TD Jakes - Love Has No Loopholes (06/13/2017)
Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves; when a lawyer asks "Who is my neighbor?" seeking a loophole, Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan, showing that true love has no boundaries, conditions, or escape clauses—it reaches even those we consider enemies or outsiders.
The Command to Love
What are your priorities? God says that you love the Lord thy God with all your heart and mind, and that you love thy neighbor as you love yourself. I want to go deeper. He legislates love. He commands you to love. Ooh, I could spend all day. If you command me to do something, that means I can do it. Because it would not be fair for you to command me to do something that I cannot do.
I command you to be a white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. Come on, Lord! I just scrub, scrub, scrub, and scrub. If I had time, I would tell you a joke. But may have to edit it. A little kid up in the hills of West Virginia saw me—he had not seen nobody in my color in his life—and he looked at me, he said, "Mister, mister, hey, mister." I finally turned around. He said, "Are you like that all over?" I said, "Everywhere I can see and everywhere I can get the mirror to point. It seems to be a 100% total job."
Love Is Controllable
Okay. I am back on track. Okay. You can take that home with you. It does not cost you nothing. It is one of my little crazy little stories that happened to me when I was gone along. If He commands me to do it, it must be within my power to accomplish it. Because it would not be just to command me to do something that I cannot do. So that means that love is controllable. Wow! That opens up a whole other village over there.
He commands, legislated law: Love Me. This is how you love Me. What I like about God: God tells you how to love Him. Do not guess. Most people want you to guess how to love. God says, "Love Me with everything. All your heart. All your mind. All your soul. I want you to love Me." He tells you straight up. And then He says, I want you to love your neighbor as you love yourself.
The Lawyer's Loophole
Now, if God now legislates love, then love now has indicted the lawyer. Love has brought an indictment against the lawyer, predicated on the concept that he is guilty—probably of never loving the Lord with all their heart, mind, and soul, but at a very minimum, he is guilty of not loving his neighbor as himself. And this is how I know: He is looking for a loophole, and any time you look for a loophole, it is because you are guilty.
Watch this. Watch this. You all doing okay? You doing okay? Watch this. He says, the Lord who is love made flesh says, love the Lord with all of the heart and soul, love thy neighbor as thyself. Then the lawyer says to the Lord, "Who is my neighbor?" That is the loophole. He says, you know, what do you believe? What do you wear? What is your theology? I do not know if I will love you or not until I find out who is my neighbor.
So this is supposed to be smart. What he is saying: Do I determine by who lives next door to me? Do I determine by my ethnicity? My politics? My orthodoxy? Who is my neighbor? Okay. You all with me? If you do not understand that, then you have never understood the story of the Good Samaritan. Because the story of the Good Samaritan is Jesus' answer to the lawyer's loophole.
The Parable Begins
Jesus looking at him. Watch this all. I tell you, he says, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus does not even answer him. He says, a certain man. Jesus is so cool. So cool. So cool. Jesus says, a certain man went down from Jerusalem—very fact that he said he went from Jerusalem says that he is a Jew—to Jericho. And he said, he fell among thieves who stripped him and wounded him and left him half dead, he says.
A Levite passed by and saw him. Levite, a priesthood. Your pastors. Your religious orthodoxy. Your goals that epitomize the sacraments of your faith, tenets of one that will handle the theology for you—pass by, looked at him, and turned and went away. You mean this guy who the lawyer would perceive to be an okay neighbor did not help him?
Let me break this down where it becomes relevant to you. Have you ever been shocked when you were in trouble at who did not help you? The person that you thought for sure, that you knew would be your ride or die? Ride or die is an African-American colloquial that means total commitment—generally accompanied with another word that I will not use, but it just means to be totally committed. Now, that is enough about that.
When Expected Help Fails
So okay, and you find out that when the heat is on, the brother who said he would always be there for you acts like he does not even know you, looks at your predicament, and crosses by on the other side. The priest comes—your holy friends see you in trouble, saying, "Girl, if you need anything, call me." Ain't it funny how you can be bleeding to death, and folks say, "If you need," and they pass by on the other side.
I want you to understand what Jesus is saying to him. Watch this. He says, "And then, the Good Samaritan." Now, you have to understand, Jesus is setting the lawyer up, using an oxymoron, because in the lawyer's mind, there is no such thing as a good Samaritan. The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.
In fact, one time when they got ready to insult Jesus, they called Him a Samaritan. When Jesus came down to the well to meet the Samaritan woman, she says, "You know your people do not talk to me." Isn't it funny how you can limit love to likeness, only to find out the old Negro adage, "Everybody skin to me ain't kin to me"?
The Unexpected Neighbor
So Jesus says, "Who is your neighbor?" Was it the priest? Was it the Levite? Or was it the Good Samaritan who got down off his beast, poured in the oil and the wine, set you on his own beast, and brought you to the innkeeper's house? And all of the help came through somebody that you would not have thought was your neighbor. All the witnesses, clap your hands.
