LAW AND LOVE

There will never be enough laws, or courts and officers to enforce them, to bring about justice and liberty. The need for laws, officers and courts itself attests to something in us that must be restrained, subdued, overcome, constrained. The idea of Christianity is that that evil something in us be constrained by the Holy Spirit within us—the Spirit of Love for God and man. To the degree that this Love does not permeate a culture, it moves toward dictatorship because the only other constraining factor is fear. Without the fear of God there is only the fear of man or sociopathy; both big steps down in the hierarchy of human existence.

We have a wonderful opportunity to be free in the Love of Christ. Through His body of imperfect believers, He offers freedom. Still today, as when He walked upon the earth, His Spirit says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You stone the prophets and kill those that God sends to you. How often I would have taken you under My wing, even as a mother hen her baby chicks, but you refused.”

Think deeply about what we are refusing when we refuse or ignore Christ.  He promises peace, joy, abundant and eternal life. Polls indicate around 80% of Americans claim to be Christian.  Yet how easy to be cavalier about our faith. I notice in myself, an ordained minister, seminary graduate and life-long church-goer, a strong tendency to be perpetually preoccupied with anything but the Love of God and man; and this Love is the primary command of Christ.  I don’t think this tendency is unique to me. I think it is a manifestation of the evil we must all be perpetually overcoming. We overcome by abiding in Christ.

If we had the opportunity, as Franklin Graham wrote about in his book Rebel With a Cause, to visit nations and cultures that have not had the strong influence of Christianity that America has been blessed with, and witness the superstition and psycho-social deprivation there, perhaps we would not be so cavalier about the Faith that has provided us so many blessings and so much freedom. If we look deeply into our own culture, we see the seeds of social entropy taking root in various places. These seeds are present in all of us—we are the nation! And we must all work diligently to keep them rooted out of our own personalities. This is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. We truly are lost without Christ. We have all seen, almost daily, humans acting in very selfish and destructive ways with no remorse or even any evident sense that they were in the wrong. Many feel entitled to act in ways that cause suffering to others. There are very dark undercurrents in the human soul. I recently read that people hired by FaceBook as “content moderators” must receive counseling to cope with some of the violence and depravity they are exposed to, including child pornography, bestiality, and cruelty to animals. Social media , by providing the combination of anonymity and exposure, has provided us an unwanted but enlightening look into the darkness of the human soul. This should serve to awaken us to what Christ has come to deliver us from. I also discovered recently that Son of Sam, the infamous murderer who terrorized New York City decades ago, became a sincere Christian and teaches His Way to fellow prisoners.   His conversion is by all accounts sincere and has stood the test of time. He does not attend his parole board meetings; he is not trying to be released. What other influence than Christ could have brought about such a conversion of a man’s personality? There are billions of examples of this transformation in the history of Christianity. This is our hope. But we must nurture it.    It is not enough for us to eat of the fruit of the garden of freedom and peace. We must also tend it carefully. We must pull up some weeds and sow some seeds. The Love of Christ extends to those yet unborn. What are we bequeathing them? Whatever it is, we will give account of it in the Day.