Another Day, Another Bombing

I woke up this morning to the news that there had been yet another horrific act of violence, this time in St. Petersburg. And I'm still trying to get my head around the death of so many civilians in a US-led coalition bombing of Mosul last week. And the terrorist incident on Westminster Bridge. Everywhere I turn, I see another example of human beings inflicting terrible violence on their so-called enemies. Even our President has now been accused in court of "inciting violence" with his words. And today in my Scripture study, I read "Do not love the world, or anything in the world." (1 John 2: 15) That seems like an easy instruction for us, in the face of such actions.

But how do I reconcile the words of 1 John with the statement, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son."? (John 3:16) How am I, as a Christian, supposed to respond to the violence and hate around me? Am I to just give up and declare, "Of course this world is rotten and fallen and irreparable, but everything will be great in heaven."?

I've realized that I can't help but "love the world." I know that the world is not as God created it, or intends it. I know that my true citizenship lies elsewhere. But, like a tourist who falls in love with their destination on holiday, I can't help but marvel in the world around me. Sure, I see its problems, but I also see its beauty. I see people acting terribly, but I also see people responding in love and kindness. Just when I am ready to throw my hands up in despair, I witness God's grace being extended from stranger to stranger.

The writer of 1 John looks at the world and only sees its problems - sin, lust, boastful self-sufficiency. These things do not come from God because they are in direct opposition to the nature of God. But, just a few chapters after this fatalistic view of our world, 1 John presents, for me, the most beautiful description of what it means to follow Christ in this "world". "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4: 7-12)

Did you catch that? God's love can only be made complete if we love one another! Through God's love, we can be part of the redemption of the world. In fact, I would venture to say that God needs us in order to redeem the world. Yep, the "world" is a dangerous and scary place. There is a lot of work to do. But God is counting on us - each of us, all of us - to do our part in by showering the world with God's extravagant love, in redeeming the world through his grace.

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