Following in Your Footsteps: If you love...

 

If you love someone, then you are...

Judgmental.

Hateful.

Prejudice.

Disrespectful.

Arrogant.

Jealous...

 

"Say what, Chelsea?! Did you say if you love someone, you are judgmental?"

 

Oops...what I mean is...

 

If you love someone, then you are...

Nonjudgmental.

Kind.

Humble.

Open minded.

Forgiving.

Respectful.

Giving.

Caring.

Compassionate.

Trusting.

Gracious...

 

 If we say we are following Jesus, the second list should make up how we treat others. You see, I thought about writing separate posts on different characteristics of Jesus such as grace, compassion, and ending with love. However, I realized that they all go hand-in-hand.

 

If you love someone, then you are going to be respectful and compassionate..etc.

When I think of Jesus, the first word that comes to my mind is love.

As Christians or Christ followers, our first priority should be to love, then everything else follows along.

 

Of course, like I've said before, we aren't perfect like Jesus, but because of His love for us we can love others.

1 John 4:19 says, "We love because He first loved us."

I know that it can be difficult sometimes to love, but love is the best way to embody the Gospel.

 

As a church/body of believers, we should be constantly aware of how we are treating people. We should be always welcoming to everyone and anyone. We should never turn anyone away for any reason. We should love unconditionally, just like Christ did.

He hung out with the sinners...He let a prostitute wash His feet with her hair....He wasn't afraid to interact with people who might be different than Him.

 

For instance, if a lesbian couple walks into a church...how should we treat them?

If we were to ask Jesus, I'm sure He would say, "love them".

We aren't God...we don't have the right to judge them, the only thing we need to do is love them.

Many people say "love the sinner and hate the sin", but Tony Campolo says, "Jesus says, 'love the sinner and hate your own sin'".

 

What if a homeless man walks into a church...how should we treat them?

Do we go lock up everything valuable? Do we tell him to leave?

Jesus wouldn't tell him to leave...Jesus would talk to him...feed him and love him.

 

You see, we have a lot to learn from Jesus. The church needs His compassion, love, generosity, grace (etc..) in order to shine His light throughout the world. Many people think that being a Christian is all about rules, but guess what?

The only 2 things that Jesus commands us to do is to...

love God

&

love others.

 

 So it may be helpful if we are constantly checking ourselves...reminding ourselves that as we grow in relationship with God our love for Him grows and will soon spill out to others.

 

Reading plan for this week:

Monday: Job 35-37

Tuesday: Job 38-39

Wednesday: Job 40-42

Thursday: Psalm 1-8

Friday: Psalm 9-16

Saturday: Psalm 17-20