Let It Be Love

A Walk With Christ

By: Lanesha Brown

December 15, 2023

This post is inspired by a song that I came across about a year ago. The title of the song is "Let It Be Love" by a Christian band from Nashville, TN, called Unspoken. The lyrics in this song immediately caught my attention. It made me think of the gap between the younger generation and the church and what the reasons for the disconnect could be. One thing that often comes to mind is - church hurt. A lot of folk have been turned away by members of the church, causing them to let that particular experience influence how they feel about church and religion as a whole. While I do believe in correction and redirection of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, it should always come from a place of love...not a place of judgement.

A lot of times, our messages get lost because of the way we relay them. Although your intent may be pure, it won't be perceived that way. Condemnation doesn't do you, or the recipient of the message any good. I won't go too deep into the topic of church hurt. That's an entirely separate subject that I would like to discuss in another post. But, I just wanted to point out how we, as a church, have got to get back to one of the most important things that set us apart from the rest of the world - love.

The chorus in the song that I mentioned above says:

"If we're (Christians) gonna be known for something, let it be love. Speaking the truth means nothing, without love. No one's gonna hear us, if we keep throwing stones. If we're gonna be known for something, let it be love."

We (the church) are called to be the salt and light of the earth. The way we carry ourselves and our relationship with God should have an impact on those who encounter us. Needless to say, that impact should be a positive one. There are a number of religions out there, but I believe we as Christians are under the most scrutiny. The world is watching. How many times have you heard "...and they call themselves Christian?". This statement shows that even those who are on the outside of our faith knows that we are to hold ourselves to a certain standard.

Our light is supposed to draw people near to Him, but I want to remind you that condemnation, finger pointing, belittling and talking down on your neighbor has a much better chance of driving them further away from Christ. Be mindful of how you are letting your light shine.

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Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all of your heart, soul and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. This makes me think of an exercise that was conducted at a nurse's retreat that I had the pleasure of attending while in nursing school. They gave us a large list of core values and told us to circle our top ten. The list consisted of things like family, religion, honesty, integrity, compassion, etc. From that list, we had to narrow down our top 5, then top 3, then our number 1 value. Once we revealed our number one value, we had to explain why we chose that value over everything else. Of course, with such a large list of core values, it took some time to narrow down which ones were most important to us. Ultimately, I chose religion. My explanation was that with religion being a centerpiece for me, everything else on my list automatically comes with it. This helps me understand why Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God with all of your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as your self. You can't do one without the other. 1 John 4:20 amp says:

"If anyone says, "I love God," and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."

You can't love God with all of your heart and not follow the rest of his commandments. Truly loving God means following all of His commandments.

And who is my neighbor?

In Luke 10:25, an expert of the law poses a question to Jesus about inheriting eternal life. After establishing that Loving God with all of your heart and loving your neighbor was the way to inherit eternal life, he tries, like many others, to test Jesus. He asks "and who is my neighbor?" Jesus responds by telling The Parable of the Good Samaritan. To paraphrase this parable for those who may not be familiar with it, Jesus spoke of a man who was lying on the side of the road after being beaten and robbed. A priest and a Levite saw him and they both passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan saw him, cleaned his wounds, and brought him to an inn to care for him. Jesus asked which of the three did he think was a neighbor to the man. The expert of the law responded with "The one who had mercy on him." and Jesus told him to go and do the same.

This Parable should help you understand what it means to love your neighbor. Your neighbors aren't just the members of your church, or the people you feel close to. They're not just those who you deem to be the most religious or righteous. It's the stranger in the grocery store who (unbeknownst to you) is struggling to make ends meet, but had the courage to ask for help, so you help them. It's the person who is struggling with their faith and instead of chastising them, you pray with them. Matthew 5:46 says "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

We ought to love and show mercy to one another - not out of obligation, but because we walk with Christ in our hearts. Our love for God is evident by our actions and by the way that we live. How we treat one another is the true test of our faith. Are you truly living for God?

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I encourage you to listen to the lyrics of this song and carry the message with you as we encounter other believers and non believers throughout life. That one encounter with you could make a vast difference in their faith. Be the light. Share your faith with others around you, not only through words, but through your actions.