Love Them Anywayনমুনা

Choosing to Love

Not long after Jesus rose from the tomb and ascended back to the Father, the disciples were busy telling everyone who would listen about Jesus and helping the new believers grow in their faith. 

One day as Peter and John were on their way to the temple to pray, they passed by a lame man who was being carried to the temple gate to beg. When he saw the two men, the lame man asked them for money. Peter told him, “Look at us!” The beggar expected Peter to hand him a coin, but the apostle had a different offer: “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6). Peter took the man by the hand. Immediately, his feet and hands were strengthened, and he jumped to his feet. Luke, the author of Acts, tells us: 

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. —Acts 3:8–10 

Love propelled Peter to notice a man who had a chronic need and had given up on ever getting well. At that moment, Peter may have remembered that Jesus had reached out His hand to him when he stepped out of the boat to walk toward Him and began to sink (Matt. 14:31). 

Jesus rescues us from the greatest threat the world has ever known: sin and death and hell. The pagan beliefs ran against everything the Jews believed, from promiscuity to idol worship, but in this very place, Jesus was proclaimed as Lord of all. 

When we look around at the degradation of our culture and the poisonous language in our online communication, in families, and in politics, we can be deeply discouraged and furious, or we can remember that Jesus still rules and that Jesus still loves. 

With this assurance, we can be agents of a love that surprises the people around us. Yes, we may disagree, but we love them anyway. Yes, we don’t want to live like them, but we love them anyway. Yes, they’ve made tragic mistakes, but we love them anyway. This kind of love shouldn’t be rare. It should be the norm for the family of God, among ourselves and as we relate to people outside the family. What difference will it make to love them anyway?