“1. You can’t choose whom you’ll love. A Jesus-lover has no such right to select those people he will love! Jesus-love is unconditional. It is not affected by property values, crime rates or a hostile response. Listen!
‘Do you think you deserve credit for merely loving those who love you? Even the godless do that! And if you only do good to those who do you good—is that so wonderful? Even sinners do that much! No! Love your enemies! Do good to them!… and you will truly be acting as sons of God. For he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are very wicked.’ (Luke 6:32-35).
2. You can’t love from a distance or Jesus wouldn’t call it love! If the extent of your ‘love’ is a theoretical ‘Of course, I love them in the LORD,’ you don’t really love at all. If your love isn’t taking risks, making genuine friendships and producing action, then Jesus wouldn’t call it love. When he walked into Samaria (John 4), he made his point most dramatically. One historian says, ‘At no time had the bitterness between Samaritan and Jew been greater than in Jesus’ time.’ Geographically, it was out of his way, but he ‘had to go through Samaria’ (John 4:4) to confront the racial crisis head-on. What Jesus calls love means going to people without waiting for them to come to you. It means paying the price of involvement.”
-Ron Hutchcraft, “Nigger-lover!,” What an Ugly, Beautiful World
