LOVE

Jesus made love the mark and measure of

his disciples. Love is a wonderful concept in theory. The word conjures up warm and fuzzy feelings and reminds us of how we feel when someone ‘loves’ us. Loving others is taught frequently and repeatedly from the pulpit to remind us that the first and second commandment is to love God and love people. But after church, many of us return to nice, safe, comfortable neighborhoods filled with people exactly like us having very little challenges to the love theories promoted in church. If there happens to be someone looking like what we perceive to be a little rough around the edges walking down our street, we remain at a safe distance and peer at them from behind our curtains like we would a cockroach on the ceiling—a pest on the wall of our otherwise sanitized lives. Some of us even call the police (pest control) to report the presence of this unwelcome stranger. Love is great in theory, right? Until it threatens to mess up our nice, tidy lives.

When I look at the church and the lives of other Christians (including my own), everything seems neat, clean, perfect. Safe lives separated from anything or anyone perceived to be dirty or messy or who does not fit into our mold of acceptable. The longer we follow Jesus, the neater, cleaner and safer our lives seem to become.

Yet, in so many ways, this sanitized world is different from the words and actions of Jesus. So different. Jesus hung out with the people others wrote off, who lived completely different lives from the life he wanted them to live. Some of the people Jesus crossed paths with didn’t magically turn their lives around and live “good Christian lives” either. They stayed messy, yet Jesus loved them anyway. Love is messy because people are messy. And sometimes we have to wade into the mess to love the people we find there. If you’re a Christian and your life is perfectly neat and clean, you might want to make sure you’re actually following Jesus.

Jesus hung out with the unpopular. Sometimes, we are afraid to invite people into our lives because we are afraid of what we might lose—our reputation, friends and social circle—or what people might say. Loving like Jesus means pursuing and standing with the unpopular—someone who may have fallen from grace or the uncool people who are different from us. Instead of walking away from these people, what if the church was known for caring about all people? The truth is that none of us have it all figured out. If the curtains were pulled back and people could see beyond the religious façade that many of us present to others, we would see that we all fail constantly in one way or another.

Love doesn’t always look warm and fuzzy. It isn’t always heartwarming and awwww-inspiring. It isn’t always nice and doesn’t always say what you want to hear. It doesn’t always look or feel like ‘love’. Instead, it might mean saying no to a willful child intent to having their own way. It might look like sending your son who is struggling with substance abuse to rehab. Or it might be just sitting in the pain with a friend even when you’ve been told to leave because they’re ‘fine”.

Love is not just a theory. Jesus wants it to be our religion and the sum of our actions.

Everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another. ~John 13:35