Love One Another

David and Jason Benham. Pol Pot. Kirk Cameron. Osama bin Laden. Phil Robertson. Sadamm Hussein. S. Truett Cathy. David Koresh. The Unabomber. Donald Sterling. President Barack Obama. President George W. Bush. (and all the others before them and after them, for that matter.) Lizzie Borden. Susan Smith. Jim Jones. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Fred Phelps. Adolf Hitler. Me.

       This list of infamous names in both recent and past history could certainly go on much longer, but these will suffice for my point. What do they have in common? They have all been reviled by some at different points in time- and all for either things they said (or said they believe) or things they did. Whether they were right or wrong is really beside the point here. They’ve all certainly been wrong many times in their lives and perhaps right on some things at some points too. But they all have something else in common that is absolutely essential to remember.
         Every single one of them is a human being made in the image of God and they are loved by God immensely. God says they are infinitely important and I am commanded to treat them and consider them the same. Has not God loved us in this manner? “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” God says to us. (Jeremiah 31:3) Even when we are faithless, He is always faithful. (2 Timothy 2:13) And what does Jesus command us? “Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
          Love each other as Jesus loved us? Jesus’ love for us led Him to the cross! Jesus’ love for us lived 33 years confined in flesh and blood as a man. Jesus’ love for us was willing to be misunderstood, rejected by His own family and hometown, betrayed by His own disciples and friends, and mocked and reviled by religious leaders of the Law. Jesus’ love for us was punished brutally, whipped, spat upon and affixed with a thorny crown- before having three nails driven through it. And praise God- Jesus’ love for us was strong enough to love us through all of it- and the power of God, Who is Love (1 John 4:8), raised Jesus from the dead! (Ephesians 1:17-23, Romans 8:11).
          And what did Jesus say while upon the cross? “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). Wait- WHAT? No pleas for God The Father to smite them all, as He surely could have if He so chose? Does not vengeance belong to The Lord? (Romans 12:9) Yes, it does- and The One who holds vengeance in His hands chose not to hate those who hurt Him- but rather, reach out in love instead. “As a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7b) He didn’t answer His tormentors in like kind- He didn’t say anything mean to them. But He forgave them. And He expects us to do the same with those who wrong us. (Just read the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35 for an incredible picture of this.) We must forgive others from the heart just as God The Father has forgiven us. We who have been shown mercy can do nothing but show mercy to others. God will judge them, as He will judge us all, in His time. Every wrong will be righted- in the right time.
            Jesus Christ Himself told us the greatest commandment in The Law. “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 22:37-40). He gave us a very clear command in John 15:17- “Love one another”. (In fact, He said that a number of times throughout The Bible.) You can’t say you love God, Whom you haven’t seen, and hate your brother, whom you have seen. (1 John 4:19-21. Actually, just read the whole book- it talks about how we must love one another if we truly love God- otherwise, we’re liars! Seriously- it says it like a million times over- or at least it feels that way. Obviously, God knew He would have to drill it through my thick skull a number of times.)
            Now, what about standing for The Truth and contending for the faith? Yes, by all means- definitely keep doing that! (Jude 1:3) However, in doing that, we are not given the right to judge. In fact, Jesus tells us to “Judge not, lest ye be judged. In the same manner that ye judge others will ye be judged.” (See Matthew 7:1-2) (Now, there is a matter of judging within the church and that’s quite a different matter. See 1 Corinthians 5 for matters of church discipline. Jesus also directly spoke to this issue in Matthew 18:15-20.) And we certainly must heed the command to “rescue the perishing” (as Jude 1:22-23 talks about), but as we are endeavoring to share The Gospel of Jesus Christ with them that can snatch them from the fire and save them, we must do as Ephesians 4:15 says and “speak the Truth in Love.” The approach and motivation both make a huge difference not only in how the message is received, but also in God receiving glory from our actions.
           Out of all the names I listed, one thing that has really saddened me is the reactions I heard from people at the deaths of Mr. Osama bin Laden and Rev. Fred Phelps. As the saying goes, let’s not speak ill of the dead. (Which is actually quite Biblical- see James 4:11-12 “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.” Pretty straight-forward there. And in Titus 3:1-2 “Speak evil of no one.” And a number of other verses-like Ephesians 4:31-32. And Colossians 3:8. And 1 Peter 2:1-2. And Proverbs 17:9.)
