It's Christmastime, so it seems especially appropriate to begin with reminders of the amazing love of God to the world in Jesus Christ:

"Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." --Luke 2:10-11

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but would have everlasting life." --John 3:16

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will someone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." --Romans 5:6-8

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" --I John 3:1

It's Christmastime, so it seems especially appropriate to continue with reminders of the Bible's demand that followers of Christ be characterized by godly love:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. " --1 John 4:7-11

"'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." --Mt. 22:36-40

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." --John 13:34-35

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." --1 Cor. 13:1-3

It's Christmastime, so it seems especially sad to be reminded of the hatefulness that Christians demonstrate toward those whose lifestyles they disapprove of, whose politics they reject, or whose doctrine or moral beliefs they believe erroneous:

Grieve for every Christian leader pushed out of his or her job because they did not quite hit the right notes for some fellow Christians in their church, school or organization, and for every Christian who somehow finds it in their heart to rejoice at the downfall of their perceived Christian enemies.

Grieve for homosexuals, so often the recipients of Christian rejection and hatred.

Grieve for every Christian who in 2008 was treated as some kind of pagan by other Christians because they supported Barack Obama, and every Christian treated as some kind of Neanderthal because they supported John McCain.

Grieve for a Christian community in which orthodoxy rather than orthopraxy defines what it means to be right with God, which produces a community with an abundance of right-thinkers filled with contempt for those who do not see the world as correctly as they do. 

"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians…who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."  --Brennan Manning

"Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." --1 John 4:8

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-- David Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University.

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