In a newsroom, they would call this “burying the lead” — putting what a very important point in a story somewhere in the middle, where it might be overlooked.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
— 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love does not seek its own.
And as I’ve said before, since God is love, the character of God is all of the things that Paul lists in his first letter to the Corinthians. That means that, among other things, God does not seek His own.
Seek His own … what?
Certainly not His own kind, as in, others like Himself: who, as Moses sang after they crossed the Red Sea, is like our God (Exodus 15:11)?
Seek those who already agree with Him?
Now, I think, we’re onto something.
According to Paul’s definition of Love, God does not go about looking for people who follow Him to the letter. The ones He seeks are those who are not “His own”. He reaches out to, reveals Himself, chases after the lost and lays down His life — as Jesus, in flesh form — for their sakes. Pardon me: our sakes.
Now, let’s bring this home. If we are walking in love — the “more excellent way”, as Paul puts it (1 Corinthians 12:31 – 13:1) — then we don’t seek our own. We reach out to people we disagree with, people who think differently, act differently, live differently, than we do.
And the thing is, we hear talk about the “divide” in society, “echo chambers”, “silos”, “bubbles” and so forth (said the guy who writes a Christian-themed blog*):
Bob is gay? I don’t want to associate with him.
Maryam is Muslim? Why bother?
Linda is a New Ager? Not worth my effort.
Jack’s an atheist? Don’t want to get into any arguments
Steve is … well, I don’t know what he is, but he might think I’m weird
One of the things that makes the walk with Christ unique is that we’re not supposed to stay huddled together in our silos, but to spread the good news to people who, apparently, haven’t heard it yet. Were we to do that, and not treat people with love, no matter who they are, what they do or where they come from, we would just be confirming all the lies they’d heard before about Jesus and His followers.
What? Are we afraid we might compromise our faith if we associate with others of a different viewpoint? If so, we need to have more faith in our faith. Sure, there comes a time when Jesus says we need to kick their dust off our feet and move on, but until then, if we’re walking in Love, God is walking with us and in us, and there’s nothing we can’t do.
Two Minutes for Cross-Checking! 