Loving The Wrong People?

Jesus was always loving the wrong people. It’s what set him apart from everyone else around him.

Jesus loved the lepers, and the lame. He loved the broken, and the brokenhearted.

Jesus loved those who were poor, despised, rejected and cast out.

He loved Samaritans, and Pagans. He loved prostitutes. He loved drunkards.

He loved people who loved to party, and he felt right at home in the midst of those who were called “sinners” by the religious elite.

Jesus loved all the wrong people, and he suffered abuse for it.

He was called “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”. [Matt. 11:19]

When they called him a “friend of sinners” it was not as a compliment, but as a rebuke.

He loved the unlovely. He even loved his enemies.

Simply put, Jesus loved people. He loved all sorts of people. But most of all, he loved the wrong people. He loved all of the people that we find it most difficult to love.

How many of us would be called the friend of a whore? How many of us would invite a homeless man into our home to share a meal? How many of us would take a meth addict who lives in his van out to dinner? How many of us would be willing to love the wrong people the way Jesus did?

Are we willing to love people who are living in sin? Can we love people outside our faith community? Are we open to loving someone with a different sexual orientation? Can we love those who disagree with us politically, doctrinally, morally?

The truth is, Jesus still loves all the wrong people. He loves them with an unending love and he wants you and I to love them, too.

Jesus loves all the people we hate. But we shouldn’t hate anyone.

As people who have been touched by his love, we need to be changed by his love into people who can love like he loves.

“Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” [1 John 2:6]

If Jesus loves all the wrong people, it’s time for us to love them, too.

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Controversial Love?

Muslims are beautiful people and dearly loved of God.

Homosexuals are beautiful people and dearly loved of God.

Everyone is a beautiful person, and dearly loved of God.

This is the Gospel. Apparently it is still a very controversial idea - even among those who call themselves "Christian" today.

I posted these statements online over the weekend on Twitter and Facebook. The response was a tidal wave of both agreement and also overwhelming disagreement.

Why is it do hard for Christians to accept the idea that God loves everyone? Isn't that foundational to the Gospel? If God did not love everyone He would not have sent His son. Jesus is proof: Everyone is beautiful and dearly loved of God.

One person asked "What about child rapists and sex traffickers. Are they beautiful people, too?"

A better question might be, "Is there anything about anyone that ISN'T always beautiful?" and the answer would be, "Yes, we all have something about us that isn't beautiful." 

But God still loves us and still finds us beautiful in that we are made in His image.

If you have a child and you look into the face of your child, you love them, even if they have done something horrible.

They will always be beautiful to you and you will always dearly love them.

We are made in His image. How can you not love your own son or daughter? They look like you, and  even when they do bad things your love for them never changes. 

We are all beautiful and dearly loved of God. Not just when we repent. He loves us while we are still sinners. 

He loves us even when we deny that His love is for those outside our circle. He loves us even when we say that only people like us are beautiful.

God sees what we are like inside, and He loves us still. He loves us so much that He would rather die than live without us.

This is the Gospel, my friends. It is controversial. But it's the Gospel of Jesus all the same.

So, if you can't say to a Muslim, "You are a beautiful person and dearly loved of God" then you can't possibly share the Gospel with a Muslim person.

If you can't say to a Homosexual person, "You are beautiful person and dearly loved of God", then you don't have any hope of loving them yourself or of showing them the love of God.

If you don't believe that every person is beautiful, because they are made in His image, then you don't know the Father's heart.

If you don't believe that every person is loved of God, then you don't know God because God is love.

Jesus is proof that everyone is beautiful and loved of God because "God so loved the world that He sent His only son.."

If we can't accept that God loves people who are not like us, then we don't know the fullness of His wonderful love.

This is nothing new. When Jesus proclaimed the "year of the Lord's favor" to the Jews in his hometown, they rejoiced. But when he suggested that this favor was intended to fall on the Gentiles and the Pagans around them, they turned on him and tried to kill him.

Let's not repeat that mistake, my brothers and sisters.

God's love is for everyone. Every person is made in His image and every person is dearly loved of God.

