The Faith Journey

Learning How to Love Well

Christ calls us to love God and others in God. Our love for God is relational, like friendship, by which we are united to God and abide in God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our love of God drives our love of neighbor, our love for one another, and even our love for our enemies all of whom deserve love not because of what they’ve done or failed to do but solely because they, like us, belong to God. The essence of the faith journey, then, is learning to faithfully love God and, flowing from love of God, to love one another, neighbor, and even our enemies in God.

Throughout the Scriptures, God’s people are called to love. Through Moses, love of God is centered for the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4) and is, itself, a response to God’s love for them – the kind of love that chooses and redeems them (Deuteronomy 4:37). Jesus, when asked to detail the greatest commandment of the law, retrieves the call found in Deuteronomy when he calls us to love God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and all of our strength (Deuteronomy 4:36). Jesus calls his disciples to an all-encompassing love of the God who first loves us, chooses us, and redeems us.
This fervent, all-encompassing love of God is, ultimately, relational. Jesus says to his disciples that he no longer calls them servants who slavishly keep the rules but friends (John 15:12-17). This love of friendship, traditionally called charity, is the kind of love that is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and, thus, unites us to God but also brings us even to love what God loves. The all-encompassing nature of our love of God is meant to not only eschew the idols who vie for our worship but to also point precisely to how essential our union with God is for us. In this way, love of God becomes the primary impetus for all other relationships, actions, and loves.
Jesus says that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, retrieving Leviticus 19 (Matthew 22:39-40). Jesus seems to indicate here that our love of God is never disconnected from our love of others. To love God fervently is to also love what, and who, belongs to him. The order of these relationships – love of God first and love of neighbor second – is not trivial. It points to something profound about love. That our love for others is based solely on the One to whom they belong. Our love of God drives love of neighbors near and far. We love our neighbors because they belong to God and are, therefore, worthy of our goodwill towards them.
If our love of God drives love of neighbor, even more so love of enemy. All of humanity – no matter how far we are from God, or what we’ve done or failed to do, or even our fondness for one another – deserves love from their fellow humans solely because we all belong to the God who, himself, loves all that he has made. Jesus says as much when he calls us to love our enemies so that we may be children of the Father who does the same, even going so far as to actively provide for those who have turned their backs and wandered away from him (Matthew 5:44-45).
Our love of God drives us to love our neighbors, to love our enemies, but also to to love those who, like us, are pilgrims on the way. Those who belong to God in Christ belong also to one another. We are friends of God but also one another in God. Our belonging to one another is instrumental for our fruitfulness as pilgrims on the way. Further, Christ’s everlasting kingdom, wherein we behold the face of God, is enriched by our brothers and sisters in Christ whose love multiplies and accentuates our own love of God and experience of God in the new heavens and new earth. As such, our love for one another mysteriously points back to our belonging to Christ (John 13:34-35).

These four love commands are the essence of our faith journey. Each day of our lives offers rich opportunities to love God and love one another, neighbors, and enemies in God. While this sounds easy, our souls are treacherous terrain with many obstacles. Like an inability to read a map, habits and patterns of sin send us off in the wrong direction, getting us lost on the journey. Like roots, rocks, and felled trees on the path, habits and patterns of sin impede love and even wound us along the way. We need good habits that help us to (re)turn to the path and, ultimately, to learn to love well.

Not only do we need good habits but also guides who walk alongside us. Like Sherpas who accompany travelers as they navigate the treacherous terrain of Mt. Everest, we each accompany one another as we navigate the treacherous terrain of our respective faith journeys. Sherpas are experienced travelers who have made the trek many times, people who know the terrain well enough to ask the right questions, encourage others, support others, and even ‘search and rescue’ others along the way. These guides have not only discovered the Great Sherpa themselves but, in walking with Him, have developed a keen sense of how to help others do the same. Not only do we all need sherpas, but we are all sherpas to another.

We’ve curated several tools and practices that offer us pathways to turn and return to God, to change directions or come back to the path, as we take steps along our faith journeys. Through practices, we encounter the God who lovingly and gently guides us through the rough terrain of our own souls and, eventually, we become increasingly better sherpas, or guides, for others. As you engage in these practices, we pray that you encounter God richly and that, flowing from that encounter, your love for God and neighbor, enemy, and one another in God might grow, deepen, and intensify.