philoxenia-the love of a stranger

John 3:16- "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

Basic right? You know this verse, maybe you have it memorized? Maybe you've seen it on the bottom of your fries at In-N-Out or on the back of your Forever 21 bag-regardless, this verse is familiar. So unpack it; what does it mean?
"He gave His Son" as in He gave away His Son. He had something and by choice decided not to have it anymore. And why? For the sake of relationship with us of course.
Back in the day, even "the most righteous" of God's followers, the rabbis, were too wicked to be in the holy presence of The Lord. There was literally a curtain that separated the holy from the unholy-the righteous from the wicked, the sinless from the sinful: the spirit of The Lord from His people.
By sending His Son, God was making a statement: "forget your wickedness; I don't care that I am holy and that you are not...I want a relationship with you. Yeah, so what that you fall short or reject my ways, I want to be intimate with you." Literally, this "Holy of Holies" veil tore from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus' death. (Mark 15:38)
Now, as God gave away His Son to have a relationship with the unrighteous, we too have a sacrifice to make. This sacrifice is our comfort-as in our comfort zones with people-so that we may have a relationship with "the unrighteous," "the lost," "the sinner"...etc.

John 3:16 is valid, but keep reading into verse 17 and you'll see that we are reminded "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."
"If anyone hears My saying and does not keep them, I do not judge them; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world." -John 12:47 (P.S. this is JESUS speaking.)
If the Lord himself came not to judge His children, who am I to do so? Who are we to hold bitterness to the friend who wronged us, to the partner who cheated, to the community who gossiped, to the parent who betrayed and left? Who are we to fear the homosexual, the one who is defiant, the people who are different? Who are we to love only those we want to when we want to?
God's love is free and for all-therefore our love ought to be free and for all. Not only are we called to love, we are commanded to love. "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord." Leviticus 19:18. If you're not so into Leviticus, look in Matthew 22:39: "The second [greatest and foremost commandment] is You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

What do commandments have in common? They are actions we are to do or actions we are not to do. One of my tendencies is to say that it is impossible to love everyone. Perhaps it is nearly impossible to feel love towards everyone, but in relating love to the way it is referred to in the Bible, loving is in action-something tangible and something doable. In 1 Corinthians 13:4 "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous..." note how the characteristics of love are characteristics that can be acted out. Think of Biblical examples of love. Most if not all do not consist of one person merely saying "I love you" or acknowledging a feeling of love, rather, Biblical examples consist of an action that was taken towards another.

God's commandment is not focused on having love (as in a noun) but on loving (as a in a verb.) Luckily, The Lord knows us. When it is hard for us to forgive someone or to look past a sin, with diligent prayer and intended time in scripture/with God, He can transform our hearts. But regardless of the genuineness of our hearts, in giving our lives to Him we have lost our rights to dismiss His commandments, including his commandment to love-to express love, to show love, to love on.

Just as God sacrificed His Son so that He could be intimate with the sinful, we are called to sacrifice our comfort zones so that we too may look at one another who have sinned and not hold prejudice. This we can do by carrying-out love; for we don't need to feel love to do love.