Love Is Not Against The Law... Track 11 of 11

Love Is Not Against The Law
Derek Webb

VERSE 1
Politics or love can make you blind or make you see, make you a slave or make you free.
But only one does it all
And it..s giving up your life for the ones you hate the most.
It..s giving them your gown when they..ve taken your clothes.
It..s learning to admit when you..ve had a hand in setting them up, in knocking them down.

(chorus)
Because love is not against the law
Love is not against the law
Love Love Love

VERSE 2
Are we defending life when we just pick and choose lives acceptable to lose and which ones to defend?
Because you cannot choose your friends but you choose your enemies.
And what if they were one, one and the same?
Could you find a way to love them both the same?
To give them your name?

CHORUS
Because love is not against the law
Love is not against the law
Love Love Love
____________________________________


Let me preface this one, by saying that this song has got to be one of the most powerful songs on this album. It's about love. True Love. The kinda love that's hard to give.

Can you get out of your comfort zone to love people that aren't easy to love? Could you love prostitutes, porn addicts, drug addicts, child molesters, drunks, adulterers, liars, thieves, the people who have betrayed you, the people who annoy the crap out of you, the socially awkward?

Lately, i've been thinking a lot about loving those people. We humans like to separate ourselves from these "types" of people. We like to think we are better than they are. And our inner selfishness cries out "of course we are better than they are, they did that". But it's lies. We aren't any better than they are because we are all the same. We are all part of the Kingdom of Christ. The fact that God loves a convicted felon just as He loves me makes me made sometimes. But I realize that those feelings are utterly selfish. I am not better than them, because I am them. In the realm of the Kingdom of Christ there is no seat next to Christ because we are all on equal ground. There is no caste system. There is no upper class, middle class, or lower class. We're all equal, therefore we're all the same. When we kill people we kill us. When we persecute people we persecute us. When we make fun of people we make fun of ourselves. When we start wars, we fight ourselves.

If we treat certain people differently for whatever cause, we prove that we don't get love yet. You can't be a christian and love only your friends and family. You can't. If you are claiming to be a christian and not living God's love, you are a fraud.

I myself struggle with this. I am not saying I have an easy prescription for fixing this. I don't. But I know this. Love Wins. No matter how you cut and slice it, love wins.

If we, the church, believe in the love Jesus had, the love that saved an adulterer's life, when do we act it out? Do we go to homeless shelter? to a foreign country? to the inner city? maybe we should. but first, i am a firm believer that it's got to start now. In the trenches of everyday living. The kingdom of God isn't in the future. It's now. In your life. Now.

Can you love? Love love. Love loving people? love loving unlovely people?

I have to admit that I'm glad this song was last. It hits on the most important command Christ gave us. To love.

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:36-40