Intentional Discipleship:
The wonder of God’s love in our lives does not stop at a radical welcome. Love is a frequency we are built to fall in tune with, so that when the conditions are right, resting in God’s love gives way to the loving action prompted by feeling God’s grace in our lives (James 2:18). Our positive, affirming love is God living through us: “If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:12) And so, our school of love is also a place to work together in open love. We want our school of love to be a workshop for ongoing vocational training in loving. The many kinds of work we do require many different gifts, but different gifts all find their meaning and worth in one love; without love, our other gifts are nothing. (1 Corinthians, 12 and 13).
Whitney’s School Uniform – “Love is the basic, all-purpose garment.”
“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Colossians 13: 12-14
A “Venn Diagram” of Divine Love
Learning to love God, one another,
ourselves, and creation as Jesus teaches
When asked what commandments are greatest, Jesus said that “all the law and the prophets” depend on two commandments to love: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22: 37-39)
Someone might ask, “If I use all my love in loving God, what love is left for my neighbor or myself?”
This image illustrates an answer. Since the red heart represents loving God with all our love, then loving neighbor and self can only be aspects of loving God and God’s good creation.
Some of what the image implies:
– Christ is coequal with the Creator, in perfect relation through the Spirit of Love.
– In loving our neighbor, we love a member of the divine family. (Matthew 25:40)
– Each of us is made in the Image of God, who is love.
– It would not mean much to love our neighbors as ourselves, if we did not love ourselves, as Brian McLaren puts it, “with divine compassion.”
– The best understanding of oneself is as belonging to God.
– As created in God’s image we are all part of, and owe our loving care to, God’s good creation (Genesis 1).
– The intersection of human beings’ mutual Christian love centers on the intersection of eternity and time represented by the vertical and horizontal members of the cross of Christ.
– All are loved and welcome: and ALL MEANS ALL