They’re both a lot harder than we think. I’ve been arguing for a while now that grace is painfully difficult to accept, because free is a higher price than we want to pay; yesterday, Jared Wilson put up a superb post pointing out that love doesn’t really make things easier, either. It’s short and I’d love to copy the whole thing, but then you wouldn’t have any incentive to go over and read it there, so I’ll excerpt it instead.
Why do we think it’s easier to love people than it is to just be religious?I’m not sure people who think and speak that way really even know what love is.Maybe the reason we don’t all, in the spirit of unity and rainbows, just set aside our differences and love each other is because it’s really freaking hard to do that. . . .It’s a lot easier to follow some rules everyone can see me keep than it is to truly, actually love people.Anybody can be on their best behavior. But to love someone who hates you? That takes Jesus and his cross.