All religions teach about love. They go on and on, often in poetic terms about the wonders of love. This four-letter word is exalted as the height of religious and spiritual expression. We are supposed to love each other with greater levels of sacrifice and unselfishnes as we grow and mature.
Love your neighbor as yourself. But sometimes we don't love ourselves at all. And sometimes our neighbor is a jerk. What do we do when our neighbor's dog dumps on our front lawn? Give the dog a treat and hug our neighbor? Does love mean being our neighbor's doormat?
Romantic love means flowers and kisses but that doesn't really work for everyone except for our closest partner. When we observe the life of the carpenter's son from Nazareth, we see he was in people's face quite a bit. He blasted the Pharisees in scathing rebuke. He chastised his apostles constantly. He wasn't all hugs and kisses.
On the other hand, Joshua ben Joseph was unusually friendly and went out of his way to befriend those whom society had rejected: tax-collectors, prostitutes, lepers and theives numbered among his friends. If he was here in our day, I have no doubt he would be friends with the homeless, gays, drug addicts and alcoholics. The religious elite probably would hate him too and tell him his theology was all wrong.
If he was here today, he would teach the same message: we are all brothers and sisters part of a great family. We enter this family by faith and share in the love of the Father for the family members. Love is service to the family members. Love is a doing thing. Family is a being thing.
We could say then that love is the acts of service we do for our family. Love is when we do something for our brother or sister without any ulterior motive. There's nothing in it for us but lots in it for them.
We become more like the God we serve when we do the God-like things. Our Father who art in heaven is a perpetual love machine. He's a drive-through window that's open 24 hours. He wants to supersize your order and give you a bigger portion of love. Have a great day. Find somebody to love today.
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