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Vermont Community Newspaper Group
What does it mean to love? I am a minister of the gospel and I got to tell you I don’t know. I also feel that anyone telling you they do know is lying to you in some form or another.
In Ephesians 4:25-5:2, Paul tells us that to love one another we need to be able to speak truth; however, as many of us are aware of today, there are many understandings of “truth.”
So how do we explore this question? How do we answer Jesus’ call to love each other?
All of us are going to do love wrong at some point or another. In a lot of ways, I think Christian obsession to do things right has led the church into a lot of the harm, scandal and mistrust that we are saddled with today. The church has not historically been an apologizing institution, and that sets a bad example.
If the goal of Christ is to love each other, we also need to identify how we do not love each other. Love can be tough, but if it does harm it is not love. What made Paul’s ministry so special and effective in its time was that it shared a saving type of love with folks who lived in a Roman society that was built on power, wealth, falsehood and oppression. Paul dared to speak out against this and envision a society that put humanity first. Can we say the same of our institutionalized church? I think we can do better.
The truth as Paul seems to see it is that love is a thing that needs to be defined daily, through our lived experiences. We may not have a go-to definition of how to live into love, but if we are to be the do-gooders of Christ, we should always be looking for love’s truth.
— Rev. Devon Thomas
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