Love as an End! Thoughts from a flaming moderate!

A while back I wrote a piece on the problems of fundamentalism. This is part II, I guess. To recap...fundamentalism is mostly a dead end which can only serve to fossilize the gospel. And you notice that I didn't use the word' ultra-conservatism' as my example. I believe that ultra-liberalism can be dangerous as it too, seeks to prove how everyone else does not have a brain. I know...this simplifies it entirely too much and delutes everyone's ligitimate emotions about the issue.

But it is worth considering that a more, middle-of-the-road (and risky) approach could be discovered in laying down our agendas. Think about it. If I have an agenda before arriving at an interpretation of something or someone, then I have partcipited in a form of fundamentalist thought. For example, if I show compassion toward someone because I only want to lead them to Christ (or reveal Christ in me) then I am insincere in my action and thought. I'm not sure Jesus honors that at all. I admit that I am guilty in this area more than I would like to imagine.

J. Jacob Jenkins writes that it took him half his life to realize the value of love. In the first half of his life he believed that the only purpose for a Christian was to turn a skeptic into a follower and to win souls for Christ. But over time he learned to love as an end, not merely as a means.

We shouldn't reach out to someone because we can bring them to church. We should reach out to them.

We shouldn't befriend someone so that we can share Christ with them. Befriend them.

We shouldn't make friends with neighbors so that we can invite them to a church event. We should get to know our neighbors.

I am certain that Christianity is something that we are suppose to breathe in each day. Being a Christ-follower should be something that comes as natural as a breath of air instead of us reasoning through a certain situation in order to find out if it fits into our own moral and ethical guidelines. Our own morality, left on its own, has a tendency to let us down. It is undependable.

But what is dependable, unwavering, and never-changing is the new covenant based on Christ. Jesus never said that we, as followers, were to be so agenda-conscious (and so certain about it) that His teachings become unclear. We are only asked to 'return the favor' and be dependable, trustworthy, and unwavering in our commitment to him as he is to us.