A lot of Christians have an odd habit of making a big fuss of love. From "God is love," to "Jesus loves you," to "Hate the sin, love the sinner," love is a word from which Christians get major mileage.
Sometimes I wonder why we do it.
I mean, to a lot of people out there, Christians aren't the ones expressing love. Condemnation, hate, anger, this is what so many see in us. Perhaps we should admit: we have made a mockery of love.
It's easy for me, as it is for most of us, to love people I like, people who like me, people who care for me, and people who just so happen to be quite fantastic in most regards. I mean, seriously, awesome people are, well, awesome.
But I wonder, is the love Christians profess to believe in, well, isn't it bigger than that?
And since the answer to that question is a resounding "Yes!"... What then, is love? True love, deep love, saving love, Jesus love?
Jesus love is best exemplified when we are able to love not the ones who love us, the ones we like, but when we are able to love the ones we cannot stand to be around, the ones we detest, the ones we wish were in someone else's life, somewhere else. To love people who we or society deem loveless, well, that, friends, is love. To wish well upon those we want to hate, to pray for those who wish us ill, to give to those who would rather take.
After all, this is what Jesus did. Who Jesus was.
When we are known for what we are against, rather than who we are for, well, the paradigm could use adjusting. Love should not be conditional. Love is not a reward/punishment motivator. When I withhold love because I disagree with someone, whether it be politically, theologically, emotionally, or even religiously, I am not representing the One whose image we bear. I am not respecting the image of the One we bear in the other. When you are a Conservative, and I am a Liberal, there should exist between us love, not malice. Disagreement has never been an excuse for withholding love.
Even excommunication is an act of love, a last-ditch effort to bring a person back to their home. Even then, in a moment where differences are near-irreconcilable, there exists a love that is greater than human, greater than I, greater than you.
It shouldn't matter that your sexual preference is for the same gender, we should love you. It shouldn't matter that your religious belief is atheistic, we should love you. It shouldn't matter that you didn't do your dishes, we should love you. I should love you. Jesus loves you.
And more, love with an agenda, is this love? If I am offering support to you, just in the hopes that it'll lead you to agree with my religious beliefs, is that love? Would a realization of my agenda bring you closer to the God I claim is Love? Make no mistakes, I am a believer in the Gospel, Evangelism, truth. But if my only goal in a relationship is conversion, am I being truly loving?
I want to love unconditionally. I don't want to withhold love when I am upset or disagree with someone. I don't want to be known for what I am against, instead of what I am for. I want to agree with Jesus, when He tells His followers that it is through their love that the world will know they belong to Him.
And God knows I'm the last person to claim any superiority in this arena. There are people I can't stand, and I have failed in Love. There are people I disagree with, whose mere presence can infuriate me. I have failed to love. There are people who spew hate and vitrol from their mouths, and claim this is what God wills. I have failed to love them too.
I think the truest mark of theological accuracy is in this: Does it cause me to love God, and through my God-love, love others? As beings equal to myself? As beings more important than my own desires?
There are times where it is hard for me to consider myself as a Christian, when the actions of so many seem so far from what it seems to me the faith is about. There are times I think of Christians in the third person, as if I were not amongst this brethren. As if they were someone else. But this love. This love that compelled God Himself to equate Himself with us, to declare that victory was found in sacrifice, not battle, in love, not politic, in service, not power. To culminate this Truth in death and resurrection?
This is where I could not claim separation. If this is what Christianity is about? If love is the end-all, and the expression of this love the purpose of this life?
Then Christian I am. How could I be anything else? When this love, so profound, so beautiful, so perfect is waiting?
And so I apologize to anyone and everyone whom I've ever failed to love, and to whom I will fail to love. I apologize for all of us who have ever loved with an agenda, who have used love as a currency to get the behaviour we desire from others. For all of us who have forgotten that to love others as we love ourselves means we have to love ourselves... and others. For all of us who have judged and divorced from our minds and hearts. Of this we are all guilty. And I perhaps, worst of all.
I just pray that we remember to love. And to love. And to love some more.
Because Love won. On the cross, in the resurrection, in life, love won. And as love won, love wins.
It always wins.
I like this. I give it two large opposable thumbs up.
ReplyDeleteBlack on dark grey? Not a fan.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and go love and all that. :-P
It's charcoal on light grey...
ReplyDeleteSuperb my friend. I half expected a "may you..." at the end.
ReplyDeleteI second everything you said here. I had the most radical thought of someone we (America) haven't loved. What of the people that come over and slap us in the face (crashing planes into buildings for instance)? Do we retaliate by pulling our sword to chop off their ear (or "invade" their country)? Or do we love in return?
Love someone that not only physically hurt us, but emotionally as well? Like Christ loved those who murdered Him?
That kind of talk will get you noticed, I'd imagine. I feel a blog coming on...
Last time tried this, my monitor konked out just as I was about to hit "Post Comment". Here goes nothing.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, congratulations on starting this blog! I think the template is quite stylish and the photographs complement it nicely.
Your thoughts in this entry on love are spot on. I won't try to reconstruct the thoughtful response I had typed up last time, but I will say this: Amen. And also, do forgive yourself for your failings. I know that goes without saying, as forgiveness is a function of true love, but it's worth saying anyway. Forgive, forgive, forgive.
In my mind, the way I was taught to forgive made a mockery of true forgiveness. I was taught that the only perfect and saving forgiveness was of God (a very specific god, I might add), and that it was only possible because of the perfect blood offering of His Son. As if that didn't put enough conditions on it, there was also the matter of who was qualified to proclaim that forgiveness to a person. Yup, just us in this here church (sect). Nope, nobody else. Even though God was supposed to love all people. Sigh...
Putting aside the divine aspect of it (which, granted, was pretty much the point), I sometimes found this kind of forgiveness rather hollow, in a way. I couldn't always be sure that the [i]person[/i] had forgiven me in their heart. And there were some wounds that could not be healed through simple words of comfort. I realize that that is just life and human nature, but I did wish for a more tangible experience of being forgiven.
In my present perspective, I have come to realize that forgiveness really only has meaning for the person doing the forgiving. It is they who are releasing their feelings of resentment or anger or smugness; the person being forgiven may or may not experience release from guilt. That depends on whether they have forgiven themselves.
Sorry for the off-topic rant. *Gets off of soapbox.*
There's so much I could say on the topic at hand, but I suppose I might as well write my own blog entry on it. Yours certainly covered a lot of thoughts I've had myself and provided some food for new ones.
Namaste,
-William