Good and Beautiful and Kind: Becoming Whole in a Fractured World

by Rich Villodas

I am so tired of waiting, Aren’t you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? Let us take a knife And cut the world in two— And see what worms are eating At the rind.[1]

One of the dangers is we expect the gifts of the Spirit to quickly do what only the fruit of the Spirit is meant to do slowly.

Lord, you desire us to be formed by your love. Give us grace not to live this material perfectly but to wrestle with it faithfully. By the end of the journey, may we have moved closer to you, our neighbor, and ourselves. In Jesus’s name, amen.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, he responded with absolute clarity: Love. Love is the greatest command. He said, “ ‘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 22:37–40).

The chapter was Paul’s word of rebuke to Christ followers who had become fractured and distracted. They were marked by great miracles and charisma among them, but they had little of maturity and character where it counted. To end the chapter, Paul made it plain: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (verse 13). If love is the greatest good, sin must be the antithesis of it. Sin is not just a violation of a law; it’s the disruption of love.

The language of sin has been used as a hammer to crush anyone who doesn’t share the same ethical standards, and that’s tragic.

When spiritual vitality is measured by sin-avoidance, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are following Jesus faithfully. But following Jesus is to be measured by love—love for God expressed in love for neighbor.