Love Jesus-ly

Just today on St. Valentine’s Day, one of my Facebook friends shared this image put out by the United Church of Christ on Facebook.  There are certain church bodies who when they make public appeals are consciously counter-cultural.  They know their message may ruffle feathers or at the least will not be swallowed easily.  And then there are churches like the UCC who in making public appeals make sure their appeals are consciously crafted for the culture.  I am certain that this ad on Facebook if tested against a random sample of people would poll quite well.  People would love it.

But what surprised me is that this ad revealed their hand so plainly.  The question must be asked, “Love differently than who or than what?”  And the answer they intend is quite clear if you know the way the UCC perceives itself.  “Love differently” than those conservative Christians you might hear calling people to repentance over their sinful lifestyles.  After all, their church body’s motto insists, “God is still speaking.”  And have no doubt, they mean that God is speaking apart from the Scriptures, revealing things that clearly contradict the way He spoke in the past in the Bible.   Don’t close your mind.  God may now approve of things that the Scriptures quite clearly speak against.  This is what the UCC asserts.

And this assertion rests upon one Satan’s most popular modern deceptions.  Here it is.  Jesus loves everyone.  You, his child, should love everyone.  That means you should accept whatever people want to do.  Love is tolerance and acceptance.  This deception is spoken often in our day and like Satan’s best deceptions throughout time it is so accepted because it sounds true.

And yet is built on a falsehood. If we are to learn of love from the Bible and from Jesus, we must reject the idea that essence of love is tolerance and acceptance in the sense that a word of rebuke or a call to repentance has no place.  For throughout the Scriptures God is constantly calling those He loves away from their sin and to himself for forgiveness.  Just as a parent would call his child out of the busy road because they love their child, so also God calls those He loves away from evil and unto life with Him through his Son Jesus.

If you “love differently” as the UCC suggests, you end up “loving differently” than Jesus himself.  For His prime message throughout His earthly ministry was, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  It is a message of law that reveals evil and a message of good news that offers life.  Did Jesus love everyone?  Absolutely.  Should we?  Certainly.  But how did Jesus love?  He called sinners away from sin and to Himself.  Child of God, don’t love differently than Him.  Love Jesus-ly.