“Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God.”
Joshua 23:11 ESV
Careless Love. It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? How can you truly love someone or something and not show genuine care?
Judges 13-16, tells the story of Samson, a man who was careless in love. He was careless in the love he showed his parents. He was careless in the way that he fell in and out of love with unsuitable women. His careless love for God was demonstrated in his disregard for Jewish law and his repeated disobedience to God’s requirements for him as the leader and judge of Israel. And finally, Samson was careless in his calling to live as a Nazarite; a calling designated by God before his birth.
And yet, Samson is listed as one of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11:32. It seems remarkable that someone blessed with heroic faith could be so careless in his love and obedience.
- Careless love is disobedient.
- Careless love chooses to love inappropriately.
- Careless love is self-serving rather than being focused on the object of one’s love.
Samson’s prominent role in Israel as judge, warrior, and heroic strongman was frequently overshadowed by his self-centered choices and his careless love. God used Samson mightily not because of his godly self-control, constancy of character, or his love for God that superseded all else – Scripture does not highlight any of those characteristics. God used Samson despite his many weaknesses and failures.
While that is encouraging to those of us who in our humanness have more failures and flaws than we’d like to admit, we should be striving to follow God closely, living and loving intentionally for His glory.
Samson’s story is colorful, dramatic, and attention-getting. But throughout the pages of Scripture, there are other stories of careless love.
- As God’s chosen people, Israel, repeatedly cycled through periods of careless love. Those times of blatant disobedience and rejection of God’s commands always resulted in punishment and a strained or broken relationship with God.
- A moment of careless love weakened King David’s resolve to follow God, making him susceptible to his lust for the beautiful Bathsheba. His careless love resulted in David ordering the murder of one of his thirty most trusted mighty warriors (2 Samuel 11; 23:8-38)
- It was careless love that caused Demas to desert the Apostle Paul and the ministry of the Gospel to pursue the pleasures and rewards of the present world (2 Timothy 4:10).
Careless love can easily transition from being a momentary lapse to a practiced lifestyle. For that reason, Scripture cautions us:
- To be “very careful” to live a life of obedience (Joshua 22:5).
- To love the LORD God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).
- To “hold fast” to God in love (Psalm 91:14); Jesus tells us to “abide in His love” (John 15:9).
In Psalm 91, the Psalmist writes of the confidence that we, God’s children, can have in our loving Father when we are living a life of intentional, deliberate, and careful love.
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” … If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. … “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name. He will call on Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-10, 14-15 NIV
Careful love allows us to abide, dwell, and make our permanent residence in the shelter of our loving Father. He is the mighty tower to which we can run. He is our rescuer and our protector. He hears and answers when we call out to Him. He is with us in our time of trouble.
“Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and to cling to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Joshua 22:5 ESV
How are you loving? Carefully or Carelessly?