What keeps you from loving?
I‘ll admit it there are some Sundays I don’t like my pastor. Some Sundays he stands at the front of the congregation and gently nudges us along. then other Sundays I worry someone is going to ask “Is that your blood?” and I would respond “Some of it,yeah” (note: Fight Club reference).
Yesterday was one of the later both for me and for people I know who I believe and profess to be Christians. We are going through Galations and this week we finished up Chapter 3 and went a little into chapter 4.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
The preacher drove home that it should be easier to befriend and be in relationship with a Christian who is a different race, sex, social status, and even language then with a non-Christian who is identical to you, because the center of the Life of a Christian is Christ and that should be the most important thing.
At first 2 friends of mine who are Christians came to mind. One I have actually spoken with about the difficulties of having relationships with those who are different and the other has made comments indicating that he doesn’t want people different from himself attending his Church. I was still enjoying the service. Listening to the preacher put the screws to these guys. Oh yeah you tell um!
Then I realized that I don’t do a very good job of loving those outside my own race and economic group. WOOH WOOH WOOH, I didn’t come to church to get convicted this morning. I had been caught by the same hook as my friends. That the status symbols I secretly held dearly and took some silent pride in had actually trumped my faith in God. It was more important for me to be white, speak English, or be middle class then it was for me to love my brothers. Some days I really don’t like my preacher.