Exhortation to Love, Part 1

I’m listening to WOW 1998. Right now it’s on a song called “We Need Jesus,” by Petra. I like it a lot.

We Need Jesus (Petra)

Verse 1:

When will the world
See that we need Jesus?
If we open our eyes
We will all realize
That He loves us
When will the world
See that we need Jesus?
When our hearts are as one
And believe that He’s the Son of our God

Chorus:

The Lord is our God
And we shall never want
The Lord is our God
And we shall live forever
When we share the love of Jesus
See each other as He sees us
Then His love will see us through
His love will see us through

Verse 2:

When will the world
See that we need Jesus?
When sister and brother
Love one another as one
When will the world
See that we need Jesus?
Will we ever understand
Jesus is the Son of man?
We must live in the shadow of His love

Okay, so it’s a really simple song, but it’s awesome.  I especially liked the verse that talks about sister and brother loving one another. Recently, Laura mentioned how life would be so much easier for everyone if we just learned how to show a little love and compassion. After all, as Christians, we are to be imitators of Christ, and Christ was God incarnated. Now if Christ is God and God is love, and we are supposed to be imitators of Christ, what the heck are we doing acting just like the cruel world? Come on, folks! A little humility and compassion goes a long way.
Unfortunately, many Christians are too prideful to give up their old ways. They hang on to their sin nature and seek revenge on all who do them wrong. We are all guilty of being like that, but it seems that we as Christians have in general stopped being simply “in” the world and started to become “of” the world. We have lost our positive influence in the world because we have lost everything that has made our influence positive. We no longer take the time to be a cut above the world and we instead make our beliefs appear less appealing than the pointless, superficial, hopeless belief systems that the world has to offer. Go listen to “If We Are the Body” by Casting Crowns; this song very well illustrates the problems with being “of” the world and of forgetting to show love.

We’ve got to start showing more love; we’ve got to start proving that there is a reason to be a Christian and a higher calling on our lives! We can’t do that if we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we don’t reflect God and his unfailing love to humanity! Personally, I’m a big fan of random acts of kindness. Unfortunately we have done such a poor job of teaching those of our own faith how to be kind that we have no hope of rubbing off on non-Christians.

We are Christians. We are supposed to be imitators of Christ. Christ is God. God is love.

Any questions?


 
Be blessed!
Neo