Receive it. Believe it. Embody it.

The world is dying for us to take this Gospel seriously.

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Love Conquers Hate

On October 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the West Nickel Mines School house holding a loaded gun. He proceeded to shoot ten girls, between the ages of 6 and 13 years old, and killed five of them.

Eventually he turned the gun on himself and took his own life.

While stories like this are all-too-common in our world today, the reaction of the community was anything but.

This shooting had taken place in the Amish country of Bart Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The families who lost their daughters were filled with grief over the loss of their children, but they were also filled with the love of Christ.

This is why, instead of responding out of their despair, they followed the Prince of Peace and found the faith to act out the loving example of Jesus.

Just one week after the shooting, the same families who lost their daughters in this senseless and selfish act visited Marie Roberts, the wife of the man who had pulled the trigger and taken his own life.

They boldly, and sincerely, offered their complete forgiveness to her. They invited her to attend the funeral services for their slain daughters. They shared all relief funds sent to them with Mrs. Roberts and her own children who had lost their father that same day. They even attended the funeral of Charles Roberts and offered their loving support to his widow and his children.

This is love. This is true forgiveness and Christian compassion.

We saw this same brand of radical love and forgiveness a few days ago in Charleston, when the families of those who had lost their loved ones to the senseless shooting came face to face with the killer and sincerely forgave him.

Where do we find that kind of love? Where does it come from? Are these people just being religious? Are they pretending to love the one who killed their father, or mother, or sister or brother?

Or is it possible that the sort of love that Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount is actually real?

Out of hate, love can conquer. Out of despair, hope can rise. Out of tragedy, forgiveness can overcome and transcend human emotion.

Jesus empowers those who follow Him and put His words into practice. He fills us with real life, and real love that most people can only dream about.

In times of great darkness and despair, this love shines like the sun and puts Jesus on display for everyone to see.

This is why we're called to love our enemies. This is why we are expected to overcome evil with good. Not so we can be door mats, but so that we can demonstrate to the world that the Gospel is real and that His love transforms us into people who can love in the face of tragedy and forgive even the greatest evils.

The message of the Gospel is subversive. It goes against the grain. It makes a real, dramatic, powerful difference at just the right time, and when no one could possibly even expect it.

This is what we are called to, as followers of Christ. We are called to love extravagantly and to forgive inexplicably, and to demonstrate to the world that Jesus is alive inside of us.

Let the Kingdom come.

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*Updated 6/23/15

The Family That Love Built

After the horrific church shooting in Charleston, many are calling for Christians to start carrying weapons to church. One GOP Presidential candidate, pastor Mike Huckabee even said, “It sounds crass, but frankly the best way to stop a bad person with a gun is to have a good person with a weapon that is equal or superior to the one that he’s using.”

While we can applaud Huckabee’s conscience for admitting how crass his statement sounds, we must also point out how decidedly anti-Christian it is, too.

Thankfully, we don’t have to look much further than the Christians who were the victims of this shooting for a better example of how an actual follower of Jesus responds to violence.

“No matter how much hate there is in the world, it's no match for love" Chis Singleton, son of slain Sharonda Singleton, said. “Love is always stronger than hate.”

And the daughter of Ethel Lance, addressing the killer directly in court, said, “I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her ever again. But I forgive you." 

She added: "You hurt me, you hurt a lot of people. May God forgive you." 

Anthony Thompson, husband of the slain Myra Thompson, echoed Lance's daughter's words. "I forgive you, my family forgives you," he said.

Felecia Sanders, the grandmother who shielded her 5-year-old granddaughter from the gunfire, but lost her son in process, told the killer that the parishioners "welcomed you Wednesday night at our Bible study with open arms."  

She continued, fighting tears: "You have killed some of the most beautiful people that I know… And it will never be the same. But as we said in Bible study, we enjoyed you. May God have mercy on you."

Alana Simmons, granddaughter of victim Daniel Simmons, said: "Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate…everyone's plea for your soul is proof that they lived and loved and their legacies will live on.”

