by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n
Jesus was always loving, but He was not always nice.<\/p>\n
He threw the money changers out of the temple, rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees, and pronounced woes on entire cities.\u00a0Jesus, while being the embodiment of God’s love, did not practice an attitude of “I love you just the way you are.” He did not demonstrate love as mere acceptance. Instead, He truly loved people and consistently preached repentance.<\/p>\n
Acceptance often leads to enabling, and silence can be permissive. To follow in Jesus’s footsteps, we must love as He loves.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Chadwick Brewer Jesus was always loving, but He was not always nice. He threw the money changers out of the temple, rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees, and pronounced woes on entire cities.\u00a0Jesus, while being the embodiment of God’s love, did not practice an attitude of “I love you just the way you are.” He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[73,65],"class_list":["post-81122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-jesus","tag-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":85710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/perversion-of-the-love-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":81122,"position":0},"title":"Perversion of the Love of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Many want to continue a sinful practice so much that they think they can use the love of God to justify it. God does so love the world that He gave His Son to die for sinners. He loved me while I was yet a sinner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69153,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-does-not-mean-automatic-acceptance\/","url_meta":{"origin":81122,"position":1},"title":"Love Does Not Mean Automatic Acceptance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton God loved us at our worst, but that never meant He accepted us all without repentance and change (Romans 5:8; Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38). So, God's love motivates us to change so that He can accept us into fellowship. Love does not mean automatic acceptance into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66534,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-foot-washing-indicate-acceptance\/","url_meta":{"origin":81122,"position":2},"title":"Does Foot Washing Indicate Acceptance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Much has been made over the recent \"He gets us\" ads depicting various scenes of different kinds of people washing their feet and having their feet washed. The debate is over what this means. Is it a good illustration of what Jesus would do? Does it accurately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33370,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-and-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":81122,"position":3},"title":"Love and Repentance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton It is common these days to hear people use scriptures that say that God \"loves\" everyone and commands us to love everyone. But they use this to mean that God \"accepts\" everyone regardless of their sin and attitude toward sin. They often call this \"unconditional love.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37861,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-and-the-concept-of-patterns\/","url_meta":{"origin":81122,"position":4},"title":"God and the Concept of Patterns","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer The nature of typology shows that God is a God of patterns. Without even going through a process of trying to \"establish\" authority, God shows through His overall record that He is a God of patterns. This is evident right from the beginning when God made a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91596,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-your-neighbor-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":81122,"position":5},"title":"Love Your Neighbor (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments are first, to love God with all the heart, soul, strength, and might, and second, to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). These commandments are the basis for everything else God commands. It's not hard to see in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}