We Need To Learn How To Love Again

Last updated on: February 6, 2016 at 12:39 pm by John O'Keefe

We Need To Learn How To Love Again 2016-02-06T12:39:04-05:00 John O'Keefe

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We need to learn how to love again. Too many people who claim to be followers of the Teachings of Christ forget about how Jesus just loved people – we need to just love people. People, in droves, ran to Jesus because they know he was a man of Love.

Over my walk I have seen love migrate out of the church. We have replaced the teaching of love with the teaching of judging others. Proof of that simply statement can be found in that many in the church will strive to prove that judging others is acceptable, or that they will strive to show some connection to a very human condition called “tough love.” They will argue what Jesus meant when he said, LOVE. But, if we see Jesus as our example, if we are walking a faith journey where the narrative of love is central to our walk, we find reasons to love, not to judge. When we come to the realization that love is our center, ideas like “tough love” find no place in our understanding of love.

If we are unable to love others, it is because we don’t have the love of Christ in us – Judgement removes that expression of love from our hearts. If we look at the Collective Narrative, we read Jesus speaking on the massive, realistic value of love:

In the Narrative of John [13: 34-35] Jesus shares, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” The great thing here is, if we claim to be a follower of Christ, Love becomes something that identifies us, it is how people know us.

In the Narrative of Mark [12:28-31] when Jesus was confronted by religious leaders, people whose security centered on judgement, and asked to tell them to sum-up the law [the religious leaders loved the law] Jesus said, [paraphrased] “Simple, Love God with all you are, and love others as you love yourself.”

For me, that settles it.

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