"And the Greatest of These is Love..."
Jesus said the 2nd greatest commandment is love and the entire law is based on this. I recently heard the saying, "I am going to love my neighbor as Jesus commanded and if that clashes with my religious belief system, I will choose love."
Today's post comes from the heart of one of my dearest friends, Megan Reax, whose friendship is a treasure. Her words are inspired and prophetic.
Dear Christian: My heart is breaking. My heart is breaking, but Jesus must be weeping. We have been told some very hurtful statements and accused of untrue things by Christians since October 7. All because we are loving people. We are loving the other side. We are sitting in pain with the people we came to love.
Love is the cry of the heart of Jesus. If EVERYTHING, all the law included, Jesus says, hangs on these two commandments. "Love the Lord your God and then love your neighbor as yourself." I refuse to let theology/law keep me from loving my neighbor. If theology, religion, or man's interpretation of scripture comes before Jesus's commandment to love my neighbor, it's wrong. If the top theologians/Pharisees of Jesus time missed it and He continued to rebuke them, why do we think all our theological interpretation is right too?
I refuse to let the Bible be used as an excuse to kill or to justify killing and injustice. Jesus is NOT a weapon nor did He use one. If Jesus was born today he would be born in Bethlehem.....behind the wall, in P*lest*ne. He would be running to the Samaritan (currently West Bank/ P*lest*ne) woman at the well. The same Samaritans that the religious leaders avoided. I will run to her too. I will love them too. I will love them all. Every human is made in the image of God and is worthy of love. I will sit with the Israeli mother AND the P*lest*nian mother as they weep for their lost children. If that is my crime, I will gladly lose all the support from my Christian brothers and sisters that have already threaten that to me. I will stand in love. I will stand with Jesus. Where He goes... I go. Love is my guide, and these are the "rules" of love.
"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. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails................And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NIV
****Examples below where the Bible was used to gain Christian support or justify killing and injustice.********
Hitler and slave owners commonly used Romans 13 in the Bible to gain church support for their actions.
"Throughout the lifetime of the Third Reich, in tens of thousands of sermons up and down the country, pro-Nazi Protestant pastors quoted from Romans 13: "The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."
In short, as the Nazi regime imprisoned its opponents and wrought havoc across the world, Romans 13 became one of the glues that held the Third Reich together. The scripture had the effect of preventing, or at least delaying, the emergence of more widespread resistance against Nazi policies. The powerful writings of anti-Nazi Protestant theologians Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are testament as to how much Protestants in Germany were battling with the particular verse. For instance, in his book "Church and State," Barth discussed at great lengths how Romans 13 calls upon Christians to obey the rules of the state they live in, however concluding, in effect, that the actions of Jesus himself contradicted the narrow reading of Romans 13 favored by the Nazis:
"Barth thus ultimately concluded that Romans 13 does, in fact, not call upon people blindly to obey the state. Quite to the contrary, according to Barth, Paul's epistle to the Romans requires people to rise against the state when the state is the source of injustice." Excerpt from article about Barth.
Netanyahu uses the bible to justify war and wiping a whole people group off the map.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says that 'there is a time for peace and a time for war.' This is a time for war. A war for our common future," Netanyahu said in English at a press briefing organized for foreign media on 30, 2023.
“Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” 1 Samuel 15:3 also said about the current conflict.
"With shared forces, with deep faith in the justice of our cause and in the eternity of Israel, we will realize the prophecy of Isaiah 60:18-'Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls salvation, and your gates praise'," he said.
President George W. Bush Jr. and his defense team used Psalms 139:9-10 when he invaded Iraq.
" If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."
These are a just a few examples.
For far too long the bible has been used to bring Christians or Christian support into actions where Jesus would have no part of. Jesus changes it ALL. Read HIS WORDS, follow HIS ACTIONS. We are Christians....CHRIST followers. He is our example. Nothing else should matter.
Matthew 22:36-40 NIV
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”