Love or Apathy?

 I heard something earlier today that got me thinking, and here's where that thinking led. Hopefully you'll excuse any scattered thinking here, because I'm pretty much typing this out as I go.

Premise 1: Love is not the opposite of judgment.
Premise 2: Apathy is the opposite of judgment.
Premise 3: Most people who stop and think about it long enough will agree with this, although many might do so very reluctantly - think kicking and screaming.

Situation:
Imagine you're walking down the street and you see two youths beating and robbing an old lady. If you disagree with my premises above, then the loving response to this situation is, "well, would you look at those little scamps. Lord love them. Boys will be boys, I suppose. Imagine what they're going to do once they learn to harness all that energy." and bob off down the street in your most non-judgmental shuffle.  

I submit to you that the non-judgmental response to seeing an old lady beaten and robbed is not loving. It's not loving to the old lady, it's not loving to the community, and it's not loving to the young boys. A proper judgment in that situation - calling the police and going out to try and help if you're physically able - is the loving response. It shows love to the lady, it shows love to the community in wanting your neighborhood to be a safe space. And - believe it or not - it shows love to the boys. In loving them enough to tell them that what they're doing is wrong, you're trying to help them not throw their lives away by spiraling down into worse and worse trouble.

The only question is - whose judgment is the proper judgment to use? Certainly not society's. Every society has different notions of right and wrong, and societal-based solutions always end up boiling down to might makes right. Ask the dissenters in the old Soviet states, China, the list goes on and on.

It turns out that there can only be one correct answer to the question of whose judgment is the correct judgment. In order for judgments to always be just, they must be based on a standard that never changes. If only we had one of those.

Oh wait...

Malachi 3:6 I am the LORD, I do not change;

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift" certainly includes justice. And everyone wants justice - except when they're on the wrong end of it. 

That's the real issue. I want justice when I get cut off in traffic. But when I'm the one easing through the orange light, I prefer mercy. But judgment is only justice when it's without hypocrisy and without partiality. 

And again, there is only one perfectly impartial, perfectly righteous Judge, completely free of hypocrisy.

The good news is He loves you. There's no apathy with God. That's terrifyingly good news.