Love, The True Foundation Of The Gospel: Solutions to Building Strong Churches, Relationships, and to Restore Moral Reasoning in Communties Today
Synopsis "Love, The True Foundation Of The Gospel: Solutions to Building Strong Churches, Relationships, and to Restore Moral Reasoning in Communties Today"
Understanding love is the key element of successful marriages, long-lasting friendships, a caring society, and the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the clear understanding of its meaning, anger, hate, hostility, un-forgiveness and resentment will attach themselves like leeches and viruses to the fabric of our society. These parasites could cause divorces, wars, contentions, divisions, and other ills that contribute to the destruction of lives, and to putting society on a roller coaster ride. In Matthew chapter 24, the disciples asked Jesus about what signs to look for as we approach the time of His return. He explained to them about the wars, divisions, hate, etc., that will escalate because of the erosion of love in the final days on earth. We are witnessing and experiencing these occurrences daily in our life's journey. It seems as if love has been totally swallowed up by hate and selfish ambitions all around us. According to the 1998 United Nations Census on religions, there were about 23,000 Christian denominations at that time, and they all believe somewhat differently. Jesus said that a divided house will never stand (Luke 11:17). From Old Testament times to this present time, the people of God have always focused more on formulating their own self-centered and exclusive doctrines, denominations and cliques, and have ignored the true inclusive message and gospel of the love of God. That is why the religious leaders did not recognize or receive Jesus when He first came. If Christ should appear today preaching the gospel, He would still not be recognized or received by many Christians. A lack of the understanding love will cause spiritual amnesia and vision impairment. I am not advocating a one-world church, but a unified message of the Gospel of God (Romans 1:1-3). Many Christians are divided by race, color, denomination, social standing, economic status, skin shade, hair texture, culture, and region, just to name a few. Racial, social, and class discrimination is practiced by many misled people of every racial and cultural groups across the world. We have condemned sin and sinners, and blamed them for the demoralization of our society. We have also blamed them for the pending doom of our nations. We must realize that if they are sinners, we should not expect examples of righteous living emanating from them. That is why we must take the Gospel of Salvation to them in love so that they could also be changed. We have the answer; Jesus Christ. We should also realize that many Christians who claimed to be changed find it difficult to live righteously. Keep in mind, that the Bible said that judgment must first begin with us in the house of the Lord. At the end of this study you will see clearly that there is only one kind of love, that is, the God-kind-of-love. Love is the Foundation of the Gospel and the Gateway to Heaven, and love could only be truly proven in the face of adversity.
