Ever pick up the Bible and read only the footnotes?

There are great nuggets of gold in them-there footnotes; for instance, my read today came from Eugene Peterson's "The Message", and his preface to the book of 1 John, the book of missional love.

"The two most difficult things to get straight in life are love and God. More often than not, the mess people make of their lives can be traced to failure or stupidity or meanness in one of both of these areas."

"The basic and biblical Christian conviction is that the two subjects are intricately related. If we want to love the right way, we have to deal with God the right way. God and love can't be separated."

"But there are always people around who don't want to be pinned down to the God Jesus reveals, to the love Jesus reveals. They want to make up their own idea of God, make up their own style of love. John was pastor to a church disrupted by some of these people. In his letters we see him reestablishing the original and organic unity of God and love that comes to focus and becomes available to us in Jesus Christ."

Are we loving? Are we loving like Jesus, or have we created a 'new human-styled love' (religion) mixed with judgment, legalism and meanness?

They will know you by your love...the greatest of these things.

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