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Loving God

          Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
         Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
          Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
          “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:22-33)

          Stoning isn’t popular today. Instead we lash out with words. People who claim that labeling and shaming are wrong seem more than willing to tell someone that they are stupid, insane, evil, hateful, worthless, and shouldn’t be allowed to procreate. Those who describe themselves as loving leap at the opportunity to tell someone else what a horrible person they are. And the thing that brings about such figurative stoning faster than just about anything else is to hold something unpopular as being true. Tell someone, even someone who claims to be Christian, what the Bible says on a subject, and unless it happens to be politically correct, you can expect to be told you’re the scum of the earth because you don’t “love” everyone.
          It’s not surprising. It’s been going on since the days of Cain and Abel. Today’s passage is today’s message. How dare anyone think they have a right to speak out against something they think is wrong (unless it’s PC to do so)? How dare anyone interfere with another person’s claim to be god by telling them that they are wrong, or that God disagrees with them? Love is the thing. Accepting them is the thing. Don’t you dare say the Scripture says X is wrong unless the people have made it clear that they happen to agree.  
         Jesus described as the greatest commandment loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths and loving our neighbor as ourselves. First and foremost, we are to love God. No matter how we rationalize our way around it, if we tell God, or other people, that God is wrong, we aren’t loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, or strengths. We’re calling Him a liar. If we tell God, or others, that the opinions of people are more important than the opinion God has revealed through Scripture, we aren’t loving God. If we are putting people’s feelings ahead of God’s, we aren’t loving God, we’re loving the god we have made of the people.

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