Love is crazy.
And not just the heart-beating-face-flushing-he-is-so-dreamy kind of love.
Jesus love. Yeah. It’s crazy.
Crazy Awesome.
Think about it. God loves us in spite of ourselves. He loves us through our sins, our failures, when we see something shiny and lose focus on Him.
Considering how much I sin (uh, daily) that is pretty dang crazy.
But yet, He continues to love. And he calls us to do the same.
That brings us to our second week of this series Practicing what we preach. Today is all about this crazy not-so-little thing called love.
As Christians, we talk about love all the time. We refer to the most important commandment “Love the Lord” and the second one “Love your neighbor as yourself” almost as much as we reference Google.
But are we truly putting hands and feet to this love? Maybe. Maybe not.
From the outside looking in, I can see where some nonbelievers might be a little confused by our walk not quite matching our talk.
Like how we place extra emphasis on certain sins. In God’s eyes, all sins are the same. Sin separates us from Him. There is no “sin ranking system” hidden in the stacks of heaven’s library. A sin is a sin is a sin. Period.
Some sins have more detrimental and painful earthly consequences than others. From a world’s perspective, murder isn’t the same as lying to our spouse about who ate the last of the leftover meatloaf. As Christians (I am generalizing here– and include myself in this category) we sometimes focus more on the earthly consequences of sin instead of reaching for God’s perspective in that moment.
We should love the sinner and hate the sin. If someone caught up in a sin cycle comes to us, we aren’t called to condemn OR condone them. There is a middle ground.
And that ground is love.
Love is the only language that transcends heaven and earth. No matter what continent or culture we come from, all people, God included, understand love. Maybe that is why God IS Love. Everybody can get it. Experience it. Live it.
And yes, even share it.
So that leads us to our reflection question for today: Are we loving like Jesus? In what areas of our lives do we tend to “weigh” sins more heavily than others? What steps do we need to take to really walk our love-talk? I welcome your interaction. Feel free to leave a comment below.
Loving Christ and others is the foundation for practicing what we preach. After all, that is the main message that Jesus preached. Love looks like forgiveness, grace, not passing judgment, serving, the list goes on and on.
God had called us to practice love daily. He wants to get a little bit crazy with it.
Love others so they see Jesus’ heart through your hands and feet.
Seeking to Love Daily,
“Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” ~Matthew 22:37-40 MSG
Linking up today with Kelli via Unforced Rhythms, Laura at Playdates with God, Joan’s Beauty in His Grip, Jen over at Soli Deo Gloria Sisterhood, and Hazel via Tell Me a Story. Be sure to join our #EverydayJesus link-up community right here at 7 Days Time every Thursday!
