The Christian religion is based on love. Not romantic or sensual love, but like the love a mother and father have for their children, and the need babies have for their mothers. Why is it that divine love (Godly love) cannot be achieved between man/woman and his/her neighbors? Why can’t we live in a way that will end all conflicts? We have the intelligence to go to the moon and back; we know how to send words and pictures for many millions of miles with the speed of light, and many, many more totally amazing feats of humanity’s ingenuity.
Repeating, what is it that stops that love from forming in us which would end all animosity? Let us see if we can find the answer. This could be the hardest question I have ever asked. Truthfully, I don’t know if have the complete answer. I am hoping God’s Spirit will help as this post progresses.
I am aware it is our human nature that literally forces us to care for self and family. It is our most dominating instinct. And that is understandable. But why does that instinct keep us from loving and caring for the needy? What is it? Could it be insecurity with the thought that possibly there may not be enough of whatever to go around on a rainy day? Or is it a hidden feeling of emptiness that insecurity produces, telling us we may not be as important or as valuable as the next person/s?
Or do we keep from loving others because our human nature silently keeps telling us ‘Don’t forget, survival of the fittest.’ That may be the reason we desire to be as well-off as the rest or even a little better. I think all the above reasons may apply, but this last one may do more harm in keeping us from caring for others, as agape (Godly love) dictates.
Something to think about: our self-centered nature and free will did not come about by God’s creation of humanity in just one 24-hour day. It came about by God-guided, behind-the-scene process of development, which took millions of years, if not longer--many may call it evolution through the process of random selection. Anyone with even a partial brain can see all the evidence that science, archaeology, anthropology, geology, etc. have been discovering for the last hundred years or so. Also think about this: our DNA is about ninety-seven or ninety-eight percent, if not more, identical to the chimpanzee, along with having almost identical body parts. Is that just a coincidence?
All primates have an animal nature. That is what makes them animals. As their development continued, they became more sophisticated through God-guided natural selection, and not random selection as Darwin’s evolution dictates. The only thing that didn’t/couldn’t change was their animal nature. With them the main desire was/is to survive, one way or another. And that meant a continual striving to beat out all predators and competitors.
Before reading any further, click onto post # 143: "Creation, Evolution and Intelligent design." It is an extremely lengthy and informative paper that will tell what may be the best solution in understanding how we got here and why. That post will help you understand this post, and where I am coming from.
Since the majority of "Bible-believing" Christians believe God created Adam in an instant/one 24-hour day; that belief has alienated many thinking and educated people from becoming Christians. They cannot believe in any religion that violates solid science and good-old-common-sense, that has been proven over and over again with undisputable evidence.
Interestingly enough, one thing many Christians don‘t understand is that time, as we know it, does not exist in God’s eternity. 2nd Peter 3:8. "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day." That means that God was in no hurry to make the earth and all that goes with it, in just six earth days. Repeating, several billion years and one 24-hour day are the same in a timeless existence. It is almost impossible for humans to understand or experience timelessness with words only; it must be experienced, which we, as yet, have not mastered.
It is apparent that humans are no more than hybrid, sophisticated, intelligent, sometimes well-mannered animals with a self-centered nature. That sinful human nature which we inherited stops us from loving others as we should. Jude 10. ". . . , like unreasoning animals--these are the very things that destroy them." Most animals and a large percentage of humans are unreasoning when it comes to the welfare of others. That, along with our desire to survive and thrive, does not allow us to live with others in a loving, peaceable and charitable way.
Again, as one can readily understand, it would be almost impossible for us to have selfless love for the needy because of our inherent animal nature. The apostle Paul used the term ‘sinful nature’ about 24 times to describe our human nature.
The main reason it is extremely difficult to love as the New Testament requires is because the majority of us humans are stuck on ourselves--though we don’t like to hear that kind of talk. And yet, there is an exceedingly unique way in which we can free ourselves, or better yet, be freed from the dominance our selfish nature has over our lives.
Here is the deal: God devised a plan before the beginning of time to free us from ourselves, and live in a way which will please Him, since He more than anyone else knows very well the constraining situation we all are in.
God will freely make available to us His divine love via his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the powerhouse that gives us the ability to activate the needed love to live in a way that pleases God. Acts 1:8. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." Romans 8:9. "And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."
How He does this is to count as holy and righteous those who believe that His Son Jesus Christ will save us from our sinful past and bring us to heaven. Put another way: God converts our faith into holiness. To mentally believe and accept that part where Christ becomes our Savior is apiece of cake. But also, we must count/make Jesus the Lord of our lives, which means we are under His thumb; He becomes our new owner. 1st Corinthians 6:19. "You are not your own; you were bought at a price." As is apparent, the contradictory part many of us engage in as followers of Christ is when we call Him Lord, which He is and don’t obey what He commands. That is when the sparks will fly that may eventually burn into eternity. 1st John 3:24. "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them."
Actually, there are dozens of Bible verses that teach the exact same principle of absolute necessity for obedience to all that is commanded in the New Testament. Notwithstanding, there is a threatening condition if/when a person does not obey--and who likes to be threatened? Acts 5:32. ". . . , and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." That means no obedience, no Holy Spirit, no Holy Spirit, no Salvation." Ouch! I don’t like to bring up verses that threaten, but most conventional churches are lenient with those types of verses. That is the reason for this blog.
