This from D. A. Carson in today’s romance:
Christian love, mature, deep, and unqualified, is a rare commodity. When it is displayed, it speaks volumes to a society that gorges itself in self-interest, lust, mutual-admiration pacts, even while it knows very little of love. Show me a church where the choir is known as the War Department, where people divide over evangelistic strategies or over the color of the carpet, and I’ll show you a church that has not been praying along these lines for some time [that the love of Christ would abound in its midst]. Conversely, we will see profound spiritual renovation if by God’s grace we make it our commitment not to put anyone down–except on our prayer list (A Call to Spiritual Reformation, emphasis mine, pp. 92-93).
Brethren and Sistren, love well by praying hard and only putting one another down on your Seven Day Prayer Directories and personal lists.
WOWAH!. You are getting better at this all the time! What a delight to read these lines.