I have been learning about and focusing on LOVE—prompted, of course, by Jesus Christ—remembering from 1 Corinthians 13: 1-8a what it is and what it isn’t, what it does and what it doesn’t do. This morning in prayer and seeking the Lord, I was thinking about and interceding for a loved one (a family member) who is very lost, and how hard it can be at times to maintain a real and Christ-like love towards her even when she doesn’t respond at all to my overtures of kindness, generosity and grace. It is something man can’t do, BUT with God ALL things are possible (Matthew 19: 26). I know this to be true and I am not mad, disheartened or anything like that. It’s not about feelings or emotions in that sense. It’s just the indifference, lack of reciprocation and hard-heartedness on the part of the other person that’s sometimes difficult, and always a barrier.
In that moment, the Lord brought Ephesians 6: 12 to my mind. Thank You, Holy Spirit! The verse says, “for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (other people), but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (the unseen realm).” Our Lord Jesus revealed to me that this reality, this principle, works both ways. What does He mean? The people who are of this world and cling to it (refusing to confess and renounce their sinfulness, and submit to Jesus’ eternal and universal authority) also wrestle; but not against the present darkness and forces of evil. They contend (strive, vie, contest or rival against) with HIM, Jesus Christ. He is the power. He is the authority. He is the cosmic power of eternal light (not darkness). He is the spiritual force of good (not evil) in the highest heavenly realm.
Call to mind that the Father told Samuel the prophet (1 Samuel 8: 7), “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you (in anointing Saul as their king over Me) for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected ME from being king over them.” And recall that Moses knew and experienced this truth as well. He spoke to the Israelites in the latter part of Exodus 16: 8 saying, “…What are we (Moses, Aaron and Miriam)? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.” And this human attitude continued into the New Testament as well. Jesus warned His disciples in John 15: 18 that, “if the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you.”
So, as committed, devoted, born-again, surrendered and baptized Christians, our fights, our struggles, our battles are not with other people (the flesh and blood we see). Our war is against Satan and his demonic troops (whom we can’t see). It’s only because he works through people who reject God as their king, and because we see and hear what he is able to do through them (our sin gives him the opportunity), and because we actually see them, that we naturally take issue with them rather than their unseen influence. This does NOT mean, “the devil made me do it” as if they have no choice or accountability in their decisions. It does mean that since Satan, for now, is the “prince of the power of the air” that those who do not follow after the Lord Jesus Christ automatically, and by default, and through sin, submit to, serve, obey and follow after Satan. Our separation from Almighty God due to iniquity and transgression (disobedience and rebellion) gives the devil an opportunity in us, and allows him to gain a foothold in our hearts, minds and lives.
Ephesians 2: 1-3 tells us, “and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following after the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature CHILDREN OF WRATH, LIKE THE REST OF MANKIND.” These words should accompany two things: One, they should grip and convict and terrify the hearts of the unbelieving; revealing in no uncertain terms that they are dead in their sins and in desperate need of a savior, someone to rescue them from the depths and bass condition of their depravity. Two, it should free the Christian to apply the full breadth of the Father’s agapé love and compassion to those he may view as his spiritual enemies whose faces he can see. I am fully aware and admit that when I am looking at or into the face of someone whose expressions, words and vocal intonations are loud, noisy, unloving, impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, insisting on their own way, irritable, resentful (and keeping a ready and mental list of all the things I have done against them), rejoicing with wrongdoing, not rejoicing with the truth, not bearing much of anything, not believing, not hoping, not enduring anything, whose love is limited and finite, and not at all the same as the Father’s that my battle, my wrestling, certainly does seem to be against them!
I am only sharing with you what the Lord is doing with and in me, and this is just in the early, beginning stages. I have not at all accomplished it. As the apostle Paul admitted, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own” (Philippians 3: 12). I hope and I know that this will only take root, grow, flourish and display itself openly and outwardly because it will fill my heart, and because that will overflow and manifest itself in word and deed because it is the will of the Father, and because “I am sure of this, that He that began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). I have to “LET (ALLOW) this have its FULL effect that I may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1: 4). It is a process. It is what we call sanctification. It is ongoing. But that does not mean that we slow our pace, that we relax our commitment to it, that we see it as a long-term goal with no foreseeable finish line. We need—I need—to see it as something to be reached out for and grasped, keeping it in my sights, in my mind and as a ripened and low-hanging fruit ready to be picked and enjoyed. If we look at what (and who) we see and listen to what (and who) we hear in the world, we will grow weary, fainthearted and cold. We might be tempted not to share our faith and our hope thinking (as I have done), “No one will listen. No one wants to hear. No one cares.” But Jesus Christ reminded me that He would not have given us this command, “The harvest is PLENTIFUL, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to THE LORD OF THE HARVEST to send out laborers into HIS HARVEST” (Matthew 9: 37-38) if there were none ready to be picked. The Lord of Hosts does nothing in vain. Everything He says and does accomplishes that which He sends it out to do (Isaiah 55: 11).
Let us TOGETHER, as individual members but one body in Christ, fulfill His commands to LOVE and TO MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations. We will never do this if we view them as our enemies. We can only do this if we purposefully, daily, hourly focus on 1 CORINTHIANS 13: 1-8A and EPHESIANS 6: 12 TOGETHER. We must love and we must not view our neighbor as our enemy. God give us grace!
Christ View Versus World View 