When I was a teenager (which was a long, long time ago), there was a popular song used particularly in youth and campus ministries - "They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love." In many ways, the lyrics were a no-brainer for Christians. They pretty much came from Jesus declaration to the disciples on the night before he went to the Cross. "By this sign shall all men know you are my disciples, that you have love for one another," (John 13:35)
Rebecca Manley Pippert in her powerful book on the Resurrection, Hope Has Its Reasons wrote "People have two things in common. We want to be happy and we want to be loved." Song writers, philosophers, social commentators, and supermarket tabloids all testify to the same truth about humanity.
Given that, I am always mystified (and a bit perturbed) by Christians and churches who make their ministry about other things. Bake sales and building campaigns, rituals and rules, preserving their traditions and culture--all at the expense of their primary mission of re-presenting Christ to the world by loving one another and, by extension, loving the people God loves; i.e., the whole world.
I once served a church that was stagnating, not seeing new people. It was a church locked in combat, a sort of civil war over vision and leadership. When they asked the pastor (me) why they were not attracting new people, my answer was "Because unloved people don't want to be connected to a group of people that can't even love their own kind as Christ commanded."
The Cross of Jesus Christ is the instrument by which God declared in no uncertain terms that we must love unconditionally, continuously, genuinely,
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