Love Without Boundaries
Maybe it is because my mom left when I was less than four and I never saw her again except for a brief period when I was in my late teens. Or maybe it’s because some boy called me ugly or made some mean comment about how I looked in junior high or even elementary school. It might have even been some girl I thought was my friend who ditched me when someone “better” or more “popular” came along. I honestly don’t remember when or why, but somewhere along the way, I learned that love has boundaries.
That’s not all bad. Some boundaries are good – healthy even. We are not to be equally yoked with nonbelievers. (2 Corinthians 6:14) We are not to engage in the ways of the world. (Romans 12:1-2) These are for our own protection – so that we may not fall prey to the vices of the world that keep us from worshiping God.
“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” – Acts 17:26 (NIV)(Emphasis mine)
However, boundaries that restrict how we love cannot be good. They cannot be healthy when you consider that Jesus gave but two commands.
“…‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” – Mathew 22:37-39 (ESV)
Jesus goes on to say how love is the foundation of all the commandments – fulfillment of the law. Paul echoes that sentiment in Romans 13:10, writing, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.” (NASB; See Galatians 5:14).
But love without boundaries is hard. It means opening yourself up to being hurt, betrayed, and even worse. It means giving of your heart with no anticipation of receiving in return.
It means trusting – trusting God to protect you even when you are crushed by the weight of the world as it tramples on your love, throws it away, uses it and leaves you empty. Sadly, I am not capable of that kind of vulnerability. While I can prayerfully broaden my boundaries, I am not capable of having my love discarded, trampled upon, or rejected without retreating from the command Jesus gave us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Ironically, I find it easier to love a stranger than someone in the circle of my life – someone who I will see over and over again. It is easier to discount rejection by someone that does not impact your life or that you don’t care about as much than to be reminded of the rejection every time you see the person.
Yet, that is the kind of rejection Jesus came to face.
The rejection by those He created – by those He called His chosen people – and, ultimately, at some point or another, by me. By my boundaries, built on the painful foundation that the world built. By the boy who called me ugly. Or the girl who ditched me. Or a mother who didn’t love me enough to stick around.
The world helped me build boundaries that kept Jesus out. If the world could not – would not love me, how could I expect my creator, who knew all of my worst thoughts, actions and sins, to love me?
Yet, that is what Jesus did for us – for me. He loved me despite myself. He loved me when I sinned against Him. (Romans 5:8)
Jesus loves without boundaries. He allows His heart to be broken just as His body was beaten on earth so that we might see His love.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” – Ephesians 2:4-5 (NASB)
He loved the sinner, the lost, the rebellious and the broken – all of us – without boundaries. And while I know it is hard, I want that kind of love – the kind of love that only comes from Christ – to fill me and pour out into the world so that He may be glorified. I want it for me and I want it for you. And I want it for the world so that Jesus may be known.
So, I join Paul in praying:
“…that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” – Ephesians 3:17b-19 (NIV)(Emphasis mine)
Amen.
Amen indeed, Niccol. May I have the same love for others as Christ had for me by being beaten and broken on the cross.
May I give freely of myself, as Jesus does for me.
Thanks Iris and Denise! Love that we are all “in progress.”
Beautiful! I too learned some years ago about the boundaries of love. After 40 years of separation I reconciled with my earthly father, extending forgiveness to a man that so many of my other family members could not comprehend. Such love comes only from understanding the love of our heavenly father. There is no greater love. 🙂