Monday, April 21, 2014

Humble Love

On Good Friday, Pastor Don preached about humble love conquering even death.  The point was that on the cross, Jesus performed no miracle, showed no mastery over death, demonstrated no power.  He was completely helpless and weak.

We were planning to watch The Passion of the Christ after the service, and this message started me thinking about the first time I watched the movie.  The strength and power of Jesus struck me.  Although He didn't, it was obvious that He could have stopped all the torture at any time but chose not to.  (Great acting).  Anyway, it occurred to me that humble love is always like that.  Though it looks weak, it must be strong and have a choice; otherwise, it's just humble enabling or codependency or whatever.  If a person is tortured and can't stop it, that's weakness.  But if the person chooses to forgive his torturers, that's humble love and that can bring God's kingdom.

If a mother accepts her son's wrong choices because she's afraid of his rejection, that's weakness.  But if she, though fully prepared to and capable of making a stand for the truth, chooses to give up her rights to his obedience, overlook his offense and ask the Lord to do the same, that's humble love and can reverse the process of sin and death itself.  "Love covers a multitude of sins."

If Susie continually takes advantage of Jane, who puts up with it because she believes she's not worthy of friendship, that's weakness.  But if Jane is confident in the Lord and chooses to put up with Susie and even go the extra mile, that's humble love which might help Susie receive eternal life.

To the onlooker, codependent weakness and humble love will often appear the same, so we should decline to judge another's relationships.   And if we try to let others know about our own humble love, we run the risk of ruining the whole thing.  That's why I'm not giving any personal examples here.

None of us will perfectly display humble love.  But may we ever walk more closely with Jesus,
 and receive His humble love to share with others.