Uncivil War

20If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?21And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
1 John 4: 20 - 21 NKJV

It would seem that I cannot go one single day without hearing of some sorid tale of one person or anothers bad behavior towards others.  Just this past week we were once again witness to a brutal school shooting perpetrated by some disoriented soul who must have thought that violence was somehow his last resort.  How did we get to this point?  Believe me, that's the question that every single anti gun activist is asking right now.  Hiw did we get to this point as a society?  Well, I don't mean to burst anyones bubble, but we've been "there" for some time now.  We've been there when someone decided it was better to shoot their neighbor than to live next door to them.  We've been there ever since some irate driver decided to take a few shots at another driver who cut him off on the road.  This uncivil behavior comes as no surprise to me and it shouldn't to anyone else either.  In fact, in those supposedly well behaved biblical times that raised up such men as Abraham, Moses and David, it was still there.   In fact we are told that God Himself saw that the wickedness of man He created was great {Genesis 6:5-6}.  So, this bad behavior is certainly nothing new to our society.  Our own history is blotched with the wickedness of slavery and racial violence.  This is exactly why I chuckle whenever some news channel talking head comes on and, with fake crocodile tears, bemoans the fact that this violence in our society is something new.  As I write this, there are reports of four people shot to death in a church in Russia.  Wait, weren't we told that gun violence only happens in our own country?  Apparently someone overseas missed that memo.

12“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. Life Lessons
John 15: 12 - 16 NKJV

Things seemed to be different when I was a kid.  The only time it seemed that we would see violence was when one of us had a disagreement with a friend or someone we knew and it resulted in a amateur boxing match.  Funny thing about these occurances though, when the dust had cleared we were usually back playing with each other once again.  Call it a temporary reprieve from civility I guess.  Of course, when I was growing up I fired everything from my dads police revolver to a hunting bow.  Strangely, despite being exposed to these supposed instruments of mass killing, I NEVER once paired my own anger with a weapon against those around me.  Times were different then I suppose.  If we are to bring religion into this arena of people behaving badly, we may not like the outcome.  For it is not God who institutes this behavior, but ourselves.  That's right, mister holier than thou, YOU are the cause of this incivility we are all experiencing.  For each time that we believe in our own hearts that we ourselves are independent from God, we sow the seeds of incivility.  Christ Himself spoke His command that we love one another.  How many of us can proclaim that we have followed His command?  I can't, far from it.  Yet each day christians and non christians alike place themselves on a seperate playing field than God.  The truth of Christ Jesus in us is that Jesus Himself lives through us today {Galations 2:20}.  So, is it Jesus who pulls that trigger meant to kill?  If we believe that then we're on a slippery slope.  No, I believe that there are those of us out there who fail to recognize that they themselves have that Spirit of Christ in them.  That does not mean that Jesus had abandoned them, only that His Spirit has not yet been revealed in them.  Indeed, there is hope.  Our message from Christ Jesus is not bad behavior or revenge...but Love for everyone.

~Scott~