Tag Archives: Love

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How Does Jesus Define Love? (3 Quick Truths)

In this video, you will learn how Jesus defines love. Our culture is confused about love.

What does God say about love?

What does the Bible really say about love?

Does love always affirm behaviors and beliefs? Is love a feeling?

Learn 3 countercultural truths in this quick video that will help you love people like Jesus did.

Biblical Passages About Love

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”-1 Cor 13:6

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”-Col 3:13-15

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Dallas Willard on Tolerance and Love

“Tolerance has suffered a great deal recently in our religious and political and educational areas. And tolerance, because truth has been pulled away from it, has slipped over into the idea that everything is equally right. No longer is tolerance a matter of saying, “I disagree with you and I believe you’re wrong, but I accept you and I extend to you the right to be wrong.” That’s not enough. We’re now in the situation where everyone must be equally right, where you cannot claim that people are wrong and still love them.” – Dallas Willard

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3 Quick Observations About The Same-Sex Marriage Supreme Court Decision

By now you have no doubt heard that the supreme court ruled 5-4 in Obergefell vs. Hodges that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right and is now the law of the land. (read the full decision here)

As a Christian how are we to think about this? To be honest, this decision did not surprise me, but I was disappointed. I had held out some hope that the constitution and not the winds of public opinion would win the day. But that was not to be.

3 Quick Observations About The Same-Sex Marriage Supreme Court Decision

1) The world has not ended, but make no mistake this will have significant cultural impact. There are 2 sides of this balance beam we can’t afford to fall off of. First, we need to remember that Christianity is still true, regardless of what is going on in a particular cultural moment. Our hope is fixed in Christ, not a cultural majority. We have an opportunity to love and engage. Let’s not miss that.

The other way not to react to this news is to say it won’t effect me and my marriage and everything will continue on as it has. That is not true. And that will become more painfully evident in the days ahead–especially for children.

2) Whatever your views on same-sex marriage, the constitution lost–and that is not good news for the United States of America. While I am not a legal scholar, I have taken the time to try to digest the issues at play here. What remains clear from the 4 dissenting justices is that in the words of Chief Justice Roberts, “The majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedent.” The supreme court acted as a “super-legislature” in this case imposing its will rather than finding a rational basis for it in the constitution.

This may feel good (in the moment) if you happen to find yourself in the majority of current cultural opinion, but opinions change. You may (whatever your view) find yourself in the minority opinion at odds with 5 supreme court justices as the constitution is shaped to fit current trends. The whole point of a fixed document that anchors our country is so that it is really difficult to change laws and amend the constitution. That is being bypassed by judicial activism when it suits the court. That’s not good news for the rule of law in a free society. For more analysis, read here.

3) More than ever it is important to have courage, stand for religious liberty for everyone, and promote and embody true tolerance. There is a lot here. But the bottom line is you and I as Christ-followers must affirm what Jesus affirmed about God’s created order (cf. Matt. 19 as he cited Gen. 1-2). We must also not be silent. We must stand our ground no matter what comes. We need to affirm true tolerance where people can disagree with one another about things that really matter and still love and respect one another (read more about this here). People we may disagree with are not the enemy. They are made in the image of God and worthy of dignity and respect. Here are 2 books that need to be must reading.

– Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom by Ryan Anderson

– The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech by Kirsten Powers

Here is a talk that my friend John Stonestreet gave recently at Impact 360 Institute entitled: Same-Sex Marriage What Now (Video). It is well worth a watch.

Now is not the time to lose heart. It is time to think, love, and engage.

