Fire On Your Head

As I was trying to sleep I kept thinking about two topics: love, and church structure.   I wanted to write about what I understand the love of God to be–within the character of the believer; for we all know that God’s greatest definition of Love is that He made us for Himself and loved us so much that he sent Jesus here to earth to live and die an honoring life of sinless obedience to God and then pave the way to reconciling us with our Maker and Completer. The following could be looked at as an outline from Gods word about how the manifestation love is to have in us on top of the joys which come from knowing Christ :

In God’s word it says there are only four reasons to cut someone off from fellowship, these being:

“Sexual perversion, sexual Immorality, Godlessness, or that the relationship takes away from your faith in Christ as your savior.”

So the reason I write this is because over the last 3 years I have heard many preachings and doctrines about love.   But what I have heard is an exclusive explanation of love.   The requirements differ depending on the view point, but all have conditional love based on a set of social requirements; either intelligence, social grace, certain regulatory things–such as a way of devotion and expressing God–but limiting how that is done. I am not saying that these views are wrong, I just see them too much as falling into that rebuke Jesus made concerning loving only those who do good to you, which is what got me up in the middle of the night to write this. As I look through the word of God, I notice not only a guideline for exclusion of people based on the four above, but I also see a guideline for unconditional love spelled out for us plainly:

Love  “Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;”
“Love suffers long [and] is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up”
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”
The three quotes above are the KJV, NKJV and NIV versions of 1 Cor 13:4

Patient.  Gentle.  Kind.  Long suffering (patient endurance of pain or unhappiness, patiently bearing continual wrongs or trouble)
It goes on to say in the NIV:
“It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”
“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
The passage goes on to say that love never fails which I believe means that love is supposed to be so inclusive and unconditional and pure that the very nature and revelation of it never leaves someone lacking astonishment at its makeup, but not only this for it is this state of this character which is imperishable and of which heaven will be based, or as close to it as we can understand.

My point is this: if we are called to an inclusive love that does not create a distinction between the great and the weak but in which we have the great (understanding the nature of love) serving and building up the weak–and if this is the case and we are trying to build God’s church properly–then why do we posture like the world?   Is it the world making us feel that we have to have a cool front to be included or relevant, and if so should we really care?

I also wanted to add the verses Mathew 5:43 and Romans 12:9-21.  In these passages it etches more things that are done because of love.   They speak of equality within the dictates of love defined from 1 Cor 13:4 and relates almost as a command on how we should act towards people, and if we look at it as a whole picture it obviously speaks of a general well being with people.  This verse even instructs on how to avoid unnecessary conflict, and tells us guidelines just as the ones from 1 Cor 13:4 that should be used with all people and all brothers who do not fall outside of the guidelines listed at the top of the page.

I think the reason we fall short of this is self seeking, and self observation before Christ.  All people want to be on the “right” track and therefore compete against their siblings in Christ consciously or subconsciously, and this however leads to horrible judgments that only Christ should and can make. Judgment therefore is the finite tool I believe that draws us to make classes and form exclusive churches… for lets be honest with ourselves: a church which practices conditional love and has a class system–within a belief which is going to bring trouble to the newly born, as well as the aged–cannot sustain life, because it becomes a social system and is based of the popularity of the circle.   A lot of people in North America born into the church upon seeing these inconsistencies are going to revert back to their regular circles because the dynamic is not properly different and the popularity matrix of the group within the church system–no matter how fun–can’t compete with one where there is no condemnation from the world.  Even worse so if the church body the person is being born into bares condemnation for things that are based on conditional standards.

At another point in Scripture, there is a verse that says something along the lines of “I would rather be harmed and cheated then do wrong to another and cheat someone else”. I think we need to take the advice of Romans 12:16 and not be conceited for conceit is not just “Oh I am so much better than you”, but it can also be “Oh well I am more right than you, I am more this, my time is more valuable, if you are not this type then I cannot fellowship with you”.

This edged it’s way into my mind, because like a lot of the verses I pointed out in my note, or in others where it states we are to love our enemies, I think about how great a love we are called to.   For while men like the apostles (assumption here) and like the Martyr Stephen, when they were being pelted by rocks for their faith still had the compassion to not be offended and yet loved those who pelted them, those who rejected everything they believed in and wanted nothing more but to tear him(them) apart and end him, not believing he would pop up in resurrection life but excluding him from what they believed was the only life…

And what did he do (and Jesus for that matter)?  His heart was torn for them and yet still he loved them. I must admit this for years has sifted the perishing part of me, and called me to re-evaluate my heart whenever I think on it.

I will soon write on church structure and tithing, but I would encourage everyone who reads this to make the burdens of love light.  Not that you have to be everyone’s best friend, but a general good will and inclusive spirit into righteous things is a good thing I think.  To each his own though.