If Ye Love Me

This blog post is largely a response to the constant discussions I find on blogs and social media threads about being Christian, kind, and tolerant. The arguments that people have, and how much they parrot the virtues of not judging and accepting people for who they are inspired this response.

I think part of the problem with ideas about love, kindness, and tolerance these days are that the meanings of these words are changing. We equate tolerance with acceptance, and love with moral relativism. There is an old saying that says, “We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” For some reason, if I don’t embrace and support the actions of others, I am somehow showing hatred or bigotry toward them, especially if that person is doing something that society generally accepts as okay. People may change, but God does not change. His laws are always the same. Adultery and fornication is still wrong. Stealing is still wrong. Murder is still wrong. Cheating is still wrong. Breaking the sabbath is still wrong. But in todays world, we have somehow given ourselves the authority to “amend” these. Adultery is wrong, except for when you are truly unhappily married, and really love someone else. Fornication is wrong, unless you really love each other and have been together for a long time, unless you are responsible. Stealing is wrong, unless it is something you really want, unless it was the other person’s mistake in leaving it behind or losing it. Murder is wrong, unless that person is an unwanted, unborn baby. Cheating is wrong, unless it helps you get more money from your tax return. True Christianity, if you want to know, is all about love. But not about loving others, it is about loving God. Trusting God. Jesus said, “if ye love me, keep my commandments.” Yes, we like to parrot “judge not” as the mantra of our Savior, but he did not say, “if ye love me, keep only the commandments you want to keep, in the way you want to keep them.” Christianity is a HARD path. Yes, true Christians will show love and respect toward others, but they will also fight for righteousness. They will not allow the feeble chants of the world, which tell them they are being “unfair” or “judgmental” to deter them in following the Lord. Yes, terrible things have been done throughout history in the name of Christianity, but those people will be just as guilty for sins like murder, rape, and bigotry as anyone else, and they definitely weren’t following God. These people were as the Pharisees, doing atrocious things in name of religion, and will be accountable to God. We must seek to make and live our lives in the best possible way, showing our love for God by choosing to obey ALL his commandments, not just the ones that are convenient.

Everyone here has been quoting the bible, but I think that one of the best defenses and explanations on what is required from Christians is written by Yann Martel, in the Life of Pi:

“There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if ultimate reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, “Business as usual.” But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defense, not God’s, that the self righteous should rush. To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity.”

People can argue all day about what is right and wrong. But God has set forth his law, and he waits to see who will take up the cross and follow. Everyone can do so, everyday striving to do what he has asked of us: we have been commanded to love God, and then to love our neighbor. We love God first. We are never excused from loving our neighbor, but that is the second commandment. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son because he loved God before his neighbor. Jesus was willing to drive the money changers from the temple because he loved and obeyed God before his neighbor. David was able to defeat Goliath because he loved God before his neighbor. Christianity means loving God, and if we love him, we will keep his commandments. Everything else comes second. We should seek, as Mr. Martel suggests, to defend God in the very way we live our lives. Name calling and fighting does not befit a true follower of the Savior. We show charity and love to others, we show brotherly kindness, but above all, we accept and obey and promote the unchanging laws of God. Not because we are hateful to those who do not follow them, but because we must obey them if we are to truly love Him.