So last night, I was awake at 2AM, like I often find myself these nights: and I listened to this sermon teaching on the “love thy neighbor” subject, and it is good:  listen and then; if you care to hear my take, you can read what I responded to my blood brother, who is also my brother in Christ, one whom I dearly love. 

Brian Zahnd pastor:

Rich, I’m up talking to our Father through Jesus, and I asked Him for a word. And I thought of this sermon awaiting my attention. By the way thanks for it.  And I got a lot from it, but as usual I thought beyond it to the times today that I might see my neighbor; “so loving his neighbor”, that he actually in the name of that love would overlook that neighbors sins and leave him wallowing there in the filth and if not actually indulging with him, he instead condones his neighbors own wallowing rather than engaging him with the whip of a godly righteous anger. And had he done this instead; he would have, in so doing, driven his neighbor out of the temple (maybe with a whip) for he (his neighbor) has become a money changer serving not his own God but another god.  Now I know that neither can he, nor can I, do that without much thought and some very long conversation with our Lord, and to do less in some instances is not love at all, and love is everything isn’t it. 

Sorry, this is just how taking on the mind of Christ affects me. And sometimes my neighbor just does not like me for it. And so, I just might weep as I pray in the future for that neighbor.  Love ya. 

BTW, if I were lovingly engaged with my neighbor, sometimes it’s “Truth”, which becomes the whip  in the encounter, and as the saying goes: truth hurts; but  is it really love to in effect lie?  So love must be thoughtful and prayerful.  Jesus, we are told formed the whip himself before He entered the Temple Court. 

John 2:15  He made a whip from small ropes and threw everyone with their sheep and cattle out of the temple courtyard. He dumped the moneychangers’ coins and knocked over their tables. 16  He told those who sold pigeons, “Pick up this stuff, and get it out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” (GOD’S WORD)

I’m sure that prayerfully and contemplatively He did this because He loved.  It takes time to make your own whip. 

Father, how do I get through to them that if they are to love You and Me; then they must also come to hate what We hate.