Love not Hate
“There is one other fundamental difference between love and hate. Love is always a refuge. Hate is never a refuge. Only a mentally sick person can find refuge in his hates. But love is the enduring sanctuary of life. Life may rob you of many things. It often does. But it can never bereave us of love itself. That remains.”
-Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, rabbinic leader, from a December 22, 1940, sermon, quoted in Therefore Choose Life: Selected Sermons, Addresses and Writings of Abba Hillel Silver, Volume One, edited by Herbert Wiesner (1997)
Rabbi Silver was right on with what he said. Love is the key to all meaningful human relationships. Hate can never be a refuge. All those who have ever tried to rule the world by hate have eventually fallen.
Rabbi Silver wrote the words above when world war two was at it height. When millions of Jews and others were being murdered by the Nazis, men full of hate.
Today we have terrorist groups around the world who are trying to use hate and force to conquer lands in the middle east. They are doomed to failure because of the hate they sow.
The one true God is not a God of hate. He is a God of Love.
Napoleon Bonaparte a man who knew more than a little about trying to conquer the world 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.”
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Jesus set the standard for conquering the world. Today 2.2 billion people worship Jesus. His word of the love of God has reached every corner of the world.
Jesus has more people believing in him and his ways than all the terrorist groups in the world today could ever hope to have following them and Jesus did it with love.
The apostle Paul wrote,
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails....
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13.
As people of the world be we Christians, or of other faiths we need to be showing more love to those around us.
Love in it’s simplest form is giving of one’s self.
Anne Frank a young Jewish girl who hid most of world war two from the Nazis and later died in a concentration camp wrote,
“Give of yourself, give as much as you can? And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! If everyone were to do this and not be as mean with a kindly word, then there would be much more justice and love in the world. Give and you shall receive, much more than you would have ever thought possible. Give, give again and again, don’t lose courage, keep it up and go on giving! No one has ever become poor from giving!” Anne Frank
This is what we all should be doing be we Christians or not.
Please think about it.
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