Thursday, March 31, 2005

Like us in every way except without sin

We must not think of Christ's sinlessness so much as a moral and metaphysical negative, but as a moral and spiritual positive. He did not simply abstain from doing "bad things". Rather, he was so filled with the love of God that it displaced his desire and capacity for lesser goods, i.e., sin. In turn, he calls us to love each and every person to our maximum capacity. The sad fact of the matter is, we do love some people more than others. While we should not content ourselves with this disparity of love, we must not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Our refusal to love someone we happen to love much more than someone else, for whatever reason (subconscious affectivities, personality compatibility, personal benefits, etc.), is nothing less than a sin against God, whose primary aim is to fill us with his love for his glory. Refusing to be embarassingly loving to our favorite co-worker or neighbor or roommate or student or etc. -- for the sake of "politeness" and "being normal," of course -- is a grave failure to obey our lord.

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