Love God, Love Your Neighbour Reprise

After posting yesterday, I realized I'd forgotten something important. (Thanks Jason.)

If you're doing something around people that have a problem with it, or around somebody who could be swayed negatively by your actions... Don't do it. Don't wanna bring your brother down. It is all part of 'loving your neighbour' to not do something around him that he finds offensive.

All the best,
Timbo

Love God, Love Your Neighbour

To be a Christian, there are so many requirements it seems. They come from other people. Not from God. I mean, we're told what music to listen to, what words to use, what movies to watch, what to write, to read... And if we stray from that, it's almost as if we get excommunicated. I mean, my God doesn't give me a list of what to do and what not to do. All He says is 'love the Lord your God' and 'love your neighbour as yourself'. Everything else will follow from those two.

There is a lot of stuff out there that would be harmful to some people. Maybe they aren't mature enough yet to be truly discerning. Or maybe they struggle with a particular area. (I.E., if you're struggling with interest in the occult and in witchcraft, reading fantasy books (and some horror) might make you yearn for that stuff... That's harmful. )

And those are all viable reasons to avoid certain kinds of things. But what about those of us who can cope? Is it anyone's place to decide what we can and cannot do? Well yes it is. It's God's place. And He has told us what to do. He's told us to love Him, and to love each other. But He's also told us that Jesus is the one to judge who is going to heaven or not. So to assume that somebody isn't a real Christian because they listen to Metallica is not only a logical fallacy, but also a blasphemy. Jesus is the judge. It's a blasphemy to assume you can do that too.

I think that as Christians we need to learn to be less afraid. We will avoid so much that is good because we are scared we might somehow get a little tainted.

Love God.

Love your neighbour.

And everything else will fall into place.

What Characterizes A Christian?

This is a question presented to my by my mother dearest. It's a very tricky question to answer for a number of reasons. Partly because the way we view ourselves, and the way those outside the church view us, are two very different things. While we see ourselves as loving and caring and compassionate, those outside see us as unloving, judgmental, hypocritical. But these things don't make one a Christian. A Christian is a follower of Christ, no more, no less. And there are as many different ways for a Christian act as there are different Christians.

So the question really should be "what is the ideal Christian?" The answer is in Jesus Christ. It's trite, I know, but He really is our greatest role-model.

We're meant to love completely and utterly. It takes love to die for a friend. How much more does it take to die for countless billions of enemies?

We're not meant to be happy and calm all the time. We're talking about a man who wept 'tears of blood' in the garden of Gethsemane. We're talking about a man who threw vendors out of His father's temple.

We're meant to forsake everything worldly. Jesus walked around the countryside preaching with little more than the clothes He was wearing and the friends He had made.

We're meant to be able to reason and argue well. Jesus was the king of this. Read any of the gospels, and it should strike you just how cool He is. For real. I read the things He says to the pharisees, and it's just like 'woah! shut down!' Like when they asked Him 'by what authority are you doing this stuff?' and He replied with 'did John's ministry come from man, or from God?' and the pharisees knew that if they said from man, the people would hate them, and if they said from God, Jesus would ask why they didn't believe. They thought they were clever, so they came back and said 'yeah well we don't actually know', and Jesus just says 'well then I'm not going to tell you by what authority I do this stuff!'

But finally, we're meant to trust God completely. Jesus threw Himself into the father's hands. He prayed that His 'cup might be taken from me... But your will, not mine, be done O God.' And then He went to die on the cross. For us. And after three days, God raised him up again to be with Him.

I could go on for ages about all the little things Jesus did, and all the ways we should emulate Him. But it would take far more time than I have! So I'll wind up now with a suggestion that you all read the gospel of Matthew. And look at the character of Christ. He was 100% God, but also 100% human. And the human part shines through very strongly. You can actually imagine hanging out with this guy, and He really is incredibly cool.