LOVE

I have been thinking about what love really is. I think many times we have this grave misunderstanding that to love someone is to accept everything about them and let them do whatever they want. I think we like to cut and paste the Bible and pick out what we want to think. We think of the I Corinthians 13 passage that “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” Love certainly is all of these things, but we forget the rest. 6 “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” To love someone is to not ignore the evil in their life or pretend there isn’t a problem or delight in it. When we don’t stand up and speak the truth in someone’s life we are not protecting that person from further hardships down the road. We are allowing their life to continue down a reckless spiral of destruction.  I believe sometimes love has the grueling responsibility to guide people to the truth that they are sinners and their hearts are evil. That if they don’t change they are going to get smacked in the face with really severe consequences. Being loving isn't a popularity contest where people are always going to like everything you say.  Do we ignore the passages on discipline in the Bible where clearly it is the loving thing to do? Passages like Hebrews 12, Deuteronomy 8:5, Proverbs 3:12. I feel we desperately cannot.

When I hear people explaining to me their ideas of love that only include the fluff, I think about all the different times leaders and teachers in the Bible got in the people’s faces. Many were blunt about what was going to happen. They didn’t skirt around it. Both Jesus and John the Baptist called people “vipers”, snakes. Jesus tells the crowds its generation was wicked and adulterous. Even at the risk of their lives, the disciples got in peoples faces and told them they crucified Jesus. Joshua draws a line in the sand and tells the people to choose that day who they were going to serve. He didn’t say it was okay to keep dabbling in the ways of the world he said make a choice. Those are just a few instances of many others that could be brought up.

I feel like when we just stick to the hugs and kisses, fluff type of love we really don’t love. If I never corrected my children, if I let them do whatever they wanted and get whatever they want, I would be a terrible parent. I wouldn’t really be showing love to my child. True love guides it doesn’t ignore. Sometimes love has to be blunt to wake someone up that’s headed down a path of destruction. Truly loving someone does not avoid discipline or correction. Especially in those relationships were a person is a parent, teacher, pastor or mentor.