Unconditional Love Without Compromise

The personality and very nature of Jesus Christ was and still is "unconditional love without compromise." The highest possible expression of Jesus Christ in His disciples is that same attitude, "unconditional love without compromise of holiness or purity." His church has always tended to lean to one extreme or the other. We either follow holiness and develop a self-righteous rejection of those who have missed the mark, or we become compromisers ourselves and call it "loving people into the kingdom." There is the Biblical balance between the two that every Christian should aspire to represent.

Hardness is Not Holiness
Many Christians are so immature themselves or have never put away childish things that anyone that does not live up to their expectations is immediately and soundly rebuked and even rejected. This appears to be their only way of maintaining their own sense of being pure and clean. There are many ministers that preach almost exclusively on external items of worldliness never realizing that the heart must be cleaned up first, then it is easy to teach the converted soul the path of Godly living. In fact, a transformed person will pant for the Lord Jesus Himself and all He represents.

Every great revival, whether it was with D.L. Moody, Charles Finney, or John Wesley, etc. produced an incredible company of holiness saints. The early Methodists were Godly to the point of being narrow and "other worldly"; yet, they represent one of the brightest periods of church history. The more they were criticized, the more they drew sinners to Christ. The secret was the same as the title of this article. They were unconditional in love, yet uncompromising in holiness. It is the "deadly secret" that drives men and women to abandon themselves to Jesus Christ. Genuine love mixed with genuine holiness cannot be denied. It is the very nature of Jesus Christ reproduced in the lives of His disciples.

Unconditional Love is Not Compromise
The genuine nature to love everybody you meet is the nature of Jesus Christ. Everything about the person may be repulsive and all their conduct may be sinful, but you cannot represent Jesus Christ and reject that person out of hand. That young man is somebody’s son and that young woman is somebody’s daughter. Their mom or dad may have been praying for their child to be saved and you may be God’s light destined to shine the gospel into that soul. Of course, we must use wisdom and not conduct ourselves in questionable ways, but we can smile genuinely and speak words of hope to everyone.

The Personality of the Local Church
The Paw Creek Church has become a church with "unconditional love, without one iota of compromise." Recently, a college professor from Nigeria was visiting friends in Charlotte. The denomination he teaches for is the Assembly of God and his testimony was beautiful. I asked him to preach without even thinking that he may have been introduced to corrupt Bibles. When he proceeded to read a text, I knew something was wrong (NIV). I did not embarrass him and our congregation treated him with great hospitality. When the sermon was over, I asked a staff member to get him a new leather bound Bible. Right before the congregation, I presented him a beautiful Bible and gently explained the corruption of the NIV and other false versions. He was blessed, our congregation was blessed, and we opened the door to additional ministry in the mission fields. He will never forget our love, nor will he forget that we do not compromise.

Our regular services and our special events bring many visitors to Charlotte, NC. More and more there is an international mix with our visitors. No one is going to be embarrassed by the absence of unconditional love. Our homes are open to visitors and we utterly love being friends with people of many different backgrounds. (We can usually spot a fraud and have no time for people who use others for their own selfish reasons.) But, we love making Jesus real to those who need so desperately to see the real side of Biblical Christianity. The purity of a Biblically balanced life never fails to leave its impact.
Separated Christianity

The Bible is a very plain book. The Christian life is not an admixture. We cannot be "unequally yoked together" (II Corinthians 6:14), neither can we have fellowship with "unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). We cannot love the world and love God at the same time (Matthew 6:24). But these facts do not make Christianity exclusive; it makes us inclusive. We do not exclude anybody, but seek to introduce everybody to the Lord Jesus Christ and His wonderful grace of holiness. Those who reject this grace and righteousness exclude themselves. We are inclusive, but the devil and those he controls are exclusive. It is very important that we never allow a spirit of exclusiveness to affect us. That is the point where godly living becomes cultic and legalistic.

A Growing Love for Holiness
The worldly church has become so giddy and even silly in its worldliness and compromise that good people are rethinking the old landmarks of holiness. As we await the appearance of our Lord to receive us to Himself, there could be a beautiful harvest among the remnant. These souls have seen the arrogance of the liberal and apostate churches. Godly people must make sure that our spirit is not arrogant and judgmental on the other side. Unconditional love, full of the Holy Ghost, has a beautiful power to unthaw the hard hearts of cold, religious people or unconverted sinners. One moment of compromise puts you in the same helpless position as the apostate church that fills our religious world. Surrender yourself in faith to the Lord Jesus and every Word of the Holy Bible. He is ready to impact your life with His divine nature and to make you an "ambassador for His kingdom." Do not let some hard and cold person cause you to develop that same spirit. I have met so many of this kind of holiness persons during my years of serving my Lord. No denomination or local church has been without their Pharisees.

The Grace of Holiness
The grace of Jesus Christ is the "Grace of Holiness." Grace and holiness cannot be separated. There are intimate in that grace makes you holy and the only true holiness is by grace. The nature of Christ’s grace is holy in all its character and its result in your life is beautiful purity. You will act pure, talk pure, look pure, and love pure things. The unsaved world will be moved by unconditional love, either among the saints or by the devil’s counterfeit among the ungodly. Let’s love one another: the good people of the church that are looking for truth, the rebellious that reject truth, and the unsaved that have never met the Saviour. We never know which soul will be moved to surrender when they see the love of God in a pure vessel.