Love of Christ

This is a topic that I have been thinking about for a while now and have trying to put into a coherent thought. How does a follower of Christ love like him? What would it look like in our lives? I know that in this life time we will never be able to love as Christ did, surely that shouldn't stop us. So how do we as Christians go about this? I was reminded of the story of Zacchaeus by a pastor that I listened to. Imagine being there and Christ who is God and a holy person said to this filthy scum "Hey get down from that tree, I want to hang out with you" (my paraphrase). The reaction of the religious leaders of the time was probably how most of us would react at first. What the leaders expect and how we as Christians would like to react is to gather our power and strike Zacchaeus down from that tree with lightning and go "that's what happens to sinners." However that wouldn't be against what Jesus was about. So we are called to love those who we are sinners. When I start to get self righteous in this situation or ones like that I try to remind myself that I am just as if not more sinful than them and that Christ loves me. He is so passionately in love with me that he pursues me. So as a follower of Christ and trying to be like him I am to love everybody no matter how "untouchable they are." Now that is hard, Christ says "Follow me." Simple yet so hard. I hope we strive to be like him.

Holy

The church does not need a bunch of people who are trying to act more holy than each other. Think about it, why do we as a church tend to hide our scars and cover up what is wrong in our lives. I question this practice a lot. We serve a God who even after he rose up still had scars on his body. So why do hide ourselves? Are we afraid of letting go and truly serving and depending on God. I am reminded of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. He talks about authentic and living our lives for the right reason. This brings up the question, why are we doing what we are? Is it for the glory of God or for our glory? Do we hide our scars so we seem holy? I hope that we can learn in our walks to be authentic. I know that this word has been thrown around a lot in Christian circles but I want to challenge people to try to live authentically for Christ. We need to check our motives. Why are we doing what we are?