becoming love

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain of the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing for others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” -Matthew 5:43-47

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all I have, and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” -1 Corinthians 13:1-3

When we get to heaven one day, Jesus won’t be concerned with wherever or not we wore masks, if we supported Trump, or if we posted a black square on our instagram showing that we support black lives. 

But He will care how we treated others and how we spread love throughout the world during our short time on this planet. 

He’ll especially care about how we loved our “enemies.” What do you think of when you hear that word? Enemy. I know for me I immediately picture a war and my enemy is the group on the other side doing anything they can to kill my people. But do the majority of us face a situation like that? No, not unless you’re in the military. So is that really what Jesus meant when He said to love our enemies during the infamous Sermon on the Mount? Probably not. 

We all have enemies whether we think of them as that or not, and those enemies can change overtime and from person to person. We’ve given the term “enemy” a harsh and war-like connotation, but I don’t think He meant it that way. 

To Jesus, the enemy was Satan and the world. To first-generation Christians it was the Romans and tax collectors. To Jews it was the Gentiles, and much later on it was the Nazis. To conservatives it’s liberals. To Ohio State fans it’s Michigan fans. To pro-lifers it’s pro-choicers. To socialists it’s capitalists. To feminists it’s Biblical femininity. And to Christians a lot of the time it’s ourselves. 

Our enemies are not only people that are physically or spiritually at war with us, but also the people who don’t agree with us, don’t like us, or don’t live like us. 

Jesus was human. He knew how hard it would be for us to love those people because He faced that struggle too. He probably felt nervous and got that uncertain feeling in His gut of how to interact with people who were different than Him.  He was probably nervous to talk to the woman at the well because it was against social norms. He was probably a little freaked out to touch and heal the lepers, the blind, and people covered in boils and sores. But He did it anyway. He knew Judas was going to betray Him the next day, yet He still shared His last meal with him and even washed Judas' feet. 

If Jesus can love people even though it doesn't fit the cultural or societal norms, is gross and freaky, or requires loving the very person who will turn Him into the Romans to be crucified the next day, then we can love the people who don't agree with us, who don't live like us, or who don't like us. 

In Bob Goff’s book, Everybody, Always, he asked why we avoid the people who Jesus spent His whole life engaging. What he meant was, Jesus spent the majority of His ministry interacting with people who were different than Him and lived very different lives than His. Of course nobody lived a perfect life like Jesus did, but His main focus was the people who were very different. Prostitutes. Adulterers. Tax collectors. Government officials. Idol-worshipers. Blasphemors. These people were knowingly going against God’s commands, and were the very reason He was going to be crucified, yet He still loved them and pursued them. 

We avoid interacting with those people, but forget that we’re those people too. And how lucky we are that Jesus is nothing like us and hasn’t avoided our sinful and imperfect selves. 

The world pays a lot of attention to Christians, especially to how we treat the people who don’t agree with our beliefs. Sadly, a lot of the world labels us as a bunch of hypocrites. What’s even more sad is that they’re not wrong. We preach that we should all love our neighbors as ourselves, yet we only do it when it’s easy, comfortable, and comes naturally.  
We are called Christians because we are Christ followers. Following Christ means that we deny ourselves and our own desires to follow His desire for us to live lives that reflect Him. When people meet us, they should feel as though they just met Jesus because of how well we reflect Him, yet the majority of the time they feel as though they met someone who was no different than the rest of the world. 

Jesus draws us in because of His love and grace, not because of shame and judgement. So why are we so quick to judge people who live and sin differently than us rather than being quick to love them, give them grace, and accept them just as Jesus did for us?

The love of Jesus is what changes people and draws them to a life of following Him. We can’t do it on our own. The only way we can lead people to a better life is by reflecting the Goodness that that new life offers. 

Bob Goff said in the book I mentioned earlier, “Many of us have lost our way trying to help people find theirs. Arguments won’t change people. Simply giving away kindness won’t either. Only Jesus has the power to change people, and it will be harder for them to see Jesus if their view of Him is blocked by our big opinions.” 

We may disagree with a family member. We may not be able to get along with a coworker. Our friend may be making decisions that don’t reflect the Bible at all. But no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to change their mind, their opinions of us, or their actions without the help of Jesus and His transformative love. 

When we leave this earth one day we will be remembered by the people we interacted with for one of two things. It probably won’t be the job we had, the political view we held, or the things we posted on social media. We’ll be remembered for how we treated them. When they think of us they’ll either remember how judgmental we acted, or by how much we loved. And if they remember how loving we were, they may also remember the One who gave us that love in the first place.