THE WILL TO LOVE - Vital Christianity

68It was while we were hideous to God that He loved us and died for us!And this same passage tells us that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners and italso tells us that He died for us while we were “helpless, without strength” (v. 6). There was nopossibility of our ever helping ourselves out of our lost condition.“If that is the standard, I may as well admit right now that I cannot attain it” might be theresponse of some of us. And that is true. In ourselves we cannot attain God’s holy perfectstandard. God’s love—divine love, supernatural love, indiscriminate love—is possible only tothose in whom the Lord Jesus Christ is working and in whom His love dwells. If you are not aChristian, you must begin by becoming one and asking Him to create that love in you, or, if youare a Christian but are far from the Lord, you must draw near to Him and ask Him to work outthat love in you.THE SOURCEOnly the imparted grace of God can empower us to scale the heights of impartial,indiscriminate love. We are compelled to cry with St. Augustine:“O God, give what Thou commandest, then command what Thou wilt.”This is just what God has done for us through the inner working of His Spirit:“. . . God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whomHe has given us” (Ro 5:5).The source of God’s love, the power to manifest His love is found in God Himself. As weobey the Lord in serving our fellow men, friend and foe alike, the Holy Spirit pours out His loveinto our lives and this love spills over to other people.Is your love impartial, without discrimination? Like the God who sends His sun and rainon the good and bad alike, are you impartial in your love—omitting no group, loving enemies aswell as friends?EXAMPLESIn His famous sermon entitled, “Loving Your Enemies,” Martin Luther King powerfullypreached:“To our most bitter opponents we say: ‘We shall match your capacity to inflictsuffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical forcewith soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you.