Why We Should Love One Another

God created everything.

You.  Me.  Everything thing that we have known, will know, and all that is beyond our knowing, was created by Him.  An understandable response to this truth is praise and love from His creation.  However, God is not only worthy of this praise and love from His creation, He commands it.  When we consider His commands, it is amazing that God is not only concerned with our response to Him but how we respond to each other.

Not only is God concerned that we acknowledge that He is the only true God, but He is also concerned that we give each other proper honor and dignity.

Not only is God concerned that we worship Him properly, but He is also concerned that we preserve the life of ourselves and others.

Not only is God concerned that we use His name in a holy and reverent manner, but He is also concerned that we conduct ourselves in a chaste and modest manner toward one another.

Not only is God concerned that we reserve one whole day in seven for His service, but He is also concerned that we engage faithfully with one another in contracts and commerce, that we promote truth with one another, that we be content with our own condition and act charitably toward the condition of others.

In short, God commands us to love one another.

God could have simply commanded we acknowledge Him as the only true God, worship Him properly, use His name in a holy manner, reserve one whole day in seven for His service, and it would have been enough because He is the Creator, and a Creator owes His creation nothing.

As His creation, however, God commands us to love one another because He loves His creation.

This truth points to something far more shocking than the amazing fact that God cares about how we treat each other.   While God is under no obligation to make a promise to us, He is obligated to keep it once He has made it.  God must keep His promise because His character demands it and He promises that all in His creation that believe in Jesus Christ will not experience eternal torment for their sins against the Creator, but rather will experience eternal life.  This Jesus Christ is the Creator embodied in flesh, i.e. Incarnate.  

The scope of this post was not to get into the details as to why the Incarnation was necessary, but know that it absolutely was and it cost the Creator dearly.  The death of the Creator paid the penalty due for the sins of His people.  God is so concerned for His creation that He laid down His life for it.  This sacrifice is undeserved, but that is why it is called grace and it is truly amazing. 

Our Response to the Attack in Paris

I am not going to get into the long-term solution to Islamic-based terrorist attacks.  That is not the point of this post.  The point is to warn us from stepping into hate and radicalism ourselves as a result of such attacks. 

I intentionally waited to post comments about last night’s attack in Paris.  Some of the online commentary I have seen over the last 24 hours has been very concerning.  I have seen calls to kill all Muslims.  I have seen calls to round Muslims up and place them in internment camps.  I have seen calls from Christians for a new Crusade.  I am going to be blunt; these calls to harm Muslims are more than Islamophobic, it is insanity.  These calls are unchristian. 

I should point out that these calls are coming from people that are normally pretty rational, normally pretty “christian.”  This type of mob insanity happens, however, when we fail to control our fear.  A wise man once said,

“Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering.”

Right now people are scared.  Do you know who else is scared?  Muslims.  Millions of non-violent Muslims right now fear retribution from both totalitarian acts of governments and vigilante “justice” from mobs of equally fearful people. 

Anger is an appropriate response to evil.  What happened in Paris was evil.  However, when we find our world crashing down we need to slow down, think, and keep our emotions in check, otherwise we will find ourselves making poor judgments. 

Hate breeds hate.  Radicalism breeds radicalism.  This also happens to be our enemy’s goal.  Their goal is for governments to respond with totalitarianism.  Their goal is for you and I to respond with pitchforks, torches, and a burning stake.  They want us to meet them on the field of hate and radicalism.  When we do that, they have already won.  The suffering continues.

I will work on another post that deals with the long-term solution, which entails a different foreign policy from the current one we have driven by fear.