"Hate won't win," she concluded firmly.

A relative added, "I am a work in progress and I acknowledge that I am very angry. But we are the family that love built. We have no room for hate so we have to forgive."

While Christians like Huckabee can only suggest bigger and more powerful weapons to solve problems like hate and violence, these dear followers of Jesus – the ones most directly injured by the murders – have demonstrated what the most powerful weapons against hate really are – Love and Forgiveness.

Now, imagine a world where Christians carry guns to church. Imagine a scenario like the one in Charleston where the killer enters and is shot to death by a minister of the Gospel of Jesus. What sort of message would that send? Certainly not one of mercy, and grace, and love. How would that bear witness to the power and the truth of the Gospel? Not at all.

The pastor who lost his life in Charleston can stand before His Lord and Savior in Eternity and hear the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” because the evidence of the Gospel he preached is now on display in the midst of this tragedy for the entire world to see.

This is why Christian nonviolence makes sense. This is why Jesus commanded His followers to overcome evil with love, not with more evil.

The killer wanted to start a civil war between the races. If Christians listen to people like Huckabee, the killer will get exactly what he wanted.

But if Christians listen to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, then the killer and everyone else will, instead, experience the uncommon, otherworldly, extravagant enemy love that only Jesus can teach us.

May the whole world take notice of what a real follower of Jesus looks like in America today. They are the loved ones of those who were gunned down by hate, but they are also the family that love built, and they have no room for hate, only for love.

Thank you for showing us what the love of Jesus looks like in the real world.

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NOTE: Quotes taken from this article in The Daily Mail and People.com

LOVE UNCONDITIONAL

It was one of those days which can only be described as a “perfect storm” of positive reinforcement.

One after another I received a continuous string of email messages from a variety of people who wanted to thank me for my writing, or to encourage me in my ministry, or to affirm something that I had done or said.

It was glorious.

As someone whose love language involves “Words of Affirmation”, it was like a tsunami of love coming to me in a series of warm, soothing waves.

Driving home that evening, I was glowing from the inside out. That’s when I started realizing how great it is to be loved.

Not only is it great to receive love from total strangers who appreciate my writing, it’s even more amazing to realize that I am even more loved by the Creator of this Universe, every single second of every single day.

“Thank you for loving me, “ I said. “Thank you God for your incredible, unending, unmerited love for me.”

That’s when I started to hear from the Holy Spirit. He questioned my mention of the “unmerited” aspect of His love for me.

What I began to experience next was both an endless wave of His Divine love for me, and a quiet whisper that I should never allow anything to distract me from an awareness of His incredible love for me. Not even the idea that I don’t deserve it.

What followed was sort of a little movie in my inner thoughts. I began to review the various verses in the Bible about God’s fantastic and extravagant love for His people.

I remembered the verse that says God sings over me and quiets me with His love.

I remembered the verse where God says that His thoughts about me are more numerous than all the grains of sand on the planet.

I remembered the verse where God says that He loved the entire world so much that He was willing to step down from Glory, become one of us, humble Himself like a servant, and lay down and die – all because He would rather die than live without us.

I remembered the verse where God’s love is described as transcending knowledge, and that if we could just grasp how wide, and high, and long, and deep His love for us really is that we could be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

And guess what I realized next? I realized that none of those verses about God’s phenomenal love for me ever – not even once – cautioned me to remember that I was a worthless scum who didn’t deserve that kind of love.

Not once.

Let that sink in for a moment.

God loves you. He wants you to know it. He wants you to bask in it. He wants you to enjoy it.  He wants you to trust in that love. He wants you to experience it. He wants you to meditate on it. He wants you to take a deep dive into the depths of His love and to let it saturate your being, infiltrate your soul, permeate your heart and transform your identity from the inside out.

Let go of the idea that you don’t deserve it. Let it disappear in your rearview mirror.

Concentrate on His ridonkulus, splendiferous, ginormous love for you.

And then, get ready for the best part of all which comes when your tiny soul can no longer contain the vast ocean of His love and it all comes gushing out of you like a massive tidal wave of unbelievably unlimited agape.

