Unconditional love.

Jesus Christ, the Lord of the entire universe, tells his disciples (and the rest of the world) to love their enemies (Luke 6:27-36):

27"But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Does this make ANY rational sense at all? No. Honestly, no. But the King of the universe demands everyone on earth to love others: people who treat them wrongly, people who steal and cheat and lie, even people who kill. We have to love people like that? How do we do that??

The answer to that question is because Jesus Christ did that for us. We are all awful, sinful, broken people no matter how good we may think we are. No matter if we go to church, read the Bible, pray incessantly, and strive to live "godly lives", the absolute fact and truth of the matter is that we are dead and drowning in sin. No one is exempt. Yet the God of the universe loves us? He died for us? He died for lazy people who won't get a job and work for their money. He died for people who have killed their families….He died for people who have raped children….He died for terrorists like Osama Bin Laden…He loves him! He died for prostitutes; He died for liars, stealers, and cheaters. He died for people who couldn't care less about Him. He died for the prideful and the jealous. The love that God has for everyone on earth is absolutely incomprehensible. It is truly, completely, and without a doubt, unconditional love. He wanted to save everyone, even the people who beat him to a bloody pulp and nailed him to a cross to suffer and die (Luke 23: 34 – Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"). (But it wasn't just the people who physically nailed Him to the cross who are responsible for His death…everyone who has ever lived, lives now, or ever will live on this planet is responsible for His death…because of the sin that infiltrates our lives).

So Jesus laid down His life for us, because of His unconditional love for us. What a mystery. It seems so crazy, so irrational…. it doesn't make sense when we sit down and honestly think about it. God has a crazy, unexplainable love for us. We don't deserve anything, but He gives us everything by sending His son to die so that we don't have to suffer and die ourselves. It's absolutely nuts.

And because of His unconditional love, God wants us to love others unconditionally. How on earth do we do that? We're not God! No, we're not….but He still calls us to do this...He demands us to! Here's the good news: God enables us to love others unconditionally because of the fact that He lives in us and gives us strength and grace and love and courage and the ability to love others when they don't deserve it. I could NEVER love someone unconditionally without the Lord's help. If I didn't have the Lord working in me, I would hate those who have done wrong to me and my family and that would be that. It's easy to hate, honestly. When someone does me wrong, it is my natural tendency to seek revenge, never forgive him or her, and never trust him or her. But God wants us to be different…He wants us to forgive, love them despite what they've done, and expect NOTHING in return. What a challenge…. The great news is that God gives us that challenge knowing that He can work in and through us to accomplish it. We could never do it on our own.

So if I ever do anything irrational and crazy, like help a person out who has stolen from my family and lied and cheated and done us wrong in every way, it is because God has called us all to love others the way He does, unconditionally. Despite the past, despite the hurt, despite what that person has done, we are demanded by God to love and help people who have betrayed us…our enemies. And only the love of God can motivate us to do it. Don't call me a pushover because I'm striving to be like Jesus by trying to love and help others who don't deserve it (it's a seriously hard thing to do). Having unconditional love for someone is not being a pushover. I know what I did, and I will never regret it. I may lose my trust in that person, but I won't lose my love for her. It's a crazy kind of love, an irrational, insensible kind of love that only comes from God…. not an ounce of it is from myself. If you think I'm a pushover, then I guess Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe and the Savior of the world, is a pushover too.

And another thing, I believe that anyone is within reach of God's redemption. Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Jeffrey Dahmer, Casey Anthony, whoever!…the list goes on…even their lives can be changed by God. Even the most awful people on earth can change after they have truly accepted the Lord, because NOTHING is beyond God's redeeming power. If we think that lives cannot be changed just because someone is "stuck in her ways" or is "too far gone" or "has always been that way" etc etc, then we are not trusting in God's almighty power and transforming love! Luke 1:37 says that "nothing is impossible with God"…Jesus raised people from the dead for crying out loud! And we don't believe that He can change a life completely around? He has done it before! The problem lies not with the lack of God's power, but with our lack of faith and trust in God that He can change a life.

Jesus has given me hope and unconditional love for others that I would never have without Him. It has changed the way I think completely and I'm currently striving to live my life in line with the way He has called me to, which I can only do with His power and strength!