Good morning. For those of us who are parents of more than one child, we all faced that inner dilemma when the 2nd child was preparing to be born: “I love my child with all my heart, how will I be able to love this 2nd child as much or as well?” It seems like a reasonable question, but we soon learn that it isn’t valid. What we learn about love is that love shared is not love divided. Love is not diminished when it is shared, it is multiplied. Why? Because genuine love, the real deal of love, is of God. God’s love is impartial, and there is always enough to go around.
We live in a hardened world, one in which the first question that comes to mind when a new person is met may be, “Hmmm…I wonder what they can do for me?” Such a thought may not actually be put into words, but I think that the selfish mentality finds its way into worldly thinking all too often. It is nothing new.
When the church was operating in the first century it faced the same problems of selfish thinking. We read a bit about this in the second chapter of the Letter of James.
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? James 2:1-4
Our reaction to those words may be, “Well of course not! We would never honor one person and disrespect another, especially for such shallow reasons.” We should remember that most of the places of worship in the early church were the homes of believers. Can you imagine a homeowner fawning over a person who is well respected in the community while dismissing the needs of another who is obviously less fortunate?
When the love of God is in control it is an impartial love. God doesn’t love only the lovely, and God certainly never restricts His love to only those who might serve Him best. In Ephesians 1 the apostle Paul prays that the eyes of Christian hearts would be opened so that we would come to recognize the fullness of God’s love and the hope it brings us, all of us. God’s love is indivisible, unmeasurable, and remarkable. It is never stingy and never partial. May God’s love be evident today in all we do and all that we say.
Vern