Yes, His love for you is better than you can imagine. It’s over the top, beyond the moon, as vast as the heavens, and totally, gloriously, fantastically eternal and overwhelming. But it’s not about you. It’s about Him, the God who is love incarnate, getting into you and everyone around you.

We are empty, dry sponges that are desperate for one thing – the unending love of our Maker.

Once you realize this you start to see how “caring for the poor” isn’t the point. But loving people who happen to have less than you is.

You realize that “turning the other cheek” isn’t the point. But loving the person in front of you who has hate in his eyes is.

You realize that “social justice” isn’t the point. But loving the community around you enough to get involved in their suffering is.

You realize that “non-violence” isn’t the point. But loving everyone – even your enemies who want to kill you – is.

Being loved is awesome. There’s nothing like it in the world. Once you know how completely you are loved by God, the next step is to make sure everyone else around you knows how much they are loved, too.

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PREEMPTIVE LOVE AND PROACTIVE AGAPE

A Force More Powerful

When I was nine years old my Father handed me something dangerous. “It’s uranium,” he said. “Just touching it will transform you, and if you know how to use it properly, it has the power to create an explosion so powerful it could be seen from space.”

This is a metaphor.

My Father in this scenario is my Heavenly Father. The uranium he gave me is “Agape” and it not only has the power to transform us due to prolonged contact, but it can also create an explosion of change that has the potential to transform every human life on this planet – if we know how to use it properly.

I’ve been captivated lately by this image of the Love of Christ as an awesome, unlimited power that has been handed down to us by the Creator of the Universe.

Much like handing a toddler a nuclear warhead capable of transforming the landscape in the blink of an eye, Jesus has entrusted every one of us with the greatest force in the universe ever imagined: Agape Love. A love which has the power - not to destroy a city - but to transform and renew all humanity from within.

If you have experienced the inexpressible power of this love, you know what I’m talking about. It disarms you. It changes you from within. It fills your heart with unspeakable joy, and impossible hope, and complete faith that the impossible is not only possible but extremely likely.

You and I – as disciples of Jesus – have been handed the most astounding force of change ever devised. We have been changed by it ourselves, and the more we are exposed to it, the more we are changed daily into new creatures with new minds, and new hearts.

This same force within us has the power to change the world. In fact, it is intended to do so. It was designed by the One who spoke the Universe into existence to do just that.

This love of Christ has the power to transform the hearts and renew the minds and restore the souls of every person we come into contact with today. No matter who they are: Atheists, Rapists, Murderers, Drug Addicts, Prostitutes, LGBTs, Muslims, Baptists, Democrats, Republicans, Nazis, ISIS, Terrorists, Lawyers, Professors, and on, and on.

Truthfully, there is no one who is immune to the power of this love. Some may resist it. They may deny it. They may run from it in fear. But the power of the love of Christ to soften the heart and renew the mind, and transform the soul, is irresistible.

We are living proof. The more we are exposed to this love, the more we are changed. The more we are changed, the more others around us experience that love, and the cycle continues.

If you wield a force as powerful as Agape Love, I have to ask what you would want with a gun, or a knife? Jesus has entrusted us with a weapon that is mighty beyond belief. It has the power to demolish strongholds and turn murderers into ministers, abusers into healers, terrorists into ambassadors of peace – even persecutors into Apostles of Christ.

That same Apostle told us that the love of Christ was powerful beyond our imaginations. He prayed that we would have the “power to grasp how high, and wide, and long, and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge  - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:18-19)

So, take hold of that volatile, dangerous power today. Immerse yourself in it. Let it permeate your being.

Let it transform you into a living beacon of His audacious, awesome, astounding love.

Detonate this power indiscriminately wherever you go. Let it flow through your mouth, your hands, your heart, your mind. Let it spill over the lonely, the broken, the outcast, and the hopeless around you.

Let this love change you, and then let it transform the world around you.

"Love’em all. Let God sort’em out."

