Life-Changing Love

Here are some more notes from the Greg Boyd book I've been working through, "Repenting of Religion."

This is a great description of the type of love that is to mark our Christian communities.

Pg. 200
The evangelistic task of the Christian community, in other words, is to live and love in a way that draws people and cries out for explanation.  Our proclamation only has as much credibility as our love requires explanation.
This is not because the world is so sinful that people unjustly require an unreasonable demonstration of truth before they believe it.  For too long, the church has blamed the world for how ineffective it is at attracting people.  Evidence that we have been eathing from the same tree from which Adam and Eve ate is that we have deflected responsibility for our sin just as they did.  In truth, if people aren’t being drawn to the Lord by the church’s love, this is the church’s fault.  For Jesus taught us from the start that it is by our love, not just by our words, that people will know he is real and be drawn into a relationship with him.  Christ convinced us of the love of God by demonstrating it while we were yet sinners.  We are called to do the same toward others.
By God’s own design – a design that recaptures the purpose for which God created the world – hurting and hungry people are to be drawn into the reality of God’s love by seeing it demonstrated in his body.  Christ did this in his earthly body, which is why sinners were attracted to him.  And he longs to do this again through his church boy.  To the extent that the church embodies the spirit of Jesus, it will be a magnet for prostitutes and tax collectors.  To the extent it embodies the spirit of Pharisaism, however, it will repel life.