Love (Exclusions Do Not Apply)

Maritza "Shay" Nelson

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Quote

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First, we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

1 John 4:19-21 (The Message Translation)

Devotion

It seems that whenever I open the news or social media, our world has devolved into us versus them—left versus right; black versus white; gay versus straight; the rich versus the poor; liberals versus conservatives. The news and social media would have us thinking that our side stands on righteous moral high ground and the other side is not just wrong but needs to be punished or destroyed for being wrong. We are the insiders and those “outsiders” must be taken down a notch. They certainly don’t deserve to be loved. And it’s easy to believe that only the “other side” treats “us” that way. But if I’m honest with myself, then I have to admit that I probably do it just as much as anyone else. After all, it’s human nature to look out for ourselves and protect our “tribe.”

As an attorney, I’m trained to see almost every situation in an adversarial way. Fighting for my clients often means finding the creative interpretation that allows the ends to justify the means. It’s how we get to the outcome that our clients want. The law says X, but X isn’t clearly defined. Therefore, we can interpret it to mean Y, which gets my client to result Z. Admittedly, this oversimplifies what we as lawyers do, and I’m not saying that the results we seek for our clients are necessarily bad or wrong. Most of us are fighting the good fight. But the fight over words and language and laws is a fight over interpretations.

So, it doesn’t surprise me that in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it was a lawyer who sought a creative interpretation to limit God’s command to love. (Luke 10:23-37). After telling Jesus that love is the key to inheriting eternal life (love God and love your neighbor), the story tells us that “wanting to justify himself,” the lawyer then asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (NKJV). The implication is obvious: Surely, I don’t have to love everyone because not everyone is my neighbor. Surely God only expects me to love the “right” people. And I can justify how I treat others as long as I get to decide who is “right.”

Jesus then responds with the well-known parable, a story in which a man from Jerusalem is robbed and left for dead. For the lawyer, the man in the story is just a hypothetical example…the kind of argument we have in law school as we are learning to “think like a lawyer.” For the thieves, the man was an easy target. The man is then passed over by a priest, who goes out of his way to cross to the other side of the road to avoid the man. Then there is the Levite, who comes and looks at the man as if a crime victim is some object of curiosity to be gawked at , before he too crosses the road to avoid helping the man. But then a certain Samaritan, a racial “other” group deeply despised by the Jews of that time, showed the man compassion. The Samaritan dresses the man’s wounds and brings him to an inn, taking care of him, regardless of the financial cost or the racial animosity between their groups. And once again, the implication is obvious: Everyone is our neighbor (especially those in need), regardless of their racial, religious, or socioeconomic background.

God calls us to love people, period, full stop. Our response to those in need should not be to interrogate their background, beliefs, qualifications, or how they ended up in their current mess. Our job is not to ask the man what he was doing out in that part of town or what he was carrying to make him so attractive to thieves. Whether we help the man is not dependent on his immigration status, health insurance coverage, sexuality, race, or political beliefs. It’s not about whether or not he is part of our group. He is a beloved child of God and that alone makes him our neighbor, makes him one of us.

And so, when I look back on 1 John, it seems clear that we are called to love, not just those we deem “our brothers and sisters,” not just those we deem worthy, not just those who are on our side, but everyone. Anyone who boasts of their Christianity and how much they love God while simultaneously refusing to help their neighbors - because they are poor, or immigrants, or another religion, or a different political party, or because they fail to satisfy some other arbitrary prerequisite - is a liar.

If we love God, we also have to love people. And that’s hard. But wouldn’t the world be such a better place if we all loved more and judged less? Isn’t that what the Kingdom of God should look like? In my quiet time with God, whether I’m reading the word, or praying, or worshipping, I am constantly amazed by His grace and love and acceptance and openness. No matter what, we are His children. No matter how much we mess up, He loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. No matter what, we belong to Him. Despite our differences, other people are also His children. Despite their mistakes, He loves them. We just have to figure out how to love them too.

Reflection

1. In what ways does the media that you consume make it difficult to love people?

   
   

2. Can you recall a time when you have been like the robbery victim in the Parable of the Good Samaritan? What would love have looked like for you in that instance? How do you wish that you had been treated?

   
   

3. Can you recall a time when you have avoided helping someone? What would you do differently if you encountered that person or situation again? What would love look like?

Action

Love in action can be something “big” like volunteering or donating your time, money, or skills. But you don’t have to wait for a big idea. Love in action can also be a simple phone call or text to reach out to a person who just needs to be heard. It can be spending a few minutes to understand someone else’s point of view. It can be as simple as learning to breathe through moments of inconvenience, rather than lashing out at traffic or paperwork or your boss or co-workers. Take a moment to ask God to soften your heart towards others so that you can show love and compassion rather than anger or indifference. These tiny actions, stacked on top of each other, will make the world such a better place. on you.