Unconditional Love Does Not Equal Total Agreement

Today I read an article written by Brice Cherry, sports writer for the Waco Tribune Herald, about Brittney Griner and her upcoming book “In My Skin”. A relative posted the article so I read it. In it I found something profound. One of the most down and dirty definitions of unconditional love I have read outside the Bible.

Griner's Estrangement from Baylor not Justified

I am not a women’s basketball fan. I am not a Baylor fan. Therefore I am not a Brittney Griner fan. It has nothing to do with who she is, it has more to do with I don’t know her well enough (personally or from following her career) to be her fan.

However, I do live in the Waco area and I have watched people worship her and treat her like royalty for a number of years now. Based on a few quotes from the book, Griner has apparently forgotten the love poured out on her when she was here. The quotes appear to point to a change of heart about her time as a super-hero here in Waco. When Brittney came out as gay shortly after leaving Baylor I don’t think anyone at Baylor was surprised. I know I wasn’t. Yet I never heard one adoring fan say anything negative – not one – and I know quite a few high verbal Baylor fans.

Basically Brice is questioning Brittney’s new found distain for Baylor and the fans who supported her so overwhelmingly while she was here in Waco. In the article about Baylor’s stance on homosexuality, Mr. Cherry says,

"Now, as it pertains to the university’s official, much-publicized stance on homosexuality, it must be stressed that Baylor is a Christian school founded on biblical principles. So what Griner is really saying is that she doesn’t like what the Bible has to say on the topic. In my view, Baylor should be applauded, not condemned, for sticking to those principles, whether the mainstream culture considers them popular or not.
 
Unconditional love does not equal total agreement. Do you get that? We don’t all have to agree to love one another. We don’t have to all go along to get along. It’s also, believe it or not, possible to disagree without judgment or hatred.
 
Unfortunately, many who promote the gay agenda don’t tolerate that idea."

Now Christians get the bad rap for saying homosexuality is sin, but really the one you are in disagreement with is God. He said it first. Christians just believe what He said first in His Bible. We don’t get to pick and choose which parts we believe to be true and which parts we believe are outdated. Many argue that because times have changed, so has God. If that argument were true, that He changes His mind with the times, what else has He changed His mind about? Sex with animals (he says that’s wrong too, you know)? Or murder? How about lying? Slander or gossip? Stealing? Many of these are practices done by all of us. Can we justify the sin by saying God has changed His mind because times have changed and now it’s ok? How frustrating that would be. To never know where God stands would make it impossible to trust Him. Even He says that He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Brice’s words are profound – simple – yet profound. So many believe that because Christians believe homosexuality to be sin that Christians hate homosexuals. That would be like saying, because my child does something I disagree with, I hate that child. That’s insane.

My children are wonderful people. They are smart, they are funny, they are all of fine character, and they each have made many wise choices in their lives. However, each one of them has made choices that I have thought, “have they lost their mind?” These choices always involved disobedience to God’s word. Never once, even though I disagreed with their choices, never once, not even for a moment did I hate them. My love for them is without condition…especially the condition that in order for me to love them, they must be exactly like me.

My husband is a good man. He loves me. He loves our children and grandchildren. He protects us. He provides for us. He even makes me coffee in the mornings. But we disagree – about several things – that we will never agree on. Never. But it doesn’t make me hate him. My love for my husband is without condition…especially the condition that in order for me to love him, he must be exactly like me.

I have several friends who are homosexual. I do not hate any of them. I loved them before I knew. I continue to love them. My love for them has nothing to do with the fact that they live a lifestyle I disagree with because of my faith in God and my belief that what He says in His word is still valid today, just like it was back when He said it the first time. I figure that they love me too – in spite of my sin – even though I display sin in my every day life, they love me.

I haven’t walked in their shoes. I don’t understand completely what they deal with on a daily basis. But my love isn’t based on understanding their choices and especially not based on agreeing with their choices. My love is based on the fact that Jesus said LOVE. He didn’t add an addendum to that saying only love those who are just like you. He told me to LOVE.

If one of my grandchildren comes to me someday and tells me they are gay, I can promise this now, it will not cause me to quit loving them. I will definitely share my faith and share what God has taught me and what God has said in His word about homosexuality, but I will continue to love them.

Sadly, most people don’t get that someone can continue to love when they have deep seated differences with someone. In their world disagreement does equal hate.  And even when it's not there, there are those who  will try to convince you that it is.

Even sadder is that many people who tout the name "Christian" hate more than many others. They believe they are right, but they aren't following what Christ said and they're using His name to spread hate. He mentioned taking His name in vain too.

But they don’t get it because they don’t know the love He gave first and without that understanding, you can’t really love – not unconditionally. God loves us so much that He sent His Son from the glories of heaven to put on skin and live this life to perfection and then be beaten and killed on a cross to pay our price for our sin. Something we could never do for ourselves so God, who loves us so much – unconditionally – did the work for us. And if all that were not enough, Jesus rose from the dead to seal the deal. And in His grace, He freely gives us the gift of being saved – the gift of knowing personally the absolute definition of unconditional love.