Fellow travelers,
Have you known Christians who love well? Not ones who know the Bible well, or who know all the right doctrines, or who are involved in many church activities. Not even a person who writes (or reads) a great blog. These are not bad things, and they may help someone become more loving, but they aren’t the same thing as being a person who loves as Christ loved. Who loves well.
Not everyone like this gets there the same way, but Jesus mentioned at least one specific way: the more we know how great God’s forgiveness for us is, the greater is our love.
This comes from Luke chapter 7, in the story about “a woman of the city, who was a sinner.” This woman broke an expensive flask of ointment over Jesus’s feet, then wiped the ointment on His feet with her hair and tears. What a bold statement of devotion to Jesus she made!
However, Jesus was criticized by a Pharisee for not refusing this act of worship: “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”[1] To the Pharisee, an upright, respectable religious person should have nothing to do with this sinful woman.
In response, Jesus tells a parable about a man who was forgiven a very large debt, and therefore loved the one who forgave him more than another man did who was forgiven a smaller debt. Jesus contrasts the actions of the Pharisee – who didn’t treat Jesus with nearly as much honor as the “sinner” – with the woman, and says: “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
We don’t know much for sure about this woman’s sins, but we know the Pharisee was aware of them and hated her for it. He thought her sins were worse than others and should exclude her from any social interactions. We also know that she was aware of how great her sin was, but she also knew that Jesus loved and forgave her anyway, even though her sin was great. Jesus tells us her devotion is proof of that.
In this story, those with “checkered” pasts, full of sin, pain, and suffering, can become the most passionate believers, as they know what the gospel is capable of overcoming first-hand, in themselves and in others. Jesus and his early followers went to these outcast people, and the faith of that first generation of Christians changed the world forever!
So, who is willing and able to reach out to sinners in the same way God reached out to them in Christ? Those who have a very real sense of how great are the sins God that has forgiven them. Often the greatest “sinners” are the ones who learn how to love well.
[1] Luke 7:37-39
