Great Quotes: It’s My Job to Love
“It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge, and my job to love.” – Billy Graham, asked why he would attend a rally in support of Bill Clinton after his sex scandal was made public
Wow. How much different would Christians’ engagement with the people around us be if we really lived with this in mind? How much different would my interactions with people be?
Maybe we don’t have to spend so much time trying to convince people of their sin. This idea, it seems to me, releases Christians from the constant fear that associating with people who do things we disagree with means we somehow endorse their behavior. That fear leads us too often to distance ourselves from people who desperately need God’s love – and our love. Maybe we are supposed to leave the convicting to the Holy Spirit. Is it possible that our job is to demonstrate God’s love to people in every tangible way we can? And maybe, just maybe, that demonstration of love will help to open the door for the Holy Spirit’s work in people’s lives – ours included.
I like your own words about convincing people of their sins. While I know it uses a broad brush, more and more I think I’ve come to the perspective that most people who are in the “major” sins know they are sinning. Even if they don’t define it as sin, people who are in the middle of something like Bill Clinton’s sex scandal (even if it’s not front page news) are pretty well aware of how they have made a mess of things. There are of course people who do not have the ability to see that they have done something wrong but honestly, if it is someone who for lack of better words, “has no conscience” or is “so narcissistic” that they cannot see how their actions could possibly be wrong, then really it will probably be therapy that changes this, not the condemnation of others. I think it’s hard though to let go of that. I know that in my mind I struggle all the time with choosing love. At our church, we have an elder’s wife who came to faith rather late in life and has a sailor’s vocabulary that she has used fairly often. My main concerns have been that her language could be one of those things that turns people off to our church. Oh how much I wanted to doubt her ability to be an elder’s wife or to say something to her “in love” about her language. (And for women, I think there is also the tendency to repeat your concerns to other women.) But I didn’t. And instead I prayed about how to deal with it which basically lead me to pray for her and to give her grace. The reality is she has talked this way for 30 years so I’m sure it’s been a hard habit to change. I’m also pretty sure she probably already feels the pressure to have appropriate language. So I decided to just pray that she would be open to having God change her whole life, however He wanted to change it, even if it wasn’t in the area of language. (ie basically “let my friend have a heart that wants to serve you always.” And I have to say that little by little, over time, I think her language is changing. I have noticed her stopping mid sentence to rephrase something which she wouldn’t have done before. I’m so glad I didn’t get all holy roller on her. =)
Great comment Kayla – that’s a great example of what I’m talking about. We feel like its our job to convict people – and I just don’t think that’s true. You should read “Love is an Orientation” by Andrew Marin – I think you’d find it very interesting. That’s actually where I got the quote from, and he talks about this very issue. I’m halfway through and think its a fantastic book so far.
Gary Rosberg loved to tell people that our name as Christians is “beloved” and “child” but not “Holy Spirit Jr.” That’s helped me a lot.
Love these quotes as I have my self a website with quotes about life. Thought it would be wise to share my favorite quote: “It’s the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what’s right.” – Peter Parker