Category: love for neighbor

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Love at First Sight

A scholar wrote a treatise on the theme of love. He was an unmarried man who’d had little personal experience with the opposite sex. In his research he consulted numerous books and articles by famous writers. His research spanned many months.

When he was finally ready to submit his writings to a publisher, he made arrangements with a secretary to type the manuscript. When he walked into her office something unexpected happened. Their eyes met. Their pulses quickened. A strange feeling swept over both of them. It was love at first sight!

The subject of his research was no longer an abstract theory. It had become a matter of personal experience. In this way he learned and understood more about his topic in a few seconds than he had gleaned through months of tedious research. For love to be fully appreciated, it must be experienced.

That is why 1 Corinthians 13 is in the Bible. It is the greatest treatise ever written on the subject of love. The eminent scholar Philip Schaff wrote in the margin of his Greek New Testament at 1 Corinthians 13: “This is a psalm of love. It is the Song of Songs of the New Testament. This is the height of the epistle. Love is the solution to all difficulties, the cure of all ills in the Corinthian church. If Paul had written nothing else, he would still be one of the world’s greatest writers and benefactors.”

In the original language of the New Testament, the word for “love” used there is a word that was used almost exclusively by early Christian writers. Many Bible students believe that the word was invented by Christians to denote the God-like love which can only be produced by the Holy Spirit.

This Greek word, agape, as used in 1 Corinthians 13, is not a natural love. It is the result, in the life of a believer, of a Christ-filled life. According to 1 Corinthians 13, love is greater than spiritual gifts, greater than oratory, greater than prophecy, greater than knowledge, greater than faith, greater than philanthropy, and greater even than martyrdom! It is, Paul wrote, “the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).

Amy Carmichael was a Christian missionary in India who dedicated her life to rescuing children and ministering to women. She wrote many books of devotion that were deeply spiritual. She wrote a little book that is both convicting and powerfully motivating. It is titled “IF.” Here are a few excerpts.

“IF I have not compassion on my fellow servant even as my Lord had pity on me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak points in contrast, perhaps with what I think of as my strong points; if I adopt a superior attitude . . . then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I can easily discuss the shortcomings and the sins of any; if I can speak in a casual way even of a child’s misdoings, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I do not feel far more for the grieved Savior, than for my worried self when troublesome things occur, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

This is the difference between theory and experience. This is Christian love at first sight.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Something We Would Rather Forget

I write to remind you of something you would rather forget. One year ago this week (August 3, 2019) a young man drove over 600 miles from the Dallas area to El Paso, Texas, with murder in his heart. He had written a 2300 word diatribe, posted online, repeating racist slander against Hispanic people whom he claimed were “invading” America.

His white-supremacist rant repeated ultra-nationalist ideas which have been a rhetorical staple of bloggers and some pretty famous politicians. The language used by these writers and speakers referred to our neighbors to the south as animals, thugs, and rapists. He embraced this hate-filled demagoguery and acted on it.

We remember how he entered a Walmart store in El Paso with an AK-47 rifle, intent on killing as many people of Hispanic descent as he could. He shot and killed 23 human beings that day. Racial hatred led to mass murder.

This incident raises questions we’d rather not think about. Has bigotry become public policy? Does U.S. immigration policy dehumanize immigrants, refugees and brown-skinned people?  Is it only a matter of degree, from dehumanization, to a tolerance of tribal warfare and ethnic cleansing? Is the mass shooting in El Paso a portent of things to come?

No one reading this would say that it is right to murder peaceful citizens and foreign guests. Mass shootings are  abnormal and unacceptable by any rational standard. Murder is wrong. Human life is sacred, a gift from our Creator.

But events like this raise the question, yet again, of our Christian responsibilities in politics and the importance of compassionate immigration policies. They force us to think about the sources of hatred and bigotry in public life, and of the regrettable divisions in American society. Events like the El Paso tragedy call attention to the powerful effect of the words of leaders. Words, like beliefs, have consequences.

Somebody failed to teach that boy, that young murderer, some better words which have always been foundational. Maybe we need to be reminded of these words as we remember El Paso.

  1. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Jesus said that. When he said it he was quoting the ancient law given by God. It is foundational to all human life. This applies to individuals. Does it also apply to nations? I believe it does.
  2. “You are to love those who are foreigners” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19). God told Moses to teach this to Israel because they, of all people, should remember how it felt to be exiles and strangers in a foreign land. Xenophobia has no place in a Christian’s life, or in our national life, if our polices are informed by the values of the Bible.
  3. “From one man he (God) made all the nations” (Acts 17:26).  Biologically, there is only one race, the human race. Charles Darwin popularized theories of race and of white supremacy. If human beings are not the special creation of God, and if evolution is true, then racism is one of its logical outcomes.

The El Paso murders force us to think about these things. They remind us of the dangerous trajectory of racial prejudice. They call us to remember God’s Word which says that every human being is a relative of ours. We are all equal in value before our Creator, who is “rich in mercy toward all who call upon him” (Romans 10:12).

Pastor Randy Faulkner