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FURTHER READING:
"Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well." (1 Thess. 2:8)

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor. 5:17)

"He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Rev. 21:5)

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:13)

Learning How To Love Extravagantly

I can remember when my oldest son Dylan was in first grade. He came home one day and told us about a boy in his class who was choking him and kicking him at recess.

At first, I was enraged. I could only think of how to get that kid kicked out of school, or how to talk to the school principle about protecting my son. I even considered putting my son in a karate class.

Instead, my wife and I sat down with my son before bedtime each night and prayed for this boy together. We talked about what this boy must be going through at home. We prayed for his parents, and for his brothers and sisters. We asked Jesus to change this boy's heart. We also talked to Dylan about how he should try to avoid being alone at recess. We encouraged him to go to his teachers if he saw this boy coming after him again, and we explained to him that Jesus wants us to love those who mistreat us.

This process of praying for the bully at school took several weeks. Eventually, my son had a birthday party. He invited every kid in his class, including this boy who had bullied him.

During the party, this boy was included in every game. He was treated as one of my son's friends. My son, and our family, gave him the clear message - We don't hate you. We really love you.

I think this party was the tipping point, because, after this, the boy no longer bullied Dylan at recess. He didn't treat anyone else this way either. The love my son had shown him really did transform him. It touched his heart and changed his behavior.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." - Luke 6:32

Jesus takes the time to contrast the love the world has with the love that God demonstrates. In comparison, the love of the world is nothing special. The most evil among us can return love to those who are loving them. Big deal. I'm sure we could find a serial killer who loves his Mom and a rapist who loves his best friend. Even a racist loves someone. So what?

As followers of Jesus, we are called to demonstrate the amazing, unprecedented, unexpected, over-the-top kind of love that Jesus has lavished upon us. Why? For two reasons. First, so that even the most evil people can experience the undeserved kindness and mercy of God. Secondly, to teach you and I how to die to ourselves and to become more like Jesus every day.

See, the command that Jesus gives us to love our enemies is intended not only to change the hearts of sinners, but to change you and I as well.

We cannot love this way on our own. We just can't. The only way we can follow Jesus and obey his command to love those who are trying to harm us is if we take up our cross daily, die to ourselves, and throw ourselves completely at His feet and beg to be filled with His love for them. It just won't work any other way.

In the book, "The Grace of Giving", author Stephen Olford tells the story of a Baptist pastor during the American Revolution named Peter Miller. Miller lived in a small town called Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and one of his dearest friends was a guy named George Washington. (Maybe you've heard of him?)

In the town of Ephrata their also lived a spiteful troublemaker named Michael Wittman, who did all he could to oppose and humiliate Mr. Miller.

One day Michael Wittman was arrested for treason and sentenced to death. When he heard the news Peter Miller set out Philadelphia to plead for the life of his enemy.

After walking seventy miles - on foot - Miller petitioned his friend, General Washington, to spare Wittman's life.

“No, Peter,” General Washington said. “I cannot grant you the life of your friend.”

“My friend?” exclaimed the old preacher. “He's not my friend. In fact, he is the bitterest enemy I have.”

“What?” cried Washington. “You’ve walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in different light. I’ll grant your pardon.”

And he did.

That day, Peter Miller and Michael Wittman walked back home to Ephrata together. When they arrived home, they were no longer enemies. They were friends.

As amazing as that story is, the bottom line is that Peter Miller had a different perspective when it came to difficult people, trials and persecution. He saw those things - not as battles to win, but as opportunities to love like Jesus loves.

You and I are expected to do the same.

"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." - 1 Peter 3:9

As followers of Jesus, you and I are living examples of the redemptive, transformative power of undeserved kindness and love.

I pray that we can see difficult people and uncomfortable circumstances in a new light. I pray that in the worst of situations, you and I might crucify our flesh and bury our pride. I pray that when others insult us and mock us, we (the followers of Jesus), might be filled with the Spirit of the Living God and demonstrate to those who hate us most that the love of Jesus is truly powerful enough to change hearts and lives.

I pray this for myself most of all.

Peace,
Keith