Faith Claims and Love

Every human being thinks they are right. After all, we make up our minds according to the best we know and the best way we know to put those pieces together. Then again, I’ve never met anyone who was right about everything, and nor have you. Our grasp on truth is tenuous, our vision always faulty at some point or another. Paul wrote, “For now we see through a glass dimly, but then face to face.” Those who have some of the best answers are normally those who have discovered the largest amounts of mistakes in their thinking. They discovered problems and shifted their understanding to take new data under consideration.

If someone of the clergy tells you they are the ultimate authority on God or the Bible, it’s is a sign of their delusion. It is hubris to make such a claim. If someone points to a particular person or source as the only authoritative voice to be heard or followed, that is also a sign of delusion.

There are some things on which we can be rather much categorical. The main one is that love is required of us all. That theme goes far beyond the gospels about Jesus. It is in the Hebrew Bible, it is in the Kur’an, and it is in a host of other faith traditions. Measuring Jesus’ words, we find a consistent message that how we treat one another has much greater importance than what we think or believe about God, the Bible, or eternity. Jesus never presented a theological entrance exam to God’s Reign. He repeatedly, however, demonstrated and taught taking care of one another, assisting those in need, feeding people (even if they were hungry due simply to bad planning), treating outsiders with dignity and respect, and making no distinctions among classes of people. He spoke of an modeled loving others as God has already loved us.

Love is rather open-ended. It seeks the other’s welfare, simply because that is what is best for them. It does not seek to control, coerce, shame, or force people to conform to any particular set of codes. Love seeks to edify, to strengthen others so that together we may be more than we were before.

Jesus’ so-called golden rule is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” John Wesley couched it in terms of doing good and doing no harm. We don’t have to agree on much of anything to live that way. You can believe the earth is flat, that aliens have infiltrated the government, that there are flying purple people eaters, that the chupa-cabra is out to get us, that Rudolph must be getting too old to fly by now, or that eating one simple thing will result in a miracle cure that has eluded physicians since the beginning of time. You can deny all of those things. You can believe God is actually an old man sitting on a cloud somewhere. You can entertain doubts about whether or not God even exists. What matters at the end of the day is how we treat one another, how we love.

If I claim to love you, but you can’t see it in my actions and attitudes, I need to rethink what I understand love to be. If my understanding of love harms you, I need to go back to the drawing table. If my take on love causes harm and destruction to others, I need to re-evaluate my actions, my attitudes, and what I understand to be true.

Oh, love might hurt someone’s feelings. Love may call out bad behavior. Love may ask others to be more responsible. Love may assume pain, violence, and harm to oneself. Love does not, however, condemn people or attempt to control them through shame, abuse, force, or any other form of manipulation. Love calls for life shared in community in which all fully belong and freely participate. Love makes sure everyone’s needs are met, with no focus on protecting what is mine.

If that is not the way we are living, we can be pretty sure that our beliefs are “out of whack.” We need to be called back to living according to the principles of love for all persons. If we can do that, we need not worry any more about who is or is not right. Love is always right.



— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 



http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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