The Opposite of Love

What strikes me time and again in our ministry here is that thoughtlessness and indifference cause more damage than intentional malice. Very few people are thieves and murderers. But most people spend too little time thinking about what their actions do to others.

When a shepherd allows his sheep to wander into an area where young mango trees have been planted, he doesn't do it intentionally to cause damage. He was simply looking at his phone too much.

How many children in Africa suffer because their parents find it more important to have a nice phone than to buy mosquito nets.

How many people in Europe are lonely because we don't bother to look closer and give them five minutes of our time.

But even the thief isn't driven by hate. He simply doesn't care about the people he steals from.

Indifference and the resulting thoughtlessness are destroying our world. They are the true opposite of love, not hatred, which is so often named. And they are what God's righteous anger is directed against, and what He will ultimately pour out His judgment upon.

How much indifference and thoughtlessness do you allow in your own life? Where do you simply do whatever pops into your mind without thinking about the consequences for yourself and others? Where do you save money, time, or effort, taking for granted that others have to pay the price? The underpaid employees, the farmers who no longer know how they will survive the next planting season, the semi-enslaved garment workers in Asia, etc. Do you simply not care about any of them? Or rather, are they less important to you than your own comfort?

"Love your neighbor as yourself," Jesus says. Meaning: "Care for the needs of your fellow human beings with the same zeal as you do for your own."