Jehovah's Witnesses Straight Talk - Forum/Blog

November 06, 2019

“Love is not a created thing, it is God, who is love and not a creation. That is why love is inexplicable and complicated to us a creation, but it will never fail because it is God!”

1Cor.13:1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing. 13:3 If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing. 13:4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, 13:5 doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 3:6 doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
13:8 Love never fails.

1Cor.2:7 But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,
2:8 which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.
2:9 But as it is written, "Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear, which didn't enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him."{Isaiah 64:4}
2:10 But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

1 John 4:19 We love Him, because he first loved us.

1 John 4:20 If a man says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

1 John 4:16 We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Facts: For too many Americans, Christianity has become identified with exclusion rather than inclusion. Its institutions claim God’s name, all the while systematically shrinking the size of the table so that the most vulnerable hungry are left to fend for themselves. It traffics in Band-Aids instead of doing the essential work of healing the world.

What if Christianity looked more like a farmers market attached to a clinic? What if our Communion tables were built as restaurants that employed the recently incarcerated for a living wage? What if, instead of practicing out of our ornate buildings, the church went anywhere people gathered to tell a narrative of hope, engage in ritual that heals us and build communities that reflect our deepest values?

In my 20 years of leading Christian institutions, I have seen more love and more goodness than any of the bad that makes the headlines. I’ve seen people learning to care for each other and communities, opening their arms in wide welcome. I’ve seen social-justice warriors champion the underdog, care for their neighbors and raise their voices for the oppressed. I’ve seen the gospel embodied in those who speak against abusive systems and will not stop, no matter the cost. Facts by Rev. Amy Butler