We don't love life -- at least the we of our culture and even perhaps many within the Church. We love our lives until we don't anymore and wish to end them painlessly as if this were our right. We love a good life, a well-lived life, a rich and productive life but we are quick to judge the value of the lives of those whom we do not believe live such a life. We love the young and the beautiful but we are ready to discard the lives of the disabled, the unwanted, and the elderly. We love the lives of the iconic, the famous, and the powerful but we do not love the weak, the poor, the needy, or the homeless. Yes, we do advocate for them but is the love of advocacy more than the love of those in need. We love those who make our lives better but we do not love those who cost us something, those hard to love, or those who different from us. Yes, we do love the idea of diversity but we would rather people were just like us. I should not need to go on. You get the idea.
We don't love life especially the lives of those whom we judge to be guilty of the sins I judge to be the worst -- we do not love rapists or murderers or child abusers. Yet the miracle is that God loves them, loves every sinner, and loves them so much He burns with fire for their repentance and salvation. This makes God a stranger to us as much as anything else. If God were like us, He would know better. Some lives are worth more than others and some are simply not worth anything. But God's mercy is beyond our human reason. God really does love all life. Our struggle in faith is not simply the struggle to believe that God can love us with this powerful and redemptive love but to believe that God actually does love others and especially the others we do not love.
Now to be sure, God does not love our sins. He loves us enough for His Son to be covered in them and render Him ugly with our unrighteous thoughts, words, and deeds. He does not love us with the kind of passive love that accepts and tolerates our sins or our own attempts to make up for them but He loves us sinners. We do not have to love the sins of others in order to love them but we dare not set up their sins as excuses or justifications for loving some but not them. God loves life and values the lives of sinners even though He hates sin and His Son has bled and died to pay for those sins. So maybe we need to learn something about His love so that we may love one another as He has loved us. By the way, I read that last thing somewhere.
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I have wondered why, during my life, there have been many people I did not particularly like. Some were my antagonists and there was mutual disdain. Others never offended me, yet there was some aspect of them which I unfairly judged through the lens of an undiscerned bias. Maybe it was their appearance, physical, or an expression, or temperament. Maybe they were too flamboyant, too crude, or too quiet. Perhaps, they were lazy, or too ambitious? What went on that my sinful mind played with the appearances of people, and what unfair judgements did I draw from merely one experience. And what about old friendships. Many formerly warm friendships died from lack of interest, indifference, or simply as a result of separation. In my youthful days, young girls whom I dated, and although nice in every way, became tiresome, and young men seek an exit. Why do we often feel less sympathy for troubled people, and are apt to dismiss them entirely as unworthy of a prayer. Why don’t we love as Christ loves? Why is love of ourselves more intense than for others? When I think about these things, I realize that my fallen race characteristically knows little about real love. Our minds are too focused on ourselves and our own temporary emotional needs. The only hope is when the Holy Spirit, through the word of God, places on our hearts the idea of agape love, a desire that is earnest and unselfish, a desire that the promise of the Gospel be imparted to all whom we meet. That includes our enemies, and difficult people, and those whom our casual view disdains because of their appearance. To love as Christ loves. That is the prime lesson Jesus reflected on the cross. Soli Deo Gloria
Years ago I heard a message about God’s love given in a local LCMS church in Tucson, Arizona. The sermon was delivered by a Vicar, who became the assistant pastor some years later. The title was “Crazy Love.” I hated that title, but the point was hard to miss. The Vicar pointed out our unworthiness, and in spite of it, God loves us. When we think about our familial love, we usually love our parents, siblings, spouses, children, even in spite of things we don’t like about them, characteristics that annoy us or lifestyles and choices we abhor. If we are a believer, we want the best for them, first and foremost, their salvation in Christ, and secondly, we want them to stay out of harms way spiritually and physically. We also want them to love us in spite of our own planks of sin, the ones our eyes cannot see as well as others. The love of God is beyond our understanding, not tolerant of sins, and He must discipline and correct us, but it is always characterized by wisdom and applied in righteousness. Soli Deo Gloria
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