Following Jesus is not the cakewalk many believe it to be.
Being love is vastly beyond what most imagine.
It is not about church, Bible reading, etc. In fact the Bible has misled many more than it ever saved.
Salvation is not about religion, faith or belief. It is LOVE.
Religions, faith, beliefs, rituals, etc. are not only divisive, but meaningless. Love is uniting.
I have always been a hawk. If they are evil, bomb the bastards. I have changed!
Jesus said, “love your enemies”. Carl Jung voiced the same truth in, “what you resist, persists”.
What if, instead of resistance, we simply said, “I love you”?
What if one raised in ghetto street violence viewed all others as privileged and was determined to get “his” by force, faced you with a gun, demanding your wallet? What if you not only handed it to him lovingly but said and really felt, “I love you” to your attacker? Let’s say he pulled the trigger, the bullet pieced your heart, you fall to the floor, and your last words are, “I….love……you”, and you’re gone. What has been the effect? You have transcended from the physical to the spiritual but what about your attacker? Has not his heart been melted? He has either been drawn toward spiritual awakening or drawn further into physical separation and deeper into hell. We could apply the same scenario to an attack by Isis.
In any case our situation has not changed, we transcended physicality either way as a result of the encounter either through love or some lacking of it, the only question is, has the other evolved or devolved?
This was precisely what Jesus did. He was the first to demonstrate what love is. Among his final words were, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. Jesus had realized love and at the same time realized that his attackers had a ways to go. He demonstrated for us the power of love and non-resistance and in so doing changed the world. Let’s suppose Jesus had banded an army of followers as is usually the case and had desperately fought to defend his teachings. He would then have simply been among the many who did the same in lack of love instead of the one who changed the world by simply being love.
But how many are so brave or committed or have such faith in love? Love is neither aggression or defense but pure acceptance. We will never defeat our enemies by conflict. There will always be more until we finally learn to be love.
We think we must defend our faith (belief) and of course, so do the others. But let’s suppose one side should wake up to truth, lay down their weapons and say, we love you, overrun and kill us if you wish. What would be the result? Of course, this is not likely on a national scale but will only happen on a one by one basis.
It is my belief that all needs and all acts are for lack of love and committed in a desperate search for it, although ignorant of that underlying motivation. I believe all sin is merely lack of love.
Does condemnation exists? Is it consistent with love? Is capital punishment OK? Is it love? Is abortion OK? Is it love? Does an eternal hell exist? Is it love? Cannot all questions be answered in like manner?
It is my belief that we are here to finally accept love as the key. All will eventually get it. Love would have it no other way. And yes, we are living many physical experiences in our trek to LOVE.
Our love for Jesus is based on the fact that he was the first in recorded history to actually suffer excruciating physical death in order to demonstrate what love is. But who of us are really Jesus followers?