Religion is an Argument God is Love by David Teems l Religion and Faith l Christianity and Other Religions l Expressing Love Through Faith

Love is the complete and demystified will of God. Our theology can reach no further than that for all its efforts, the good intentions, the imagination or the brains behind it. If God is love, as scripture assures us that he is, then love is not the rehearsal, nor is it the opening act. It is the thing itself. Love is the connective tissue, the strong threefold cord that binds heaven and earth together. And not to diminish the importance of guidelines or foundational elements of our faith, certainly, but they don’t carry the necessary weight. With 35,000 Christian denominations, what are we really saying to the world or to ourselves about Christian love, or Christian unity?

Exceptional Evidence

The late Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), in his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything said, “exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.” For all that is lamentable about the book itself, here Hitchens makes a curiously indisputable point. So what is “exceptional evidence?” What do you do, how do you carry yourself that a stranger might note something extraordinary about you, something worth investigating, something that makes God conspicuous? Arguing a point of doctrine or scripture is not evidence. Belief itself is not evidence. Going to church is not evidence. A changed life is evidence. The response of your tongue is evidence. The motive of your heart toward the world around you is evidence.

Live the Life of Christ

The only way to fulfill the words of Christ is to live the life of Christ. To live the life of Christ is impossible without faith, and faith is not something we can give ourselves. This only sounds complicated. We enter into a relationship with God by this faith, which, in turn, trains, seasons, and instructs us how to cooperate with his spirit, how to be so united with him and with such completeness it becomes difficult to know just where humanity ends and divinity begins. This is the very life he wants for us—where he is most conspicuous, most visible and most himself. The miracles that follow provide all the “exceptional evidence” anyone could ask for.

The Only Thing That Counts

According to the apostle Paul, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). Love becomes the engine that drives our little life; that moves us forward. We cooperate with a God of love under his authority and counsel, not to mention his endorsement. Jesus came to establish a church, yes, to set a few foundational boundaries, certainly, but all within one simple and invariable context—love—in its purest most biblical sense. Love that will cost you something precious. Love that must tolerate its own Judas. Love that must suffer the denials of its own Peter. Love that demands no less than a cross. Until these conditions are met, man is not his complete self.

A Warm Living Current

Reform begins at home. Authentic faith fears no mirror. Truth is, if there is little or no evidence of the divine within your own walls, you can expect much less evidence in the world beyond them, and certainly nothing “exceptional.” Love is a prayer we make to God, a prayer we make out of life itself. It is a trust given and exchanged, and given again, a warm living current that passes between heaven and earth, between time and timelessness. If your faith is more about defending an argument than it is loving your neighbor without conditions and without restraints, some rethinking of your faith may be necessary. Be vigilant. Religion is an argument. God is love.