by Beth Anderle

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: February 16, 2010

I am very concerned that many Christians have left Jesus' most important teachings behind.

Jesus taught love above all things, and the two commandments that he left us with dealt with love: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40) The reality is that if you truly love others and act out of that love faithfully, there is not one of the original Ten Commandments that you can break.

In John's Gospel, Jesus makes this commandment even clearer: "Love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12) That means we are to love others unconditionally and non-judgmentally.
It means that we must love fully and completely. It means that our love for God's people must be filled with forgiveness, grace, and mercy.

But far too often Christians find themselves arguing with each other about the details in the Bible, condemning one another over interpretations of scripture. We condemn people who are gay, based on scripture, failing to realize that Jesus never condemned or even mentioned homosexuality as a sin. We condemn people for not being baptized in water, or for being baptized incorrectly, or being baptized by the wrong people. We condemn people for taking communion incorrectly, or for what we believe happens to the bread and wine during communion. We fight over religious hierarchies, ordination qualifications. That is not the way God loves us, and that is not the way God wants us to love each other. When we behave like this we set a poor example for others and we turn people away from the very Christ that we want them to come to love and follow!

There is frequently an irritating attitude of superiority among Christians who believe that their place in heaven is assured. They look down on others even as they profess to love them. There is an air of condescension as they serve the poor, as they visit the sick, as they piously do all the other things that God tells them to do. The problem is that is this type of service the true love is missing and people can sense it. They will accept the help, but it will never draw them closer to God because this type of service does not share God's love with the very people who may need it most.

Until we as Christians get back to our authentic roots, worry less about appearances and doctrine, and worry more about truly spreading God's love, we will continue to find our numbers dwindling as people seek elsewhere for the love and acceptance they should be getting from us.

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