People are flawed. God’s love is perfect. How do you interpret John 3:16? God so loved the world in “general.” He loves…Christians. He loves… law abiding citizens. He loves…evangelicals. He loves…Republicans. He loves those who are moral? (We would never say this…but do we act as if this true?) Breaking News: When Jesus said, God loves the world, He meant every single person in this world. Every single person was...
Moved by Compassion
Jesus was often “moved with compassion” before a miracle. Another way of saying that is, “He was moved by love.” When people in need approached Jesus, He never reprimanded at that point; He didn’t counsel, He didn’t even teach. He loved. And Jesus’ love language is healing. When the downtrodden approached Jesus, He didn’t blame. He didn’t accuse. He didn’t judge. He loved. And Jesus’ love language is forgiving and...
Forgiven Much; Love Much
I use to joke that if I lived in New Testament times (and were a man), I would have been more like the Pharisees. I believe Jesus would have made me uncomfortable with His forgiving everyone, breaking the law by healing on Sabath, allowing prostitutes to touch him. I don’t think the Pharisees were necessarily bad people. They were law followers. Following the law can give you a sense of...
Compassion
When the Pharisees saw a person who was sick or hurting, they sought to place blame: Did the person sin, did their parents sin? (John 9:1) And while these questions made for great philosophical debates, no one was healed, or changed, or rescued. When Jesus saw someone hurting and in pain, He had compassion. He didn’t blame their parents or the person. He never said, “Well if you had not...
Compassion
A lifetime of being rejected. A lifetime of being ridiculed, spit upon, begging to eek out an existence. The physically disabled in this society was thought to be cursed by God. So they were treated as if they were the dregs of the earth. Literally for fun, they would put obstacles in the path of the blind to watch them fall. On this day when two blind men heard Jesus...