Today's Post
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Dallas Willard on Love

July 27, 2026

Christians: The thing that IDENTIFIES us with Jesus, is not how RIGHT we are. It's not our BEHAVIOR. It's not our DOCTRINE or THEOLOGY.

It's not the way we dress or look or smell.

It's not the name on the church sign.

It's not the gold cross on your neck.

"Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” -John 13:35

(Josh Hatcher posted the words in this post from Dallas Willard in the Dallas Willard Facebook group.)

And in case you thought you could get away without the LOVE part:

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13

and this:

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." - 1 John 4:8

So if what Jesus said in the Gospels, what Paul and John said in the Epistles is true... Love is the top priority...

Then why do Christians spend so much time defending their doctrine, pointing fingers, looking down on others, defending their politics and their opinions?

Love comes first. 

No one cares how "right" you are.

No one cares how "smart" you are.

No one cares how "righteous" you are.

In fact, if those are your aspirations, to be correct, to know as much as you can, to be as well-behaved as you can be...  Paul says it's nothing. NOTHING.  He says "all our righteousness is like filthy rags."

Love.

Love.

Love.

If you get that right, the rest will fall in line.

"But, those people need to be told the truth!"

Yes. Surely, it is unloving to lie to someone.

But we're told to speak the truth in love.

What does that mean?

Look at the context.

"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." Ephesians 4 :11-16

If you want to be RIGHT. If you want to be MATURE. If you want to have GOOD DOCTRINE, that comes from speaking the truth in Love.  The end goal here is Unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God.

We don't get that maturity, that unity, that knowledge, those works of service WITHOUT the LOVE.

Thanks Dallas Willard

Our previous posts were talking about various possible points of focus or points of entrance for the Gospel. Could there be a more effective one than speaking to the human longing for love?