God’s love is costly, #LoveWins is cheap
Why Christians should respond to marriage equality with kindness and ethical responsibility
Same-sex marriage is now legal in the United States, a ruling handed down by the Supreme Court in a 5-to-4 verdict on June 26. Some commentators have predicted a doomsday, calling this decision the end of American civilization, while others are taking a more progressive approach labelling it the new post-homophobic Christianity. The truth is that it’s probably somewhere in between.
Take Canada for example. On July 20 it will have been 10 years since our government legalized same-sex marriage. I know Christians who support same-sex marriage, and I know some who are extremely troubled by it. Both feel free enough to express their views and debate with each other even though Canadian culture moved on from the issue a decade ago. Society hasn’t imploded nor have conservative Christians in Canada relinquished their right to express their religious convictions.
The Twitter tag #LoveWins has trended for the past week as the slogan for those who celebrate the American decision as a victory. In their view, love is defined by how much we accept people and their right to practice homosexuality. Those who think same-sex marriage is immoral on religious grounds are considered haters, homophobics, even enemies of the state—those on the losing side of human history.
We live in a society that feels it has the right to commandeer the meaning of love as it sees fit. But God’s love, I think, is something entirely different than the #LoveWins slogan currently trending around the globe.
At the cross of Jesus, God’s love is in perfect form. The German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, reminds us that although God’s love is a free gift, it does not come cheap. It comes at the cost of God’s Son.
“Nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God”
The phrase is one of Bonhoeffer’s most famous, and it applies today. Cheap love, which we see trending in the #LoveWins slogan, justifies sin, not the sinner. It overlooks how generous and costly God’s love is, and what that means for how we live our lives in response to Jesus’ voluntary death on the cross. Cheap love is devoid of ethical responsibility. God’s love, on the other hand, requires a heart willing to admit sin and ask for His help as we struggle with our humanity.
In the age of controversial groups like the Gay Christian Network and where 64 per cent of evangelical millennials are in support of same-sex marriage, we may be seeing a shift in how the church responds to those who have been seen in the past as outsiders.
Perhaps this is the way Jesus would have it, a Messiah who dined with “defiled” outsiders and was judged by the conservatives of the day for his “unorthodox” practices.
We are called to take Jesus’ lead by living out the Word of God. But this means holding in tension passages which require kindness to outsiders and the courage to live out a costly discipleship which preserves (and witnesses to) the ethical nature of the Christian life.
“If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that” (Matt 5: 47).
“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:12).
If we can hold these teachings in tension, God’s love wins and we become witnesses to how much it cost God to open His heart to humanity and what He requires of us in return.
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