Love

In the New Testament the church leaders of Jesus' day tried to trap him by asking him what commandment was the most important. He responds with,"Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself."
He didn't say, "Love them if they are like you.", or "Love the sinner, hate the sin.", or "Call them out on their sin to prove that you love them."
Nope. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself."
So why this post?
This past week, everyone from all sides has been losing their minds over an interview that Phil Robertson gave to GQ magazine. You would have had to live under a rock to have missed it.
While I gave some tougue-in-chekk support to the Robertsons by saying I was going to "Let my hair and beard go all Duck Dynasty", the central gospel message of the interview, in my humble opinion. got lost.
At some point in the article, Phil Robertson says something like,:"The world would be a better place if we just all loved each other."
Love.
So often we get so caught up in the sins part of the salvation story that we chase folks away before we have a chance to be Christ's love to them.
I get the whole sin thing. I'm a sinner. But for someone who doesn't believe the same way I do, it is an instant turn off. The "speck in your eye is more troublesome than the plank in mine" makes me feel like I'm missing Christ's message to love my neighbor..

 Jesus didn't tell me to love them if they changed, he told me to love them. Period.

 When he was alive, I would like to think that Jesus hung out with people like me.
 Imperfect people.
 People who didn't fit the mold of religion at the time.
Prostitutes, tax collectors, shepherds, some long haired duck hunters and possibly even someone as unworthy of being saved as me.