Le Mot du Jour est “L’Amour”

       Reading some updates on Facebook made me think of several sweet friends of mine who have lost loved-ones recently.  Having a cross-referencing brain, and thinking of how special these friends of mine are, I was reminded of the Bible verse that says, “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (Rom 12:10)
       Now I know many of us, as Christians, have been taught to believe we should love everyone, and while I won’t disagree with that nor digress (too much!) about exactly how that universal love should be practiced, I will point out, as wiser folk than I have done previously, that we are called to add an extra-heaping measure of love on to our fellow Christians.1
       Remember the old song, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love—by our love…?”  Perhaps the composer thought about it, but we can extrapolate that the love sung about in that song refers to both our love for “The World” and our love for one another.  Think of another old song that quotes:


Beloved, let us love
       one another
       For love is of God
       And anyone that loveth
              is born of God
And knoweth God.
He that loveth not
       (clap, clap, clap)
Knoweth not God for God is love.
Beloved, let us love one another.
First John, four: seven and eight 2


       In church our pastor often quotes, “When Christ gave us Himself, He gave us each other.”  That means other Christians are your Family.  Who of us would argue that (usually!) a family obligation should trump a social one?
       This is one of the elements of the Celtic-style of missions.3  Whole communities of Christians would move and set up a new village near an existing community of non-Christians.  As they lived their lives they would naturally interact with the non-Christians, who would then see their relationships and behavior with them and amongst themselves, and as the Christians earned the respect of their neighbors, they earned the right to testify “Verbally” about Christ.
       So let me boil it down for you:  Love the world, yes, but not excluding them, love your fellow Christians more!  Let me say it more adamantly:  Christians, don’t play favorites, but do love your Christian family more.  As the old quip goes, “Learn to love your fellow Christians now.  After all, you’ll be spending eternity with them!”


_______              


1 How’s that for a compound sentence, English majors?!


2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfdB9FTC594; ugh--Blogger keeps reformatting this sentence!  It's actually part of the song, too!


3 See Rev. Albert Gillin for clarification/corrections

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