What Does Love Require?

Recent events have put a spotlight on the church and how it is responding to the Covid-19 crisis. Some efforts have been heroic and some have been embarrassing. While some have criticized the church for closing its doors, others are fighting to keep them closed for as long as possible. It is a weird, disorienting time for many Christians, many of whom aren’t sure what battle they’re supposed to fight.

Many are hurting, sick and dying in our own backyard. Many are vulnerable and afraid. Many are isolated and struggling. So, for ministry-minded Christians who are used to giving, serving, teaching and mentoring, something feels off about being told to sit on the sidelines. This pandemic also cuts to the heart of some of our most important commands in Scripture, the commands to worship, serve one another, and meet with one another. Never mind the concerns about how all of this is going to affect our city, state and country in the very near future. While there are countless needs and causes to support and countless Biblical commands we could focus on, there is one that stands above the rest because Jesus made it so: the command to love our neighbor. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment in the Law, His response was clear and direct:

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”'

Matthew 22:37-40

The Apostle Paul, expounding on this concept, goes so far as to say that “love is the fulfillment of the Law” (Rom 13:10). Now, this ‘love’ is not just a touchy-feely, warm fuzzies kind of love that we get from watching a kitten video on YouTube. This is an action-oriented kind of love, that moves heaven and earth for the good of another. But, it is not devoid of an internal reality either, for even the most selfless of deeds means nothing if it doesn’t come from love (1 Corinthians 13:3). These 2 ideas, the internal reality and the action plan, must be married together. So, let’s take a brief look into the heart attitude that is required and then we can extrapolate from there into what a Christian response might look like.

A Matter of the Heart

In panicked times like these, it is essential that we examine our motives. I have often said that suffering reveals our true character and motives. So, what is driving you these days? We can all probably find ways of justifying our actions, but it takes true courage to take a hard look at yourself and wonder, ‘what is really most important to me right now?’ Is it my safety? My paycheck? My political convictions? Or is it my brother who is suffering? It’s not about knowing the right answer, but giving the true answer. We are all a mixed bag of motivations, some of which are noble and some of which are self-serving. What is driving your response during this crisis? I am no different. While I can feel great empathy for those who are suffering, I can also see my own love of good strategy and good communication driving my response as well. Just as I long for relief to those who are suffering, I also see my emotions piqued by politicians and self-preservation. These can all be valid motivations, appropriate in their time and place. But, if the New Testament teaches us anything, it is to leverage our energy toward the greater motivation, which over and over in Scripture is to nurture a selfless, compassionate heart for those that are suffering.

We all have limits to our capacity for compassion. So, it is not as if you have to muster up empathy for every cause that comes through your Facebook feed. Most certainly, you are going to care more about some causes than others. The key is allowing God to lead you into deeply feeling the pain of others who are in need. You might be moved by those in financial crisis, or those fighting for life on a ventilator. You might have a heart for the elderly shut off from the world in their retirement homes or high school seniors who are missing their graduation. We all have different causes and preferences. The important thing is that your heart is moved by a deep-seated, God-driven compassion for someone outside of yourself. Lose yourself in feeling the pain of another’s experience.

Now, merely sitting with an increased awareness of the suffering or vulnerability of another person wears you down quickly. We were meant to take action. Some pain that you see will be outside of your ability to help. Let it drive you to pray and trust God. For the ones you can do something about, let’s look at a few principles to help us leverage where we apply our love to our community.

What NOT to do:

Don’t forget your collective responsibility

I have seen many arguments from churches and ministry leaders recently that center around individual rights. Many Christians will say things like, “I’m not afraid of catching the virus” or “I am not at risk” to justify behavior that goes against recommendations in their area. If our heart is focused on love for our neighbors, then our biggest worry isn’t catching the virus but spreading the virus. If we do things that medical professionals and epidemiologists say are unsafe, we are potentially putting many others at risk, some of whom could be very vulnerable. We must evaluate our behavior in light of Philippians 2:3, which says:

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.”

