Works based love is constricting and limiting the efficacy of the church. Do you get angry enough at people for their performance that you refuse to engage with them. So it is the things that they do or don’t do that dictate the quality of your love for them. Isn’t that basing your love for them on works? Sounds like the way that the world loves, not the love of God. Jesus hung out with the prostitutes and tax collectors. Do you think it was because He appreciated their behavior or did so because they had earned His love, understanding and attention? I can never earn my way to God it is a gift of Christ’s Love for us. To emulate Him I must be willing and conscious of the same giving.
Maybe if I am loving others based upon their performance, then I love myself in that way and carry that insidious, performance based love into my relationship with Christ. I believe that this is why people leave their spouses, because of this or that complaint about how they didn’t conform to normal or specific definitions of how they should be treating us. The number one reason given for divorce or separation is irreconcilable differences. I don’t know about you but sure adds up to a whole lot of expectations, unforgiveness and works based loving to me?
Drunkards drink, robbers rob, cheaters cheat, humans are human and Christians who haven’t surrendered to the conforming guidance of the Holy Spirit continue to exhibit those traits consistent with their incipient flesh. Many of those people we meet, especially those who are new to the relationship with Christ continue to let us down, treat us poorly and generally fall short of common courtesies. In fact many of the homeless people I have the privilege and honor of caring for really smell badly and have poor ideals of hygiene. It is the love of God that was first extended to me that allows me to see past those traits and worldly personal practices that tend to keep us at arms length with unbelievers. I must learn to separate my love for a person from their performance, otherwise I am trapped in a works based attention for performance love system. Praise God that He looks at me in love and not at my performance, for it is rare that I do not come up short of what His Word expects of me.
We must be something different than this world for our feet are planted in Kingdom’s eternal ground. Separating a love for people from the things that they do or do not do is essential to our efficacy as believers. I am not in any way condoning victimization or allowing support of poor behavior, but it must be separated from the bell and the biscuit. Love is freely given never earned. Certainly trust and approval may be items given sparingly based upon empirical behavioral performance, but they must be extricated from the Grace of God inherent to Love.
awrkhakhaya 