A few weeks ago, my sister saw a bumper sticker that read, “I love Jesus, but I cuss a little.” That phrase got me thinking about other examples that could fit within this quote.
I love Jesus, but I don’t really have time for Him.
I love Jesus, but the Bible is boring.
I love Jesus, but Christians are hypocrites.
I love Jesus, but church isn’t for me.
I love Jesus, but I want to have fun.
I love Jesus, but I don’t like His commands.
I love Jesus, but … (insert excuse here).
I get it, I really do. I’ve struggled with many of these excuses; however, in the end, that’s all they are – excuses. And until that excuse loves you enough to die instead of you, it isn’t that important.
When you say “I love Jesus,” there is no but. Anything after the “but” is an excuse. Even by definition, the conjunction ‘but,’ means to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned. The excuse you have is literally contrasting your love for Christ. It is choking out your ability to love Christ the way He loves you.
The phrase itself is drowning in grammatical errors. The purpose of a conjunction like ‘but’ is to connect ideas, to put them on the same playing field. But that’s the issue, there shouldn’t be a connection.
It’s like the ‘but’ is a scale: loving Jesus is on one side and the excuse is on the other. And we say phrases like, “I love Jesus, but...” to justify our balancing of this equation. We try to make them equal. We say: “I love Jesus, but not enough to make time for Him”, “I love Jesus, but not enough to give the church another chance,” or “I love Jesus, but not enough to sacrifice some of my fun…”
Problem is, it shouldn’t be balanced. We should be throwing weights on the side of loving Jesus, so heavy that it breaks the scale. THAT is love – real love. It requires sacrifice, making the love greater than all other factors in your life. You don’t balance your life with love – you throw everything you have into love, and take your life along for the ride, no matter what sacrifices are necessary.