Particularly with this pandemic, the kinds of gatherings the church is known for can pose a tremendous risk for spreading Covid-19 in the local community. The virus doesn’t stop at the door of the church, so any contagion that spreads in a church service gets multiplied throughout the local community. So, a church that decides to gather too early is not just risking those who attend, but countless others in any place those infected church members go. So, any group that decides to gather while the virus is active around them is, in the words of Phil Vischer, “effectively voting to create a new distribution center for the virus.” While a lack of fear might be a healthy individual trait in a Christian, a callous disregard for the impact of our actions on our community evidences a tragic deficiency in brotherly love.

Don’t fight for your rights

This might be a controversial statement in an age of such political division, but if we are consumed with the idea of fighting for our constitutional rights, we are woefully out of step with the heart of the early church. Those followers were very familiar with persecution and the restriction of their rights. Physical assaults, prison and even murder were as much a part of their experience as was miraculous healing. How did they respond? The author of Hebrews praised their self-sacrifice and endurance, saying:

“you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.”

- Hebrews 10:34

They showed sympathy for those being persecuted and joyful acceptance when their rights were violated. Luke gives a similar description of the apostles’ attitude when they responded to imprisonments and beatings by “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). This doesn’t mean that we have to be naive or that we disengage from our civic duties. It may mean, though, that we need to disengage from the outrage culture that has developed on both poles of the political spectrum. Once again, it comes back to the heart. Are we fighting for our rights because we are afraid of losing influence or opportunity in our culture? Are we angry about how things are changing (or not changing)? If we are so consumed with our own rights being violated, we are not being compassionate and other-centered as the Scriptures teach us. Besides the potential selfishness of it, the battle for cultural relevance is often counterproductive in the first place. We demonstrate our relevance through our service. The best way to render ourselves irrelevant in our culture is to spend our time proclaiming our own self-importance. If we need to argue for it, we have likely failed to demonstrate it to those for whom it really matters.

What we SHOULD do

Identify your ‘neighbor’

We certainly can’t fix every problem that we see. We have a limited capacity to help and a limited capacity to care about the overwhelming number of needs and causes out there. In his message this past Sunday about the Good Samaritan story (Luke 10:25-37), Rod MacIlvaine described our neighbor as “anyone whose need you see, whose need you can meet.” I think that is a wise assessment. If you want to go a little deeper into what it means to be a good neighbor, you can check out the message here. We are all called to serve somewhere, but we are not called to serve everywhere. Identify where God is leading you to meet a need.

Help to limit the spread

Whatever you are doing to serve others or take care of your family, try to do so in a way that minimizes the risk of spreading this virus. Be willing to ask yourself, “is there a different way I can meet this need or accomplish this task that would reduce my risk of spreading Covid-19?” We are all operating with limited information right now and there are no perfect solutions. So, i say ‘minimize’ and not ‘eliminate’ because elimination may not be possible. But, loving our neighbor means we are willing to sacrifice our normal comforts and familiar patterns because we want to contribute to reducing the sickness and death others are going to have to experience.

Help the most vulnerable

A God-given compassion for people drives us to help the most vulnerable rather than the most comfortable. Some people are easy to love, because they look like you and think like you. But Jesus’ example says to go those who need compassion the most. Those people’s lives are messy, their understanding may be limited and you may not always see a return on your investment. Look for needs and identify needs you can meet. Spiritual brokenness is actually fertile ground for the Holy Spirit to work, so the most hopeless situations can be the most powerful to engage.

Give and serve sacrificially

Try to find ways to give that don’t return any investment to you. There is something powerful in giving with no expectation of receiving anything back. Our love is so easily tainted when we see a potential gain for ourselves. There is nothing wrong with a win-win situation, but we experience the purest form of love when we are truly sacrificing for the good of another. Whether it be financial returns, recognition or just an expectation of friendship, we are at our best when we have no motive other than to serve.

Ask & Watch

Above all, ask God for opportunities and be willing to take them when they come. The best opportunities may not look like much at first, but God can move powerfully in those humble circumstances. Focus on nurturing a sincere love for people and the action will eventually follow. You can’t genuinely care about people and not take action when the opportunity is presented to you. So, remember a small act done in a spirit of genuine love can have a greater impact than a huge act done for selfish motives. Find your calling. Ask God for an opportunity to genuinely show love to a vulnerable ‘neighbor’ and see what He can do with it.