A few years ago I sat with one of the students from our college ministry and talked about life and what the world needs from Christians and the Church. He sat and thought for a few minutes and responded: “we, as Christians, really need to just love.” He paused for a second and then added: “with no exceptions.”

Every day since that meeting, those words have filled my mind constantly. As I’ve sat back and watched everything from the world news to local ministries working, one thing is abundantly clear: we as Christians have been putting restrictions on our love.

I’ve seen it as college students I work with come back to church after being forced away because of who they are. I’ve heard it in the voices of those who don’t see the point in moving forward another day.

I wonder how much I am to blame for all of that?

Jesus paints, I believe, a very clear picture in the Gospels of how his followers are supposed to approach the world and people around them. In Matthew 22 and Mark 12, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. The teachers of the scriptural law are trying to trick him into slipping up but Jesus instead gives an answer that is still mind-blowing to this day: “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments'(Matthew 22:37-39).”

Sometimes I hate reading these words.

Don’t get me wrong, I think they are beautiful and should be the core of a Christian’s life and approach to the world. I just hate reading them because I hardly ever see Christians living them out.

When I look at Christianity today it’s almost like we’re opening our Bibles to Matthew 22 and reading: “Love God however it best fits you and love your neighbor as yourself, UNLESS they are of a different religion (or no religion),  a member of the LGBTQ community, conservative, liberal, of a different culture, of a different socio-economic standing”… the list goes on and on.

It might be easier if Jesus had included a list at the end of that statement, but he doesn’t- and neither should we.

The worst part of it all is that we pretend we’re loving the way Jesus did. We put on our shark-like smiles and say: “hate the sin, not the sinner!” Yet, those sins that fall on our black list cause us to say or do things that are not very loving. We trick ourselves into believing that we are just loving like Christ by “sharing what is sinful” and yet, people are not feeling loved by our actions or our words.

Perhaps, with this new year, we need to rip up our black lists. Maybe it’s time we just looked at the people we come into contact with and say: “Jesus loves you for who you are and so do I, no exceptions.” You want to focus on sin? I’m sure you have plenty of your own to wade through (I know I do).

I believe this will be the only way we’ll be able to really share the Gospel of Christ with the world this year. After all, Jesus reminds us that we need to be focused more on loving God (with ALL of who we are) and, when it comes to other people, just love on them because everything hinges on it.

So, with the dawn of 2014, I make one resolution: to love more without exceptions. I’m tired of opening the Gospels of Matthew and Mark and grimacing as I read the words of Jesus that direct me how to live. There is a time for everything and I really believe the half-full version of Jesus’ love we’ve been living has run its course.

It’s time to start over, to see others as God sees them, to love them as God loves them: to love, with no exceptions.

There is no other way.