The Loving Unloved

“By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3:10-14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Us and them.  The Apostle John takes pains to make it very clear that there are two - and only two - categories of people in the world.  I know that there is an element in modern evangelicalism who would like to embrace everyone as being “a child of God.”  Yet this does not square with the Bible, not does it account for the fact that some people love God, and some hate Him.  Some believe; some don’t.  Some love those who follow Jesus; some don’t.  As soon as we acknowledge these realities, we admit that people are not all alike - especially when it comes to matters of faith.  Broadly but specifically speaking, according to John, people fall into two groups: those who are actually God’s children, and those who are of “the world.”

In some ways, these two groups are like oil and water: they don’t mix well.  Or maybe they are more like opposite poles on a magnet:  they repel each other.  John says the difference can be seen in what each group loves.  Those who are of the world hate those who are of God.  They are the real “haters” in society, hating what is good and righteous and holy, along with all those who represent those values.  They mock at and misrepresent them, and attempt to paint people of faith and conviction in their own colors, saying that Christian believers are the narrow-minded “haters,” simply because of their choice of holiness over evil.  John says this is par for the course, and ought not to come as a big surprise.  Just the way it is; so deal with it.

How?  By loving the unlovely.  Even when we are unloved by the world, we are to love anyway.  By tapping into the love of Jesus, we are to overcome our natural tendency to be repelled by animosity and vitriol, and love anyway.  Why?  Because God first loved us, even when we were unlovely; because we know from Christ's example what love really is, and because we experience it on a daily basis.  Followers of Jesus are, first and foremost, people who love.  We love God.  W
e love what is good and right and pure and holy. We love God’s children.  And we even love those who hate us, who hate our Savior, and who hate His loveliness.  

Seems to me we need to embrace the reality that we are going to be loved by the world no more than the world loved Jesus, and stop trying to get the world to like us.  We need to stop trying to accommodate the spiritually dead by playing dead ourselves.  Deadness does not resurrect the dead.  Only love does - the love of Jesus expressed at the cross, and expressed through His people.