Consider, if you will, the size of God.1 In His own words, “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales” (Isaiah 40:15). Individual people seem to Him as mere “grasshoppers” (Isaiah 40:22). Heaven is His throne, earth is His footstool, and there is no one like Him.2
Imagine this God having to deal with the petty squabbles, complaints, and opinions of people.
Consider, if you will, the perfection of God. He makes no mistakes, cannot fail, knows all, sees all, and does all with perfect faithfulness.3 The unholy does not survive in His presence. “For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). “Who among us can live with continual burning?” (Isaiah 33:14). In God’s words, “For no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:22).
Imagine this God surrounded by inventors of sin, approvers of sin, slaves of sin, victims of sin, and the consequences of sin at every turn.
Consider, if you will, who rules hell. ‘Cause it’s not Satan. Hell is a prison, and Satan is not the warden. He is its prisoner.4 It is Jesus who sends people to hell. It is He who sits as judge at the final judgment and declares these to be righteous and these to be condemned.5 It is His job.6
Imagine this Jesus rubbing elbows with those on their way to judgment day unforgiven. Those who are dragging others to hell with them.7 Those who are barring the gates of heaven so that others cannot enter.8
And Jesus had to live with these people. For thirty-three years.
These were His neighbors. His friends. His family. These were the people who came into the carpentry shop for furniture. These were the people He went fishing with. These were His little brothers and sisters, His mom, His dad. These were the people in every crowd He preached to, who tasted of His miracles and demanded more.9 These were the ones who shouted “crucify.”10
And He loved them.
Friedrich Nietzsche says man is God’s first mistake (woman being His second).11 God says people are His crowning achievement.12
Who do you agree with?
People aren’t easy. They aren’t easy to deal with, they aren’t easy to love. And yet God–who has more excuse than anyone to write off every person He encounters as too far gone–loved each of us enough to die for us.13 And it is that love we are supposed to be bursting with every time we walk down the street.14
Nothing reveals our love for God more clearly than our love for people.15 Nothing reveals our lack of love for God more clearly than our lack of love for people. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).
- See Ephesians 3:18-19; Isaiah 41:4; Psalm 147:5; see also Hebrews 7:3. ↩︎
- Isaiah 40:25, 66:1 ↩︎
- Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 46:10, 25:1 ↩︎
- See Matthew 25:41. ↩︎
- Matthew 25:34-36 ↩︎
- John 5:22 ↩︎
- See Matthew 18:6-7. ↩︎
- Matthew 23:13 ↩︎
- Matthew 16:1; see also John 6:26. ↩︎
- Mark 15:13 ↩︎
- Implied or stated in his works “Twilight of the Idols” and “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” ↩︎
- Genesis 1:31 ↩︎
- Romans 5:8 ↩︎
- 1 John 4:10-11 ↩︎
- John 13:35 ↩︎