You Shall Love

You shall love.

"For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty:
 as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
For all the law if fulfilled in one word, even in this:
 “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
                                                    Galatians 5:13, 14
The other day I heard an evangelist who was spouting judgment from his pulpit. He pointed to various groups and condemned them.
We live in perilous times. I will not deny that. As I write this an American journalist has just been beheaded by men that are nothing short of evil.
There is evil all around us. Hamas is firing rockets into Israel knowing full well that Israeli retaliation will cause the death of many innocent people in Gaza. All because of an ideology that says Israel should not exist.
Other terrorist groups around the world are kidnapping and threatening innocent people in the misguided belief they are doing it for God.
Such beliefs are in my opinion from the pit of hell.
Still as horrendous as these things are, we as Christians are called to love. It is the one thing that can truly change the world.
We are not as the evangelist I heard called to judge. Jesus makes that clear in Matthew 7:1,2. We are called to love.
Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France said,
"You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests, with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power.”
“I know men and I tell you, Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for him.”
“I search in vain history to find similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel.  Neither history nor humanity, nor ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
One day God will judge the world. Those terrorist who are killing innocent men women and children will stand before him and be cast into the pit of Hell I have no doubt about that.
Until then however it is our duty, however hard it may be, to love not only our neighbours but our enemies as well.
Think about it.