“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35
Love is such a big part of what Jesus talks about. Over and over he mentions how important it is to love our Heavenly Father and to love the people around us. Reason being, our God IS love. He is the definition of unconditional affection. He loved us so much that he sent his only son to die for us. As followers of Christ we have received the Holy Spirit so that we can share that love with the world.
It breaks my heart seeing so much division in the Church today, especially in the United States. We have let doctrine, opinions, gossip, and frankly the devil break us apart. I don’t want to generalize, but a lot of churches have let the world into the body of Christ. The saddest thing that I see is a lack of love among believers.This lack of love translates to a lack of effectiveness at carrying out our mission of taking the Good News into the nations.
Living alongside 50 other believers for the last month has given me a unique perspective on this entire situation. Q Squad is full of different backgrounds and denominations. There have been times where my theology hasn’t quite lined up with someone else’s theology. Living with that many people for an extended period of time can be challenging, and we don’t always agree with each other. The difference that I have seen in this group that is contrary to what I’ve seen from some churches in the past is that we choose love. Despite the disagreement we choose to accept each other. Jesus didn’t say that others will see that we are his disciples by our denomination, or by our doctrine, but by the love we show for each other.
The love within the church should look different than the love in the world. When we get to heaven, there isn’t going to be a section for Baptist and a different section for Methodist. We will be united, and will worship together for eternity. So why do we fight so hard to seperate the body of Christ here on earth? I’m not saying that we should compromise what we believe to be true, but I am saying that we should show unconditional love and grace to those who believe something else. Why would a nonbeliever want to join a congregation of people whose love is conditional? A conditional love is no different than what we see around us every single day. It’s not attractive and it doesn’t draw curiosity because it’s very common. It is when, out of the overflow of our hearts, we show unconditional love to the people around us that people are drawn to us. They are drawn because that kind of love doesn’t come from us, but it comes from our Heavenly Father.
There are two words that continue to resurface during my quiet time: “no distinction.” There is no person on this planet that God loves any more or any less than the next. No matter the background, race, sexual orientation, financial status, intelligence, or struggles of a person, God’s love remains the same. There is nothing we can do, bad or good, to change the way that God looks at us. With that being said, why do we as imperfect humans make distinctions and disqualify others from that love? You might say, “well that person just doesn’t deserve it.” and you would be right in that. The only thing is that you don’t deserve that love either. In Romans 6 it says that because of our sin, we deserve death, but it is through the free gift of God that we can be offered eternal life through Jesus Christ. The gift is free, and it is offered to everyone equally despite our sin. So who are we to deny someone of a free gift?
I want to throw out an extreme situation at you, and it’s one that I struggled to comprehend at first. Most of you know the name Ted Bundy. He was a serial killer who murdered many women and was executed for what he did. What many people don’t know is that he claimed to receive Christ before his execution. Some of you would say that Ted Bundy deserved to rot in hell, and I was in that same boat for a long time. I have a hard time forgiving someone who had committed such heinous crimes. It’s not fair that Bundy spent his life doing the things he did just to receive the grace of God right before his execution.
I was pointed to the story of the thief on the cross (Luke 23). This man had lived his whole life in sin, just to ask for forgiveness while being executed by the Romans. Jesus answered and told this thief that he would see him in paradise that day. The forgiveness that Jesus offers isn’t fair, but thank God it isn’t. It wasn’t fair that God came down to earth in flesh and made himself a sacrifice for our sins. All we have to offer is our sin, and in turn he offers us relationship with him, an indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life with him forever. I think the scales are tipped a bit on this one.
There is NO DISTINCTION (Romans 3:22, Romans 10:12-13) with God’s love, and there should be no distinction with our love for others.
