Arloa Sutter on Loving God and Loving Others

This is from Arloa Sutter, who founded Breakthrough Urban Ministries in Chicago, Illinois.  This excerpt is taken from her book, The Invisible:  What the Church Can Do to Find and Serve the Least of These.

"Jesus summed up the most important commandments by focusing on love that is vertical and horizontal:  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind...Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:37, 39).  Interestingly, the two sins that are most emphasized in Scripture are idolatry and lack of care for the poor.  We worship idols when we place anything above God in our lives, violating our vertical relationship with God.  Lack of care for the poor is evidence that we are violating our horizontal relationships and failing to love our neighbor as ourselves." (p.124)

This is a reminder to me that our faith is not something that just sits.  It is always moving.  As God transforms a Christ-follower from the inside out that person can no longer remain content with the ways of the world.  They experience what some have referred to as a "divine discontent" with the status quo and the way things are.  The Christian faith is one of action and truth demonstrated in lives lived in imitation of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 11:1).  Afterall, love is a verb, not merely a feeling.