Love For The Undeserving

Love for the Undeserving

Abigail

Read: 1 Samuel 25:20-38

Susan stared out at the rain as she and Sean began the three-hour trip to her sister’s home. Although Susan loved catching up with Emily and the rest of their siblings, she dreaded how the day would end. Sean would be loudly telling the same old obscene jokes. While Sean remained oblivious to how this affected her family, Susan caught every sarcastic glance from her mother, and for days afterward rehearsed her sisters’ whispered remarks.

It’s never easy to endure the rude behavior of those closest to us. Abigail knew the same embarrassment and frustration that Susan felt and that many of us feel when we live with the consequences of foolish behavior. Scripture describes Abigail’s husband, Nabal, as a rude, ill-tempered drunkard. Abigail had undoubtedly experienced many days of wincing at inappropriate comments, but when Nabal insulted David’s men after they had generously protected Nabal’s flock, his behavior crossed the line from embarrassing to dangerously foolish. Abigail could have let her husband’s behavior depress and paralyze her. Instead, she swallowed her frustration and acted decisively to save Nabal and her family, even if it meant accepting blame for her husband’s actions.

It’s hard to love and serve people who clearly don’t deserve such treatment. That kind of unselfish love never comes naturally, but it’s the kind of love that God calls us to. When we’re in a difficult marriage or a problem relationship with a relative, boss, or coworker, it’s easier to think of what the other person deserves than of how we can lovingly correct the situation.

Our response to people shouldn’t be determined just by how they treat us. We can resolve to love others when we remember that Jesus is at God’s right hand interceding for us (see Romans 8:34). And, we can be thankful that God doesn’t give us what we deserve, even though we, too, sometimes act like fools.

[Love] . . . does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

1 Corinthians 13:5