Christians express love personally, not through the government

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).
   Can you really love someone if you do so out of duty? Would your spouse or parent or child be pleased if you told them that you loved them because it was your duty to do so? How about if someone held a gun to your head or took you to court?
   And is this really a “new commandment?” Didn’t Jesus in Luke 10:27 agree that the summary of the Law was to love God and love your neighbor?
   If we really think about it, coerced compassion is not really love at all but rather tyranny. God does not desire that you give of your time, talents and treasure out of a sense of duty nor to feel compelled because it is expected or required. You see, the paradox is you can never really show love if it is motivated by compulsion. It is only Grace that can enable true love.
   This is why governments should never be permitted to do the things that rightfully are motivated by love. Governments can only exercise power. Even our own Constitution only grants state and federal governments limited powers. Whenever we see a right, it is always inherent to the people and the Constitution just recognizes its existence — but it does not grant it to the people.
   The government is the left hand of God — Law. God establishes earthly governments to enforce the Law — to punish murder, false testimony, theft, etc. (Romans 13). Since it can only act out of power, it cannot rightfully perform acts that must come from love — acts of Grace such as nursing the sick, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, sheltering the homeless, etc.
   Jesus always talks about helping the least of these in terms of personal responsibility (Good Samaritan) and the shared responsibilities of the Church (Acts Church) — because we are the living stones of His Body. Never do you see Jesus teaching that the Romans should open soup kitchens or provide free housing, income subsidies or free health care. The reason is that these are right hand of God things that must come from love.
   Whenever the government gets involved in the things of love, it can only understand, accumulate and exercise power. So, it coerces those with money to pay for these things while creating and growing more powerful and controlling. It can’t help itself, that’s its self-interest and only motivation. It might talk about compassion, but it can only understand and act out of power and control.
   You see the love we are to show others is because of the love that He first showed us (I John 4:19). The love that motivated Christ to go to the cross for us when we did not deserve it is the same love that we show to those around us who also do not deserve it. It is only with godly love that we can truly feed the hungry, nurse the sick, shelter the homeless and visit the lonely — and not seek any return for doing it.
   In Jesus’ commandment to love, we are motivated by Christ’s love to His people in giving His life, and because we are His we act like ‘little Christs,’ i.e. Christians. Not because we get a reward, receive love or recognition in return, gain power or control, or even feel better about ourselves — no, we do so because it is now just who we are. It’s as if Christ commanded the fig tree to grow figs — it just does so because that is what it is.
   Now go and continue to bear love!