Often said by individuals who have been wronged and in some cases had a percieved slight against them by proffesing Christians.
So time to do a bit of a small exposition on types of Christian love involving a real case.
In this case I made the first mistake- I rebuked a proffesing Christian who had a ton of fetish content on their profile, I was wrong as I did it publicly and should have inboxed them about it.
But the poster's response is a lesson- they also rebuked me in public and said "We are called to love all not just some"
This seems to be a based statement but it has some significant flaws, I will mention one or two after describing three types of Christian love.
1. Love for other Christians- This should be distinct from the love we have for others. Christians love for each other should actually be very special. If you don't think this read John and 1 John. It is actually evidence to the world we are Christians, according to Christ himself.
2. Love for others- So what then of the unbelieving general world? Well, we can see the love shown to the world by churches helping with food banks, refugee programmes, women's shelters, etc. The love we have for others in general would best be described as the love a principal would have for their school.
3. Love for close unbelieving relatives- this is where it gets more complex, it may well resemble the love we have for other Christians. Christian insight welcome in the comments!
So the main issue I have with that poster's comment is it completely ignores the love Christians should show each other and assumes a Christian would have the same love for a random person in front of them at the checkout line, that they would have for a Christian they have fellowshiped with for years.
It should also be noted that the poster who made that comment to me does not have fellowship at a church and this would reduce their love for Christians and not allow it to grow (please note I am not reffering to Christians who cannot attend church- illness, disability, dangerous Country, etc. God will give them special graces).
So, hope this encourages fellowship with other Christians, don't be a stranger at church!
Some quotes on love of Christian brothers and sisters by John Owens:
1. "If we come across an individual who is a Christian, they are as certain and evident an object of our love as if we saw them lying in the arms of Christ."
2. "Whatever we make of our Christian proffesion, if there is not an intense love to the brothers and sisters, we have neither the truth of grace, nor evidence of God's love to us, nor of our love to God"
God's love isn't about anything goes...It's seasoned with goodness, justice and truth. It won't let you destroy yourself, unless you reject Him all out... Which is sad...
The phrase 'no hate like Christian love' has nothing to do with the actual teachings of Christ or how Christians are supposed to act.
It refers to kids being disowned for being homosexual. It refers to Christians passing legislation to control women's bodies. It refers to the willingness to drop bombs on people of different belief systems, sometimes because of those belief systems. It refers to all of the cruelty and hatred people engage in under the name of their religion.
Making a few claims of the charities engaged in by the faith, done as a form of advertising for said faith, is ignoring what the phrase actually talks about.
@BritishFailedAesthetic It reads like a "No, but actually" scenario attempting to dismiss the criticism found in the phrase by redirecting attention away from very real negative behavior to also real positive behavior. It may be limitations of tone through text communication but it came off with more of a message that the people who say this phrase are wrong because this is how Christians act.
It seems more dismissive of the critique than it does instructional to those being critiqued.
