Radical Love

Galatians 5:1-6
   I am fixated on Agape Love.  It is not a feeling.  It is committed action on behalf of the other.  That is what Jesus commands us to live.  Jesus made it His Great Commandment, and in Luke 10 Jesus said that the neighbor we must love is enemy and stranger (Good Samaritan).  In John 13, we have Jesus bumping up the commitment to love as HE loved us... Paul wrote about it in I Corinthians 13 and Philippians 2:1-11, and we have in I John 4 that if we claim to love God but do not love a brother or sister, we are liars.
   The First Century believers formed a Radical Community base on Radical Love.  In the end of Acts 2, their radical love proved to draw many people to join them.  In the end of Acts 4, they practiced radical shared ownership so that there were none in need anymore.  Out of Agape Love, those who had more shared with those who did not have enough.  Paul commended them to that kind of love in community in II Corinthians 8,9.  In Acts 6, we find that they radically shared leadership, even with Gentiles.  In Acts 8, they practiced radical acceptance with the Ethiopian Eunuch, who Philip baptized though he was ethnically, religiously and sexually excluded by the Law of Moses.  In Acts 10, the practiced radical diversity and celebration of others by ending the distinction between clean and unclean, circumcised and uncircumcised.
   Radical community must be based on Radical Love - Agape Love.  If a people are incapable of that, they live focused on differences, focus only on themselves and live out of perceived superiority which breaks down community.  Radical community must be based on Agape Love.  A stubborn refusal to judge, radical sharing, radical inclusion, radical acceptance, radical diversity and the celebration of other is at the center of radical community.  Radical community must be based on Agape Love.  The desire to love neighbor as self (enemy and stranger)... so that we would no more want  a stranger or enemy go without what they need or be hurt, than we would want that for our selves.  Radical community must be based on Agape Love.  The love Jesus commanded with no loopholes, even for stranger or enemy... it means having the same mind that was in Christ Jesus and loving as He loved.
   Agape Love is committed action on behalf  of the other.  It is not a feeling.  It means committing to the good of all and acting on it... feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, welcoming the stranger and visiting the sick and oppressed (Matthew 25:31-46).
   It is this radical love, this Agape Love that defines community.  It identifies us with Jesus.  People will notice it because the world we live in can be radically unloving, greedy, exclusive and intolerant.  The world needs radical lovers of God, self and neighbor.  When we live that as followers of Jesus, it will be noticed!
   Radical need is prevalent.  Radical love is needed.  Jesus commanded it.  We can spend our whole lives learning how to submit to His command and conforming to His way... but it is a better way for each of us and the world around us.
God bless you all!
Pastor Jamie