The Central Message of Love
By Wade Bond
Wade Bond lives in Birmingham, Alabama and is an active member of Highlands United Methodist Church. He is a leader in his young adult Sunday school class and has a special interest in comparative religious education. Wade is a commercial underwriter for a property and casualty insurance company.

As a layperson in the Christian faith, I am troubled. I listen to fellow Christians today, and I hear some very disturbing comments being made. I hear Christians preaching against other religions and even against other Christian denominations. Some label other faiths as cults, lies and the work of the Devil. Some indulge in talk that can best be described as hateful. They all seem to have scripture references to justify their views. In fact, some go so far as to declare their views to be “biblical truth.” To all of these Christians, I would like to ask, “Where’s the love?”

Love seemed to be quite important to Jesus. According to him, love is the most important thing in life. Jesus stated plainly that the greatest commandment was to love God with all that we are (heart, soul, mind and strength). He said the second greatest commandment was to love our neighbor as ourselves(Matthew 22: 34-39). This is the central message of Christ’s teachings. Love is the hub of the wheel. Justice, humility, equality, charity, self-control, honesty and all the other Christian teachings are the spokes which make the proverbial wheel complete. Love is what it’s all about. Love God, love your neighbor, and love yourself.

During the past year, my private meditations have focused on Christ’s teachings as recorded in the gospels. The more I read, the more I am convinced that Christ’s message of highest importance was the exhortation to love. In the Gospel of Luke documents a conversation between Jesus and an expert in Jewish law (ch.10, vs.25). The expert asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. In response, Jesus asked the expert to summarize his interpretation of Jewish law. The expert quoted the laws that Jesus calls “the greatest commandments.” Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus told the expert that he had answered correctly. Jesus advised the expert to obey these two commandments of love in order to have eternal life.

The second most influential teacher in the Christian faith, the apostle Paul, echoed Christ’s teaching of love’s supreme importance. The 13th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians has become know as “the Love Chapter.” In it, he calls love the most excellent way. Love is greater than faith and hope. Our prophecies, knowledge and doctrines are incomplete and imperfect, but love never fails. Love is where our focus should be. We should practice love everyday. We should get better and better at loving.

It is clear to me that love is the central message of Christ’s teachings, and love should be the motivation for everything we do as Christians. This central message applies to Jews as well as Christians. After all, Christ was quoting from Jewish law when he labeled them “the greatest commandments.” Is this central message of love limited to Christianity and Judaism? Obviously, it is not. Love is a central message that we find in all the world’s major religions and most of the minor ones. Love is at the heart of our faiths and our wisdom traditions. It is the tie that binds them together. Doctrine varies greatly among the world’s religions, but their moral teachings are remarkably similar.

The biggest problem that I see in religion today (and throughout history) is that some people of faith get so zealous in promoting their religion that they forget about love. They violate the very principles of the religion that they are trying to advance. The zeal can become hate. We know all too well where the hate can lead. It is the “we’re right and they’re wrong” attitude that seems to spark the zeal and hate. I am simply trying to point out that an attitude of “we’re right and they’re wrong” is a step away from the central message of love. It is a step toward hate. It’s not the path that Jesus showed us.

So, what should we do when we hear our fellow Christians say things that seem hateful? What should we say when they refer to other religions and other denominations as cults and lies? How should we react when they pick out a verse to support their claim that “we’re right and they’re wrong”? Perhaps the best thing to do is to ask, “Hey, where’s the love?”

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