We Need To Learn How To Love Again<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We need to learn how to love again. Too many people who claim to be followers of the Teachings of Christ forget about how Jesus just loved people - we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/02\/we-need-to-learn-how-to-love-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Need To Learn How To Love Again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We need to learn how to love again. 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{"id":345,"date":"2016-02-06T12:39:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T18:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/?p=345"},"modified":"2016-02-06T12:39:04","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T18:39:04","slug":"we-need-to-learn-how-to-love-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thenakedjesus\/2016\/02\/we-need-to-learn-how-to-love-again\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need To Learn How To Love Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"NEW-TNJ-6.fw\"$ <\/a>We need to learn how to love again. Too many people who claim to be followers of the Teachings of Christ forget about how Jesus just loved people \u2013 we need to just love people. People, in droves, ran to Jesus because they know he was a man of Love.<\/p>\n

Over my walk I have seen love migrate out of the church. We have replaced the teaching of love with\u00a0the teaching of\u00a0judging others. Proof of that simply statement can be found in that many in the church will strive to prove that judging others is acceptable, or that they will strive to show some connection to a very human condition called \u201ctough love.\u201d They will argue what Jesus meant when he said, LOVE. But, if we see Jesus as our example, if we are walking a faith journey where the narrative of love is central to our walk, we find reasons to love, not to judge. When we come to the realization that love is our center, ideas like \u201ctough love\u201d find no place in our understanding of love.<\/p>\n

If we are unable to love others, it is because we don\u2019t have the love of Christ in us \u2013 Judgement removes that expression of love from our hearts.\u00a0If we look at the Collective Narrative, we read Jesus speaking on the massive, realistic value of love:<\/p>\n

In the Narrative of John [13: 34-35] Jesus shares, \u201cA new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another<\/em><\/span>.\u201d The great thing here is, if we claim to be a follower of Christ, Love becomes something that identifies us, it is how people know us.<\/p>\n

In the Narrative of Mark [12:28-31] when Jesus was confronted by religious leaders, people whose security centered on judgement, and asked to tell them to\u00a0sum-up the law [the religious leaders loved the law]\u00a0Jesus said, [paraphrased] \u201cSimple, Love God with all you are, and love others as you love yourself<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, that settles it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"