Love Those Who . . .

I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing if I do not have love. 1 Corinthians 13:3.

What is love? Is it a feeling, an emotion, a desire, or a commandment? Now, there are different kinds of love, and you can put a different kind of love to each of the words above. But what kind of love is the Apostle Paul writing about? I don’t think it is the romantic type of love that I have for my wife, and I don’t think it is the fatherly type of love I have for my son. I don’t think and I hope it isn’t the type of love I have for barbecue. So what kind of love is it? The Greek word Paul uses is agape. Agape love is not just unconditional love, but is primarily a love of will, not the emotions. Love with emotions can fade over time, but love out of will doesn’t fade. God’s will to love us will never fade; it is His nature to love us that way. We are called to love in the same way. I see two major areas where we as Christians fail to give agape love. The first is in the political arena. To clarify something, I said we as Christians, and we includes me. I am not excluding myself from this at all, as I am guilty of doing these things as well. How many times have you seen a Christian bad-mouth a politician about his policies? I know I have seen it quite often, and I have done a fair share myself. I have heard many liberal Christians slam Bush and McCain the last 8 years, and I have heard many conservative Christians slam Obama over the past couple years. So why do we do that? What gives us the right to slander others? Now, God definitely wants us to be involved in politics and stand up for truth and morality. We should use our voice of freedom to support legislation and policies that please God. If God’s people sit back and say nothing, then those who are using their voice will get done what they want to see happen. However, the way in which we use that voice should also reflect the love that God has for ALL people, including those who disagree with us in the political arena. That’s where the line between standing up for truth and slandering others gets crossed. What message am I sending to unbelievers through the way I talk about the politician I don’t support? Christians love everyone as long as they think like them and act like them? Here’s an example: Most of you know that I am somewhat of a gun fanatic, which may be putting it mildly. The current administration doesn’t exactly agree with me on gun legislation. One thing I have to remind myself of is that even though I don’t support much or any of the gun legislation that is supported by the administration, God loves each and every one of those politicians. How am I conveying that message by the way I speak about them? I don’t want to get all philosophical on you and say, “What Would Jesus Do?” But, what would He want us to do? Do you know that slander is the same as the ninth commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor?” How often do we bear false witness against a politician? How often do we do it to our actual neighbor? I am guilty of that quite often. What would the world be like if God didn’t have agape love for us? How would it be if His love was based on his emotions? How long would have people existed? I am pretty sure that once the forbidden fruit was eaten in the garden, the earth would have opened up and swallowed Adam and Eve. So how about we think about what we are going to say about someone before the evil malicious words come out of our mouths. Let’s think using agape love, love that is not based off of our emotions, but based of off who we are as a new creation in Christ Jesus our Lord.