Recently my thoughts have been towards social justice and the fact that a faith in God, without the action to back it up is dead. If we claim to know and love God and yet that condition does not inspire us to serve those around us and love people more purely, then I cannot believe that we actually do know God. God is love, and to quote an old D.C. Talk classic "Love is a Verb" I'd like to thank Dictionary.com for the next part of the post, a definition of the word verb:

verb    n.
The part of speech that expresses existence, action, or occurrence in most languages.

I like this definition. It truly expresses what I'm trying to say here. Occurrence is just an existence of an action in time and space, and action could be said to be an occurrence of your existence in time and space. What I mean is that an action is just an expression of who you are. But these ideas of existence and action really sum up love very well. It's not just something you do but it's who you are. And it's not just who you are, it's also about what you are. I believe that everything we do is a reflection of who we are. Even if we're putting on a facade, it's easy for most people to see through these masks. So, I think we are lying to ourselves when we tell ourselves that we are something unless our actions line up with what we are saying because our actions are simply a reflection of our identity.

So, this has to do with love in the following way. God is love. If we believe God is in us and we are striving to be like God, or if we claim to know God or even claim to remotely be like him at all, then that dictates what our actions will be like. Our actions will be radically loving. You can not be something without acting like it.

So let's look at Jesus' love. His love was unconditional and extreme. It was also limitless. I read an excerpt from John Caputo's book, On Religion, and it was marvelous. One of his main points was that love, by its nature must be limitless. If you put a limit on love, then it's not love anymore. For example, if a woman asked her husband, "How much do you love me?" and he responded after many moments of thought, "well, up to a certain point, under certain conditions, to a certain extent," then I think many of us would doubt that man's love. See, love is without limit. That's what it is. There is no half version of love. There is no Love LE. No Love Version .5. Love is either Love version ∞, or it's not love at all. Also, God's love is universal in its scope. In other words, it loves everyone. God does not just love those who love him. Matthew 5:46-48 "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

I propose that the modern American church stinks at loving! We are to be the group of people who are centered around this Love that God is. However, often times we are reduced to (as a great quote that Jordan gave to me but I can't quite remember at the time or attribute to its originator) "idly gossiping about God." We may think that our praise and worship is the correct response to God's love, but it isn't. The correct response is to do as the Father does: love people. Without extravagant acts of love, our praise to God is just idle gossip. When I say the church stinks at loving, I speak of myself first. My love is neither limitless nor universal. I love only those who love me for the most part. That is all. I think I'm being a good friend to those around me but often times it's only because they're being a good friend to me. The moment someone betrays my trust or turns on me I take their fault as permission to lay their necks on the public chopping block of gossip. My love is also limited. I'll give a bum a dollar, or help a friend if it fits in my schedule, but my love for others has bounds. So, really I don't think I've truly discovered God yet. I've tasted God's scent in the air. I've felt God's presence as one would when they know some unseen person is in the room, but I haven't seen God, heard God, and certainly haven't been anything like God if I can't love those around me.

So we (the church, myself first) are failing at the action part. But we succeed at the identity part. I claim to be a christian all of the time. I call myself a son of God. I focus on how Jesus' death gets me into heaven. I sing endless songs about how God loves me and I love him in return. Oh, yes. I'm all about being a christian. We are all about being the church. But are we all about "doing the church?" (doing the things that would truly make us followers of Christ) Are we about the action of our existence? Can we be something if we don't act like it, because I see a contradiction in who we claim to be and who we act like.

Let me address this focus problem a little more. I think we (the church, myself first) focus a little to much on our identity and not enough on acting out our identity. And here's the real perplexing thing, you don't have to claim your identity to be something. If I tell you that I am a bass player, does that make me any more or less of a bass player? No. My identity as a bass player does not come from me claiming that. What does make me a bass player? Playing the bass. If you saw me playing the bass you would have no doubt in your mind that I was a bass player because I was playing the bass. (I know this seems obvious but it's all for example purposes) So, does claiming that I am a Christian make me any more or less of a Christian? Does singing songs about how much God loves me and how he died so that I can go to heaven every single Sunday make me any more or less of a Christian? No. My identity as a Christian is not wrapped up in me claiming my identity. I believe that if you never mentioned that you were going to heaven again, you could still go to heaven. God's grace and your salvation do not hang on you mentioning that fact. How do people know that I am a Christian then? They will see me loving people. "They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love . They will know we are Christians by our love" Most of us have sung that. And I'm not talking about being friendly when I say love. As I stated in an above paragraph, love isn't loving those who love us. Love is extravagant! Love is life-threatening and dangerous! Love is unreserved, limitless, and universal. I'm not implying that we are never vocal in our thanks to the Father for his love, but consider this: What better way is there to give thanks for God's love than applying it to our own actions and making God a proud father? I believe that actions speak more truthfully of our heart than words.

So what can we do to remedy this focus problem? Well, obviously, loving people extravagantly is the first step. However, allow me to propose something that may aid in getting there. Apply characteristics normally attributed to Jesus, to your own love. Allow me too explain. If I were to mention the grace of God, most people would assume that I'm referring to how Jesus could die for a sinful wretch like me. How selfish of us to consider only the implications of God's grace on our own salvation without realizing that the grace of God is also an expectation on us to reflect that grace in our own lives, whether that means supporting someone who may not be as wealthy as us, supporting welfare politically, working to eradicate world poverty, or turning the other cheek in numerous other tangible ways. But that seems to be what we do. We talk about God's amazing love and immediately apply it to ourselves. Most of us (myself included and listed first amongst the guilty party) quickly forget that God's amazing love is a mandate for us to love those around us just as amazingly in tangible sacrificial ways. So the next time you're in a worship service, forget about yourself for a little bit and realize that it's about loving God. And how do we love God? As Matthew 22:36-39 says, we love God by loving others. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. If you sing about God's mercy, think about how God's love for others would be merciful and how you can act that out. If you sing about how Jesus would die for anyone, follow through with the implication that if we were living in God's love, we would be willing to die for anyone, and think about how you can act that out. It brings new life to Sunday morning worship. Worship changes from a big "Yay, I'm saved!" fest (excuse my bitter nomenclature) to a session that will challenge you into walking out your identity in loving actions. And I believe that is the true heart of Christ.

Opportunities to love others are all around us if we look hard enough. I find that most of mine are hiding right behind my ego and self-image, so it normally takes tearing that down to find one. So keep your eyes open and when in doubt just do something loving for someone. I can't imagine any of us disappointing the Father because we loved the wrong person or loved in too many instances. That's absurd! Go out there and be the lovers Jesus' life and our identity calls us to be.