Can You Love If You Do Not Know?
Yet another shooting, yet another bomb, yet another tragedy where innocent lives are lost.
Everyone feels so strongly that they have the right views. I don't even want to make a public
comment about what we should do after the recent bombings in Iraq and Turkey, the Nice attack,
the spate of heartbreaking shootings in America or even the politically driven beatings of even
women in Zimbabwe. My heart breaks every time I read of yet another tragedy and I cannot
fathom how people have it in them to hurt others so deeply. It makes me feel so helpless.
How do we change this endless cycle of violence against each other?
I was struck one evening watching The Daily Show, the satirical news show that Trevor Noah
hosts, when he reacted to police involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, making a
fascinating point that so clearly defines our world right now: "If you are ‘pro-Black Lives
Matter,’ you're assumed to be ‘anti-police,’ and if you are ‘pro-police,’ then you surely hate
black people. It seems that its either pro-cop and anti-black or pro-black and anti-cop when in
reality you can be pro-cop AND pro-black, which is what we should all be."
Our world is becoming increasingly polarized by the day. If you are pro-something, you are
automatically assumed to be anti-something else, and when that involves a group of people that
can be devastating. Additionally, it continues to separate us as human beings further into
different categories, the natural result being that we only know about the group we are for, and
therefore ‘who we are supposed to be against.’
The only way to bridge this gap is by getting to know someone. The Biblical term for intimate
love is the same word as 'to know.' We can only love others if we know them. If Jesus teaches us
to love others as we love ourselves, implicitly He is asking us to know others and to know
ourselves. No one is perfect. We all are in deep need of God's grace and for us to be people of
Jesus, it means we need to cross over to the other side and actually get to know people: People
who act and look different than us; people who have different skin colour, different beliefs, and
different political views than ourselves. You don't have to agree with someone to love them, but
you do need to get to know them, because without knowing them you wont be able to love
them.
All of this comes down to one simple truth: All of humanity is God's creation. All people are
people who were created in God's image, and whether they acknowledge His existence or are
actively rebelling against him, they remain His beloved just the same. God’s pursuit to show love
towards those who follow Him runs just as deep for those who are not following Him. The Bible
repeatedly says God does not play favourites, and we need to embrace that reality as deeply true.
Why is this reality true? Because He knows each of us intimately and therefore loves us deeply.
This is what people need. We need to get to really know each other so we can really start loving
each other, whether we agree with each other or not.