Love a Little

Jesus was eating with Simon, the Pharisee, when a woman came in weeping, wet His feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and anointed them with perfume. Simon assured himself that Jesus didn't know what kind of woman this was, but Jesus knew. He gave Simon a parable and a principle - "Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little" (Luke 7:47).

In this event Jesus draws a correlation between love and forgiveness. And we think (and Jesus made the point) that it was about this very sinful woman. He spoke of her sins "which are many." We get it. So Jesus draws a ratio, so to speak, between how much she is forgiven and how much she loves. "He who is forgiven little loves little." Got it.

The story, to me, however, is not about this sinful woman. The question in the event wasn't the woman, but Simon's recognition of his own need. Jesus was essentially saying, "You love little, Simon, because you think you're forgiven little." So, porting this correlation over as a test, we can ask ourselves "How much do I love Christ?" If it is "little", we are saying "I wasn't forgiven very much." No, wait, we are saying, "I'm as self-righteous as Simon the Pharisee."

Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Now we have a metric for some sort of measurement. How well do I keep His commandments? "I am keen on obedience. I must love Him a lot." Or "Not so good. I must not love Him very much." Here's the thing. In His Great Commission, Jesus set another standard. We are to be "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matt 28:20). Connecting love to obedience, then, the call is for perfect obedience, so we are required to have great love for Christ. And there is this Luke passage that appears to be predicate our love on our recognition of the magnitude of our own sin that is forgiven. So we can ask ourselves "How much do I obey Christ?" as a measure of "How much do I love Christ?" And that is a product of "How much sin has been forgiven for me?" A little? Don't expect to obey much or love much.

The point, ultimately, is not that we will be forgiven varying amounts so we will love varying amounts. The point is that we are all sinners of great magnitude, short of the glory of God, in dire need of forgiveness. Recognize that, and you'll love God more. Notice that you're not particularly loving Christ much these days, and you can be pretty sure it's because of an elevated view of yourself. Now you know where to go to work on your faulty thinking. You're welcome.