. But that doesn't mean that we are to be judge and jury over others. JESUS tells us to be salt and light. He tells us to live in a way that others will see Him in us. He never says that we get to get angry at someone because they don't do the same. And He certainly doesn't want us to treat others in a way that pushes them away from HIM.
Matthew 22:35-41
New King James Version (NKJV)
35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
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