Despite Risk

To love someone is extremely risky.

 

I'm not even talking about romantic love. Of course it applies in the same way, but I'm talking about the kind of love Jesus referred to when He said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34) To love someone like Jesus has loved you is not easy, safe, convenient, or pain-free. Jesus's love took Him to a cross to be tortured and killed, and even then His people have rejected and continue to reject Him. That's risky love. To love someone like Jesus has loved you means being willing to love that person no matter how they treat you, no matter if they completely reject you, no matter if they leave you. To love someone like Jesus has loved you means never requiring any love in return. To love someone like Jesus has loved you means to be willing to forgive that person of every single thing they might do to hurt you. To love someone like Jesus has loved you means never giving up on them, ever.

 

The love that Jesus requires us to have for one another sees the risk and it loves anyway. It acknowledges that you stand to lose everything and to be hurt intimately, and it loves anyway.

 

What does it look like to love like that? Ephesians 4:1-2 says, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Romans 9:3-4 says, "For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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. Love never fails."

 

When faced with an opportunity to love someone whom I know may reject me or may not be in my life for very long, I am tempted to hide myself away and choose not to love that person like I should. I want to give them a surface love, hiding away the deepest parts of myself and not really giving them the Christ-like love that bears all despite fear. Ephesians 5:15-16 says, "Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."  Every opportunity to love is a gift from God. We are Christ's ambassadors on earth (2 Cor. 5:20), and we are responsible for loving people like He does. I believe we will be held accountable for every squandered opportunity (see the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30; see also Revelation 20:12). We are only given a small amount of time on this earth, and some relationships are even shorter than that. Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." I think sometimes God makes us painfully aware how little time we have with people so that we will make the most of every opportunity to love them. When we are faced with a reminder of the shortness of our days or the amount of time we have with people, there are two ways that we can respond: by throwing walls up around our hearts to keep them from being hurt, or to open them up completely and love with all we have in the amount of time that we have. I have had to face this concerning my housemates here. Some of us are staying for 6 months (leaving in August), and some are staying for the full year (leaving in December). We aren't 100% certain who's leaving when, and my heart wants to throw up walls to protect myself from intimately loving people who might leave halfway through the year. But God is teaching me to love anyways. To love despite the risk of being hurt, of being rejected, of being left. Because love is always worth it.