We must mourn for their deaths and pray for their families. (Romans 12:9-21). Mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. Love reaches out to all.
Now this is very important to understand. In my desire to afford these gentlemen dignity and respect in their status as people made in the image of Almighty God and made a little lower than the angels (Psalms 8:5), I am by no means condoning their actions. I fully agree that hatred and murder are wrong. Of course they did some heinous crimes, as did all the others on the list above. However, we must remember that if we break the Law at any one point of it, we’re guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10). Thus, we’re all equally culpable and guilty before God. (Psalms 14:3, Psalms 53:3, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:23) And we have no room to brag as we are saved by the grace of God alone. (Ephesians 2:8-10, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31).
           And though Paul claimed the title for himself, I often feel that I have wrested that title from his grasp, though it’s certainly not one of any pride, but shame- “Chief of sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15-17) Wow- this whole tribe of people on earth are all sinners and they’ve elected me their chief! So I cannot claim to be any better than anyone else. On my own efforts, I am heading up the sinning committee. And while I am making sinning “history”, praise God that Jesus came to make sinning- history! ;-)
            As two of my favorite songs expound on this point so well, let’s remember that but for the grace of God, there go I. So I’m “starting with the man in the mirror- I’m asking him to change his ways.” (“Man in the Mirror”- by far, Michael Jackson’s best song ever!) And as a Sunday School classic says, “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, oh Lord- standing in the need of prayer. It’s not my father, not my mother, not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, oh Lord- standing in the need of prayer.” And as Jesus said, how about getting that telephone pole out of your eye first before trying to get that speck of dust out of your brother’s eye? (Matthew 7:3-6). So quit judging people over their sins, especially since we do the same things ourselves!!! (Romans 2:1-11).
            As Philippians 3:18-21 talks about, “I tell you again even with tears- many lives as enemies of the cross of Christ.” How many of us really muster tears for the lost? Paul was willing to forfeit his own salvation if it meant his countrymen could trade places and inherit Heaven instead! (see Romans 9:1-5). So, even if we regard such people who do such horrible sins (as we regard them, forgetting of course that we are equally horrible in our sins and that God sees it all as equally horrible- He has no ranking scale on sin as to how bad it is- it’s all equally wrong and vile to Him.- see 1 John 5:17)- even if we do regard such people as enemies, remember that we are also commanded to love our enemies and pray for those who mistreat us. (Luke  6:27-49 and Matthew 5:43-48).
           We also have the example of Jesus Christ Himself in Luke 9:46-56. First, John tries to stop a dude because he was casting out demons in Jesus’ Name but he wasn’t one of the JC crew. And Jesus said, “Yo! That’s cool- don’t stop him. Anyone who’s not dogging and dissing you is actually digging you.” (Okay, I paraphrased a little there. ;-)) But wait- what about those people in the Samaritan village that didn’t welcome Jesus and apparently didn’t believe in Him? Hey- James and John were on it! They were asking Jesus if they could send fire down from Heaven and destroy them! And as some manuscripts put it, Jesus rebuked them. “And He said, ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ “ Amen. (See also John 3:16-17).
            So what does it all come down to in the end? Love. It’s all about Love. “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the Law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” (James 2:12-13- but just read the whole book. How can we have praise for God and cursing of our brothers coming out of the same mouth? It doesn’t work. The wisdom that comes from Heaven is peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. [James 3:17- seriously, read the whole book.])
           And don’t dare call a human being whom God has made in His image and loves with an everlasting love and died and rose for as anything less than that and don’t treat them any less- no matter what they’ve done. “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8) Shower the people with the love that God has given to us freely. And don’t assume that anyone (alive) is ever beyond the reach of God’s amazing grace! Love and forgive truly from the heart. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) As another favorite Christian Sunday School song goes, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” And as Jesus told us, if we love Him, we’ll obey Him. (John 14:23)

 “May The Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12)