Passive Love

In contemplating the relationship which God has established with us through His son, I have come to the place where a stern realization is setting in that I must treat those around me differently as a result of God’s love.  There is an aspect of active love, of giving time and resources to help those in need. Of lending an ear to those who hurt. Of preaching truth to the blind and deceived. These are some of the active ways that God calls us to love others. These are hard enough to do, but it is the underlying passivity of the love of God that seems hardest to embrace.

By passivity I mean the idea that God gave to the utmost to prove His love for us. Not just in healing and preaching, but in literally laying down His life. Love is not always about ‘doing’, it is frequently about ‘being’. God sent his Son to earth to live a sinless life and die an agonizing death to release us from our inborn desire to please Him by our own efforts. He took the wind out of our sails. By fulfilling the law through Jesus Christ he subverted the power of sin – he destroyed the greatest leverage the enemy ever had when he nailed the law to the cross and declared righteous all who would believe in Christ. The scary part is he expects no less from us.

How easily offended are we? Think about the rules that you impose on those around you; your spouse, children, coworkers and fellow believers.  What happens when they, knowingly or unknowingly, break the rules? Do you become offended? Do you see that in the establishment of rules and expectations for others you are setting them up for failure? You have prepared yourself to be angry with them. You are a law to them, and are bound by that law to mete out punishment when it is broken.

In the same way that God has overcome the law through grace, we must overcome our propensity to establish boundaries for those around us. If we are to truly love them, as God has loved us, we cannot attach strings. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3 ESV) We, like God, are to be liberators, not wardens.

Like all of scripture, this kind of love is paradoxical. The human assumption is that to treat others in this way will lead to mayhem. People will walk all over you. The truth is, some will. Some will strike the other cheek when you turn it to them. Some of us have done or are doing that to God as well. And yet God loves us. So we must love others. The interesting thing is that, for many, the grace you extend will take the wind out of their sails as well. That is what grace does. It sets law-bound captives free.

Of whom in your life are you demanding works to keep your love? Today is the day to begin showing grace.

God Bless