A missional disciple is characterized by love for God and love for neighbors. That's a cliche, I know, but I also think it's the most radical thing in the world.

And it's the second half that makes the first half more radical, because Jesus makes it clear that "neighbors" includes "the other" - the sinner, the outcast, the half-breed, and even (gasp) the enemy.

To believe that God loves "them" - our enemies - just as much as God loves us puts or love for God in a completely different light. Because if we continue to hate our enemies - even though we're too clever to use the word "hate" to describe our "discernment" or whatever - it's clear that we don't really love God, at least, not the real God. We instead love our tribal God, the one who plays favorites for people of our race, religion, nation, political party, gender, or whatever. This tribal God, of course, is an idol. But idols are very popular including in our churches.

This is really at the heart of the book I have coming out soon.
Working on it, the radical nature of Jesus' teaching hit me as never before, which makes me realize that to be a missional disciple of Jesus means ... not something "nice" or "proper," but something revolutionary, world-changing, uncontainable. It's about social transformation, not social control. It's wild, not tame.

-- Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net)
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