The other day I was sitting with a group of friends and like the well-informed college students that we are, we talked about the presidential election. I noticed the general census of the group was, “We hate Hillary Clinton, she’s the worst.” I went along with it, not really caring. I thought about that conversation later that day and it dawned on me. I never met this woman. I’m betting they haven’t either. All we see is what the news portrays and how other people feel about her. What the media portrays which could very well be true. She probably has told some lies and could very well be a crooked politician, but it doesn’t matter. We hate the injustice that she may be for, but we don't have to hate her specifically.
A lot of times I think we try to justify the mistakes and flaws in our life and try to blame it on something else. Or worse, people will claim that there are people in the world that are too far gone to be redeemed. None of this is true, especially in Hillary's case. A lot of people say she’s a liar, and that’s probably true.That’s not to say it’s okay, because it isn’t. It’s to say that we’re both on the same level. Sin is sin. It’s the same fundamental problem that separates us from God. So we shouldn’t hate Hillary Clinton, because she does the same thing we do in our hearts. We lie and manipulate people to achieve what we want. Our lack of hatred and abundance of love is not dependent on what she has done or who she is; it is dependent on the love of Jesus that flows through us.
Jesus isn’t just for the religious or the lovable. He’s for the crooked politicians and people that make it the hardest to love. He befriended the people that we would completely shun and not go out of our way for. There’s this one story in the Bible in Luke 19:1-10 where Jesus befriends the chief tax collector Zachaeus. Tax collectors were the equivalent to traitors and awful people who worked for the government. Sound familiar? Everyone hated the chief tax collector, but Jesus loved him. And because Jesus loved this crocked man, he returned four times the money to the people he had cheated. My point? People are never to the point where they can't be redeemed. Jesus didn’t love that man because he was good, and He doesn’t love Hillary Clinton because she’s good either. His love for them is based on who He is. If Jesus loves her, then so should we.
Hillary is created in the image of God, and as fellow image bearers we should love and respect her. Unlovable people are difficult to love. However, we must let the love of Jesus flow from us so that we can demonstrate Jesus to people. In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus told us to love our enemies. He also instructs us to pray for the very people that persecute us and mean us harm. To do this in a way that gives our Father the glory and show that when we we're enemies to God, He loved us. We should extend the same love and grace to Hillary Clinton.