We live in a day and age when it seems like everything is being questioned. There is a rapidly growing belief that whatever we’ve been told about this or that is probably wrong, that there is a dark “other side” to the story that’s been kept from us.

Sadly, this is sometimes true and as people of the truth, we need to acknowledge this. For instance, if you’re familiar with Church history, right alongside the stories of heroic and self-sacrificing saints are horrific stories of abuse and mistreatment of non-Christian people. This is one reason why many people today are rethinking the faith.

But this is not how it all began. The advancement of the way of Jesus was done precisely according to the way of Jesus – courageously sharing the truth of the gospel from a posture of self-sacrificing humility and relentless love. And when there was suffering, it was Jesus’ followers who were enduring the beatings and death (not the other way around).

Why? Because God loves all people and wants all people to be a part of his family. Jesus’ earliest followers got this. It was the gravitational center of their lives as it should be for all who have surrendered to our Lord.

This Sunday we begin the Apostle Paul’s second journey into the unbelieving, pagan Roman world. Let’s watch him and his small band of colleagues exude the love of God. Maybe we can learn a few things.