We are more than we choose to be. We can be great. We settle for good. My Grandfather would often say to me, “Good,
better, best, never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is
your best.” This begs the question, “what
is the best of grace, mercy, and kindness?”
The point is to evidence our love for each
other. Jesus seems to have had a best
friend. His name is John. This is what he said in relation to how must
treat each other: 1 John 4:7-10 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. (NASB)
I have been driving at this all year. You may pick any social, economic, or
spiritual issue you wish. If your hard
deck is not love, then you are not understanding the world properly. Everything we do, not just the spiritual
things, should be based on love. If I
claim to follow Christ then I am required to love you and anyone else, full
stop. I am obligated to think through
every issue based on my love of the Father and of my fellow humans.
Think this through, if we are not putting
love as the primary filter for our choices, we cannot build anything else
properly. Jesus made it clear that all of
the Law and the Prophets were founded on the requirement to love God and to
love each other. Keep thinking Dear
Reader, keep thinking about your relationships and attitudes. Filter out the ones that do not begin with, “I
love you, therefore, I am going to…”.
Let us try a few that do not balance out and see if we can gain some
deeper truth.
I love you, therefore, I am going to deny
you shelter when you need it.
I love you, therefore, I am going to deny
you healthcare because I do not like your lifestyle.
I love you, therefore, I am going to kill
you because it is an inconvenience for you to live.
None of this sounds like love. It sounds like the foundation is something
less than love. It reeks of standards
that ignore mercy, kindness, and grace.
It is a foundation other than love and we do not need to identify the
foundation, we need to rebuild. We must
reconstruct our thinking and attitudes. If
someone claims to love you but will not speak to you there is a lie in there
somewhere. He or she may love you but
love is not being shown properly. They
may have convinced themselves that whatever you did is worse, and, therefore,
they do not need to show you love. That,
however, is not how it works. Love is
the foundation for everything.
If you find that you are looking for arguments
against this Dear Reader, you may wish to question your motives. You might want to trace your feelings to
their root and ask if you are obeying the basic command to love. It may be, there is something you need to
forgive or release. Perhaps, there are
priorities that require realignment. The
idea is that there is no equilibrium in any effort that ignores the basic requirement
to love.
I said all that to say this: If we do not deal in love with each other, no
matter the barriers or differences, then we are not following Christ. For those of you who do not share my faith,
hold us to this standard. Require us to
be this way. Demand that we proceed in all
our interactions with love and that we evidence it through kindness, grace, and
mercy. If we who attempt to follow
Christ do this, we will make a difference.
We will treat others better. We
will improve the world. That, Dear
Reader is worth saying until everyone listens.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That
is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe
is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great
treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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