Why Can't We Do This?

Jesus told his disciples "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another". 

This commandment is elegant in its simplicity. Love one another. That's it. Nothing more to do. Love each other. 



Obviously, this is way easier to say than to do. It's really the distillation of what Christianity is. Love one another. How we do this is a subject of disagreement, but this falls in the category of "fundamental principles". The whole Christian movement hinges on how well (or poorly) we manage to follow this one rule. Without this commandment, then who are we? In fact, Jesus staked his legacy on this, saying "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

They'll know we're Christians by our love, right?

But here's the rub, we stink at this. 

Not in the "humans are sinful and fallen, and we all fall short" sort of way, but in the "people mostly know Christians by how awful we treat others" sort of way.

It's really embarrassing. I don't mean that I'm embarrassed to be a Christian. Not at all. But I'm embarrassed for what Christianity has come to mean. And I'm kind of embarrassed for Jesus. I know he has bigger things to worry about, but I have to imagine that it's pretty hard to see something that was founded with a command to "love everyone" turn into "love the people we want, punish those we don't".

Because of the associations that culture (rightfully) has with Christianity, it can be genuinely embarrassing to talk about faith openly. It's something I struggle with, and I'm a pastor. But it's certainly true that the worst version is usually the loudest. We're not able to, nor is it our job to, silence those voices that demonstrate the unloving version of Christianity. But it is our job to offset that narrative with a vision of Christianity that centers love for one another.

If we want to be confident in sharing our faith, then we need to start sharing it. If we want the world to have positive associations with Christianity, then no one is doing the work but us. We've got to be willing to say who we are and what we are about. 

Because Christianity has a PR issue and it won't solve itself without us working to solve it. 

And the end result of this is not that Christianity looks good for the world, but that Christianity finally represents its fundamental identity. 

But I want to finish this blog by telling you all that everything I said doesn't matter. Maybe it matters in a "reestablishing how Christians function in our society" sort of way, but that's never been the point of this whole enterprise. 

What matters is that we love each other. 

Full stop.  

What matters is that we love one another as Christ loved us. If no one cares, that's fine. If people think about Christianity more favorably as a result, that's also fine. But more than how anyone feels about us is how we treat other people. 

Everything else is incidental

Peace,

Jeff Fox-Kline

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