I feel like Dikembe Mutombo. Blocking weak shots that come against the importance of love in scripture. I am defending the gospel really. Because if the Gospel isn't about love, then what is it about??
I've found that I write better if I write to someone. I'm not good at just writing for the sake of writing. I'm much better at writing specifically. So I'm going to recap a conversation I had with a brother and give my two cents in writing.
Love is mentioned in the new testament 250 times. No other word in the new testament is mention even half as much outside of Jesus and GOD. The gospel isn't mentioned as much. Faith is not mentioned as much. The wrath of GOD isn't mentioned as much. But love. So it is good that we focus on love. It's biblical. Clearly biblical since that is the word that scripture focuses on.
I've heard people say GOD is love but love isn't GOD. That may or may not be true. But it certainly isn't something we can immediately find in scripture. I get where people are coming from. But the people who say this want to stick to scripture, Ok, let's stick to scripture. Where do you find that being said?
With that being said. I've found it interesting that we don't fully understand that Jesus seemed to deal with two types of people. The selfish [prostitutes, tax collectors, sinners in general, sexually impure, etc etc]. And the prideful [the religious leaders]. Jesus clearly handled the two groups completely different.
Jesus would show love love love to the selfish. He would reach out and show unconditional love. You never once see Jesus condemning these people and or hammering them. Because they knew they weren't in with GOD. They knew they weren't right with GOD. So Jesus showed them love love love.
The prideful religious leaders who thought they were better than anyone, that's who Jesus would drop the hammer on. He would flat out tell them they were going to hell. He would tell them to sell everything and then come follow Him. He would always hammer the proud. Because the problem with pride is this; pride can't see pride. Pride must be hammered. You need to bring the blind pride people back within the boundaries. They need rules and regulations in order for them to see how far they've fallen. Because a prideful person won't receive the love of GOD with gratitude but will take it the wrong way, as if they know GOD loves them because they are just so freaking awesome. And GOD shuts that down so fast. It's about love, it's about relationship. And a prideful person can never come into or stay in relationship with GOD because of their inflated ego.
Here where I live, in the south, In America, people have heard the gospel. There is almost no one here that hasn't heard about Jesus. What very very few hear, is that Jesus loves them. Very few people talk about the love of GOD. I put a challenge up to one of my friends. Go down 10 people into apologetics and the bible in general. Check their last 10 post. You will not find more than 1 mention of love. And for some, you won't find any! 10 post about scripture and GOD and not 1 mention of Love... Not 1! That should make you cry.
How can we call ourselves believers... How can we call ourselves Christians... How can we call ourselves followers of Jesus when we won't stress, bring up or talk about what Jesus commanded and made a focus for all believers everywhere? How can we say we are biblical when we won't focus on what scripture focuses on? Every single book in the new testament talks about love and it's importance. It is a major focus of the bible. We can no longer call ourselves biblical if we leave love out.
Anyway, GOD loves you. Hope you feel and see His love today and everyday of your life. We can't wait to see him face to face. Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us and all true believers. We get to live in communion and love with Him. Thank you Jesus for all you've done and for coming here to save us.
