Recently both the twitter-sphere and blogosphere have exploded due to a trending topic.  At this point in time I am not bringing any late breaking news to the scene, an my intention is not to pile on; either on Pastor Bell, Pastor Piper, or any of the other big names that have written about this situation.

If you don’t already know what is going on I would reccomend that you catch up on the happenings through the blog post of Christianity Today writer, Sarah Pulliam Bailey.  You can read her full article here.

I am sure that I cannot add anything to this already complex situation but I want to ask a question.

Is love winning?

As I read the blog posts and tweets of some really scholarly men and women concerning Rob Bell’s new book, I am concerned with the behavior and attitude that is shown.  I acknowledge that I don’t always interact perfectly either, so I am certainly not trying to cast the first stone, or the second, or the third.  The content of Rob Bell’s book I have very little knowledge of at this time.  I intend to read the book at a later date.  But the title I can whole heartedly agree with.  The problem is that love is not winning. All of the hype that surrounds this book is proving that the Christian community is not loving its own the way that you would think it would.

The problem with love not winning is that we are showing to a watching world what Evangelical Christianity is really like.  There is no option on Google that only allows you to sign on to the special evangelical portions of the internet if you are truly a member of the same variety.  This is all pubic information that will never go away.  The world wide web now holds all of us accountable for our writings and attitudes.

Jesus says in John 13

34  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you that you also love one another.  35   By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Paul gives us a stirring reminder of the power of love in 1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

With our back biting and written tongue lashings, what are we showing to the world around us?  I’m pretty sure that Jesus said if you have a problem with someone write a blog about how small minded and misguided they are.  No.  In fact Jesus said the opposite.  Jesus says in Matthew 18 go to the person in private and share with them their offense.  According to Jesus there are two steps that need to be taken before ever taking the offense public.

How do you respond to your neighbor who says, “If Christians treat their own kind like that, why would I want to become one.”  Or what if they said, “Does your church treat people like that?”  We must be so careful to show to a watching world what really loving one another should look like.

I love what Philippians has to say about discernment:

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.           Philippians 1:9-11

This has stirred a debate in my mind.  Is love winning in my life or are there areas where I look a lot like this “Rob Bell Debacle”.  What about you? Is love winning in your life?

Let love abound.

~Peter