I have been sitting on this topic for quite some time, and now I am finally going to write about it. It has been one I have wanted to talk about for some time but have never been able to feel comfortable enough to put it into words for one reason or another. But now, I finally do think I have figured out what I want to say.

Something that we are taught as Christians is this idea of endless love from God, a sweet unconditional love if you would. To put plainly, God will love us no matter what we do, how much we screw up or what have you, He will always love us. Great right? Well it is, it is, but something too many of us forget I believe. We are never too far gone to achieve salvation; He will always be there waiting.

So why am I mentioning the love of God? Because I want to talk about Christian Love or, in what I will be talking about, “Christian Love”.

Let’s start from the beginning.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Matthew 22:26-29

A passage all Christians should be familiar with. Two extremely simple commandments for us to follow, not to mention the most important as well. So, the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, simple enough. Whether it is praying, going to church, choir, mission work, whatever it is, as long as you do it for your love of God and not your own self gain it is a straightforward commandment for us to follow. Let’s take a look at the second greatest commandment, surely it must be as simple to follow right?

Well, it is. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Golden Rule of Christianity. If you are asking yourself what exactly that means, to put simply, treat others as you would want to be treated. Great, we now understand the two most important commandments of the Bible and how utterly simple they are. Any self-respecting Christian should be able to say they follow both.

Then why is it that I don’t see it that way? Why is it I see self-proclaimed Christians spreading hate? Why is it that I see these Christians bashing members of the LGBTQ community, supporting ICE raids, being racist? Are these people not our neighbors? Jesus did not say, “Love other white Christians as yourself.” No, he specifically said neighbors. Neighbors, as in the people who live in the house next to you, the people you go to work with, the people you run into at the store, see walking down the street, whose post you see on social media. Those are your neighbors, not just the people you go to church with.

I am so tired of the hate I see being spread, it just isn’t Christian. Christianity is supposed to be compassionate, kind, eager to serve others, but so many I meet are self-serving, hateful, and cruel. Even our President himself, a self-proclaimed Christian, feeds into the constant hate.

“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison — mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America. Not just the three or four countries that we think about. But all over the world they’re coming into our country — from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They’re pouring into our country.”

That was Dec. 16^th, 2023, at one of his rallies. Ignoring the fact that the United States was built from immigrants and that the United States supposedly prides itself for being a melting pot, his views are simply not Christian. I don’t want to go on a whole tirade against MAGA because that is just exhausting along with the fact, I’m afraid it won’t pull the wool from over their eyes. But that is beside the point, the point is that this hatred goes from top to bottom, these non-Christian ideals from supposed Christians, it is infuriating.

There is a quote I have read on more than one occasion that is very fitting to this post.

“There is no hate like Christian love.”

Doesn’t that sting? That we as Christians have been labeled the way we have been? And frankly, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We simply have not done enough or shown that we love our neighbors as ourselves.

I know I am beating a dead horse, but I am tired. I am so incredibly tired of everything happening. I just cannot take all the hatred in this world. Is this the world you want your children to grow up in? One sewn full of hatred, malice, and spite? One where your neighbor might get pulled from his car and pinned down for simply being a different color? I just don’t understand anymore, I don’t get it. My mind is broken, my heart is crushed, I don’t know what to do.

At times like this I pray. I pray that everyone is safe. I pray for the goodness of God to help those who need it. I pray for my wellbeing, to stay strong and to keep going even when the world doesn’t want me to. And I pray for you as well, that you might be able to keep going, that you are strong, that you spread the love that is so desperately needed in this world.

I know to some prayer seems empty, but I believe it holds value. Even if it is not some divine intervention, God will do something as He sees fit. Key point there, as He sees fit. But I digress, there are still things we can do to spread love. Whether it is calling a friend to see how they’re doing, striking up a conversation with someone at work, volunteering at a soup kitchen, just ANYTHING, you can make the world a little brighter. That is not a call to only Christians, that is for everyone, as all my writings are.

And to those who are wondering why you should go love those who hate you, because what good would hate right back do. What progress is made? I mean look at the current political climate and how polarized everything is, that has happened due to people just yelling back and forth and getting stuck in their own ideals. A “I’m right and you’re stupid” mentality if you would. So love, even those who may hate you.

Love your neighbors as yourself. So simple, yet so difficult apparently. I hope I did a good enough job of getting my point across, but if I didn’t, I would like to point you to one of my father’s blog posts. This is a link to my father’s blog, more specifically the post that inspired this one. I read it back in December and it has stuck with me since. I did my own thinking on the topic at hand and gave my own views of what I thought was relevant to today. It is sad that it is a topic that needs to be talked about again, I would argue even more today than then, but oh well I suppose.

I have nothing more to say at the moment, though there are many tangents I wanted to go on. It would probably just be better to make those separate blog posts I figured; my mind sure loves to wander.

Oh, last thing, I am starting college back up this Tuesday, so posts may be more sporadic. I am aiming for once a week, but we all see how well that went when I was on break. Whoops.

(Song for today: Walking Contradiction by Green Day)