When it comes to the theme of Christians loving one another, I trust our readers know that this is one major emphasis in the Bible. For a few reminders, consider these verses: love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19.18); by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (Jn. 13.35); if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor. 13.2). The list goes on (and on!). Here’s a paragraph from Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places that is a sort of commentary on Scripture’s call for Christians to love one another. It’s pretty bold, but in light of Scriptures clear emphasis on love, I think it is accurate.
“No matter how right we are in what we believe about God, no matter how accurately we phrase our belief or how magnificently and persuasively we preach or write or declare it, if love does not shape the way we speak and act, we falsify the creed, we confess a lie. Believing without loving is what gives religion a bad name. Believing without loving destroys lives. Believing without loving turns the best of creeds into a weapon of oppression. A community that believes but does not love or marginalizes love, regardless of its belief system or doctrinal orthodoxy or ‘vision statement,’ soon, very soon, becomes a ‘synagogue of Satan’ (Rev. 2:9).”
This quote is found on page 261 of Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.
shane lems
