Worse than persecution #2: Lovelessness

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40 ESV)

It's hard to overstate the importance God puts on love - loving Him, and loving others. The Apostle John, that "Son of Thunder" turned "Apostle of Love", hits the point over and over in 1 John, unfolding the inseparability of loving God and loving others. And with good reason -- Jesus Himself laid out love of God and others as the top commandments. Loving God passionately and others selflessly should permeate every aspect of our lives. It's simply not optional.

That's why two of the most sobering passages in Scripture jump out to remind me again and again that lovelessness is to be avoided, period. Without a doubt, it's on the shelf labeled "Dangerous Things for Christians." Lovelessness is worse than persecution.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:12-13, NIV)

(Revelation 2:1-5 ESV) - (1) "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: 'The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. (2) "'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. (3) I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. (4) But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. (5) Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Taken together, these passages should motivate us to not harbor any vestige of lovelessness. Jesus warns that the love of "most" will grow cold. Not just a few - most. The word literally means "a multitude." It's sobering to see what motivates this lovelessness: An increase of sin. Oh, can I ever identify. My grandparents reached out to show love in ways I would never dream of today because of an increase of wickedness -- picking up hitchhikers, serving food to strangers walking through their property, leaving church doors unlocked day and night. I'm not saying we shouldn't be wise - absolutely we need to discern the times and act accordingly. But we must be very, very cautious not to let wisdom toward our fallen world turn into lovelessness. The challenge I give myself is to always look for ways to love, with wisdom, rather than excuses not to love. This keeps my heart soft and tender to God's very creative Spirit.

Ephesus bears another warning against lovelessness. Don't miss verse 3 - this church had successfully endured a level of persecution! Yet Jesus held against them their abandonment of love. Wow. We never, ever have an excuse not to love. Paul even tells us that martyrdom is no substitute for love:

(1 Corinthians 13:1-7 ESV) - (1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (3) If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (4) Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (5) or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (6) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Scripture has so much to say on the subject of love that there is no way we can exhaust the subject. One very clear principle, though, is that love is not passive, theoretical, or distant. Look again at Paul's definitions. Love is active. Love is tangible, practical. (1 John 3:18 ESV) Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. And love reaches out, just as God reached out to us in Christ. (Romans 5:8 ESV) but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

May we never settle for lovelessness. May we pray constantly to know His love more, to love Him more in response, and to manifest His love to others better every day.