Love is... Not Easily Offended

"Love is not overly sensitive or easily offended." 1 Corinthians 3.5
I saw this church sign last week that caught my eye and caused me to think:

I immediately started to wonder things like: How many will be offended by this gesture of love? What would the SPV reaction be if we posted this on our sign? How would our neighborhood react? Does such a sign automatically infer a particular political or social ideology and if so, then is it truly love? What if we posted those words one week and "we love our hetero community" the following week? Or "we love our liberal community" one week then "we love Trump and his loyal supporters" the following week?
 
So do I have you thinking yet? My point is that love is supposed to be just that; love. But so often we attach things like agreement and support to it which sort of cheapens the whole thing. Jesus said in Luke 6.32 "...if you only love those who love (agree with) you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that!"
 
I want us to be the kind of church (individually and corporately) who never gets offended by love but rejoices regardless of who it is being extended to! So if you have a few minutes try this little exercise: write out the words "I love our ________ community" and start inserting various words, ethnicities, and people groups, football teams, politicians/political parties... until you find one that stirs a negative emotion or offends you, then when/if that happens, pause for a moment and ask the Father's love through the presence of the Holy Spirit to touch and warm your (our) hearts until we can honestly say that "love does not offend us". 
 
Much love to you all as you extend love to (all) others,
Pastor Chris