If Love is the greatest ethic then freedom is a necessary component because love cannot be coerced. That is why coerced ethics practiced in most religion is not able to produce love in the adherents but rather to foster hatred, hatred because of the displeasure at the inability of the object to see issues at the same plane as the subject. Christ however compels us to love even our enemies because it is only in the absence of hate that love can thrive and relationship with God thrives only in a love atmosphere because God is love personified.
A lot of time one has wondered at how could a good and loving God exist in the face of much evil? A good answer I’ve found is that for one to ask that question, there must have been an assumption that good exists (as evil can only exist in the presence of the good), but for good and evil to exist there must of necessity be a moral law (that says what is good and what is bad), and for this moral law to exist there must be a moral law giver (God), so the question kind of disappears!
A better question is what does God say about the evil around us? (We will answer this question later)
Ok, the responsibility of a Christian is to love. But is love acceptance?
Love is not the acceptance of people with all their prerogatives; there is a difference between accepting people and accepting their worldview. Love demands that I acknowledge and respect your God given right to choose your path, it in no way demands that I celebrate it. The first man (Adam) loved his wife so much that he decided to die with her; the second man (Jesus) loved us so much that he died for us! He didn’t like our state but he understood it.
It is then importance for us to understand when Jesus said “For God so loved the world (sinful world) that He gave His only begotten Son, that he who believes in Him may not die but have everlasting Life” the ultimate Love is redemptive, it gives us the chance and the will to choose Life.
When we kill or attempt to kill people for God, we act out of ignorance of the knowledge of Love, that is why religion (man’s zeal for God) can never bring out the life of God because man is incapable of such. It is in accepting His Love that we obtain the power to live the life.
Where is God in the face of human suffering?
Answer; On the cross, Christ has taken on the sufferings of sinful man so that should you and I can come into a relationship with him, acknowledge our weakness and come into a fellowship with that finished work, we would find meaning and rest for our souls.
Man is not at peace with his neighbor because he is not at peace with himself; he is not at peace with himself because he is not at peace with his God.
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “the essence of the Cross is without parallel”.
More thoughts at www.nelsontalks.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your feedback