The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, even above faith and hope, love is the greatest of virtues. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the quintessence of love, denying oneself for the sake of another. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV) But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. For many, instead of affirming that “God is love”, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this formless way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love is: affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. Thus, the only unloving act on this vague notion is disapproval, or even merely a failure to affirm.
In an authentically Christian view, love always walks hand in hand with truth. And because love has a well-defined form, we can objectively say that the adulterer who leaves his wife is not creating a “loving reconfiguration”. Faithfulness is love. Infidelity is not. We can say that Susan Smith was not acting out of love when she drowned her two sons, saying she loved them. She objectively did not.
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, even above faith and hope, love is the greatest of virtues. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the quintessence of love, denying oneself for the sake of another. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV) But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. For many, instead of affirming that “God is love”, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this formless way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love is: affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. Thus, the only unloving act on this vague notion is disapproval, or even merely a failure to affirm.
In an authentically Christian view, love always walks hand in hand with truth. And because love has a well-defined form, we can objectively say that the adulterer who leaves his wife is not creating a “loving reconfiguration”. Faithfulness is love. Infidelity is not. We can say that Susan Smith was not acting out of love when she drowned her two sons, saying she loved them. She objectively did not.
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, even above faith and hope, love is the greatest of virtues. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the quintessence of love, denying oneself for the sake of another. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV) But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. For many, instead of affirming that “God is love”, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this formless way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love is: affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. Thus, the only unloving act on this vague notion is disapproval, or even merely a failure to affirm.
In an authentically Christian view, love always walks hand in hand with truth. And because love has a well-defined form, we can objectively say that the adulterer who leaves his wife is not creating a “loving reconfiguration”. Faithfulness is love. Infidelity is not.
There, and elsewhere, we see, among other things, a fanatical push to abolish all right of inheritance, to end home and religious education, to dissolve monogamy in marriage, to pursue pre- and extra-marital sex, to foster and “tolerate” (as Engels put it) the “gradual growth of unconstrained sexual intercourse” by unmarried women, to nationalize all housework, to shift mothers into factories, to move children into daycare nurseries, to separate children into community collectives apart from their natural parents, and, most of all, for society and the state to rear and educate children.
As Engels envisioned, “the single family ceases to be the economic unit of society. Private housekeeping is transformed into a social industry. The care and education of the children becomes a public affair; society looks after all children alike, whether they are legitimate or not.”
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, even above faith and hope, love is the greatest of virtues. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV) But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. For many, instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this empty way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love is: affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. Thus, the only unloving act on this vague notion is disapproval, or even merely a failure to affirm.
In an authentically Christian view, love always walks hand in hand with truth.
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, even above faith and hope, love is the greatest of virtues. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV) But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion.
Instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this empty way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love is: affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. Thus, the only unloving act on this vague notion is disapproval, or even merely a failure to affirm.
In an authentically Christian view, love always walks hand in hand with truth.
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, over faith and hope, it is the greatest of virtues. But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another.“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.13.NIV
Instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this empty way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love is: affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. Thus, the only unloving act on this vague notion is disapproval, or even merely a failure to affirm.
In an authentically Christian view, love always walks hand in hand with truth.
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, over faith and hope, it is the greatest of virtues. But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another.“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.13.NIV
Instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this empty way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love in these statements is: love is affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. Thus, the only unloving act on this vague notion is disapproval, or even merely a failure to affirm.
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, over faith and hope, it is the greatest of virtues. But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another.“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.13.NIV
Instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this empty way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, their implicit notion of love in these statements is: love is affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules defining the boundaries of what love is, and conversely, what hate is. The only unloving act on this unstated definition is disapproval, or even just a failure to approve.
The apostle John affirms that God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 NIV) Jesus declares that the two great commandments are to love God and love one’s neighbor. The Apostle Paul writes the most eloquent and tangible description of the way love is: patient, kind, forgiving, persevering. For Paul, over faith and hope, it is the greatest of virtues. But many religious people have made “love” itself the god of their religion. And in a terse statement, Jesus gets to the very essence of love, ascribing yourself for the sake of another.“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.13.NIV
Instead of God is love, love is God.
In a viral comic, the Naked Pastor exemplifies this way of thinking. “The difference between you and me is that you use scripture to determine what love means and I use love to determine what scripture means.” Here, David Hayward, the cartoonist, exemplifies this empty way of thinking. What Jesus went on to say in that revelatory moment is that “all the law and prophets” hang on the greatest two commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor. The law and the prophets recorded in the Old Testament give meaning and form to the otherwise empty term “love”. Because of God’s commandments to his people, we know what love requires. Do not murder, do not envy, do not steal. Welcome the stranger. Do not have sex outside of marriage, a union between one man and one woman. Multiply and inhabit the whole earth. Be impartial. Do not use unequal weights and measures. Use, steward, and care for creation. A friend explained his understanding of the Gospel to me like this: “We are saved by Jesus when we choose the ‘way of love’.”
If you attend to the way lovists employ the term, the implicit notion of love in these statements is, love is affirmation or approval of whatever choices a person makes, of however one chooses to define oneself. It’s a corollary to the ethic of our day: “You do you.” There are no rules
