It's shocking to see so many churches where those who make up the church get along worse than teens in a high school. Everyone has the right to their own opinions, but that doesn't mean if everyone doesn't believe exactly what you believe that we can't fellowship with them, or go out and help others together. My dad always says, "if everyone were just like me ("us") we would still argue and have disagreements." We won't ever get along perfectly until we get to heaven anyway...we will have to spend eternity with each other then...why make ourselves miserable by quarreling while we have this short time on earth?
We were placed here to show the love of God to others....but most of the time we stay in our own little clique and stick our nose up to anyone who is "less" of a Christian than ourselves. People who dress differently, watch things we don't watch, read book series we don't read, go places we don't go...not saying there isn't a line to who you hang around...but if we only hang around those who we call "righteous" then who is going to get to those who need Jesus, who AREN'T "good enough"?
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we 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."
-1 John 4:7-11
Pretty straight to the point, isn't it? Just as we are to forgive as Christ forgave us, we are to love one another as we have been loved. Agape love, the one that loves without thought of anything in return; that loves even when nobody has given a reason to love.
Nobody is perfect, but we should try to make sure our lives are being mirrored images of Christ. Not the world, not those we call "great Christian leaders", not "inspirational authors," and not men of the past who made a huge difference. The second you put man on a pedestal, they will fail you. If each of us followed after someone we thought was amazing/perfect, soon person after person would be watered down.
It's like taking a pattern and cutting your shape out with a piece of paper, and, instead of using the pattern again, you use the paper you cut out of it. Because that paper was off just slightly, all of your other papers will get smaller/larger/wider...and eventually you will have tons of mismatched papers, because you didn't cut them all out from the pattern that had the perfect shape.
There is no such thing as a perfect Christian. Not a one of us knows everything or the right way to handle every situation in life. God is the only one who can be perfect, and He has answers for all of our questions. Most of them are pretty clear, too! We just automatically assume something He's said can't be that simple, and we try to expound on it more and eventually lose the meaning Jesus had.
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
That right there pretty much sums up the Christian walk. Everything we should do, in every situation. Love. Love. Love. Love.
"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
-John 13:35
"And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins."
- 1 Peter 4:8
"No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us His spirit."
1 John 4:12-13
"Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing."
1 Peter 3:8-9
God tells us we must love one another if we are to follow after Him, but we not only need to love others for His sake, but for our sake. If our life is spent with bitterness, judging others, or full of anger, it will eat at us and wear us down...giving the opposite affect we wanted by not loving the other person.
I'm afraid I have failed most of my life with showing Christ-like love to those around me. I have hid from the world, instead of shining the light of Christ...but the closer I get to Him, the more I realize loving Him means loving others. I have to love Jesus and those around me more than myself... I have to be willing to be mocked and ridiculed for standing up for my Savior... My life is full of mistakes, but I thank God He has given me the grace I don't deserve, and has helped me see at least some of my mistakes.
Let us take a hint from God's word with how many times He told us to love. It is vital to Christianity.
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