Let me put it out there – I love God. That said, I recently had a conversation with a colleague about what loving God means, and then the very next day, I saw a meme that echoed something he said. The meme said, “Nobody forced me to follow Jesus – I fell in love!” Which prompted me to ask myself, “What does that exactly mean?” We say we love people and things fairly often, and the indiscriminate use of that word has always made me curious. What does it mean to love something or someone? I love my country, but not in the same way I love God. I love my children in one way and my wife in another; I love some of my family members but not others. I love the church and the people I have served as pastor, but in varied ways. Jesus said we must love one another, but He never told us we had to like everyone. I love some people who are hard to like; I like some people I don’t love. At least, not yet. It’s complicated.
Whether I sing older hymns or 21st-century praise songs, this topic comes up a lot. Some of those songs could be love songs about a person if we exchanged Jesus for, say, Joe or Mary. I love God – and I include Jesus there – as my Creator, my Redeemer, my Sustainer. I love God, in part, because God loves me. I love God because God has given me many chances to live a better life. But if God appeared to me and told me, like God told Abraham, to leave everything and go to wherever, would I do it? I doubt it (not that I think God would do that). If my wife asked me to do that, I would. And I have, as she has. Our love is different from our love of God. But they are both very real.
I think there are different kinds of love; I fell in love with my wife, but I have always loved God. I didn’t fall in love with Jesus, I just thought He was pretty cool and caring and a great model of how to try to live. More like Bro-love. This might sound silly, but I think it is important to understand what that love means. I have devoted my life to trying to convince people to love God and other people; sometimes, people they don’t know! Can you truly love a stranger like you love your family? I can’t. I can still love them as a creation of God made in God’s image, just like I have been made in God’s image. I can love strangers enough to want them to not lose their homes and not go hungry. I can love them enough to not want them to be victims of war.
That might be the truth about the story of the Samaritan who helped a stranger. He never proclaimed his love for this poor, unfortunate victim of violence – he just did what was needed to help him. He probably loved the humanity they shared; he probably did for him what he hoped others would do for him. Jesus was really clear about this; we don’t have to help and care about people because they are just like us. We have to do these things because we are related, in some way, as part of the family of God. Love isn’t always easy, but it is necessary. And it makes caring about others a whole lot easier. Because we are all each other’s neighbors, and we all deserve to be loved.
Prayer – Holy God, we proclaim our love for You and each other; help us act out of that love to the best of our abilities. Amen.
Today’s art is “Love the Lord Your God” by Mark Lawrence.