Love

Let's play a game of “who said it.”

“I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

“All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

These phrases summarize the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We take pride in hearing these phrases repeated in recordings and reenactments. We can feel ourselves as part of the crowd in Washington DC, UN headquarters, Berlin, or “watching the radio” hearing these famous statements for the first time. While some of us may forget the specifics about the lives of these great men, we will always remember what values they stood for—equality, freedom, unity, and optimism.

What was is the one phrase you remember about Christians? Is it “Christians are such hypocrites”? Is it “hell-fire and brimstone”? Is it “Abortion is murder”? Or is it, “God is love,” “For God so loved the world...” “Love your neighbor as yourself,” or “These three remain: faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love”?

Let’s go back to the famous statements for a second. They are famous because each one matched the character of the person saying it—consistency and encouraged others in a time of crisis—necessity.

Christians in the past, your personal past and the broader past, may have said “Hate the sin, love the sinner” to you or someone you know but words of love and hatred cannot come from the same tongue anymore than fresh and salt water can come from the same stream. Love is not consistent with hate. A Christian cannot love God and hate his brother or friend or neighbor or a racial/ethnic/political group. A Christian cannot love his neighbor and hate his spouse. A Christian cannot love his spouse and hate his kids. It is not possible for pure love and hatred to flow from the same person, because when they do, the love is corrupted, dirtied, made impure. God has called Christians to be imitators of God, like children imitating a parent. God has called Christians to be moral, pure, and holy, as God is moral, pure, and holy.

We cannot see God, we can only see imitators of God here on earth. We, as Christians, are not answering the call to imitate the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham. We are tarnishing the image of God by reflecting his love to others in a distorted way, through the lens of immorality, impurity, or greed. 

I am calling all who claim the name ‘Christian’ to allow God to recreate you in God’s image, rather than create a new god in your own image. Because that is what we are doing when we portray God incorrectly through our thoughts, words, and actions. We are giving the world a false picture of God and asking them to follow a God who believes the same as we do, does the same actions we do, thinks the same thoughts we think, hates the same people we hate, and values the same virtues we do. We are not perfect—yeah, I know, it’s a radical concept for some of you—so any God we create by our standards of right and wrong will not be perfect. We must search the Scriptures to find the one true, holy, perfect God and worship that God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then we must take the love that we have been given and love our neighbor. This means to love everyone, even those people we used to think that God hated. God’s character is love, hate is inconsistent with love, therefore God cannot hate people, and therefore Christians cannot hate people.

Because Christians are not imitating God, we are in a time of crisis right now. Our lives are in crisis. Our marriages are in crisis. Our churches are in crisis. Our faith is in crisis. Our environment is in crisis. Our world is in crisis. In times of crisis leaders, both men and women, young and old, stand up to push the pendulum of history back in the right direction. As Christians we must use our power, in whatever form it takes, to stand up and prevent history from knowing our generation as the generation without a name, without a leader, without a purpose. How many people stood when Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about his dream for society? How many people stood when Ronald Reagan demanded freedom for the oppressed? How many people stood when John F. Kennedy cried for solidarity? How many people stood when Franklin Delano Roosevelt smiled in the face of the unknown future?

How many of you will stand as Christians who will accurately portray the one Living, Loving God? How many of you will stand as Christians who will commit their lives to loving God?

Love cannot remain seated. Love must rise up in service and bow down in worship. Love must get its hands dirty out in the fields, the streets, and the schools. Love is only meaningful if it is consistent with action and is most powerful in the greatest crisis.

Love changes lives. Love not only changes lives, it revolutionizes lives.