““What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.” - Luke 11:42
One of my best friends is an atheist, which is very very heartbreaking. She came to my school (a public school) from a private Catholic school. The students and teachers at her school, according to the stories I have heard from her, seem like they cared only about the rules of the bible, and nothing about the friendship and relationship you can have with God. This caused my friend to turn away from all faith; it even took her a while to warm up to the fact that I’m a Christian. I’ll never forget what she said to me when she found out: “you’re a Christian? But you seem so nice”.
We need to make sure we, yes, obey the rules God has given us, but not forget the most important one: love. Love God first, and everyone else second. We need to give Christians (and God) an image of love and mercy. Not one that makes people surprised when they hear you’re a Christian because you “seem so nice”. God is love, and if we are supposed to act like Him, we need to be love too.
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We always need to balance truth with love and relationship. We never need to sacrifice truth for the sake of friendship, but neither do we need to use it as a hammer and destroy a friendship. May God give us wisdom to know when to speak truth in love, when to press the point and when to pray and allow the Spirit to work.
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