What’s love got to do with it?
Does the Church have love as its first priority or is it too fixated with sin?
If you had to sum up the central theme of the Christian faith and the message of the gospel in just one word, which word would you choose? ‘Peace’, maybe? It is certainly true that being a Christian gives one a tremendous sense of peace. Maybe you would choose ‘hope’ — again, Christianity does indeed offer a hope that cannot be equalled. But, for me, there is one word which I feel sums up Jesus’ message and the faith in my heart better than any other. That word is… ‘love’. Love is why Jesus came to Earth. Love is why he died on the cross. And, importantly, love is what he wants us to be full of and, in every way, radiating from our lives. Love towards God (Luke 10:27), love towards ourselves and towards others (Matthew 19:19). What could be simpler?
At this point I feel I should make an apology. I make it not just on my own behalf, but on behalf of Christians worldwide. It is an embarrassing shame of the church that, simple as it may seem, this command to love is constantly slipping and sliding, like wet soap, from our grasp. The abominable crimes throughout history, done under the name of ‘Christian love’ are too numerous, and too dreadful to mention. And still today, there exist firm strongholds of hatred in even the holiest of religious establishments.
As I understand it, the basic issue seems to be in the attitude of Christians towards sin. Or, more specifically, towards sinners. For some reason we seem to find the concept of accusation very attractive. How much easier it is to tell someone how sinful they are, and point out their sins, than it is to sympathise, listen and care. I am sure those so-called ‘street-evangelists’ who yell and bawl about how the world is going to hell really do think they are doing a helpful and admirable thing. I can’t help thinking though that that sort of approach hardly oozes with love.
Perhaps I might quote another example a little closer to home. The issue of homosexuality is a controversial one in any church, with many disagreements on the Bible’s comments in its morality. It is a topic frequently discussed, and continually debated. Most churches are agreed in their opinion that it is unnatural and sinful. Some go so far as to actively seek out and attack those who practise it. Others try to just ignore the issue entirely. Without wishing to voice any particular opinion of my own, I would just like to say, “Is that really the main issue?” I would like to refer to a passage from the bible which I feel illustrates this point.
It is the passage where the Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman caught in adultery (John 8:3–11). The point, of course, was to trap Jesus into agreeing that she should be stoned to death, or else refuse, breaking a Mosaic law that had stood for centuries (Deuteronomy 22:22). But the point I would like to concentrate on was Jesus’ attitude towards this woman. It was undeniable that she had sinned — the seventh commandment says “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). If ever anyone had the right to accuse and condemn a sinner it would have been Jesus, who had never sinned in his life. Yet, you probably know his response:
Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When [the Pharisees] kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your live of sin.”
John 8:6b-11
When Jesus was presented with an adulterous woman, he didn’t shout at her. He didn’t scream about how she was going to hell, or how ashamed she should be. When presented with a sinner, Jesus acted in love. My point, therefore, is that instead of concentrating on sin, how much more ‘Christian’ it would be to concentrate on loving the person in question, making them feel welcome and making them of the love God also has for them.
I will end with a quote from Ron Sider, Professor of Theology and Culture at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which I feel sums up my point well:
Think of the impact if the first thing radical feminists thought of when the conversation turned to evangelical men was that they had the best reputation for keeping their marriage cows and serving their wives in the costly fashion of Jesus at the cross. Think of the impact if the first thing the homosexual community thought of when someone mentioned evangelicals was that they were the people who livingly ran the AIDS shelters and tenderly cared for them down to the last gasp. A little consistent wholesome modelling and costly servanthood are worth millions of true words harshly spoken.