Scripture… As We Live It #41
Here is the 41st installment of “Scripture… As We Live It“:
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen… well, this could happen. I mean, it is much more important that you love God than love your neighbor. So, make sure that you love God first. Eventually, you’ll probably start loving your neighbor, at least those who love you back. (1 John 4:20 re-mix)
I think we often hate our brother because we see so much of ourselves in him.
Appreciating these scripture as we live it posts. I’m discovering that a lot of scripture is either too difficult to understand, or it is too difficult to actually live.
So I guess instead of humbly admitting that these are hard teachings that we need to seek God’s help with, the ‘church’ has often chosen to skip over the hard parts. We’d rather claim to have answers to all the questions, even if some of our answers are wrong.
Andy,
I think there are many reasons that we don’t love our brothers.
Jonathan,
Its easier to claim to have the answers than to actually work through the hard questions.
-Alan
ok, one simple question.
Ive been in churches almost all my life. Why are “christians” so un-loving? I include leaders in that as well. Seems that love would be in the church most, but all we hear is how “inclusive” and arrogant they are. Baptists against gays, pentecostals against methodists, etc. Married against divorced? Does God love us all the same? And who are we to live lives that dont reflect that? Wow.
People are mean. That includes the saved. If God IS in you, you aren’t, or don’t purposely mean to be. Forgiveness goes a long way. But then, only God know me best dude.
I think call 100 of my bros and sis’s in Jesus and go downtown ChiTown and just pray for and love on people. Any takers? Ill be on the corner of Cicero and W 37th.
Anonymous,
I’m not in the Chicago area, or your offer would be tempting. Our family and some friends do exactly what you suggest every week. Imagine how different our cities and nation and world would be if Christians actually went out looking for opportunities to love people.
-Alan
I’ve been thinking about Anonymous’ comment. We too have seen people like this, and think of them as religious people who identify themselves as Christians, for various reasons.
Personally, I think the term “Christian” carries a lot of baggage, and to much of our culture identifies people with certain political views and so on. Some people think it primarily identifies groups of people who meet for social and business purposes. So I prefer identifying myself as a follower of Jesus.
The people on the street rarely have problems with that explanation. (I often hear responses like “Cool”!) It’s the religious folks who then ask if I’m a Christian and “which church do you go to”.
Just a followup…I didnt get a chance to call 100 so I called 50. 40 showed up. We finally broke up around 3am (parkas DO work)having walked the streets talking to whoever we came in contact with (wow-another time on people types). MAJOR opportunities for the Kingdom. I think it had everything to do with meeting people where they were at rather than “forcing religion”. I made a few calls last night to followup on that and it was uncanny how much the people we ran into were so much like the people that showed up. God uses whats his. Cool stuff.
I love that spontanious stuff…theres a lesson there.
Wonder if this is what Acts 2 is about, or at least the start of it.
Selah
(btw AK love this blog!)
Anonymous,
Thank you for the follow-up! If you send me an email at aknox@sebts.edu, I’d love to post your story from that night in my “stories” series on Wednesdays.
-Alan