Love Won A Long Time Ago

I saw a comment on a friend’s Facebook feed last week that made me wince. I intended to simply “walk on by,” as I tend to think that trying to have any sort of meaningful discussion on Facebook (or online anywhere, to be honest) is a lot like trying to teach a pig to sing. The inherent anonymity we feel behind a computer monitor (or phone screen) seems to embolden us to take the gloves off and start swinging our words around with a vigor and venom that we would never apply if we were in our living rooms or at a coffee shop. But, in light of recent events, the comment has been on my mind as one that, as a body of believers, we need to prayerfully evaluate. The comment was this: The only commandment Jesus gave His followers was to love.

At first blush, it sounds good. I mean, love – it’s warm and fuzzy and everyone gets along. Let’s light up a campfire and sing Kum By Yah. But…it’s simply not true. I suspect the idea that all we need is love comes from Matthew 22:34-40, when a Pharisee who was also a lawyer, trying to trick Jesus asked what was the greatest commandment. And Jesus replied (v37), “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” He followed it up in v 39 with, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

We look at that, and it’s very simple to try and extrapolate it to mean that loving others means letting them do what they want to do and I’ll do what I want to do and we’ll all just get along. But is that really how you love yourself? And can you love yourself (or your neighbor) outside of the first context of loving the Lord your God?

Let’s step back and think about what it really means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. If you’ve been in church for very much time, you’ve likely had a pastor break down the words for love used in the Bible. In this case, loving the Lord our God isn’t eros (sexual love), it’s not phileo (brotherly love), it’s not storge (parental love) — it’s agape. Agape love – self-sacrificing, action-based love. The kind of love that had God sending His Son, Jesus, to die for us. The kind of love Christ asked of Peter when He told him to “feed My sheep.” To love God with our whole being (our hearts, minds, and soul – really, that’s all of us, isn’t it? There’s nothing excepted here.) is an action of self-sacrifice wherein we do what God desires of us rather than what comes naturally, feels good, or seems right at the time.

Now, with that context – how do we love ourselves? If our focus is to “be holy, even as I (Jesus) am holy” – then our self-love spurs us to be, as Paul says in Romans 12:2 “transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.” So, in loving ourselves, we root out the sinful desires of our human nature and we seek to replace them with the Holy Spirit. Self-love is not tolerant of blatant and willful sin (just as parental love isn’t tolerant of letting kids do whatever they want — our parental discipline is rooted in love. And our love for ourselves is rooted in that same discipline.)

And so…if we love our neighbors as ourselves…what then does that mean? Are we to turn a blind eye to their sin? Are we to step aside and say, “Hey, it works for them, so even though I know it’s expressly forbidden by the Holy and inerrant word of God, I’m not going to say anything because that would be unloving.”? I would say it’s the opposite. If we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we should not be afraid to call sin by its name and encourage them to come and join us as the foot of the cross.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16

That, my friends, is the day love won.