The details of the Orlando massacre were still coming in when people began to take sides. News reporters raced to the scene to capture eyewitness accounts of the shooting. There were chilling tails of the gunman laughing as he fired. He shot many of the wounded again to make sure they wouldn’t survive. The media filled the airways with tearful stories from survivors and people who had lost loved ones in the tragedy. Though everyone was shocked and angry at the loss of life that is where their agreement ended.
Politicians from one side jumped at the chance to push gun control. They demanded new laws to keep suspected terrorists from buying guns, though the killer had been employed as an armed guard. The other side renewed their opposition to letting more Muslim refugees in, but the gunman was born in New York.
Despite our government’s enthusiastic support for homosexuality, many Christians sincerely believe it is sin. They didn’t want those people to die but didn’t know how to react. If they showed compassion, it might be seen as condoning that lifestyle. What are they supposed to do?
The answer is love. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8 NIV). We should love those sinners, like GOD loved us when we were sinners. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV). He loved the sinners in that night club just as much as He loves us. Some rejected His love and died in their sin, while others were given another chance. We have to tell them “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:23), but they won’t listen unless we show them we love them first. Let us pray they find JESUS and that we can love them enough to tell them.
Wayne Lance (2016)