So here are your takeaways. God is saying that if you are going to be like Him, you have to love like Him. You have to love people who do not think like you, who do not look like you, who do not vote like you, who do not dress like you, and you have to take down the tribunal whereby you try people before you love them, and begin to understand that love has no loopholes.
Do not dress it up in political clothes, do not dress it up in religious clothes, do not dress it up in tribal clothes, do not dress it up in ethnic clothes, do not dress it up in status. Love has no loopholes.
Learning Love Through Parenting
Now, I will tell you how to begin to learn that: Have some children. Because if you fool around and have some children, you will begin to understand that love has no loopholes. You will tell them when they are talking back, "If you do it again, I am not going to ever do such and such. I am not going to help you. Do not call me. I am not going to loan you no money. If you walk out that door and get into that, you are in it by yourself."
That is what you said, but because you love... uh-huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Touch somebody and say, "It is about love, it is about love, it is about love." See, where love will make you change your mind. Love will make you go back on your word. Love will make you go an extra mile. Love will make you apologize even though you thought you was right.
Love will make you feed somebody who cussed you out. Love will make you call somebody even though it makes you look like the weaker one. Does anybody understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? Touch your neighbor and say, "Love do not have no loopholes." It do not have no loopholes.
Love Finds a Way
I do not care what they did, I do not care who they did it with, I do not care how much you do not agree with it—if you really are a lover, love will find a way. It will climb over top of stuff and find a way. Love will find a way to get you. Love! Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God. Hit three people and say, "Ain't no way out, ain't no way out, ain't no way out."
Love has no loopholes. Touch three people and say, "No way out!" No way out, no way out, ironclad, irrevocable, immutable, unchangeable. Love has no loopholes. And I know I am right about it, because Jesus Himself tried to find a loophole.
For the Bible said that He went in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He said, "Father, if it be Thy will, pass this bitter cup from Me. It costs too much to love these people. They are all messed up and confused," and He had to pray three times trying to find a way out of the contract. But finally He said, "Not My will, but Thine be done."
Jesus' Ultimate Example
And they hung Him high, and they stretched Him wide, until the sun refused to shine, and the ground began to tremble, and He died—till the veil in the temple was ripped from the top to the bottom, and He died till law fell over on grace. He died, yes He did, oh yes He did, oh yes He did, oh yes He did.
Touch three people and say, "He could not get out of it." He could not get out of it, he could not get out of it, he could not get out of it, he could not get out of it. Love did not have a loophole. It was not the nails that held Him to the cross. He could have pulled the nails out. It was not the cross, because He made the tree. It was not the mountain, because He hollowed the mountain.
But for the love that was set before Him, He died. Shake your neighbor by the hand and say, "Neighbor, I am going to shake your hand, but you cannot shake your responsibility." You cannot shake your responsibility. You cannot shake what you have got to do. Love has no loopholes. You have got to love everybody with all of your heart.
Broadening Your Heart
Oh my God. What I am trying to get you to see... join hands with somebody. What I am trying to get you to do, what I am trying to get you to see, what I am trying to get you to understand, what I am trying to get you to think—you have got to be bigger than this. You cannot just love the folks in your zip code, the folks in your denomination, or the folks in your house. Love has no loopholes.
The person you touch may have been taught wrong. They may have been taught to only love when the circumstances were right, when the conditions were right, or if you think like I think. But life keeps demanding that you broaden your ability to love. Working with people will demand that you broaden your ability to love—even people that you normally would not like.
These are not the people that you would invite over to eat hot dogs with, but for a paycheck, you learn how to... after a while, you do invite them over. You cannot be a big person with a small heart.
The Test of Love
We can teach you all kinds of principles about being blessed and prosperous and overcoming in victory. Life can take you to the opiate of success, but if you end up behind a big desk in a corner office with a small mind and a small heart, you will lose everything you have because you cannot determine who is your neighbor.
Now, the person you are touching right now—they may not tell you—but every last one of us, our love is being tested in some area. A demand is being placed on your ability to love, your ability to understand, your ability to broaden your perspectives beyond your comfort zone.
I may not sing the songs you grew up singing, I may not preach the way you are used to hearing it, but if you get hungry enough, you will learn to look past this sweat rag and say, "You know, that man helped me."
Overcoming Selfishness
I want you to pass the test, and the only way you are not going to pass it is if you continue to be a self-enthroned, egotistical maniac. What does that mean? Everything is about you. Years ago, I had met a woman who had written a book that stayed in my mind, never left. It said that the root of all sin is selfishness.
And because I am a thinker, I could not get away from the thought. Look at your sins. Are you selfish? Is your love dwarfed? Are you loving like an adolescent in the middle of your life? Is everything always got to be about you? And if any of that pierces you, if there is any part of you that is not so callused that you cannot hear truth, if the word was sharp enough to pierce, dividing asunder bone and marrow, soul and spirit, and got down in your heart and challenged you, and you say, "Yes, I admit it, I am selfish."
