Making regular trips to the grocery store to purchase food or many of the other things we need to live in today’s world makes us aware of the high cost of living. We are not as aware as we should be of the high cost of loving. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son . . .” (John 3:16). This is the story of the Incarnation – from our Savior’s birth in Bethlehem to a Roman cross on a hill called Golgotha. This is the ultimate example of love, and it is the pattern and model of love that every Christian is enjoined to manifest to others.
There is absolutely no way anyone will ever be able to fathom the price of true love as it is demonstrated by Christ’s crucifixion and all that it means to us in respect to our relationship to God. “But we see Jesus,” said the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, “who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9). It is the kind of love that we see demonstrated in Jesus that we are to extend to the human family about us. “This is my commandment,” said Jesus, “that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
Chet Bitterman was a young man who knew the high cost of loving, for he gave his life attempting to share Christ’s love with others. Kidnapped by terrorists who were hoping to force the Summer Institute of Linguistics (a part of Wycliffe Bible Translators) out of their country, Bitterman was held for ransom, which ended in his murder. He was given the task of working with the Caryona-speaking Indians of Columbia, South America in their native language.
Terrorists disguised as policemen knocked on the door early one morning at 6:30 a.m. When the door was opened, six terrorists, hooded and armed with machine guns, rushed in. They were looking for the director of the Bogota Summer Institute of Linguistics office. When they could not find him, they instead chose Chet Bitterman, apparently because he seemed to be the one in charge.
Four days later they made their demands: “Chet Bitterman will be executed unless the Summer Institute of Linguistics and all its members leave Columbia by 6:00 p.m. February 19th.” The Wycliffe Bible Translators had already adopted a policy that they would not submit to the demand of Chet’s captors. Several days passed as negotiations were attempted to save Chet’s life, but these were unsuccessful. Apparently drugged, Chet was driven around the city of Bogota by his captors in a hijacked minibus. After a few hours they pulled over and shot Chet once in the heart and fled.
Chet’s death came as a shock, but the love of God in the hearts of Chet’s wife and parents was so great that the tragedy was viewed in the perspective of God’s perfect and sovereign will. Chet’s wife remarked, “We committed him to the Lord a long time ago . . . We have perfect peace.” Chet’s entire family was fully aware of the price of loving.
Loving others as Christ loved us cost Chet Bitterman his life. There will always be a cost involved when we love in the way that Christ loves. It costs to love the addicted and perverted, the selfish and the corrupted, those who are members of classes and races other than our own, our neighbors down the block, or perhaps even some of the people with whom we worship in our own churches. It costs to love, as Jesus said, “those who have persecuted us and despitefully used us.” But that is what Jesus Christ has asked us to do. Our great God who gave us His love extends His love for others – through us.
The truth is that loving others as Christ loved us will possibly involve sacrifice, pain, suffering, discomfort and inconvenience. At the same time, the very effort to love serves to stretch our souls and enlarge our capacity for enrichment. “He who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14b). We see this fact demonstrated every day in the lives of people we know. We are truly alive only when we reach out in love – even if it does or does not secure a positive response.
Christians are not responsible for how others respond; we are only responsible for being obedient to Christ’s command that we pattern our love for others after His love for us. If you haven’t done so already, why not try it?
The Paper Pulpit 
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