Christian Living
Freedom from sin and hatred requires the prevailing power of God’s love in human lives. Before the creation of mankind, God purposed us all to “love thy neighbor as thyself”; unfortunately, our propensity to sin has been injurious to society, inciting today fear, anger, hatred, and death to its members. To turn evil hearts into good; so people can enjoy heaven rather than hell; and to enable the hurt to find hope amidst this often hopeless world, we must choose God’s love and our purpose before it is too late! If we only obey, Love will give this world the stability it needs to withstand the floodwaters of hatred – the floodwaters that our sins daily bring upon us.
“I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul” . . . These inspiring Invictus words today describe the free will God first gave to us when mankind was born. Today, as we choose our own path in life, we must always use discretion in what we decide to do. Life given from above can later lead to death if people don’t make sound decisions.
“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved” (George Sand). As God created Adam, God realized the importance of togetherness. Because of this reason, He created Eve. In Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.” God designed mankind to be unified in love, not to be divided by hate.
“Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own” (Robert Heinlein). Unfortunately, today in this sinful world, this love increasingly fails to take place. People are becoming more selfish as people habitually injure another to satisfy their desires of greed. Unstable conditions consequently result, as injury creates more difficulty for those hurt to be in control of life, with sin hindering many needs from getting met. As a result, people are becoming more angry, distrustful, and fearful in society, causing people to be more hateful toward one another. Abuse of free will is conflicting God’s plan for human love and togetherness as people are learning to hurt rather than help one another.
God commands us to “love thy neighbor as thyself” because “love does no wrong to anyone” (Romans 13:10). Disobeying this law is like “someone building a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins” (Luke 6:46-49). Floodwaters of hate today beat upon each rock (human being) of our house (families, neighborhood, society, country, world) with sufficient pressure to destroy what we call freedom. Floodwaters like rabid racism; countless killings of the innocent; domestic violence, criticism; discord,; rape; child abuse; thievery, quarreling; false witnesses; haughtiness, and jealousy, etc. can all disrupt human freedom, whether it be emotionally, physically, spiritually, or psychologically. This epidemic needs to be deeply addressed because as Dave Pelzer once said, “Hate is a cancer that spreads one cell at a time”. To protect us from ourselves, we need Love.
Erich Fromm once said, “Love is the only sane and satisfactory solution to the problem of human existence.” This is so factual, because without God (who is Love), mankind has no chance of survival. In our world today, God’s love can give hope and strength to those weakened by hate (Isaiah 40:29-31); forgive all sins and give eternal freedom to all of us who hate (John 3:16); not to mention, reform society by changing evil hearts into loving ones (conversion of Saul to Paul, for example). Nothing can separate the Love of God to those who seek its face – no friend, circumstance, or foe (Romans 8:38-39).
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend” (Martin Luther King, Jr.). Throughout history, Love has changed the hearts of countless souls, ridding much of the hate that their sinful natures afflicted upon those around them. If Love can turn murderers like Saul into saints like the Apostle Paul, it can presumably improve the hurtful hearts of those in your world. So how does Love turn people into good? What must I do in the meantime? Read further and I will soon tell you.
When people get saved, Love’s process of converting hate into love begins. Without salvation, man is incapable of exhibiting true unconditional love. However, once spiritually reborn, the Holy Spirit takes residence in the Christian’s life, giving the person the capacity to love like Christ. When we submit to the Holy Spirit, He produces the fruit of the spirit love in us (Galatians 5:22). To the extent we yield to Him is the degree we experience this agape love. Constantly choosing to abide produces much fruit; inconsistencies in abiding creates weak, sporadic flow of compassion. “As we live in God, our love grows more perfect” (1 John 4:17). For the sake of human freedom, we must always choose to abide, so optimal amounts of mortar (love) can remain present between us rocks; to keep our house (families, societies, etc.) unified and stable amidst the floodwaters of hate.
“Evil triumphs when good men do nothing” (Edmund Burke). Because of sin, God gives each of us purposes to change this world. We complete them through daily surrendering our free will to Christ. The lost needs to hear the gospel, the hopeless needs to experience hope from God, and many backsliders must again see the dire need to love through the Holy Spirit. As we pursue these aims, if we don’t show the power of forgiveness by what we say and do, all our efforts would be in vain. Human suffering will continue to worsen as this world will become more hateful, destructive, and unforgiving. As Desmond Tutu once said, “Without forgiveness, there’s no future”.
We forgive to the extent that we love” (Francois de La Rochefoucauld). In a world where people immensely cross paths, we will constantly face the temptation to respond in hate-filled anger to those who hurt us. Before we act, we must always realize that “wickedness never brings stability; only the godly have deep roots” (Proverbs 12:3). Free will must choose God’s love, not selfishness and hatred. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “If we do not learn to live together as friends, we will die apart as fools”. We need to love our fellow man before it is too late!
Romans 12:17-18 says: “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible.” When injured by another, let God take vengeance, not yourself (Romans 12:19). “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink, and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you” (Romans 12:20).
Love can become the mortar that unites together every Adam and Eve of this world. If we as a whole only choose to let the Holy Spirit control our lives can we ever truly experience victory over the floodwaters of hate. We can either surrender to Love that leads to freedom or regrettably, surrender to hate that leads to death. The choice is up to us.
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