Love Me!

 Is it a need or a compulsion? Or is it a compulsion that transforms into a need over time? I’ve always wondered about this because knowing the answer to those two questions would reveal much about why so many Christians go out of their way to be loved by the world. Not that the world will ever love them. Sure, they’ll use them readily enough, but as far as love, the world is really good at faking love until they’re called upon to put action behind the words.

Is the world even capable of love? I’m not talking about lust, desire, attraction, or any such banal subset masquerading as love, but rather true love, pure love, selfless, sacrificial love. I would wager no, at least not in its pure form, because the world wouldn’t be the way it is if they were capable of and practiced true love. They can imitate love well enough, but when it comes to true love, that’s another story altogether.

It always astounds me how readily people will compromise themselves, their beliefs, their standards, and their integrity just to be loved by the world that despises them. There is no limit to the depth of their betrayal, no limit to the extent of their compromise, all so they can bask in the limelight for five minutes, then for the next six months be propped up as the poster child for tolerance, inclusivity, acceptance, and validation.

How could you still be against this or that when your favorite Christian artist is for it? How can you still preach against sin when your favorite televangelist said that eventually all dogs go to heaven? You’re just stuck in the past. You’re fighting for a cause that was lost as soon as the church made its first compromise. Why keep fighting? You know, if you play along, if you acquiesce, if you see the error of your ways, maybe you can appear on a TV show and hock your new project, your next concert, or your new coast-to-coast revival tour.

When did the church start acting like some lovesick teenager who just spotted her favorite artist eating an ice cream sundae? Why are we so enamored with the idea of the world loving us when Jesus said they wouldn’t?

When supposed leaders of Christendom act like nothing more stable than a free agent waiting for the next offer, it’s not only perplexing; it’s downright troubling. They call them influencers for a reason. They influence people’s perceptions, ideas, beliefs, and definitions of normal, decent, and wholesome.

We live in a twisted culture with twisted ideals, and those who ought to be the plumb line in word and deed are too busy trying to take selfies with the selfsame people that fed their kids to the predators and perverts on a silver platter. You don’t become depraved overnight. Small changes add up over time, and what was once considered fringe, on the outskirts of society, is now normalized to the point of being promoted in churches and sanctuaries.

It’s never the other way around, is it? You don’t see the godless trying to ingratiate themselves with the church the way the church tries to ingratiate itself with the godless, do you? Sure, there are those cases where a has-been actor finds spirituality because they just made a movie about a missionary, a priest, or some such. Still, it’s only temporary, then after the film is released and the demographic has been saturated with the tale of redemption, they go back to doing all the things that broke them in the first place.

I guess I’m just tired of being taken advantage of, of having my intelligence insulted time and again by people who’ve been actively working to degrade society and culture for the better part of a quarter of a century.

Those who genuinely find redemption at the foot of the cross likely won’t be doing the rounds talking about their newfound spirituality and how they’ve discovered their spiritual man. Those truly transformed will be blacklisted by Hollywood and likely never make another movie because their new nature will be so grating, their light so blinding for those in the darkness that they will shun them to the furthest reaches.

It won’t be a temporary thing; it won’t be something they associate with only to push a product; it will be a life change, a transformation, a renewal of mind and heart like the Bible says conversion ought to be.

That the children of God would bow and scrape for the world’s acceptance tells me everything I need to know about how the children of God view themselves. That they would compromise, deny, obfuscate, and betray God Himself tells me all I need to know about how they view Him.

The world will never love you unless you become like the world. Even then, they will make a show of you because what animates them isn’t love for you but hate for the God you betrayed to gain their acceptance.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.