Equivalent Intrinsic Value

I’ve been reading a book called “the smell of sin”, by Don Everts which opens with a story about a man in church who hears a sawing sound and turns around to find his fellow parishioner sawing off his foot. Jesus said if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. It’s better to go though life with one hand than be cast with two into the fire. While I hear folks argue about whether that is literal or whether it merely expresses the seriousness of the sin that is being caused by the offending limb, I’ve rarely heard it discussed according to the context in which we find it. Yes, there are stumbling block in this world, but woe to the man through whom the stumbling blocks come.
See that you do not despise these little ones. Jesus came to save those who were lost. The healthy don’t need a physician. But for some reason, those who have lived upstanding lives develop an unrighteous attitude toward those defiled by sin. Especially sin that we have set apart as particularly heinous. Yes, we do that. We overlook gossip, idolatry, selfishness, neglect, and focus in on, march for, petition the president, write letters to the newspaper, other sins that appear to us as blacker, more evil, further outside our context of understanding.
Sure, we hate the same things God hates but that doesn’t make our motivation righteous. Our hatred so often extends to the sinner. We say “love the sinner, hate the sin”, but somehow that has become so cliché, that we don’t really know what it means anymore. Somehow, we convince ourselves that we can love the sinner by expressing disgust, hatred, and intolerance. Then when that expression has brought them ‘round, we can express love.
We've even made a cliché out of the idea of letting God love that person through us. Sure, we have to love them with the same love that Christ loves us, that is where we gain the knowledge and ability. But Jesus has asked US to love THEM. Are we just to be conduit, channeling Jesus’ love to others? I don’t think so. Conduit remains unchanged. Others don’t recognize Jesus love THOUGH us, they recognize Jesus’ love IN us. You’ll hear them say, “that person loves me with the love of Jesus”. I don’t think we’ll hear, “Jesus loves me through that person”.
Jesus’ love in us, causes us to hurt for the lost condition of another. It causes us to want, like Him, to leave the ninety-nine and go hunting for the one. Upon finding the one, we will throw him across our shoulders and bring him rejoicing into the fold.
There is no doubt in my mind that the parable of the prodigal son has as its focus, the son who stayed home and burned with jealousy over the joy of the father upon receiving his lost son back. There are too many other passages, two mentioned here, that focus on the same thing. If we are truly about our Father’s business, then we will hurt for the lost, and receive the same joy He does when the are returned. The value of all is the same, but there is an emotional extra that is put into play that deals with loss and recovery.
(to be continued)

©2003 rod lewis