The Greatest of These

"May the Lord cause you [and me] 

to increase and abound in love 

for one another, and for all people." 

1 Thessalonians 3:12

"Now faith, hope, love, abide these three;

but the greatest of these is love." 

1 Corinthians 13:13

I have not been able to get a catchy phrase out of my head for several days now. "They will know we are Christians by our love."  I absolutely cannot get that sentence to stop running over and over in my mind. And it was driving me nuts. Great quote, great advice. But literally, all-day-every-day for at least a week now, can't get it out of my head...

Thanks to that catchy phrase, I have been thinking much about the great and first fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love (Galatians 5:22). It's something with which everyone I know is familiar with, Christian or not. It's something that everyone I know both desires and needs, Christian or not. And it's something that I know I for one could do more of (loving, that is). I'm not talking about loving my family or my friends or my sweet golden retriever, Bacardi. I'm not talking about loving on the precious elderly man with Alzheimer's who lives across the street from me or about loving on an angelic child who I take care of in the hospital. These people are all easy for me to love and love on. When I say I could do more loving, I'm talking about loving those who are difficult to love.

We all have people in our lives who test our patience and can at times drive us batty. That's just life on this sinful planet. And I believe that the gracious Lord uses these people in our lives to remind us that we are not as great as we may think we are. At the end of the day, no matter how much or how well I love my family and my sweet neighbor and my cute patients, I still have very little patience for those people in my life who have a knack for getting under my skin. And if I really feel like examining my heart, I need to admit to myself that I also fail, almost on a minute-by-minute basis, to "love my neighbor as myself." When God commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, He means EVERYONE. We are to love every single person on this planet as we love ourselves. That means my dad and mom who I find easy to love; my patients who for the most part are easy to love if for no other reason than because they are ill and scared; the cashier at Walmart who tests my patience as she ever-so-slowly rings up my groceries while I glance at my watch and think about how late I'm going to be to X [insert whatever it is that I happen to think is more important at that point in time than showing Christ's love to this lady]; and even Osama Bin Laden, the man whom almost every American would consider to be his enemy. 

Much, if not all, of Jesus' preaching was considered radical by those who were privileged enough to hear Him in person, whether they believed He was the Son of God or not. His teachings are still radical to this day, thousands of years later. Take for instance what Jesus preaches about in Luke 6:32-35. 

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good

to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? 

Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom

you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? 

Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them 

without expecting to get anything back."

Jesus demands much from us! How radical it is to command us to love our friends AND our enemies! To love even those who persecute us and threaten our lives and kill our fellow Americans in brutal attacks - and not to love them only a little bit, but to love them as much as we love ourselves. What a commandment. And I struggle with it; I know that not only do I fail at fulfilling this command, but in my heart I know that there are times when I do not even want to try to fulfill it. And yet I cannot help but wonder how radically different our world might be if every Christian on earth resolved in his heart to strive to love not just when it's easy to love but also and especially when it's difficult to love. 

One of my sweet and godly friends made a good point the other day. Kim reminded me that at the end of the day, the fact is that Osama Bin Laden was deceived by the master deceiver. Satan was able to take captive Osama's heart and now that man is getting used to his new reality and eternity in hell. He believed in his heart that persecuting Americans was right and was what God required of him. That's what sin can do to a human heart; it can harden the heart beyond all repair. And "there but for the grace of God go I" rings so true. I am a human and a sinner, as was Osama Bin Laden. But the difference is that I know Jesus. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come," 2 Corinthians 5:17. As His disciple I am called to love radically, and with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in my heart I am actually able to love radically. John Piper wrote in a devotional I read a few days ago: "Oh to make a name for Christ by the radical difference of our love - for enemy and friend. To that end I pray in the words of Paul, 'May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people.'" I pray so as well!

William Borden was a Christian missionary in Egypt in the early 1900s. He was heir to the Borden, Inc. family fortune. He was just 24 years old when, after graduating from Yale University and Princeton Theological Seminary, he decided to renounce his inheritance in favor of missions. At the age of 25 he died from an overwhelming infection. His bible was given to his parents after his death, and in it they found that he'd written the words "no reserve, no retreat, no regrets." I once heard in a sermon that after his burial, his parents found an anonymous note lying on his grave. The note simply said, "Apart from Christ there is no excuse for such a life." 

I pray that someone someday might be able to say that same thing about me at my funeral. I pray that my heart would be inclined to love as Jesus loves. I pray that the Lord would use me to impact this world for eternity. I pray that I'd draw nearer to Jesus each day and so be transformed more into His image and better able to love those whom the rest of the world deems unlovable. I pray that my love for others would make a radical statement to a watching world and that even one would come to lifesaving faith in Christ, not because of my own doing but because He has worked in and through me. I pray that apart from Christ, my life would not make sense to the world. And as a result, I pray that God would be glorified and His kingdom grow as more and more come to know Him and find their names written in the book of life. I pray that they would know I am a Christian by my love. Amen.