Our core value is love!
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself .'' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (MATTHEW 22:37-40 NASB)
It sounds simple but love can be difficult to define. Jesus demonstrated a love that includes the following attributes:
- Rooted in the Father's Love: Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." JOHN 15:9-12
- Forgiving: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." MATTHEW 5:43-48
- Selfless: “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." JOHN 15:12-13
- Compassionate: When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things." MARK 6:34
- Inclusive: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness... God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." GENESIS 1:26-27.
- This is essential to Jesus's teachings about love. He was not giving a new moral code but exhorting us to treat each other as fellow image bearers, equal before God and deserving of dignity. Further, Jesus had a large and diverse group of people he called friends and family. It's often overlooked, but women were a part of Jesus's closest circle and a vital part of his ministry. This is why women (both cis-gendered and transgendered) take part in our church at all levels of leadership.
Version: 20240320