The Humanistic "Love" of a Depraved Society

​Since the Hippy Movement of the 1960’s, our society has sunk deeper and deeper into a misunderstanding of love.  The idea that one must approve of another’s choices in order to love them is foreign to any Biblical concept of love.  And nobody really believes it.  That train only runs one way.  For if I disagree with your lifestyle choices, I am declared unloving.  But if you disagree with my opinion, somehow you remain loving.  If I disagree you’re your lifestyle choices, I’m an unrighteous judge.  But if you disagree with my opinion, I you remain both loving and righteous.  It’s a one-way train.  What it truly amounts to is intolerance.  The most intolerant people in the world are the depraved of the world that have disguised themselves in what they refer to as love. 
 
I’d be completely amiss if I didn’t freely admit that many under the veil of Christianity struggle with loving their neighbor.  In fact, most of us struggle with it.  In looking around at those murdering Him, Jesus declared, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  I doubt any of us have such a love for our fellow man.  There are certainly those under the veil of Christianity that have the idea that the lost are their enemies – enemies whom they at least show a spirit of hatred to.  Yet, Jesus plainly said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45a).  Groups like Westboro Baptist obviously struggle with any semblance of such clear instruction.  But they are not the face of Christianity.  They are merely the ones the liberal media want us to see as the face of Christianity. 
 
In defining love, Paul said, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).  This is about as full of a definition as you will find anywhere.  It is correct.  It is Scriptural.  It is right.  It is holy.  Christians are to be patient with those in the world.  They are lost.  They act lost – just like we did prior to conversion (Ephesians 2:1-3).  We must show forth kindness to those around us.  We must not be envious or boastful.  I mean, any concept of grace should teach that.  Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.  Knowing that, what do we have to boast about?  We must not be arrogant or rude.  We must not be selfish or irritable or resentful.  These are all attitudes that come from the flesh.  And we, as believers, must get this right if we are to positively show forth God’s attributes to a lost and dying world. 
 
None of these characteristics of love, however, so much as imply that we are to put a stamp of approval on that which is ungodly.  In fact, the next clause in Paul’s definition of love says that love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth”.  Love is not approving of a behavior that is detrimental to the health of your friend.  Certainly, if you are a true friend you will try to talk your friend out of suicide or drug addiction or some other type of hazardous behavior.  The same is true of any sinful activity.  If your friend is lost and dying in their sins, the loving thing to do is show them the Way to escape the deserved penalty of their sins.  You cannot make them believe the Gospel, but you can certainly share it with them.  To sit back and watch your friend die and spend eternity in hell without any attempt to convert them from their path is quite unloving. 
 
The world’s idea of love means that I must approve of your behavior – no matter how hurtful it may be to you – in order to show you that love.  But as I’ve said, this is limited at best.  Nobody truly believes it.  Nobody truly lives this way.  It’s not love to watch your friend destroy their life without helping them.  It’s quite the opposite of love, actually. 
 
Though the liberals of our day refuse to hear it, people need to understand the position the Christian is in.  We understand that the world as a whole – all of us – are guilty before God.  We are all deserving of eternal damnation.  “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).  Now the lost of the world may have no regard for this passage of Scripture.  But to the Bible believing Christian, we realize that in some way, everybody is condemned by this passage.  Sins like stealing, greediness and reviling are common to man – even if we only have done so on a limited basis.  “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10). 
 
In defining sins which Paul calls “works of the flesh”, he lists “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21a).  And again, he adds, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21b).  Every person who has ever lived (save Jesus) is guilty of some of these things.  This is the teaching of the Word of God and this is absolute truth to the Bible believing Christian. 
 
The goal of true Christianity is not to simply reform society.  I can certainly see how it is perceived to be such.  And I’d be naïve to think that some who claim to be Christians don’t appear to have such a goal.  But at the heart of Christian truth, our goal is to “make disciples” of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19).  Understanding that we are all guilty before God, it should be the desire of every child of God to see all men come to a saving knowledge of the Savior.  Jesus died in the place of sinners – for sin.  To refuse Him is to choose to suffer one’s own penalty eternally.  Only human depravity could explain such a choice. 
 
What the outsider needs to understand (but probably never will) is that if the child of God understands fully what the Bible proclaims as absolute truth, then the most unloving thing we can do is approve of wrongdoing.  The most unloving thing we can do as Christians is watch our friends and family continue to walk in their sins apart from the Savior.  Only a cold, unloving heart can stand by idly and watch while people die in their sins only to be cast alive eternally into the Lake of Fire to suffer forever and ever.  Again, the goal of Christianity is not supposed to be societal reform.  It is individual salvation – making disciples.  Christendom certainly may have wavered from this foundation at times.  But this is the clear teaching of the Word of God. 
 
But, one may say, God showed His love towards mankind “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8).  Certainly, that is true.  Praise God that is true!!  But how did He show that love to us?  That verse says in it’s entirety, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  God didn’t approve of our sins – far from it.  He so disapproved of our sins that His own Son had to die for us.  John wrote, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10).  So again, God didn’t show His love for us by approving our sins – a thousand times no.  He so disapproved of our sins that He sent His Son to die in our place for our sins. 
 
Our society has love all wrong.  Sadly, some churches have begun to follow the lead of society.  But the Bible is clear.  Love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth”.  We cannot sit by idly while those around us die in their sins apart from Christ.  That’s the farthest thing from loving a person.  Let us kindly and patiently point people to the Savior.  Christians, let us remember, our duty is to “make disciples”.  We are to strive to convince sinners of their need of Jesus while praying that God opens their heart to the Gospel.  This is the core instruction to the child of God.  Humanistic world, please understand that we are not mad at you.  We do not hate you.  We are not trying to necessarily reform you.  Our true goal is to see you converted – converted from your sins which merit you everlasting condemnation to Jesus Who will merit you everlasting life.