If you think about this, it is not just humanly
sensible but Gospel holiness. Humans have gone to a lot of trouble over all of
history to “demonize” and “de-humanize” enemies so there is a good excuse to
fight against them. If we take this short truth to heart, we realize that God
loves us all.
Now that really sounds like a bland
platitude, doesn’t it? We hear that God loves us quite often and many of us
(myself included) either wave at it or dismiss it. We might ask “How could God
love them?” and maybe we might ask “How
could God love ME?” More platitudes
and slogans might answer those questions… and they’d hardly be any help at all.
We might always have counter-arguments ready and a bowlful of tears to shed
because we can’t believe it.
There is one argument that is harder to
refute. Every last one of us has heard that answer and it’s become a
slogan/platitude/pat answer all its own. To stop and take a good hard look at
it is well worth the time and trouble. Here it is:
For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him. (John 3: 16-17)
God “loved” and “gave his only Son.” The Son was not sent to
accuse, judge, or condemn. The Son was sent “in order that the world might be
saved through him.” This tells us that everyone is included in the love of God,
not just some, not just the “worthy”, not just those who are proper. John the
Evangelist used the Greek word for “world” which meant the real, fleshy, messy,
and often sinful world. It is not a world that exists in a philosophical mind
or an imagination, but the real world as it is. Despite our misgivings, God was
never one to worry about getting God’s hands dirty!
So then each and every person we talk to or
see or walk by is someone loved by God. There are no exceptions! Maybe this
will change our perspective on what we do and who we see.
I hope to God it does
mine.
30 June 2020
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