Which Lives Matter?

 By Johnny Hester

    Why should there be any debate over which lives matter? That question was settled two thousand years ago by the Lord Jesus Christ when He declared: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17). The church was divinely commissioned to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). We must necessarily infer from this that God wants us to spread the good news that all people (red, yellow, black and white) matter.
    Church, if we are not irresistibly motivated to make this truth known to our world, it just may be that we have not yet come to understand the depth and riches of the love of Christ. The apostle Paul stated, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
     A related question: Do the lives of babies matter? Reflexively we answer definitively and correctly—“Yes!”  But what if the baby is still within the womb of his or her mother—an embryo, a zygote, having not yet even developed a form that resembles a human infant?  Well, the Holy Spirit clearly answered that question through the Psalmist as David praised God for His love in Psalm 139:
        “¹³ For you created my inmost being;  you knit me together in my mother's womb.
        ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
            your works are wonderful,
            I know that full well.
        ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
            when I was made in the secret place.
            When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
        ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
            All the days ordained for me
            were written in your book
            before one of them came to be.” (NIV)
    All lives matter—those still in the womb, newborns who are severely handicapped, those who are aged and infirm who have come to depend totally upon the care of others in order for their lives to continue. May we, as “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15), issue a clarion call to this dark, sin-sick world: “All Lives Matter!”

- Johnny Hester preaches for the Matthews Church of Christ in Matthews, MO. He may be contacted at johnnyhester@yahoo.com