Being Jesus – Love is active, not passive.
Did Jesus walk past the blind, the moaning, those crying out for help, those silently hurting and say “No, I’ve got more important things to do” OR “No, I can’t help you today since I’m busy with my other Godly assignments“?
Of course not. Jesus helped er’body. Guess what? As Christians, we’re supposed to do that to.
We are supposed to spread Love.
John 13:34-35
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Mark 12:30-31
30 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Yeah, that’s oldschoolBiblered. Cause Jesus said it. There is no commandment greater than THESE. Jesus didn’t say, “There is no commandment greater than Loving God.” Jesus said, “There is no commandment greater than THESE.“ Which means there is no commandment greater than both loving God AND loving your neighbor. How can we love God, and not also love our neighbor? It doesn’t work. Jesus himself said so.
As far as the ‘Love one another as I have loved you‘ bit, He loved us THE MOST you can love anyone. I mean He straight up DIED for us in a torturous way. So yeah. We’re supposed to love others like he loved us…andHelovedusprettyhard.
Most of us can easily accept Loving God as a commandment. The second is more difficult.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Not love the person that is nice to you, or who can get you farther in life. Not love your mom and dad. Not love your husband. Not love your best friend, your boyfriend, your brother, your sister. No, those are not straightfromJesus’mouth the greatest commands. Straight from Jesus’ mouth was love your neighbor as yourself. Sure, your family and friends def count as your neighbors. That’s the easy part. Love your neighbor as yourself also means:
- Love the person who runs on a treadmill above your head at 1am.
- Love the person who locks their dogs up in a crate all day on the other side of your shared wall.
- Love the person who reports you to the neighborhood authority for having your swingset on an inch of their yard.
- Love the person who stares through the hole in the fence into your windows.
- Love the person who calls the police on you for driving too fast through the neighborhood.
- Love the person you sit next to at work/school who clicks their pen out of rhythm when you are trying to focus.
- Love the person you see every morning in the coffee shop who is ordering for the whole office–EVEN when you get stuck behind them in line.
- Love the person who lets their dog poop in your yard.
- Love the person who cuts you off in traffic.
- Love the person who was cooking meth which started the apartment fire that made you lose everything.
- Love the person you could live perfectly fine everyday without ever knowing they exist.
JESUS SAYS LOVE THAT PERSON. But not just love them. Love them as you love yourself.
When people say we need to “Be Jesus” that’s because He loved everyone. Loving is our greatest command, so we should probably make a pretty good effort to do it.
Being Jesus means (among many other things) anyone who is being bullied, hurting, sick, poor DEFINITELY qualifies as my neighbor, as your neighbor. We’re supposed to love them too. Even if we don’t know them. Even if it’s uncomfortable. Even if it’s not cool. We’re not supposed to watch, ignore, or pretend everything’s alright. We’re supposed to LOVE.
Love is active. Jesus’ love was certainly active. Jesus didn’t just tell people He loved them, He acted on it. Everything from healing people to washing feet to dying for us–everything He did was active Love.
Love doesn’t include LETTING PEOPLE SPREAD HATE. Cause that’s what bullying is–HATE. When people bully, the devil wins. When we let hurt kids/teens/adults stay hurt, we aren’t doing our job.
Cutting remarks, making fun of someone, racial slurs even when used as jokes, talking about someone behind their back — all of this can be included in bullying. As Christians, we should build people up. There are plenty of people in the world who love to bring people down. It is our job as Christians to spread love. Love always builds people up.
Please don’t stand silently when the person next to you is being brought down. It’s probably not Christlike to turn around and bully the bully either. Just try to spread LOVE, however you feel is best at the moment. Remember, spread LOVE. Not spread criticism, not spread judgement…spread Love. If you don’t know how, but you know something needs to be done…ask the Big Man upstairs. He knows everything. He’ll be more than happy to help you out. As a matter of fact, He was probably waiting for you to ask Him all along.
Please, spread love.