Radical Love
1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Can I ask you something a bit personal? Do you mind?
When was the last time that you committed an act of radical love? Alright, what do I mean by that?
Well, when was the last time that you loved someone who was impossible to love, someone who didn’t deserve your love? When you reached out with care and compassion and that person turned around and bit your hand off. And so what you did, your immediate response – instead of using your other hand to make a fist and punch them in the nose, was to reach out and touch them with the one hand you had left.
See – let’s be honest. We don’t do that much these days do we? We’re programmed to stand up for our rights, to get what we’re entitled to, and when necessary, to hit back, to give them what they deserve. There’s some of that in each of us.
Here’s what I think. I think it comes out of our natural sense of justice. We’re made in the image of God, you and I. God is just, and that’s why each one of us has a rather acute, in-built, sense of justice that, in particular, will spring into action when we’re on the receiving end of an injustice.
Am I right?
When someone wrongs us, our immediate response is that the wrong must somehow be set right, by an apology, by recompense, by revenge or by punishment.
And yet I wonder … what would happen if God gave me what I deserved? What would happen if God gave you what you deserved? We know the answer to that, and it just doesn’t bear thinking about.
Fortunately though, God isn’t just a God of justice, He’s also a God of love. Radical love.
By this we know love, that he (Jesus) laid down his life for us … (1 John 3:16)
That’s the radical love I was just talking about. A God who would send His Son to suffer, brutally, terribly, to pay for our mistakes, so that the requirements both of justice and of love would be met. That’s what the Cross was all about. Justice and love.
But how do we to respond to that radical love?
Let me share the whole of that verse with you then.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:16)
So, might I ask you once more … when was the last time that you committed an act of radical love?
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Karamat
In the British context I wonder whether love towards Muslims is more than how we respond at a micro level. Instead, ...
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In the British context I wonder whether love towards Muslims is more than how we respond at a micro level. Instead, especially when it comes to radical love, it is about challenging the systems and structures that discriminate against Muslims.