GRACELINES
Proclaiming the free gift of the Grace of God that is in Christ Jesus
  • January 2023
    • Advent 2022 >
      • September - November 2022 >
        • July / August 2022
        • June 2022
        • May 2022 >
          • Easter 2022
          • March 2022 >
            • January / February 2022
            • Advent 2021
            • October / November 2021 >
              • September 2021
              • August 2021
              • July 2021
              • June 2021
              • May 2021
              • Easter 2021
  • Mission
    • Who is Jesus?
    • What is the Gospel?
    • What is Grace?
  • Contact Us
  • Story Lines
  • Poetry Lines
The Blog Search and Random Post Generator will appear here on the published site.
We found
results for you
No results found
The Blog Category Slider will appear here on the published site.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.

God is love

10/3/2022

2 Comments

 
Picture

In the fourth chapter of the First Epistle General of John, there is a verse that reads (in modern translation):  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

A simple, straightforward phrase, which captures the very essence of Christianity. The last three words, God is love, have become part of our religious register. We take them for granted, yet for logicians they harbour an oxymoron. How can an almighty power rule with love? Power in itself has nothing to do with love. They are, by definition, contradictory notions. When we say that one has power over others, this implies physical superiority and material might.

How can one reconcile love with power? Furthermore, atheists and sceptics would add that the fear of God has not deterred the religious wars that ravaged Europe after the Reformation. The Spanish conquistadors committed crimes of genocidal scale in Central and South America, wiping out the Aztec and the Inca empires. The Inquisition sent thousands of so-called heretics to the pyre after summary trials and excruciating torture. The African slave trade was perpetrated by Christian slave masters. Every period in history bears a heavy cross, right down to the twentieth century with its stigma of the Holocaust and its six million dead. Thinking over these abysmal acts of man against man, brings to mind the words of the Psalmist “Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me ― my enemies for no reason.” (Psalm 69:4)

      When Carl Gustav Jung says that none of us stands outside humanity’s black collective shadow, what he means is that we are all guilty for what happens to our fellow men ― a guilt that we ought to bear more on an individual than on a collective level. We are all to blame for letting evil things happen around us, for not protesting in time. During Aktion T4, Hitler’s odious euthanasia program from 1939 to 1941, some 70,000 mentally and physically handicapped Germans were murdered before Bishop von Galen found out, bravely intervened, and put an end to the executions.

Three years later, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg risked life and limb in order to save tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-held Budapest. He took initiative against all protocol rather than duck behind his diplomatic immunity. Hungarian survivors remember him as a soft-spoken humble man who did not promise but acted.

   “Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable” says Mahatma Gandhi, a non-Christian martyr, in his lifelong struggle for peace. “Peace on earth and good will toward men” advocates the Evangelist. Out of an infinite love for man, God wants to live in every heart. We want Him there when things take a downward turn and affliction hits those we care for. For God is Love.

​The shortest prayer offers the deepest solace.
Costas Nisiotis
Athens, Greece - info@grace-lines.net

The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
Tags:
2 Comments
The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.

You Might Also Like

First Last
Nikolas
10/17/2022 16:58:15

Love is the most powerful and yet the most humble of forces, well said!

Reply
Theo
10/19/2022 05:43:58

A moving and balanced account of man's inner turmoils and quarrels with institutionalised religion, until the ultimate and inevitable realisation that God is within us and that through his eyes both we and the world around us are deserving of love.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Laugh lines

    Picture

    Story Lines

    Picture
    The Crucifixion

    RSS Feed

COPYRIGHT © 2021 Grace Communion Church Peterborough ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  • January 2023
    • Advent 2022 >
      • September - November 2022 >
        • July / August 2022
        • June 2022
        • May 2022 >
          • Easter 2022
          • March 2022 >
            • January / February 2022
            • Advent 2021
            • October / November 2021 >
              • September 2021
              • August 2021
              • July 2021
              • June 2021
              • May 2021
              • Easter 2021
  • Mission
    • Who is Jesus?
    • What is the Gospel?
    • What is Grace?
  • Contact Us
  • Story Lines
  • Poetry Lines