In this message, Pastor T. C. approaches the second way to be Christian (Be a Good Neighbor) from the standpoint of engaging with politics. To be a good neighbor, we must care about the policies that affect our neighbor’s lives and the collective well-being of society. This is what it means to seek the shalom…
Jesus said the two-fold greatest commandment is to Love God and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. Paul, writing before the Gospel traditions were written down, summarized this command with just Love Your Neighbor. First John helps us understand why: we can’t love God if we hate human beings made in God’s image. Paul also shows…
Romans 13 is a famous text that has been used as a proof-text to justify state-sponsored violence for millennia. By reading Romans “backwards” (in light of the conflict between the factions in the house churches of Rome), we can more clearly see Paul’s purpose for writing this passage. Rather than sanctioning state-sponsored violence, Paul was…