I recently realized something. I say I love people, but in reality, I only love people who are easy to love. And it’s the people who aren’t easy to love that need to be loved the most. It is much more costly to love those who are unloved. It takes more work and it takes a pure heart. Thank goodness God didn’t think saving all of us was too much work. Not to say that it wasn’t a lot of work!
Jesus did not just die for the people who liked him, or for the people who he knew would accept him. He died for the people who were murdering him and for those who he knew would one day reject him. That type of love is powerful. It’s that type of love that changed the world. It is a type of love that does not make sense to our culture.
1 John 2:6 says that “whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” That is a lot easier said than done. I was recently reading a book called Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand. One of the most powerful books I have ever read and here is just a short excerpt. Sorry but this is going to be a long quote. “When one Christian was sentenced to death, he was allowed to see his wife before being executed. His last words to his wife were ‘You must know that I die loving those who kill me. They don’t know what they do and my last request of you is to love them, too. Don’t have bitterness in your heart because they killed your beloved one. We will meet again in heaven.’ These words impressed the officer of the secret police who attended the discussion between the two. He later told me the story in prison where he had been sent for becoming a Christian.”
Here is another quote from the book. “I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with 50 pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in whose throats spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept afterward without water, starving, whipped, suffering from cold-and praying with fervor for the Communists torturing them. This is humanly inexplicable! It is the love of Christ, which was poured out in our hearts.”
And here I am not even able to show love or forgiveness to someone who cuts me off on the highway or is rude to me at work. This really puts things in perspective.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also 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
I guess that in a way I’m challenging myself and anyone reading this to truly think about the way you love. It is not convenient to put others before yourself and to love unconditionally, but then again, dying on the cross for all of humanity probably wasn’t very convenient either.
