Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 1 - Article 6

If one must choose to be selfish for a Love, then one has a duty to pick the Love for the Almighty, and all that the Lord stands for – Truth, Justice, Holiness, Sacrifice, Mercy, Grace and the list goes on. If anything, a Martyr of God (and I use this word as carefully) is the most unselfish of all. Dying for His divine purpose and justice for all; for the Lord Himself Alone has the full view of all creation timelessly and without boundaries, is arguably the only acceptable "death for one's love", for one cannot possibly be accused of being selfish if He dies for all? Surely the Lord Jesus cannot be accused of breaking His and His Mother's love by dying on the cross for all including His own mother and the people that love Him? Surely the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be accused of selfishness by also dying for his disciples? The Lord Jesus died for the redemption of all things; all creation, and not "part of creation" or "specific creations". Although this point may trigger some unrest between the stands of Calvinism and Armenism, I will only interject briefly to say that the Lord's supremacy and plans run for all creation, and how that works in detail depends on fully comprehending the extent and miraculous nature of the Redemption that Man will not be able to grasp the full magnitude of.

Nonetheless, only the love for the Lord is the only one unselfish love. Unfortunately, exhibited through Man, it had, has and will often result in great disasters. Surely we have all heard of the occasional straying of the believer's children, or even the Pastor who, tied up in the work for the Church, had inevitably neglected his family. Surely despite the imperfect presentations, some of these people do indeed have a fervent love for the Lord, but one must then struggle with the imperfect result from the "perfect love".

While the love for the Lord and all things that the Lord stands for is the most unselfish love, perfect display and perfect execution can only come from perfect entities. Therefore, the perfect execution and demonstration of it in history was performed by the Lord Jesus Christ and no other. Perfect gold in the hands on an imperfect blacksmith or imperfect tools will result only in contamination from other metals. Perfect love from humans will only become contaminated with human vices. Thus perfect love can only come from the Lord Himself.

Yet, this perfect love is what every believer must strive for. As imperfect our efforts may be, the Lord Jesus' agape or Charity, is the one that we need to not only recognize as the only perfect love of all, but one that we all need to strive for. Better to be 50 % close than 40 % close. Not that our individual efforts will make attaining the impossible possible, but understanding of that great love is a prerequisite of appreciating it in its purest form, and we do have a duty as the created to emulate this in reciprocation to His love for us.

On this, it is clearly difficult for us to display and have agape love. Parents come close to doing this to their children, but even so, some exhibit favoritism along with "more love for the clever/obedient one". As imperfect beings as we are, unconditional love is difficult and almost impossible. Can we love the disobedient children? Can we love the dirty homeless as God does? Can we love the sinners that sin against us? Can we love the person who badmouths us? Can we love the unbeliever? Can we love the one who hates our family? Can we love one who curses and hates God? If our answer is no to any of the above, then it is not unconditional love. "For Christ died for us when we were yet sinners." That was unconditional agape love. Dying for us when we have yet to love Him, but hate Him. How are we able to portray the goodness and kindness that we have received from the Lord Himself? How can we give Him glory if we are not able to pass this holy love (agape) unto others? It seems most of us have already failed 1 Corinthians 13, 14. How easy it is for our humanness to take over and curse back. How easy it is for us to simply retaliate. Give people a taste of their own medicine. Sometimes we justify it with, "Well, only when we do it back to them will they realize what they have been doing is wrong."

Jesus did not do that in the scriptures. He did not debate with the tax collectors how much they owe God, nor steal from the thieves, and rob from the robbers. Neither did our Lord Jesus Christ frame His accusers. Instead, He took it all in. Each and every bad deed done onto Him was repaid with grace and kindness. Truly, for one who can wipe out the entire universe with a snap of His fingers, Jesus had reacted to every sinner with unbelievable kindness and tolerance. He loved those that hated Him; He loved those that cursed Him! And in this day and age, He continues to reach out to those that hate Him, and the Father!

Yet, we truly struggle to display God's agape. Many of us are like tinted windows that cannot allow the full light of God to pass through. Our affections, our likes, and our kindness were only reserved for people who appreciated us, or people who like us in return, or people who are polite to us, and people who are nice to us. We often retaliate too easily.

Oh how merciful is the Lord our God! If He were to melt out the measures according to our measures, we would never have salvation! If He only loved the obedient children, if He only loved the intelligent ones, if He only loved the ones that loved Him as much as He did, we would be apart with no hope! How much have we let Him down! We could not even display His love for us in this world without tinting it, yet He loved us enough to forgive, tolerate, and offer a way out for us! God the Almighty, the Omnipotent had bent over backwards to reach us! He had come to us on our terms! Can anyone truly comprehend this? The Creator reaching out to His creations, and on the terms of the creations!

We, if we truly know and appreciate the love of God, must seek to show His agape through us! We cannot do this on our own will and power, but God can enable us. And only by realizing that we are so in short of His standard and how great and marvelous He is, we cannot pass on this agape, but only tint it with our poor mortal understanding. And we have to duty to ask the Lord to help us show this same agape love to all around us.