Unrealistic Expectation

The poem “Darkness” illustrates the nature of a man before the light of the Truth shines in his heart. There is no benevolent love that guides his actions and he’s centered on him self and his will. He is irresponsible toward God, himself and others and believes he is justified in every evil deed.

A popular effort of many today is to try and remove the distinction between believers and non-believers. Their reasoning is valid, in part, but I think it is a great disservice to our Lord and even to those non-believers to fail to make this distinction. Jesus Christ is the tremendous difference that is the light and the life that separates us from the darkness of the unbeliever and from the second death. The believer who fails to accept this distinction cannot fully appreciate the real hope of the Gospel and creates an invalid expectation toward the non-believer. This could lead to disappointment and discouragement and could possibly even hinder the Gospel message.

It is certainly true that all men have the ability to experience emotions, even an emotion we commonly attribute to love, but is this affection the indwelling love of God named in 1st John 3:17? The Greek word used in this verse is “Agape”; a noun that refers to an attitude of good will and benevolence. This is the love we should expect from our brethren as evidence of their kinship to us in Christ. The scripture offers a detailed description of this love in 1 Corinthians 13:4,8. This benevolent love is only possible in God. A non-believer might have affectionate feelings of love but they have no motivation to love others in a benevolent or caring way. We should not expect a non-believer to exhibit this type of love. If we remove this distinction and expect the non-believer to have this benevolent love we’ve created an unrealistic expectation. This expectation will manifest itself in our disappointment at their self-centered behavior and could promote the idea that our hope in Christ is nothing more than in a way of acting right. The Gospel message is then lost and, worse, replaced by the belief that a believer is simply someone who exhibits “Christian” behavior and expects everyone else to conform to this same behavior.

In no way does this excuse us from the commandment to love nor is it cause to treat anyone differently. In fact maintaining this distinction is essential if we are to love as Christ commanded. We would not expect more of our brethren than what they can do and so it should be with non-believers. They are no different from us in every way but for the gift of God. We do have great cause for hope and hope does not lead to disappointment. It sets no timeline and has no expectations, other than the sure promise of God. With respect to non-believers our hope is that steadfast desire that they come to the knowledge of Jesus as Christ. In this way we accept them as they are, and love them having faith that God is able to redeem them too.