You know, there is a way that I understand having Christian friends that I didn't before today.
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
- John 15:19
Even if I'm living in it, I'm not quite part of it. That is, I don't fit all the way in. Maybe some. Maybe even mostly with the more recent years, but never fully and I probably never will. The places I don't fit in earn me hatred as a natural consequence.
Mind you, it's not necessarily active hatred or anger, but then again, hatred and indifference are two points on the same plane; in the end, you either love or you don't. Whatever is not love is hatred. For a long time, I thought that it was possible for people that weren't Christians to love deeply. Maybe not the same as my Christian friends, but they could still love; everyone is capable of love. Let me tell you: the exceptions are so rare it isn't even remotely funny. There is no love at all, there's just selfishness covered with a veneer of politeness and social etiquette.
It's like I'm looking around and I realize that, while a lot of people might like me, or like something about me, there are few and far between that actually love me and even fewer that have the courage to continue to love when things get hard.
Only a person that could say this (and the people that can believe in that Person) could understand the concept of true love for another person and friendship:
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
- John 15:13
Or another classic:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
I don't want to imply that any of my friends should be just dropped or anything and they wouldn't be unless it were needed, but maybe I shouldn't be so willing to seek the good in everyone and just see and respond to what is there instead...
...and what I see is not at all pretty. Not at all.
Wow. I have never, ever, thought about this. Way to open my eyes. I have heard that we can do nothing good without Christ. Anything we try to do for good is out of a selfish ambition, but, I never continued that thought to love.
ReplyDeleteDeep. I appreciate this, and you. Thank you for sharing this with us. I agree wholeheartedly and like Didge said, I can't say I've thought this far into it before.
ReplyDelete*hugs*