“LOVE WITHOUT QUESTION”
In the parable known as The Good Samaritan Jesus paints a picture of what it means to love truly love without question. The Samaritan didn’t only see the need, but he chose to do something!
Luke 10:33-34
33 “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.
34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
The story compares the Samaritan’s actions to a Priest and a Levite, who chose to do nothing. It’s interesting that these two people were “religious” people who claimed to love God, yet they avoided the messy, hard situation.
How many of us do this in life? We love, help or serve when it’s easy, we are good people who love God but seem to go neutral when we are called upon to love without.
The danger for most of us is not that we’ll become bad people who don’t care about things that matter; the danger is that we’ll become good people who don’t do anything that matters!
Within us all is a person who desires to love. God’s Spirit is pulling and inviting us to become more of that person every day.
Someone once said “Honesty with our compassion is brutality” isn’t is amazing how Spirit never guilt’s, shames, or bullies us to become loving.
We all know many times in the bible Jesus commanded us to love one another.
John 13:34-35
34 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
2 Chapters later he says again…
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
In our world hatred and anger seem to be around every corner. We find those things in politics, racism, families, and even churches.
But Jesus said that the greatest command is to love God and love your neighbor—most of us can get with that, but he also calls us to love our enemies! What does that even mean; is that truly even possible?
In 1956 Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking at a rally when around 9pm a boy interrupted him and shouted that King’s house had been firebombed by the Klu Klux Klan. King ran out of the rally and found his house still on fire! The police and fire department were there, along with a large angry mob of citizens from Montgomery, Alabama there to support King. They surrounded the house with rifles, baseball bats, and other weapons ready to retaliate. The people were looking to get an eye for an eye!
King stepped onto the porch of his home and said these words, “I want you to love your enemies. Be good to them, love them, and let them know that you love them. We must meet hate with love. What we are doing is right, what we are doing is just, and God is with us. Go home with love in our hearts, with faith, and with God in front, we cannot lose.” As he spoke these words the angry mob, put down their guns and baseball bats and spontaneously broke into singing Amazing Grace. They sang, they cried, and they peacefully went back to their homes.
When we return hate with hate it will never end well, but when we turn the other cheek…even to our enemies…that’s when change is on the way! MLK brought change to the world by seeing things as Jesus saw them.
The kind of love Jesus calls us to is not always easy, but it is always right! Those who choose to love God, our neighbors, and our enemies with unwavering ove will be the ones who change the world!
How do we even start ~ Remember whatever you focus on the longest becomes the strongest so start with a new positive thought…
Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”
Psalm 19:14
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Let me close with this…
1 Corinthians 13:1-7
1 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.
Here’s where the challenge begins…
4 LOVE suffers long, and is kind; LOVE does not envy; LOVE does not parade itself, is not puffed up,
5 LOVE does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;
6 LOVE does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 LOVE bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
The scriptures on love go on and on and on and we can compare ourselves to the good Samaritan or even the priest or the Levite but the truth is the only one we should be comparing ourselves to is Jesus.
And focusing every day on we each can be more and more a reflection of His perfect example.