Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Francis Chan
A Generous Love
Years ago, I remember hearing a pastor saying, “Never resist a generous impulse.” On one occasion he was standing behind a single mother of 3 and she was in tears while searching for enough change to pay her grocery bill, so the pastor had a generous impulse. He handed the cashier a twenty dollar bill, and the woman looked at him and said, “Thank you” while tears were streaming down her face. God wants us to love others in such an extreme way that we make a difference in the world.
A Radical Love
What does a radical love look like? How about this; Christ died for the weak and ungodly (us) (Rom 5:6), Christ died for the unrighteous (us) (Rom 5:7), Christ died for sinners (us) Rom 5:8), and Christ died for the enemies of God (us) (Rom 5:10), so helping others should not depend on their goodness, but upon the goodness of God.
A Godly Love
Returning to Romans 5, we read that no “one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:7-8), so “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), and that’s why Christ died for us, so we must die to ourselves and live to help others.
Conclusion
Never suppress an impulse to be generous because God can use your radical expression of love to draw others to Christ. This is the type of godly love that’s missing in the world, so love others like they’ve never been loved before, regardless of whether they deserve it or not (and who does?)
