I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-35

We are living in one of the most polarized times in our nation’s history. It is true in our culture and politics, and it is also true in our churches.

There is a young man I know that was telling me about his church. It is a mainline and liberal church. They are very active in many of the hot-button social issues of our day. He said that they openly affirm the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, they have a large rainbow banner saying so across the front of their church. They also have a “Black Lives Matter” sign on the churchyard. They are an aggressively liberal church.

I said to him, “Sounds like your church is doing the same thing that a conservative church might do by having American flags all over their churchyard and MAGA banners across their church. And a sign that says, “Blue Lives Matter.”

I said, “Your church and the MAGA church are sending the same message to the community. The message is “This is who we are!” And this is who is welcome in our church and who is not welcome in our church.

He looked at me and said, “No, there is a difference.” I said, “What is the difference?”

He said, “Our banners are right and theirs are wrong.”

I said, “But the MAGA church would say the same thing.”

He said, “We both can’t be right. Someone has to be wrong.”

I said, “You both are wrong.”

He couldn’t hear me.

The late author Tim Keller said, “Churches that are too heavily invested in the political agenda of a particular party or candidate can appear to others to be captive to an ideology instead of the Lordship of Christ.”

Let me modify that for a moment, “Christians that are too heavily invested in the political agenda of a particular party or candidate can appear to others to be captive to an ideology instead of the Lordship of Christ.”

One of the striking things about Jesus is that He didn’t work really hard to make sure He put together a small group of people who were naturally compatible with each other.

The third chapter of Mark gives us a list of the people who were in Jesus’ small group.

One of them was a man named Simon the Zealot. Zealots were an extremist nationalist political party, committed to the overthrow of the Roman government by any means possible, violence if necessary, and sometimes assassinations. They hated the Romans.

The only people they hated more than the Romans were the people who collaborated with the Romans, like tax collectors who were Jewish people willing to collaborate with the Romans for corrupt financial gain. Zealots were freedom fighters or terrorists, depending upon your political point of view.

Jesus is forming a small group, and He says, Simon, you’re a Zealot. You despise Romans and collaborators like tax collectors. I’ll take you.

And then He says, Matthew, you’re a collaborator and a despised tax collector. I’ll take you. You room with Simon. You guys should have some interesting talks with each other.

Can you imagine what it was like?

We are to be a community that embraces and includes each other, not a body that is filled with hatred and exclusion. This is why Jesus emphasizes that we know we love God—when we love each other. This is the in-breaking of God’s new community.

Some Practical Steps for Showing Love:

Be Curious

A few stories in the Gospel of John serve to remind us how curious Jesus could be and how it could lead a person to redemption and restoration.

In John 3 it appears as if Jesus is curious about how a man of Nicodemus’ education and status could have a hard time understanding how spiritual beginnings came from the mysterious movement of God. In John 4 Jesus seems fascinated about a woman who would fetch water at a well in the heat of the day. He inquires about her personal life and dignifies her with a theological conversation about worship. In John 5 Jesus sees and notices a man with a disability and asks him, perhaps, the most profound personal question in the Bible, “Do you want to be well?”

When I display curiosity rather than condemnation, I am showing dignity and respect to a person who might be different than me. That is a good place for love to find a foothold.

Be Quiet

He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer. (Luke 23:9)

You don’t have to have an opinion on every issue. You certainly don’t have to share it.

The 2018 film First Man, is about the life of Neil Armstrong. After the horrible fire in Apollo 1 that killed astronauts Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee there is a scene that shows the Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin talking about the future of the Apollo program. But it all happened right after the fire while everyone was still grieving the loss of their colleagues and friends.

Buzz Aldrin was always loud, outspoken, and a bit irritating to the other astronauts.

Mike Collins says to the other two, “So, do you think we are going to get to go to the moon?”

Aldrin says, “It’s been up for grabs since Gus died.”

Long and awkward pause.

Then Aldrin says, “I’m just saying what you’re thinking.”

A long and tense pause.

Neil Armstrong says, “Well, maybe you shouldn’t.”

As a follower of Jesus, we might do well to not have an opinion about every hot-button issue in the world today. An old saint named Phil Meyers one time told me, “Silence may be golden, but duct tape is silver.”

Be Compassionate

The word on the street is that Christians are angry, judgmental, and mean. I promise you if you were to ask most non-church-going folks in our country if they thought of Christians as gentle, loving, and compassionate, they would look at you like a mule looking at a new gate.

We are known as the group that is against everything. What if we could change that by being for love, grace, and mercy?

How do we do this? We love those we disagree with. We love those that oppose us. We stop trying to change everyone else and be the change we want others to see. We love everyone with the love we received when we found Jesus.

Our Lord’s little brother learned this lesson. He watched his older brother love those who were hardest to love and heard the story of how, when He hung on a cross, said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)

Maybe that’s why he could say, Be merciful to those who doubt.  (Jude 22)

Take down your yard signs and fold up your banners. Speak words of love, do acts of love, and pray for those whom we don’t understand.

That’s how we change the world, one soul at a time.