By the way, let it be known, that the only way we become aware of those commands is when we make it a habit of reading large portions of the New Testament every day. There are hundreds of commands which teach us what we must do and not do. It is a deceptive attitude to think, since I am honest, good person, I go to church, I don’t steal and I obey the 10 commandments, I will go to heaven; therefore, I don’t need to read the Bible everyday to know what sin is. I can say assuredly and with God’s approval, those we believe that way may not qualify for eternity. Christianity is that complex and not child’s play. If one rejects all else in this post, please, for your sake, take this paragraph seriously.
1st Peter 1:4. ". . . , so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." With our new divine nature and love that God has imparted on us, through our faith, the result will be that God expects us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Mark 12:28-30. "The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: . . . Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: love your neighbor as yourself." There is no commandment greater than this." The only possible way we can even start to display our love for Him in this extreme way is to make every effort to obey all that He commanded. Only words of love for God are worthless, again, unless they are followed by the actions of obedience to their new Lord.
Now comes the final challenge that adheres everything together in a coherent way: loving our neighbors as ourselves. That is an extremely high price to pay, even though grace with its responsibilities is freely given to us through our faith. You see, it is God’s grace working through us that enables you and me to love our needy neighbors. When everything is in place as is aforementioned, but this last and most difficult part does not materialize, all else is nothing but a facade of holy words, and is worthless to God. This message should be posted on every billboard in the world.
With our newly acquired divine nature and love, one of the reasons God desires us to believe and love Him, and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, above and beyond eternal life, is so that we can live in loving harmony with each other. It is our divine love that will give us the desire and ability to love Him as He desires, coupled with love for all humankind.
With only human love, it would be almost impossible for us to believe that it is feasible to consider others equal, if not better than ourselves. Philippians 2:3. "Do nothing out of vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself". Romans 12:10. "Honor one another above yourself."
Repeating, the only reason this world is in the Godless shape it is in all stems from lack of Godly love in the lives of those who just say they believe in God, including atheists and all religions that do not espouse active love for God and neighbor.
One of the most joyful benefits about living with Godly love while on this earth, as the password to real life is we will be experiencing a prelude of heavenly glory. Yes, as we all know, Godly love put into action by all the people in the world would be the answer to all our worldly problems and conflicts. It is a crying shame that it will never happen.
Remember this: the remedy in overcoming our human nature is exclusively for those who not only believe, but also live as is dictated in the Holy Book. The result of the above-mentioned remedy is spending eternity with God, where divine love is not only prevalent but the only way of life. Amen.
In closing, the open secret goes this way: have faith in Jesus Christ, love Him and His Father as He requires, love the unlovable and the helpless, and finally, make sure to use the glue that binds everything together, which is obedience. Amen.
3 comments:
Great piece of writing! However, I would like to add my two cents to your dollar. I think that our love will always be imperfect, because we are imperfect. This is by no means a consolation to our mistakes and failure to try. I think we have begun on the wrong premise: love as an emotion. We want a love that we can see, feel. So our love is by the intensity of the emotion rather than by the firmness of the commitment. We need to be committed to the well being of others because at the end of the day feelings and nothing more than that... feeling. and they can change very quickly
Anonymous:
Thanks for your comment, I think I know where you are coming from. Let me meditate on what your point is and I will get back to you and extend my comment in a few days.
Anonymous,
I am back. You brought up a very important topic. I will agree with you. Let me clarify it even a little more: The word love can be confusing, since we think of love as giving us some kind of pleasant feeling or emotion when we are dealing with others, other than kinfolk. With Kin, that kind of love is caring for family in a unique way. Like the old adage “ Blood is thicker that water.” Most of us are aware of that kind of love, even though it is hard to describe.
Then there is romantic love. Most understand that kind of love in which we expect a pleasant motion. In other words, with that love we looking for something in return, and then that love is made complete with whatever action was taken. This love can have many different degrees of satisfaction.
Still using the same word love, when it is used in terms of God’s love or divine love, the whole picture changes. We have love for God and love for other humans in need. The main way we can display love for God is to obey what he commands--as I have mentioned this many times in this blog.
Then comes love for our neighbors. This is the tricky one. When we show this love, there will be no elation or feeling of ecstasy. This love may even hurt, in that we may be taking something like time or money, away from self and family to care for another.
What produces this love--which I have experienced many times--is active compassion, mercy and empathy. When we love in this way, we are taking THE PLACE OF GOD AND JESUS CHRIST if they were on earth with a human body. They don’t discriminate in any way; their makeup is love for humankind. If we belong to them we will live as they would live. This is the kind of love that is as scarce as hen’s teeth and would make the world a wonderful place to live in if everyone engaged in it. This kind of love is the core of the Christian religion.
The sad part of this love is if we don’t have it, we have no right to call ourselves Christian. This divine love doesn’t come easy, most often it means a lifestyle of sacrifice. That doesn’t set well with many who are so used of being spoiled. It is a crying shame many people who call themselves Christian just because they go to a church and put their offering in the basket each week; in reality their Christianity is centered around self and family, and how they can better their own lives. What bother me is these people may never be able to change. Who wants to go from sweet deserts to sauerkraut? I think I said enough.
Concerning no one being perfect, I agree, but every day we continue to climb the ladder of perfection, but no matter how hard we try we will never reach the top. But, like you said, we must never actively stop trying. jc
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