A Quick Response to the Who Are You To Judge Objection? (read more)

If you found this post helpful, you would enjoy How to Respond to the “That’s Just Your Interpretation” Objection

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Jesus, Love, and Chick-fil-A: JP Moreland Responds to Matthew Paul Turner

So are Christians unloving if they supported Chick-fil-A day or stood up for free-speech and religious liberty? Did Christians fail miserably as Christ’s ambassadors earlier this week? Mathew Paul Turner seems to think so. But his well-intentioned post is misguided. Dr. J.P. Moreland provides clear thinking on these issues and responds to Turner’s post, point by point:

Point #1:

Yesterday’s campaign, while I don’t think it should be considered or called “hate,” neither can it be called love. Christians all over America ignored the second greatest commandment: to love our neighbors. Call yesterday what you want, freedom of speech, a rally behind “family values,” a sincere fascination with CFA’s brand of fried poultry…but it cannot be called love. It was not love.

RESPONSE

Here Matthew confuses standing against an issue with loving the people who engage in the issue.  We should stand against abortion, but still love people who get them.  We should stand against opponents of free speech and advocates of gay marriage, but also love individual homosexuals.  So he confuses a macro-issue (the issue of marriage and free speech) with a micro-issue.   Moreover, he also seems to think that love cannot be tough.  Sometimes the best thing you can do to love someone is to confront strongly their harmful, immoral behavior. So even in with regard to the micro-issue (involving a specific person) it is the right thing, given an adequate relational context, to say that their homosexual behavior is deeply immoral, their desire for marriage to be re-defined is contrary to Scripture and the natural law, and it will harm society significantly, and their desire to have political censorship brought against CFA is egregious.

POINT #2

People felt hate and we ignored that. At the end of the day, regardless of whether or not your Christian understanding of scripture harbors hate or not, a large group of people felt hated. Again, we can debate this point all day long, but that does not change the fact that people felt hatred because of what happened yesterday. Whether or not hate actually existed is not the point, people felt hated. And rather than acknowledging those feelings or trying to understand or engage them in any way, Christians everywhere marched off to their local CFA like it was a cross to bear, a necessity, a battle cry of some sort, the waffle fry’s last stand.

RESPONSE

Regarding his point about people feeling hate, this is the other side’s issue, not ours, and to be quite honest, they may need to search more deeply within themselves if they, in fact, felt hated.  Very few went to CFA with hate; they were angry about the other side’s hate, but they were not hateful.  Matthew confused hate with the hard virtues of confrontation of moral evil and standing for what is right, and he confuses real hate with the feeling of hate.  The feeling of hate was not the protester’s fault; it was a projection of the other side onto the protesters and probably reveals a need to be more discerning about those who disagree with you and not to react emotionally.  Such an emotional reaction is often narcissistic (I and my feelings of acceptance are all that matter; the issue, and people’s right to disagree with me are not the issue).

Point #3:

By rallying behind CFA, Christians put an issue above people. And it’s impossible to follow Jesus when issues trump people. Jesus never said “love God, love causes.” That is not the message that gets preached in churches all over America on Sunday mornings. I’ve heard a hundred different explanations from patrons of yesterday’s rally and nearly every one of them gives precedence to “the cause”. We can’t embrace love, mercy, hope, and peace when our causes (or a place of business) trumps people.

RESPONSE

Regarding the point of putting an issue above people, this is hopelessly misguided.  How can you even know, love and care for people without truth and knowing “issues (alleged truths) about people and how they think?  One of the most loving things one can do to someone is to stand up against their harmful behavior.
Also, how about loving the CFA people and all those on their side?  Don’t they need love, mercy and support?  Yes they do, and people chose to express that love and respect
Wednesday.  That was a very Christian thing to do.
You can read points 4 & 5 by visiting J.P. Moreland’s excellent site here.
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Time to Break the Spiral of Silence

I have signed this…have you?

What is the Spiral of Silence?

“A social phenomenon where, out of a desire to avoid reprisal or rejection, people go along with what they think is the popular opinion — even if they object to that opinion personally. Instead of voicing their opinions, they remain silent.”

Don’t be silent. Be respectful. Be courageous. Share this video with others.

Think Christianly with Jonathan Morrow