How to Love, Part 2: Loving God First
When I went to seminary, I met a lady who loved God more than anyone else I had ever personally known. She honored God’s Word, was led by God’s Spirit, and lived the life I saw written in the New Testament. Then I married her. And we’ve been pastoring together ever since. Matthew 22:37–39 reiterates Old Testament commands and says, “‘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.’” Because Kim loved…
How to Love, Part 1: Agape
I’ve lost count of how many times I see someone accusing Christians, particularly traditional Bible believers, of being “unloving” because they didn’t celebrate or approve of that person’s ideas or lifestyle. Yes, believers are sometimes unloving, judgmental, or prejudiced. And when they are, they need to repent and change. But that’s only a part of the picture. It is becoming critically important that people who identify as followers of Christ define and practice what God’s love / Christ’s love really is. New Testament Greek uses four words for love: Eros—physical love (of which plenty varieties are going around). Philos—emotional love…
A Church’s Kingdom Approach in Response to Gay Marriage
Since Adam and Eve, marriage has been defined, both biblically and socially, as the union of a man and a woman. How does the church respond after a divided Supreme Court decided that homosexuals have a constitutional right to marry? Even Justice Kennedy’s prevailing court opinion on this radical (and perhaps inevitable) shift appeared to be based more on ideas of love than on the Constitution. Indeed, love is the hallmark of a Christian. And Jesus makes clear in the Great Commandment of Matthew 22:36–40 that love is first of all, and primarily, given to God. Secondarily, love is given…
The Blessed Poor
How can poor people be richer than rich people? By not having what keeps rich people poor. An African farmer hoes his field with a machete, lives in a mud hut, and is happy for two meals a day. In fact I could argue that in some ways he’s better off than a lot of people in other countries who own mansions and luxury cars. A Gallup poll questioned thousands of people in 132 nations (yes, one hundred and thirty two). Out of all the data, researchers are finding that people in poor countries generally sense a greater meaning in…
Go Thai Life Insurance!
Thai Life Insurance (as in Thailand) has recently produced advertisements–each a full three minutes long–that advertise more about being a good human being than anything else. I’ve shown one in my church and will probably show the other two as well. In my entire life I have never–ever–seen or heard of any corporation so selflessly make such long commercials that have such a profoundly positive effect on a whole nation of people, and increasingly the rest of us around the world. My guess is that they must be making such a good impression that business is likely booming. Here are the…
