LOVE LIBERATES

We live in an age when both men and women are increasingly seeking to be liberated (interpretation: free from all obligations and commitments to others). This is a most enslaving attitude.

The misery and self-destruction of this attitude should be obvious merely from examining the fate of those who have dedicated themselves to hatred (Mt. 26:52). However, we can look to God's word to see the benefits of a loving attitude.

Jesus commanded: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Mt. 5:44). What a revolutionary idea! To the world this is the pathway to certain enslavement.

But Christians recognize that hatred is the real captor. When we hate someone we totally surrender control of our emotions and our behavior to them. When we maintain our love for them, we remain free from these evil corrupting emotions (Eph. 4:26).

The Apostle Paul put it this way: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance [is] mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in
so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:19-21).

Who is in control and who is the victim? It should not be our desire to "heap coals of fire;" however, that is the way things will work out. This is not intuitive, it is a matter of faith.

Mutual hate produces a totally hopeless deadlock of enslavement. Its end: spiritual and carnal warfare.

In no place is this more tragic than in the church. Jesus said: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (Jn 13:34).

This teaches that our love for one another is totally within our control. Indeed, if we are expected to love our enemies, we surely have the capacity to love our fellow Christians. If not, we are in dire need of repentance.

Mutual love produces a totally evangelistic environment. Its ultimate end is the full realization of the power of the gospel (Rom. 1:16). It is the beginning of our evangelistic effort, and without it this effort is doomed to failure from the start.