If you love me...

I think I figured out why Jesus' most important command was to love. It's not like it's some new thing, but I think the reason why Jesus made it such a big deal was because he knew that a lot of people's first exposure to him would be us - the people who claim to represent him.

Yes, people can look at nature and know something about God. They can read the Bible for themselves and see God, but most people look most directly and most often at the Body of Christ, the people his Spirit is supposed to inhabit, to get their views on God. And they should. We are supposed to represent who we follow well.

Now a lot of people have been turned off by the way Christians have treated them for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. And you can say all you want about how Christians are not perfect, just forgiven, but I don't think that's any excuse. All the more reason we should be focused on changing into people that love.