Bob Goff is Correct, Almost!
Every once in a while I come across a small volume that I can’t resist reading. The title captured my interest, “Why on Earth did Anyone Become A Christian in the First Three Centuries?”. Its a great little book based on a lecture series by Dr. Larry Hurtado. He writes extensively on the spread of Christianity in the Roman World. Three quarters of the way through he talks about a 2nd century letter to a public official Diognetes defending Christians and explaining that Christians were not a threat to the public good.
In this letter the author (unknown but I think he should be called Bob Goff”ius”) writes an incredible phrase I believe captures who we as Christians in the 21st century are called to be. Here goes, “Christians -Share food but not beds”! Brilliant!
After Rob Bell’s 2005 LOVE WINS bumper sticker or Bob Goff’s 2015 LOVE DOES comes 2020 SHARE FOOD NOT BEDS. Boom! Drop the mic!
Maybe Bob should change his phrase to Love DOES…and DOESN’T!
What better describes the essence of what Christ calls us to do and be toward one another and toward the world.
Love Does-We share food.
At life’s most basic needs-we share food. We give sustenance. Hope rises in the giving, a confidence and solidness of being grows. There is joy in the moment of mattering. We share bread and in the breaking together dignity and honor and nurture and affirmation and fulfillment spill out. God is present and He cares. The Son has come and He is the Bread that brings life.
Love Doesn’t-But not our beds.
Limits, boundaries, barriers to inhumanity.
Love Doesn’t Exploit
Use
Injure
Abuse
Steal
Pervert
Dishonor
Love doesn’t rob dignity from another persons’s body and soul. There are limits to the sexuality that the first century crossed and ignored and the 21st century is returning. We will do opposite of what the excesses of our culture cannot restrain. We will nourish and honor a person’s body, engage and celebrate and encourage their soul within that body propelling them to safety, health and joy and peace. We will view each person as a unique creation with a sense of awe seeing the handiwork of the creator at every glance.
We can, as Christians in the 21st Century, demonstrate anew that God exists and He comes with mercy. We can proclaim that God has come in the person of Jesus, and through his life and suffering death and resurrection He says #MeToo and in mercy removes the shame and restores the broken. He offers an everlasting relationship of a love that does …and doesn’t.
This is GOOD NEWS!
