True Love
The right kind of love sometimes hurts, but is necessary
“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mark 10:21).
A rich young man came to Jesus, asking what he had to do to obtain eternal life. “Keep the commandments of God,” Jesus told him. “I’ve done that. What lack I yet?” Jesus looked at him, loved him, and then told him what he had to do to be right with God! The young man loved his money more than he loved his God. That cannot be allowed, not in the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. “He that loveth father or mother [or money] more than Me is not worthy of Me,” (Matthew 10:37). Whether we like it or not—and obviously, most people don’t—it is one of the conditions the Lord puts on being His disciple and going to heaven.
True, Biblical love is more, far more, than just emotion. When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” He wasn’t telling us to have the same feeling for them as we have for our nearest and dearest. Biblical love may even run counter to our feelings. It seeks after the best for other people, even if we must sacrifice something of our own. Isn’t that what Jesus did? He loved mankind, and sacrificed His life, even for people who hated Him. That’s not easy for us fleshly, selfish mortals, but it is what makes Christianity transcendent over all other religions. It is interesting that, in the context where Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” He also said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48). True love rises above feelings and always seeks the best for the one loved. And it’s an individual, personal virtue, not a government program, like so many on the Left seem to want it to be. Vicarious, forced virtue is not what Jesus taught.
Jesus loved the rich young man and told him what he had to do to go to heaven, even though He knew it would hurt the man deeply. But that’s love. The greatest love you can have for a person is to expose their evil and help them learn what they must do to be right with God and spend an eternity in heaven. That is exactly, always, and only what Jesus did. There is hardly as less-loving thing a person can do than let someone die and go to hell unwarned.