Loving The Unlovely

When we read the Bible hopefully we understand the central theme is love. The New Testament especially, is a continuous story of love and what it should look like. We live in a society that encourages and allows love to be conditional and limited by how much we want to give. Christ’s love though is shown repeatedly to be unconditional and offered to all. I truly cannot understand how or why God loves us, but He does and loves unconditionally. He also tells us we need to go beyond our natural way of loving and love our enemies. That’s a tough one, isn’t it?

I think of Jesus on the cross in Luke 23:34 when they were crucifying Him. His words were, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Here is a man, the Son of God being crucified, and He says this. Imagine if we all took the attitude of love and forgiveness to each person who hurts us. It’s easy to love others when they are being good and fair to us. How about though when people just are plain ole mean, and the people we just don’t like? Showing God’s love to them takes us beyond our level of comfort and to a place we do not want to go.

Matthew 5:43-47 tells us, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

While Jesus was on this earth, He was completely full of love and demonstrated it to everyone, even the unlovely. The scriptures always teach us to walk in the ways of the Lord and His will. We can have all kinds of great things about us, but if we do not have love, we truly have nothing. If we also only love the lovely, we still have nothing. Christ himself is love and since we are His children, we need to radiate that love to everyone.

It’s easy to say negative words about people especially if they have wronged us and it’s even harder to love them. I think of the popular bracelets that read wwjd? What Would Jesus Do? Would Jesus snap back, gossip, seek revenge or just be rude? We need to look at how we treat others, even our enemies. Christ hung on a cross for us and He said, “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Look at it this way. Do those people who are wronging us really know Christ how they should? If they did, most likely they would not be acting in hurtful ways. We, however, who claim to really know and serve the Lord are the ones who need to act in love and not in the world’s way of love.

Perhaps even showing God’s love might just mean keeping your words to yourself if they are going to cause hurt to others. I am not suggesting that everyone who nerves you becomes your new best friend. However, I am saying pray for them as the verses instruct us, and then you will see the change in your heart and them hopefully eventually.

Loving our enemy is not an easy or comfortable thing to do, but God does require it from us. He is not asking us to do anything He, Himself, didn’t do. There will always be at least one person in our life who will upset us, but we’re commanded to respond to them by God’s standard of love rather than our own. Remembering that He died for them as much as He died for us, and equally has a plan for them.

Remember they will notice your actions towards them knowing they wronged you and yet you responded differently than perhaps what was expected. That’s when Christ and His love are seen, and who knows, because of that you may just have the opportunity to share Jesus with them.

What About You?

1. Who is the person or people making it hard for you to remember to pray for them?

2. God does not require us to be best friends with everyone but He does require us to walk in kindness and respect with all people. There is nothing wrong with having boundaries with people but we need to pray for them as well. Will you?