God Will Never Love You More

God will never love you more than He does at your lowest.

I remember the first time I heard those words.

Well, I sort of remember. Oddly, I don’t remember who said them or where I was when I heard them. What I remember is the impact of the words.

God will never love me more than He does when I am at my lowest.

In other words, God loves me the same on my worst day as He does on my best day. God loves me the same when I am neck deep in sin and bad decisions as He does when I am holier than I have ever been before.

We all fall often into the trap of believing that God loves us conditionally. That His love is based upon how strong our allegiance is or how closely we adhere to a certain set of rules or standards. That His love comes only when we are being good or doing what is right or living well, versus that His love is there all the time.

We believe this way because this is how we have been loved our whole life. This is how our families and friends and romantic partners have treated us. This is the message the Church has sent us. This is how we have been treated by employers and service providers. We have to constantly prove ourselves and our worth. We have to do something to be deserving of love.

But God's love isn't like the world's love.

The Bible says God's love never changes. The Bible says, while we were still lost in sin, God loved us. 

All the good deeds and words and additions to our resume might impress one another, but don't make God love us more.

All the bad deeds and words and detours might make us judge one another, but don't make God love us less.

I heard someone describe like this: Imagine there is someone standing on the bottom of the deepest ocean, and then there is someone else standing at the peak of the tallest mountain. Who is closer to touching the sun? 

While technically, the person on the peak is closer, the amount they are closer by is nothing compared to the massive distance between the earth and the sun. It may seem like a big difference to us, but from an outer space viewpoint, it's a miniscule difference. The difference in distance is insignificant.

Likewise, imagine a person who lives a “sinful" life, making horribly wrong and hurtful decisions, and another person who appears to be living a perfect, holy life (though no one is perfect), like Mother Teresa or Billy Graham or whoever else we hold up on a pedestal. The differences between their two lives seem ginormous to us, because our perspective is limited. Since the standard is Jesus, the Son, the difference between them is miniscule. It's insignificant.

We imagine that God loves the person on the peak more than the one in the depths of the ocean, but in reality, God loves them the same. Not more, not less.

Sometimes, we forget that we are supposed to love people the same, too.

There was a famous court case about a cake that recently came back to light. In 2013, a Christian baker refused to sell a cake to a lesbian couple who were getting married, calling them an "abomination". Now, I understand free speech. I understand that businesses have long held the right to refuse service to anyone ("No shirt, no shoes, no service"). But what strikes me about this story is what a terribly horrible, hurtful, and hateful witness it is.

For the sake of argument, let's assume the Christian baker believed the couple to be in the depths of the ocean, lost in sin, due to their sexual orientation. Does that give them the right to treat them differently? To deny them service? And to blame Jesus for it?

I don't think Scripture supports that viewpoint.

The couple in question were afterwards targeted by right-wing ultra-conservatives who sent them so much hate mail and hateful phone calls that they had to go into hiding. 

No where in the Bible does it say to "hate people unto Him".

Hate doesn't bring people to Jesus.

Hate doesn't change lives.

Hate is counter-Biblical - against everything Jesus stood for.

When Jesus was here, you saw him consistently diving into the ocean to be with the people there rather than hanging out on the mountain peaks.

Richard Rohr said, "Jesus tried to change people by loving and healing them. His harshest words of judgement were reserved for those who perpetuated systems of inequality and oppression and who, through religion itself, thought they were sinless and untouchable."

Why don’t we? Why aren't we more like Jesus??

"I like your Christ," said Gandhi. "I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Imagine if the baker had taken a different approach. Had loved on the couple. Made them a beautiful cake. Offered to pray over their wedding and marriage. What an amazingly different message that would have sent not only to the couple in question, but their families and friends who attended the wedding. A message that Christians LOVE, not that Christians HATE.

We spend too much time on our mountain peaks thinking we’re better than everyone else. Judging anyone whose mountain doesn’t look the same as ours. Judging those who live different or believe different or walk different than we do. We close our doors and point our fingers, call names, and leave people out.

NONE of this is Scriptural. NONE of this is following Jesus.

Jesus was about including others. 

He was friends with the people the society around Him at the time thought were the very worst of sinners - with prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors and people who were unfaithful and gluttonous and drunkards. These were the ones He loved and taught and walked with and spent time with. These are the people who housed Him and fed Him and traveled with Him.

And their lives were changed.

Why do we think church membership and belief in God are declining in this country?

Because of this - because we are known more for our hate than our love. Because we keep people out. Because we no longer represent Christ. Because we stopped fighting for social justice, and therefore have become irrelevant.

There are many who cast the blame for the failing Church in America on the changing culture and on political parties and equal rights movements, but we should truly be looking inward.

We have no one to blame but ourselves...

God will never love you more than He did on your first day. So maybe it's time to get off the high horse, out of the glass tower, down from the peak, whatever metaphor you like, and remember that we are supposed to love the same.