God Won’t Throw You Away
We spend weeks on end preparing for the arrival of holidays. Christmas merchandise graces store shelves well before Thanksgiving dinner tables are set. Before we are accustomed to writing the new year on documents, Valentine cards and chocolates appear just days after the New Year ball drops. As Easter approaches, we spend forty days fasting and praying leading up to Resurrection Sunday only to move on quicker than we can celebrate the empty tomb. Then we are swiftly onto the next one, discarding holiday hype and meaning.
We have become a culture that does the same with one another. We are quick to throw away our love for people. But is that really love? Today, if individuals do not measure up to our standards, we react hastily with condemnation. When others don’t respond the way we wish, if things don’t go our way, if confronted with the truth and unwilling to receive it, we are likely to take offense, dismissing and canceling people from our lives. Cancel culture has become a real thing. Just scroll social media feeds. They are riddled with mantras about unforgiveness and the termination of relationships. We have become the cowardly-courageous keyboard stroke woke folk who haven’t the faintest clue about love. And it’s revealing of our walk with God.
In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” While cleaning out my late parents’ attic, I was surprised by some of my discoveries. I unearthed letters sent to my parents along with their recorded responses, spanning decades. No matter the contents of the letters, their reply was always the same, countering with grace, mercy and extending a love that covers and bears all. There were some letters in which their flesh would have been justified by reacting to the contrary, but time and again, they responded with love. My parents lived out their faith. By no stretch were they perfect. In fact, Dad readily boasted of his imperfections citing, “Now, I’m not perfect; none of us is.” I believe it’s this awareness that keeps one humble and rooted, extending grace and mercy, recognizing because God grants it freely to us, then so too must we eagerly give (it) to others. And that is precisely what I witnessed my parents often doing.
As with our preparation for holidays, we invest months, even years, with family and friends developing our relationships. But sometimes at the first sight of friction, we are ready to throw in the towel, leaving the relationship behind as cavalierly as we discard the reasons why we celebrate our holidays. Have you slandered someone’s name because you didn’t get your way? Have you confronted someone about their offensive actions, only to have them stop speaking to you? Perhaps you ridiculed and canceled a celebrity for a mistake they made? If we are honest, we have all been the recipients of and the contributors to such harmful assaults. And the further our distance from Christ, the more evident it is by our actions.
Leading by example, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34b), Jesus is the measuring stick. Knowing his ascension back to The Father is drawing near (John 13:33), Jesus gives his disciples this new directive during his final teaching. The command to love is not new. The Old Testament law is essentially summarized by two commandments: to love God with all your heart (Deuteronomy 6:5) and to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). But here, Jesus emphasizes a new standard by which we are to love others: Himself! He raises the bar significantly from loving others as we love ourselves to loving them as he loves us. Therefore, to follow this order, we need to understand how Jesus loves.
Jesus loved us enough to die for us. That’s radical. And his death on The Cross proved it. Jesus, being both fully God and fully man, died a most humiliating, agonizing, and shameful death to atone for the sins of humanity. He literally exchanged his perfect life for the sinful life of yours and mine on The Cross. He took upon himself all the punishment and wrath from God that we rightly deserve for our sins, sacrificing his life to place us in a right relationship with God the Father. He didn’t want to do it (Luke 22:42) but he did it. His love was not predicated on his feelings, but rather his submission and obedience to God the Father. He did it because God told him to. And a heart that loves God desires to please him.
Jesus sealed the deal with his blood on The Cross, once and for all, so we need not replicate his death. But when remembering it, we should see our sins that nailed him there. All the lies, gossip, fornication, adultery, addiction, slander, abuse, betrayal, murder, pride, self-righteousness, and more. All of it. Even still, God did not throw us away, only our sins.
Breaking Down Love
Love is a choice. Pastor Tony Evans spells it out: “Biblical love is the decision to compassionately, responsibly, and righteously pursue the well-being of another person.” Whether we like someone or not is irrelevant when love is at work. As a friend often says, feelings are fickle. We can like you today and discard you tomorrow. A love predicated on feelings isn’t Christ-love.
Love is costly. Love does not allow for inaction in the midst of need. Love requires action, and action comes at a cost. Love cost Jesus his life. What are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of someone in need? Are we willing to surrender our pride to repair the damage we have caused another? Are we willing to be uncomfortable for the well-being of others?
Love categorizes. Loving others as Christ loves us is our mark to the world that we are his followers. Our titles, careers, education, race, affluence, influence, how well we quote scripture, or even the length of our relationship with God will not be the indicator that we are his disciples. Have you ever heard someone proclaim to be a Christian because they have been saved for decades, yet slander the name of others, gossip, and turn away from someone in need? Most of us have and it has caused us to question that very relationship they profess to operate in the name of. Don’t be misled. Jesus is clear: it is by our Christ-love for others that sets us apart as his followers. Nothing more, nothing less.
How many times have we disappointed, fallen short, and missed the mark? Immeasurable. Yet, God still loves us. He doesn’t curse us out. He isn’t rude. He doesn’t dismiss us, hang up on us. He doesn’t throw us away. Instead, he demonstrates through his actions his love for us. Our value does not diminish in his sight. God’s cancel culture consisted of Jesus Christ hanging on The Cross at Calvary with your sins and mine nailed to Him, canceling every debt we could never pay. So, the next time we feel the urge to throw someone away, let us remember how God’s love made way for the canceling of our sins and not our souls. Let us do the same with one another.
