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Thursday, September 11, 2008
True Love, Tough Love
Exodus 12:1-14; Matthew 18:15-20
"God loves you and so do I," the man said to me with a huge smile on his face. Nice, very nice.
But this was a man who opposed me out loud now and again, and under his breath or whispering over in the corner much of the time.
He was obviously trying to make nice. So I made nice back, since this wasn't the time for a heart to heart conversation about our relationship -- or lack thereof.
What he was doing, I feared, was falling for a sentimental idea of love. Hoping that some soft soap would, if not wash clean the discord between us, at least make it more comfortable.
But hard experience teaches us that true love is also a tough kind of love. Not so much an emotion as an attitude -- a commitment to do the right thing for the well-being of the person you love. Sometimes that means standing firm in order to protect, correct, or strengthen that person.
This tough kind of love lies between the lines of Jesus' instructions in Matthew 18 about church discipline. When things go wrong between church members, he says, we need to begin dealing with it at the personal level in hopes of a quiet reconciliation. Failing that, take someone with you to advocate for peace. If that still doesn't work, then get the whole church involved. Still deadlocked? That's when the dreaded E word comes into play: Excommunication!
Not like the Inquisition, though. As in, "We torture you for your heinous errors in sincere hope that you will recant your heresy and amend your evil ways. If you die in the process, well, our mission still succeeds -- for you are then saved from additional damnation for sins you surely would have continued to commit."
No. No.
Jesus has a much better idea.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:09 PM
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