SCRIPTURE:
“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Romans 12:10
FAMILY
Family is such a tricky subject. I remember being asked to preach a sermon at Charity’s family reunion and bombing it. She probably doesn’t remember. I on the other hand wish I could have that moment again and preach a better sermon.
It was hard for me then to find scriptures that talk about how we love our family. One scripture says to “hate your mother and father.” So what does the scripture say about family? You tell me.
Honor your mother and father right?
Perhaps what God is trying to teach us is that the best way to love our family is to love them the way Christ loved them.
I believe what the Bible is teaching is that we should not define love our own way. We should not learn or love people any other way than the way God calls us to love. So perhaps God is saying “In order for you to love your family (or anyone else) correctly you must first learn and imitate Christ’s love.”
Because to love like Christ is to forgive over and over, to pray for enemies, to honor others, to be non-violent, to offer grace and so forth. So that’s how we should love our family. With eternal forgiveness, lots of patience, honor them, be non violent, offer grace, bless them and also have good boundaries.
It made me think about a conversation I had today with a Bible teacher. I noticed that many pastors and teachers are more focused on you knowing sound doctrine and less worried on how you embody and imitate Christ.
What good is it if you can explain the Trinity but you’re a crappy person?
That’s what the Pharisees missed out on. They were slaves to law and not to love.
The Bible teacher said “we have creeds that we stand on.”
But for me in this season of my life the most important creeds are the ones that call us to humility, love, hope, peace, joy and love of neighbor. Why aren’t those our creeds?
We are too busy trying to get the law right but getting love wrong. Let’s learn Christ, learn love, and love everyone like that.