I recently had a chat with Joe, our web developer, about how people today are so strongly focused on being \u201cright\u201d that they completely forget how to love and respect people. A lot of people tend to notice all of the rules when they read the Bible. Unfortunately, it\u2019s easy for people to get stuck there; to focus on making sure to follow the rules in order to \u201cqualify\u201d to be a Christian. They even go out of their way to make sure that others are following those rules exactly the same way they are. If you do that, though, you completely miss the heart of the message. God\u2019s heart for us is to love each other \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself\u2026There is no commandment greater than these\u201d Mark 12:31 He said loving Him and loving others are the greatest commandments \u2014 not following a set of rules. The heart behind those rules are so that we can have guidelines on how to best love God and to love others. If you are stealing, cheating, lying, etc. to others, you aren\u2019t loving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look back at how Jesus reacted with the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned to death. What did he do? In John 8:7 He said \u201cLet any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.\u201d So powerful! He didn\u2019t say, \u201cYeah, you\u2019re right. She sinned. Go ahead and stone her to death. Following the rules is the most important thing.\u201d Ha! Instead, he threw it right back at them. He knew that none of them \u2014 none of us \u2014 are perfect. He didn\u2019t ask us to be. He didn\u2019t ask us to make sure we\u2019re being perfect or make sure everyone around us is either. In fact, he said in Matthew 7:1 \u201cDo not judge, or you too will be judged.\u201d We weren\u2019t called to be judgers or accusers; we are called to be lovers. We are to come along side each other and build each other up in love \u2014 whether we agree with them on everything or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus hung out with tax payers, thieves, adulterers, and murderers. Yet, he treated them in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:
\u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently had a chat with Joe, our web developer, about how people today are so strongly focused on being \u201cright\u201d that they completely forget how to love and respect people. A lot of people tend to notice all of the rules when they read the Bible. Unfortunately, it\u2019s easy for people to get stuck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[158,156,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10899,"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions\/10899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalawakening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}