Love Everyone?

Today in Criminology there was a presentation on domestic violence. There was a statistic in particular that really stuck out to me. That was this, 90% of children who die due to domestic abuse are under the age of 10. Over 50% of that number are under the age of 2.

Just let that sink in. If you're at all like me, you just want to push that thought away as much as possible. Our professor told us that in all reality, parents killing their children is far more prevalent than you would ever believe. In 2007 1,760 children died from domestic abuse.

As I wrestle with these statistics I'm also struck by the fact that these people too, are loved by God. That in God's eyes, sin is sin no matter what. That I sit in the same boat as a man who beat a murdered his children and wife. That I'm in the same boat with someone like Ted Bundy.

Not only that, but that we're called to love these people. We're called to visit these people, to tell them about Jesus. That one day when we get to Heaven, these very people could be there. I once heard that Ted Bundy accepted Christ before he was executed on death row. If that's true, Ted Bundy's in Heaven.

While I think about these things there are two things I'm struck by. The first being that I think we as Christians tend to put levels on sin. We think sins like lying and gossip really aren't that bad compared to those of murder. We even put little nice phrases on them to make them sound not so bad. We lie and defend it with, "but I didn't want to hurt their feelings". We gossip, but we call it a "prayer request".  And then we go before God and say, "well at least I never stole" or "at least I never killed someone". It's like we think that God's going to give us some reward for never committing the "big" sins. But to God, sin is sin. God equates hate with murder. We lose sight of the fact that God is a Holy God, one that doesn't tolerate any sin. That while we may have just gossiped about someone, in God's book, it's as bad as if we killed them.  Our human minds can't comprehend the fact that all sin is the same.

The second thought I'm struck by is that while we are these terrible sinners, God still offers his forgiveness. For some reason beyond me this beautiful, holy God looks down on us horribly sinful people and says that He loves us. Not only does He loves us, but that while we deserve Hell, He offers His son so we don't have to go there. Jesus takes our punishment for us. When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and ask Him into our hearts, our sins are gone. Jesus' blood was powerful enough to cover not only my sin, not only Ted Bundy's sin, but the world's. Just sit on that for a second.

God loved us that much. God loves Ted Bundy that much. God loves the person who beat and killed his children that much.

If God who is this incredibly holy God can love someone so unlovable that much, shouldn't we?
As Christians isn't it our duty to pray for those people? To minister to those people? The Christian life isn't easy. In fact, it's messy. We as Christians, myself included, like to stay where it's nice and clean in our buildings and very rarely want to venture out into the messiness of the world.

I know this is a lot to take in, I'm still wrestling through it myself. I'd love to hear your thoughts, because I don't have all the answers. But, that's just what I've been wrestling with today.