Love seeks good for all people

I was watching an NFL game Monday night between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. I've been a Bills fan since the 1990s — when they went to four straight Super Bowls and didn't win one. “Wide right” went down in football infamy when Scott Norwood missed the winning field goal.  

During Monday's football game, there was a commercial that called on those watching to “stand up to hate.” I looked up the definition of hate and found, “an intense and passionate dislike.” The Bills' kicker was not a popular guy that year, but was he hated? It was more his act of a missed kick that was “intensely disliked” — but some people might have transferred that to the person himself.  

That's what often happens in hate — there is a behavior or an action that is disliked and from there it jumps to the one who did it. If that were the only cause for hate. But what about something like skin color that is mere genetics? Then there is how someone grows up culturally or how they believe. More reasons for those who want to hate. 

How do I stand up to hate? Not with more hate. Not with anger. Not with slander. Here's an idea — what about with love. I heard a story in church a few weeks ago. The neighbors were partying in a local town and shot off an illegal firework that lit the house across the street on fire. It burned down. That neighbor thought he could never be forgiven. He was — and got loved right into knowing the love of Jesus. 

How did Jesus stand up to hate? Here is one example. Where the guy was I do not know but the woman caught in the adulterous act was surrounded by men who thought she should be stoned. They wanted Jesus to agree. It was a grievous sin. 

Instead, He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Nobody could. They left “one by one, beginning with the older ones,” until it was just Jesus and her. He asked, “Where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She answered, “No one, Lord.” 

Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on, sin no more.” He wasn't giving her a pass to act however she wanted. But neither did He display any hateful behavior toward her. He was the one who could have cast the stone. 

The woman in this scene is not named. We don't know how her life turned out. But I think her encounter with Jesus — and the love and mercy He showed her — changed her entire future. That's what love can do. It does not blindly approve everything or accept everything. It speaks truth. There are consequences.  

But love seeks good for another person. And when love “stands up” to hate an incredible thing happens. Hate has nowhere to go and no place to grow. It leaves.