"If you didn't love me ..."

"If you didn't love me, Mommy, what would you say to me?"

For as long as I can remember, my son has asked me this question on numerous occasions as a sort of game --  But it is a game in which he learns about true love.  He always asks me with a twinkle in his eyes and a slight grin on his face, but I know he listens very intently to every example I give him of "What Mommy would say if she DIDN'T love him."

Usually, I respond with statements like these:

"If Mommy didn't love you, I would tell you to 'go outside and play in the road'."  His eyes always get big when I say that.

"If Mommy didn't love you, I would tell you to 'go to bed dirty; don't worry about a bath'."

"If Mommy didn't love you, I would say 'You can say bad words'."

He gasps at this example.

And the list continues with all of the things I would say IF I did not love him.

This innocent game he likes to play has come to the forefront of my mind this week.

All of us are witnessing what the "world" is calling "progress" these days.  There are many who are diligently striving to erase the line between right and wrong -- as if man's eradication of the concept of sin changes anything ...

When followers of the Truth choose not to remain silent regarding the practice of sin, we are called intolerant.  We are called haters.   We are called cruel and heartless.

Jesus commanded His disciples: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men" (Matthew 5:13 KJV).

 True Christians speak God's Truth in love - not hate.

Using the same words of my son, I say the following:

If I DIDN'T love others, I would say,

"It is okay if you continue to willfully sin." 

"It is okay if you attempt to convince others and yourself that your way is better than God's way."

"It is okay if your actions cause innocent hearts to follow sin."

"It is okay if you distort the Word of God."

"It is okay if innocent babies are put to death so that you are not 'burdened'."

"It is okay if you defile God's definitions of family and marriage and love."

 If anything, friends, when we do not speak the Truth to those who are misled and sinning, it is then that we are truly hate-filled.  It is then that we do not love them.  It is then that we are willfully pointing them to the lake of fire. 

^" Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me" (John 14: 23-24 KJV).

 Within the last few months, I spoke the Truth to someone whose actions were not godly and were in fact causing others to sin.  Before and after speaking these words, I prayed wholeheartedly for God's guidance.  Shortly thereafter, Satan arrived attempting to steal the truth of the words I had spoken.  God has taught me that the Parable of the Sower illustrates Satan's continual attempt to steal the Truth when it is sown.  If Satan can steal the truth from a person's heart, it can't be fruitful, and instead, the seed is choked and dies in the heart of that man.

I found myself being worried that I had offended the very person whose actions were causing others to sin.  But God did something remarkable; He completely shifted my focus.  Satan wanted me to be consumed with worry that I had hurt the one who had transgressed.  God used a remarkable moment to shift my eyes to the perspective of the innocent hearts that were being tempted with sin.

It was in that moment that I realized how deceptive Satan can be.  He attempts to silence the truth with doubt and condemnation toward the follower of Christ.   If he can silence the "salt of the earth," then he can continue to entrap person after person, and the borders of hell continue to expand.

So, if we don't love others, we will remain silent and look the other way while Satan continues to ensnare yet another person.