I understand that, because I have been selfish too. And the truth of the matter is, everybody in here at one time or another did not play by the rules, went for yourself, and said, "I have got to be me," and you were selfish.
Retaking the Test
But I am telling you, there is no loophole. If you flunk the test, you are going to have to take it again and take it again and take it again until you pass the test of love. This is a strange message. I feel like I am talking to somebody. It may only be one person in this room. In somebody's life, this cuts deep.
It cuts down to the people you live with and eat with, your own children and how you interact with your own family, and your own wife, and your own husband. It cuts deep to how you feel about your mother and your stepmother and your mother's new boyfriend. It cuts deep, because it is not what you expected and it is not what you wanted, and you have to admit it is not about you.
It cuts deep into how you treat your sister and how you treat your brother. It cuts real deep down into how you treat the people you know. To somebody else, it cuts real deep into how you treat people you do not know—people who do not look like you and dress like you or sing like you or walk like you or believe like you.
Going on a Love Mission
It challenges your theology because you have been praying to only embrace people who embrace a certain principle or ideal—it cuts deep. But God would not be speaking it to you if you did not need to hear it. Squeeze that hand. That person you are touching has got to leave this place and go on a love mission.
They have got to go on a love mission. They may not ever go to Africa, they may not ever go to South America, but they have got to go on a mission field of love. And they have got to be selfless enough to swallow the way they think and the way they have been trained and their own fears and their own insecurity and go on a mission of love.
That person you are touching right now will be trapped in a vicious cycle. They will never embrace the fullness of what God has for them because sometimes God puts your healing in the hands of a Samaritan. Sometimes God puts your healing in the hands of somebody whose theology is different from yours.
Sometimes God puts your healing in a place that is unfamiliar or uncomfortable. Sometimes God gives you a child who does not believe like you believe or live like you live or think like you think or act like you want them to act.
Loving Without Conditions
You have got to go on a love mission and say, "You are still my child. You are still my baby. Come on in this house and get something to eat. I do not know what to think about what you are doing, but I know I love you." Your love has got to go on a mission field.
Squeeze that hand, and I come against all arrogance and all areas in your life that have lifted themselves up as being a greater priority. I want to challenge you to love the man you got like you love your son, because he is somebody's son. To love the woman you got like she is somebody's little girl, because she is somebody's little girl.
I do not understand how you can have so much mercy for your own children and you do not have any mercy for mine. I do not understand that. I do not understand that you do not realize that I am somebody's baby. Somebody cradled me and nursed me and held me and fed me and raised me the best they could. Why can't you love me too? Why can't you love her too?
The Greatest Commandment
I command you to love. I do not care if you dance all over the church and speak in tongues and prophesy. I do not care if you give your body to be burned. I do not care if you give all the money to the church—the greatest commandment is love. If you do not pass this test, nothing else is going to matter.
Squeeze that hand. For somebody, it is a test because they are being called to give something that they did not get themselves. For somebody, it is a real challenge because this is an area of weakness. They have never had it demonstrated inside of themselves. And they do not know how to come to God and say, "God, teach me how to love."
I want to be a more loving man, a more loving woman. Make me a loving father. Teach me how to love my wife. I know I have been married 20 years, but I have never loved her the way I should have loved her. Teach me how to love the way You love her.
Somebody is not humble enough to say, "Make me a loving woman." I was raised by a mouthy woman, an angry woman, and outspoken, but God, I come to You because I want You to make me a loving woman. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit inside of me.
Herein is religion pure and undefiled. Everything else does not matter. If you do not master this, you flunk the test, you flunk the course, for God is love.
Only the Holy Spirit Can Help
Move, Holy Spirit, move. Where we are going with this, only You can go. You are only strong enough to penetrate. You are the only one strong enough to penetrate all those years and years of gunk and anger and hostility and confusion. Only You can penetrate through all of that and touch the core of that heart.
Only You can bring a heart helpless to the altar. Only You. If Jesus had to pray three times, only You can bring a heart to the altar and say yes to loving again, to living again, to trying again, to touching again. Send the kind of anointing that heals families and heals marriages and heals ministries and heals minds—for love has no loopholes.
There is no way out. Go ahead and buy that big house, but if there is no love in it. Go ahead and get your big, bad, fancy car, but if there is no love in it. Exercise your body with your fine self, but if do not nobody love you.
Go on and get your hair done, get your teeth done, get your mouth done, get your ears done, get a tummy tuck—but if there is no love in it. You are bankrupt without it, you are empty without it, you are lost without it, you are desperate without it, you are crawling without it, and you will never have joy and you will never have peace and you will never have happiness—you will just have misery at a bigger address, misery in a finer car, without love.