“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel, the Hungarian-born American author and Holocaust survivor wrote these words which offer us a unique take on the nature of the world around us. To be indifferent to anything is to negate its value completely. This quote came to mind while reading about the nature of God. According to the Bible, God has certain qualities that are core to who he is. He is absolutely Holy, all powerful, all knowing, perfect in love, and so much more.
It’s important to understand that the ancient concept of love wasn’t like ours today. We tend to see love as a feeling. Whereas, ancients saw it as a life orientation. To love another person wasn’t to have a strong emotional connection. Rather, it was to orient your life toward their good and wellbeing. One parent explained it to me recently: I love my kids, but I often don’t like them. Love goes beyond feeling. It is a way of living toward another. If we read the famous “love” passage in 1 Corinthians through this lens, it comes into greater focus: Love is patient, kind, doesn’t envy, doesn’t brag,it is not proud, is honorable toward others, not self-seeking, not easily angered, doesn’t keep a record of wrongs… nothing in the list is really about feeling passionately. It is about desiring the betterment of others over ourselves.
This understanding is important because God’s love is one area where He is set apart and unique from the ancient religions. When we look at the ancient concept of gods and the divine see petty gods who were totally self interested. They only showed interest or concern for humanity when they had something to gain. No one expected the gods to care about them. Rather, they sacrificed to them in an effort to avoid making them angry. Most cities had altars to unknown gods, to hedge their bets against missing any of them and incurring wrath. Mostly, the gods ignored people. They didn’t care how people lived, just so long as humanity didn’t annoy them.
Whereas, the Abrahamic religions followed the God who cared about them deeply. For Christians, this belief was exemplified in the truth that God became one of us to save us from our sins. Christianity grew like wildfire in the ancient world because it was the good news that God cared enough to send His Son to die, taking punishment for our sins. That concept was utterly foreign to the ancient understanding. In fact, many of the early heresies were efforts to make the church more like the pagan religions, stripping God of his personal interest in humanity.
For us today, it is easy to fall into that same trap. We can slowly fall asleep to the reality that God himself loves us and wants to know us. We can assume that he is indifferent to our lives and actions, just so long as we don’t make him angry. That version of God isn’t loving at all. He is indifferent. I would argue that the same is true of us, if we ignore Him and His efforts to know us. It is indifference, regardless of our feelings to the contrary.
In the weeks following Good Friday and Easter, we need to take the time to reflect on our own response to those events. God’s choice to send His Son to take our punishment for sins onto Himself is the exact opposite of indifference. It is love perfectly demonstrated. We are called to respond in kind, stepping away from our indifference to Him and loving Him in return.
