It's all about love

"The essential quality by which a follower of Jesus is known is love..."

"Here's where we are at today: Christians are known for a lot of things, but love doesn't even make the top ten."

These two statements come from Matt Tebbe & Ben Sternke's new book 'Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms to Cultivate A Robust Faith.' Today I am looking at Axiom #1 "God Is Love, So It's All About Love."

 The statistics are not favorable (p. 20):

...According to a 2019 study by Barna Research Group, almost half of the non-Christians interviewed had a "somewhat negative" or "very negative" opinion of evangelical Christians. Only 9 percent had a positive opinion, and fewer than 10 percent associated words like "caring," "hopeful," "friendly," "encouraging," "generous," and "good-humored" with evangelicals. The words most often associated with evangelicals by non-Christians were "religiously conservative," "politically conservative," "narrow-minded," "homophobic," "misogynistic," "puritanical," "uptight," and "racist."

Yeah... I suppose some people can dismiss or justify this as irrelevant or "they" (non-Christians) don't understand, or whatever, but... if we are not known by love then maybe WE are just flat out wrong!

Actually, this was a powerful chapter for me. There is too much to share, but I think the authors were right on in suggesting this should be the most important axiom for us to grasp. It is certainly an area I need work in. 

They sum up at the end of the chapter with this: 

To say that it's all about love is to affirm that:

• Our goal and center is righteousness (covenantal fidelity as communion-in-love with God), not mere rightness (having correct ideas about God).
• Our goal and center is connectedness (to one another and God and in communion-in-love), not mere correctness (about each other and God).
• Our goal and center is mutual indwelling (partaking of the divine nature of the incarnate God in communion-in-love), not mere moral perfection (correct morality).

 This was a great chapter, and good that it's the first to start with.

***

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."