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I speak of Galatians 5:14-15, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.…”

It’s Biblical. It’s the entire law. It’s doctrine boiled down to it’s simplest form.

It’s also a “when and than statement,” a lesson on cause and effect. When you do this, than this happens. We try to teach that concept to small children so one would hope grown adults could grasp it.

So why does the world look like it does? Why is there so much deep division? Why is church attendance in decline? Why are so many people suffering from mental health issues? Why is the economy swirling the drain?

A vast Marxist conspiracy? Elaborate Psy/ops? The Illuminati? Alien lizard overlords infiltrating our country? A failure to fast and pray? Not enough revival?

Perhaps some of those things could be true but the bottom line is actually right there in the Bible. We seem to prefer to bite and devour one another, rather than loving our neighbor.

It’s actually a full time job trying hard not to bite and devour! I kid you not, I probably spend about 70% of my energy working with the Lord so as to not snap back at people, so as to keep my snark on medium low, so as to not just bounce tea cups off of people’s heads. Let me tell ya, people are so not for the faint of heart….

They are hard to love! Heck they are hard to just be casually patient and kind towards even in a superficial context.

If I thought we could fix the world by biting and devouring all the shoddy opinions, vile “doctrines,” and assorted weirdness of the world, I would probably go for it.

In Luke 7:47 Jesus says, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”

In Matthew 26:13 this is such a critical component for our gospel understanding, for our worldview, that it says, “Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” It says something very similar in Mark 14:9.

So how do you “love much?” By letting the Lord love “you” much! “We love because He first loved us.” Your sins must be forgiven, your issues must be addressed, your relationship with the Lord must be nurtured. And than, “His mercies are new each morning,” so letting Him minister to you begins again, each and everyday.

If little is forgiven in you, you will forgive little in others. That is just how it is.

Some Christians seem to try to declare that what’s wrong with the world is that too many people are loving themselves. So they are on a mission to kill off all the alleged self love. They often do this by trying to knock people down as if the root of the problem is pride and that you all just think too highly of yourselves.

What absolute rubbish. Such silliness is like being trapped in a carnival fun house full of mirrors where everything is distorted and backwards.

To be loved means to be forgiven. That’s a good part of “love” anyway. Somebody smart once said, “marriage is just one act of forgiveness after another.” Being forgiven is a significant component of love. The best way to become more forgiving is to be forgiven yourself. That way you won’t be so triggered by the flaws of others. True story, but what drives us crazy about other people is often something unresolved within ourselves. Maybe it is sin or maybe it is just something unhealed and afraid. Regardless, being a Christian, being a disciple, is about letting Jesus wash you.

“Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.” That is in the Bible in John 13:8.

Christians can just be the worst sometimes. I guess my expectations are sometimes unrealistic and I’m just not prepared for people who actually have the Lord to be horrible to one another, to lack all self awareness, to have all the emotional maturity of a small child hyped up on sugar and in desperate need of a nap.

In all seriousness, take that nap. Naps are Divine. Jesus took a nap. Many times I have had to just step away from trying to solve all he world’s problems and take a nap. Walk away, drop it, and take a nap.

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