Walking the Walk
What are the characteristics of authentic Christianity? Jesus summed our faith up in a couple of places. In Matthew 7:12, he said, “Do to others what you want them to do to you.” This is the Golden Rule. He added, “This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.” In other words, this wasn’t just his idea; it was also the central teaching of Judaism.
The great Rabbi Hillel the Elder, a contemporary of Jesus, summed up the Jewish faith thus: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.” And the “explanation” is found in Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Or, as Jesus put it the night before he was crucified, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Christians are to be known by our love, not by our scriptural knowledge, doctrinal purity, or moral uprightness. Authentic Christianity is expressed in Christlike, unconditional love for other people. This isn’t rocket science, folks. It’s right there in the Bible.
Yet, judging by the news, Christians are known primarily for their never-ending outrage. Evidently, the rest of the world is supposed to behave as Christians want it to, and if it doesn’t, we have a divine right to be angry. Every day, I see belligerent Christians on social media insulting others, demeaning and dehumanizing whole groups of people, and generally being unpleasant.
THAT is what the world sees, not unconditional love. It sees thin-skinned self-righteous entitlement. It sees hypocrisy. How ridiculous it is, for example, that the Roman Catholic Church recently launched a tirade against a perceived slight at the Olympics when, for decades, their church hierarchy covered up the sexual abuse of over 300,000 children.
If we want to be faithful to Jesus, we have to walk the walk, not constantly yell at other people. Come see us on Sunday and find out more. The sermon title is, “Walking the Walk.”
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