Radical Love

[Butterflywoman]

Mark 12:28 Which is the first commandment of all? Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

For some reason I have always wanted to distill what was complex into something that was simple—to strip away everything that might distract me from the one thing that was more important than anything else. So naturally I was thrilled to discover Mark 12:28. My heart started pounding and my mind raced as I came upon it for the first time. After the question was posed, I quickly read on, anxious to discover the answer. You would think I had just found a winning lottery ticket.

Fortunately, it did not take long to get to the answer to what Jesus wanted us to do more than anything else. What was important to Jesus, and to the God he both represented and manifested, was LOVE. And not just any kind of love—love poured out from our soul, heart, mind, and strength. In other words, from our soul we must feel love, think about love, and act in loving ways.

As if things were not difficult enough, Christ gives us another task. He makes it clear that we are to love our neighbor as we love our self, even if that neighbor is from an undesirable country—the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25). And, worse still, we are to love our enemy (Matthew 5:44). In other words, and this is my long-delayed point, we are called upon by Christ to love people who live other lifestyles (homosexuals) and people who practice other religions (even if some of them terrorists).

Now, you might ask, just how far do you expect me to go with this radical love stuff. Am I to accept homosexuality? Am I to allow gays and lesbians to marry? Am I to love terrorists? Well, as a matter of fact, yes! Love includes acceptance of alternative lifestyles. Love in action means “live and let live.” And it includes forgiving the unforgivable. In other words, you do not have to convert someone to love them. They do not have to think, believe and act like you do in order for you to love them. And, when your enemies strike, you must forgive them.

Why do I say all of this? Partly because a friend of mine was recently shunned by church members because she is a lesbian, and partly, because I am worried about the society I live in—a society that professes to be Christian but blatantly refuses to practice its more difficult doctrines—to love radically.

For those who doubt the importance of Christ’s message to love radically, let me remind you of what John Paul II told us. Defeating evil is not the answer. Preserving love is the answer. Evil will reappear again and again in different forms. Love must be there to conquer it again and again. Only radical love can do this.

[Lily]

God loves the sinner (us) but he hates sin because He is Holy and Just. God is merciful, therefore does not want to punish us. The bible tells us in 1 John 4:8b "God is love". But God is also just, therefore He must punish sin. Exodus 34:7b says "yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished." God solved this problem in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was both God and Man. John 1:1,14 "in the beginning was the Word, and Word is God. The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, Who came from the Father full of grace and truth. What Jesus did is he died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for uur sin & purchase a place in heaven for us. The bible says in Isaiah 53:6 "we all hlike sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, the Lord has laid on HIm the iniquity of us all." I am so thankful for his sacrifice and so thankful Christ died for us while we were still sinners. I pray that your friend who was shunned by the church can come to salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for her salvation.

She needs to trust in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life. Acts 16:31 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. This means to transfer your trust from yourself to Jesus Christ alone.

Does this make sense to you? If not, please feel free to ask me more questions.

Blessings, Sheila