Let Us Love One Another

As I said on Sunday, I was raised by parents who were born in the 1920s and 1930s and raised in the South. Meaning, that they grew up with Jim Crow laws and separate but equal. I served in a church not far from a town that proudly displayed a billboard recording the number of lynchings, and that was in the 1980s! I served near another town that was a “sundown” town, meaning non-whites had to be outside the city limits before sundown or face the consequences.

I know that I still have a lot of growth to be fully accepting of people who look or sound or act different than me. I also know that each one of them is beloved of God, and when I look at them, I look at the face of Christ in them. None of them can replace me, and I can’t replace any of them. We are each a child of God who knows our names and redeems us.

One day, I will stand with them in the kingdom of God and I do not want them to gaze at me with sadness and ask, “Why did you not love me? Why did you sling insults at me, dismiss me as less than you?” Jesus reminds us that what we do and say to one another, we do and say to him.

Last weekend in Charlottesville, VA, many claiming to be followers of Christ spewed words of hatred at people. Do you think Jesus wept at this?

John writes in his first letter, “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). I offer again these words about the power of love. They are inspired by Paul and his wonderful writings about love in 1 Corinthians 13:

If I have language ever so perfectly and speak like a pundit, but have not the knack of love that grips the heart, I am nothing.

If I have decorations and diplomas, and am proficient in up-to-date methods, but have not the touch of understanding love, I am nothing.

If I am able to worst my opponents in arguments so as to make fools of them, but have not the wooing note, I am nothing.

If I have all faith and great ideals and magnificent plans and wonderful visions, but have not the love that sweats and bleeds and weeps and prays and pleads, I am nothing. …

… If I can heal all manner of sickness and disease, but wound hearts and hurt feelings for want of love that is kind, I am nothing.

If I can write books and publish articles that set the world agog, but fail to transcribe the word of the Cross in the language of love, I am nothing.

—Indian medical student, cited by a variety of Internet sources.

As Paul writes, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Practice love, not hate. We do not hate those who shouted such vile things, but we do resist their message and proclaim that God’s love is for all and in all, including them.