by Joshua Moore

We live in a culture marked by love. Think about the movies and TV shows you’ve watched over your life. Did the majority of them involve love in one way or another? 

Ross & Rachel, Ted & Robin, Harry & Sally, Jon Snow & Daenerys Targaryen, (before they found out they were siblings) Forrest & Jenny, Rose & Jack, Allie &Noah, Jasmine & Aladdin

This list could go on and on. Love is romanticized, contextualized, and ultimately a sought after emotion that everyone (yes everyone) wants to experience in some form or another. Hollywood understands that love involves feelings and a story, even an action story involving love can capture the hearts and minds of those watching. Think Speed (1994), The Matrix Trilogy (1999-2003), or even the action/comedy Get Smart (2008).  We connect with love; we want love, we love, love.

We live in a culture marked by love, sadly though, also by hate. Every day we see this paradox played out.  Family is a precious gift to be cherished, yet there are 2.9 million cases of child abuse reported every year in the United States. Beyond broken families and hurting kids, this love/hate paradox will be experienced by those voting in the Presidential election in November. Love and hate are intertwined in ways that they should not be. Sadly, Christians are conforming to the superficial standards of love that we have seen modeled in entertainment and the world. 

Christians want to love without hate. But there is a disconnect that allows us to love all people, except for those who don’t fit within our perception.  Most of us know Christians who try to operate in love but sometimes function in hate. Think about these examples for a moment:

It is easy to love the homeless by handing them a little money here and there. But hate creeps in when it is hard to trust those “drunk” or “drugged” people whom we assume are just looking for a handout. It is easy to love people who are just a little bit different than we are. 

But hate creeps in when we talk about someone who is in this country without legal status. 

It is easy to fight for the rights of unborn babies, but hate creeps in when we meet the doctors who perform abortions or women who have abortions.  

It is easy to love a political figure if they align with the same party as we do, but hate creeps in if another political figure is either too far left or too far right. In this article alone, I bet some have experienced emotions of love and hate as I touch on some pretty divisive issues :).  It is easy to follow the kind of love we see played out in our world today.  

Is the church called to an easy kind of love? One that picks and chooses who we get to love? Or are we called to love greater than what we normally experience?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells those listening to him this: (don’t check out now, though this verse is quoted from The Message). 

“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.”  Matthew 7:12

I can really get behind this verse! If someone wants a piece of chocolate, I can give them Sour Patch Kids instead because that is what I would want them to do for me. Giving with the intent of receiving. OK, this isn’t what Jesus was trying to say. Jesus is teaching that people that pledge their allegiance to His ways are called to live by a Golden Rule.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus models the Golden Rule. Without minimizing his actions or teachings, he weaved throughout sermons, stories, and parables this way of living and loving. 

In practical terms, the Golden Rule is a self-sacrificing love for the benefit of others. This Golden Rule type of love challenges those listening to Jesus, and later those reading his words, to go against the “normal” love found in society.  This Golden Rule type of love that Jesus modeled is a love that seeks to turn enemies into neighbors by loving them and praying for them- not just praying. The Golden Rule kind of love is lived and experienced, to be witnessed, and shocks those we encounter.

Since Jesus embodied the Golden Rule, shouldn’t his people in his Church embody it as well? 

As people in the Church, we are called to live out the Golden Rule. Lived out, people within the church voluntarily surrender selfish desires and ambitions to accomplish the mission we are called to live out, love (cue The Beatles catchy chorus: “All You Need is Love”).

The church can only be relevant in our culture today if it stops trying to be relevant and starts living the Golden Rule out, just like Jesus did. 

How can the church, which is made up of imperfect people, conform to Jesus’ Golden Rule?  

In the same way Jesus did, by submitting to the will of the Father over his desire to not be crucified. By submitting his thoughts and actions to the Spirit’s desires. Only in submitting our wants and needs, can the Church shape the world around us with love, humility, compassion, and service.  

Imagine for a moment what the world would look like if the Church embodied the Golden Rule. 

Imagine people from all walks of life who value and generously love people from EVERY tribe, tongue, and nation. This means all races, all people with different sexual preferences, all genders, and everyone else more than they love themselves, as a reflection of their love for God. 

This seems far-fetched, and for a lot of Christians, this seems unimaginable. As followers of Christ, we are called to be like Christ. Jesus radically loved all those he encountered.  It may sound simple, but if the Church would learn from Jesus’ example of how to love people from every walk of life, then the Church would find its place in a society where it is rapidly losing relevance. 

If the Golden Rule is lived out by the Church, then we would be aligned to the way of Jesus instead of just giving lip service to him.  

If we lived out the Golden Rule, we would truly show our allegiance to Jesus with our thoughts and actions instead of just saying a prayer.  

If we lived out the Golden Rule, people around us would notice. 

If we lived out the Golden Rule, the Church could have the power to change the world. This power would not come from the people, but directly from the Holy Spirit.  

The Golden question is, are we ready to love God more than we love ourselves? Or are we comfortable living with a subpar definition of love?

Resources

We’ve created a free downloadable PDF to explore the article deeper. It contains discussion questions about the topic in general terms that will give you a jumping-off point for beginning a conversation.

The second page contains a way to see the topic from a biblical perspective.

And finally, to go deeper into the subject, we have chosen a few curated resources to explore from other authors’ and thinkers’ research or perspectives.

Read. Engage. Enjoy!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Depending on how a gem is held, light refracts differently. At B+PC we engage in Pop Culture topics to see ideas from a new angle, to bring us to a deeper understanding. And like Pastor Shane Willard notes, we want “…Jesus to get bigger, the cross to get clearer, the Resurrection to be central…” Instead of approaching a topic from “I don’t want to be wrong,“ we strive for the alternative “I want to expand my perspective.” 

So, we invite you to engage with us here. What piqued your curiosity to dig deeper? What line inspired you to action? What idea made you ask, “Hmmm?” Let’s join with our community to wrestle with our thoughts in love in the Comment Section! See you there!