I think you would agree that over the last fifty years, the most used attribute of God has been “Love.”  God is love (cf. 1 Jn. 4:8), we know this truth.  That God is love should never be taken lightly or for granted.  Christians always praise God that he is love and for his love to us.  That said, for the most part, the love of God has overshadowed other equally significant attributes, like his holiness, justice, wrath, power, immutability, sovereignty, and transcendence just to name a few and the list goes on.  Theodicy was a constant debate where people argued how it could be that a loving God could wield absolute control and power over life’s events and at the same time allow sin into the world he created.  Put another way, “How could a loving God allow bad things to happen to good people?”  Debates like these, important as they may be, now appear to be dissipating from the debate stage and even the evangelical church and I think it is because people are now no longer defining love according to God.  People are becoming so “man-centered” or perhaps better, “me-centered” that debating God’s nature in view of ultimate things is now apparently irrelevant.  Even twenty years ago, it was the rare off-brand philosopher who would deny God’s existence out loud.  Well over 100 years ago, Friedrich Nietzsche’s claim that “God is Dead” also cast as the question, “Is God Dead?” was more of a bold claim about growing intellectualism than about God’s existence. 

Love is now not being defined by God’s nature but by man’s nature.  With this in view, what our culture now demands is tolerance.  Tolerance, meaning full acceptance of everyone’s position, especially everyone’s spiritual or religious position.  This brings up the irony of non-absolutism.  This is to say, you can have your position if you allow everyone else to hold to their position.  The obvious glitch in this approach is that this will only work up to the point at which you say, your position is actually the true position.  If you say with any level of certainty that you believe, Jesus is the true Son of God and he is the only way to heaven, then you have officially crossed a line because by making this claim, you are by de facto making an equal claim that all other religions must be flawed or false.  Now comes the big philosophical contradiction of the philosophy of tolerance.  Tolerance demands being accepting of all religious positions and that your position cannot be dogmatic, so the breakdown occurs when Christianity is being dogmatic then the “Tolerance” police have to become “Intolerant” with Christianity.  This is the sad world we Christians now find ourselves within, a society of intolerance.  When the most loving thing we can do is tell people, “Jesus loves them and has shown them how to be cleansed of their sins and how to receive eternal life” and this is narrated by the culture as hate speech, this is sad.

So, what do we do with a society we want to reach that continues to twist up our outreach in the name of love, by calling this hate?  First, let me tell you what not to do.  Do not do what Jonah did after he called Nineveh to repent of their evil ways and turn to God, and they did.  Remember, Jonah as a prophet of God was commanded by God to warn the sworn enemies of Israel (the Ninevites) that in 40 days judgment was coming!  Jonah, after running from God, causing a supernatural storm to nearly rip a boat apart and kill its crew, being hurled into the ocean, swallowed and incarcerated by a massive fish, repenting of his own sin, barfed up onto the beach, he yielded to God’s will and preached repentance and Nineveh repented.  So, what does Jonah do?  Instead of melting with compassion over God giving Jonah a second chance and showing amazing compassion on people who formerly hated God, Jonah gets bitter.  He has buyer’s remorse!    

^ESV  Jonah 4:1-3 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah throws a fit and accuses God of being too compassionate.  In essence saying, “I knew if I warned them, you would rain down mercy instead of fire.  Compassion instead of anger.  Love instead of hate.”  I guess I want to make the appeal that we too could find ourselves falling into this same temptation.  In terms of our society, I fear that this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of coming accusations.  Like Jonah, we could forget that before coming to Christ, we too were God-haters and no different than everyone else in need of forgiveness.  Just three days before, Jonah had been in the belly of the fish, for three days and this kind of squeezed, dark, suffocating, death-like existence had reduced him to repentance.   

^ESV  Jonah 2:7-9 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

 Deep down, Jonah knew the LORD was the only source of Salvation but somehow his anger made him forget.  God has the final word in the book of Jonah and this is the final word for us today.  

^ESV  Jonah 4:11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” 

 As I began, God’s nature is defined by more than love, but God is still the standard by which we define love.  No matter how our culture or world casts Christians or redefines Christian love as hate, we will love.  Our compassion is fueled by God the Holy Spirit who fills our hearts to love this world inexhaustibly as we extend the mercy and grace of Christ for sinners to be saved.