I heard a story not too long ago from a Christian man who had traveled to a part of the world where there is a lot of sin – the kind of sin that even non-Christians would say was wrong. This man was riding on a bus when an elderly gentleman sat down beside him. The gentleman began to describe how he was going to hurt people by sinning and how he was going to take that sin back to his home country. The Christian was boiling over with anger and rage. How could this gentleman be so insensitive, so completely sinful? How could he do these horrible things? But God spoke to the Christian: “If you can’t love the people who perpetuate sin as well as the people who are victims of sin, then you might as well go home.”
It struck me as a very interesting interaction. After all, we know that God hates sin. The Old Testament is full of things that happen to wicked people; how God will bring them to a bitter end. Wouldn’t God want us to reject the people who are causing so much pain and heartache and acting in such ungodly ways?
But then I took a step back and realized that what God said to this Christian man was true. When Jesus hung on the cross, He didn’t say, “Father, forgive all of the good people who will follow You who don’t know what they’re doing right now.” Instead He said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” There was no division between the good people and the bad people, the sinners and the people who believed in Him.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world…” There’s no distinction between the people who walk in darkness and the people who walk in the light. Somehow, in all of His perfection and holiness, God loves the people who we like and the people who perpetuate sin and break God’s heart. Somehow, God loves the unlovable.
Which brings me to today’s point: Somehow, we have to be willing to love the unlovable people around us. There can’t be a compromise to love their sin; there’s a lot about that in the Bible, too. But somehow we have to be willing to love and not hate the people we don’t agree with. The people who make our lives difficult. The people who perpetuate sin and pain and heartache.
The good news is that we can’t do it in our own strength. As a dear sister told me once, “Most people can’t see injustice and be unaffected by it.” What she meant was that most people (Christians and non-Christians) know that there is sin out there and when they see the pain it brings, almost all of them want to eradicate it somehow. It’s beyond superhuman to love people who are unjust, people who treat others badly, people who help others sin.
That’s why we need God loving through us. We can try to love, and we’ll probably be nice people. But without God’s love, we can’t possibly love to the fullest extent of who we are. With God’s love, we are empowered to love: To love those we like and appreciate with fullness and to love the ones who are unlovable.
“For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” (2 Corinthians 2:15)
