'Love the Unlovely'

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I’ve heard pastors say we should “love the unlovely.”

I think that means we should love people who repulse us in some way. But have we heard that phrase so many times that it has lost some of its meaning and become part of the Christian-ese Christ-followers sometimes speak?

When I hear those words, “love the unlovely,” I often envision someone watching television. A photo of a beggar, a sad-eyed child or a starving person appears on the screen, and while sitting in an easy-chair, the viewer decides to send funds to help “love the unlovely.” No muss, no fuss. Funds are needed. Sending money is good. It’s okay to love the unlovely from a distance.

Another scene I visualize when I hear the words “love the unlovely” comes together in my mind in this way: a vagrant enters a church sanctuary on a Sunday morning. People are singing as the inebriated bum staggers down center-aisle. Unlovely odors radiate from the “down on his luck” man’s rag-clad torso. Two ushers wearing coats and ties intercept “Mr. Bojangles” and his worn-out shoes before he can do any kind of dance, click his heels or “speak right out.” (Mr. Bojangles may have fared better if he had danced across a TV screen.) The ushers take the bum to a backroom, determine he’s too drunk to reason with and haul him to a mission or homeless shelter. Maybe the church could have done more, but it loved the unlovely enough to provide some help.

“Loving the unlovely” opportunities sometimes come to us through easily identified characters. But loving the unlovely can be toughest when the unlovely are people we know and love, or should love. The most challenging unlovely people may be relatives, coworkers or others with whom we have to interact. Sometimes, the unlovely are fellow Christians. And, of course, our “loving the unlovely” is complicated – it’s complicated because of the un-loveliness we discover in our own hearts when we begin to try to love the unlovely.

  

We, the totally depraved, who have placed faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation, need Christ’s power to truly love the unlovely.