If
you ask Christians what the Christian life is all about, you’ll probably
get many answers.
Some will say it is about a life of discipline, study and righteousness.
Others will say it is about a relationship with God.
Still others will say it is about witnessing the gospel to the unsaved.
The Christian life is about all these things and our first call is to love
and worship the Lord our God. But there is an aspect of our Christian walk
that is crucial to our spirituality but so hard to accomplish:

Loving
God’s people.

God not only created us, but He created us as a people, a community…
a BODY. And this body is very precious and holy to God.
So when we fight or hate or discriminate or separate, we are in sin.
God hates this.

As
we look throughout the Bible, God continuously reinforces His people as an
interacting body, not just as solitary individuals. Reflection and introspection
is important for our spiritual growth and there are some who are called to
a life of prayerful solitude.
However being a hermit is not God’s plan for most of us.

How
do I know? Well let’s look at the Bible.
Take the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20: 1-17
All the commandments are about our relationship with God and our relationships
with other people…the brotherhood of man. The first few commandments
tell us to love and honor God who gave us life and spirit. We have no problem
with this. However, the remaining commandments are there to teach us how we
are to relate to each other. The commandments are about honoring our parents
and not hurting our neighbors whether by false witness, stealing, or coveting,
etc.
The commandments are NOT about keeping oneself pure or sinless for its own
sake, but about caring for each other with honor and respect. The commandments
are there because we naturally choose not to love each other. Our natural
state is to love only ourselves.

He
could have given us any number of commandments to observe…but these
were about Him and about dealing with people in His holy love. Most Christians
can effortlessly follow the Ten Commandments…but we still have a serious
problem really loving other people. Why? Because people are messy.
They’re hungry, needy, indecisive, unappreciative, contradictory, to
name a few. Humans are a difficult bunch to love. And loving anyone involves
taking their problems and pain onto ourselves.
Though if you recall…this is what Jesus did for us.

He
could have asked those seeking Him to go off into the desert and stay there
and abstain from fleshly human contact and interaction in order to obtain
purity, but He does not. Though Jesus does ask us to seek righteousness and
avoid sin, (again a reminder: “sin” is when we commit a violation
against God, another person or our self), the real focus of Jesus’ ministry
was love for mankind, of which He gave His own life. Jesus never says for
us to avoid people whom we think are “sinners”. Clearly, He has
shown us that we are all sinners in the same boat, none better than the other.

Jesus’
ministry was about loving and healing. It was about bringing together, not
separating. He healed, loved and forgave all those people…who everyone
else despised and avoided.
He was against the religious people who performed EVERYTHING correctly,
but were cold to their brothers and neighbors. His life is a testament to
how we should live. His parables of the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan,
the feeding of the five thousand, the healing of the sick, the forgiving of
the adulteress, His death on the cross…Jesus’ life was all about
healing, sacrificing, caring, forgiving and loving…people.

Jesus’
ministry was not about hours spent meditating or studying
until we knew the Bible backwards and forwards. It wasn’t about keeping
your body free from animal meats or avoiding sinful people.
His ministry was NOT EVEN about being a good person for the sake of being
good. But Jesus’ ministry was about loving people, all people.
His ministry was about selfless love for humanity.

Jesus
tells of the story of the separation of the goats and sheep at the end of
the age. Matthew 25:31-46
In this story, He reveals how important the act of loving people is.
It seems our very salvation hangs on it.
And how were the goats and sheep separated?
He didn’t separate the sheep from the goats because they were good church
going Christians, or the best at avoiding sin and sinful thoughts, or because
they believed sound Christian theology.
All of these are fine. But the sheep were separated from the goats because
they DID THINGS that helped people.

“For
I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave
me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes
and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and
you came to visit me.”

“…I
tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers
of mine, you did for me.”

The
sheep had done real acts of love for real people.
It is all about showing real selfless love to people, not just loving people
in our idealistic minds. Anyone can say, “I’m a Christian, I love
everyone”. It’s something else to get your hands dirty by meeting,
befriending, and helping REAL people, people with all manner of problems,
illnesses, and faults. Some of us can’t even greet our next-door neighbor.
How can we help a stranger in need?

Jesus’
new commandments are to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.“On
these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:40
He could have made the commandment about “being the best you can be”,
or He could have told us to “separate ourselves from others to be stainless
holy hermits”. Rather He commanded us to become a part of each other's
lives and love and care for each other and in that way, the Gospel is spread.
Jesus wants Christians to be catalysts for the healing of God’s people…ALL
of His people. By showing love, Christians are fulfilling the ultimate will
of God:

The
Great Commission.

The
true ministry of Christ is about meeting, ministering to, helping, visiting,
healing, feeding, sharing, accepting, welcoming, respecting, honoring, befriending,
defending, forgiving, caring for and loving…people.
Hello, are you with me? Wake up and smell the coffee.
It’s all about People.

“We
love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,”
yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother,
whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given
us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John
4:19-21

“And
above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover
a multitude of sins’” 1 Peter 4:8