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Love Will Always Defeat Hate

by Dr. Henderson Ward  
2/26/2016 / Christian Living

In a climate of fear, distrust and violence it is easy to hate, easy to want the blood of offenders to flow and the heavy hand of the law to fall with punishing regularity.

"When what we hold dear is threatened, when our cherished way of life seems in jeopardy, then no namby-pamby foolishness is tolerated, we have to be tough, iron-fisted and show them no mercy."

If I asked you to guess where that quote came from then, I am very sure, your answer will be wrong. It is not fictitious, and it has nothing to do with current events. It came from the sentiments of a people who saw their way of life threatened by Christians, and demanded tough action.

As a consequence of that demand for tough action against Christians, the Roman Emperor Maximinus brutally persecuted Christians and executed "multitudes of them" as noted by Eusebius. All of this occurred just because Christians were practicing their faith, and the punishment was brutal.

"Christians who refused to recant by performing ceremonies to honour the gods would meet with severe penalties; Roman citizens were exiled or condemned to a swift death by beheading. Slaves, foreign-born residents and lower classes were liable to be put to death by wild beasts as a public spectacle. A variety of animals were used for those condemned to die in this way. There is evidence of Christians being executed at the Colosseum in Rome." (From Wikipedia (extracted 21 Dec 2015)

Prior to the persecution by Maximinus, and subsequent to his brutality, other persecutions took place, some with even greater brutality, and others less severe. But during all these persecutions the Christians did not retaliate with violence but with love. There were numerous examples of Christians volunteering for martyrdom, and always they portrayed a spirit of love, and forgiveness, towards their persecutors.

This was the very same spirit of love, and forgiveness, portrayed by the first Christian Martyr, Stephen, who famously said at his stoning, "...Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." (Acts 7: 60)

Asking forgiveness for, and showing love towards, your enemies can never be regarded as acts of weakness, but should rightly be regarded as what they are; strength extraordinary.

Hating people is extremely easy to do, it's the lazy thing to do, it's the cowardly thing to do; for it's not grounded in proper inquiry and factual substance; but often just impressions and stereotypes. It can be hard to love, it may even be painful to love, because people can be, let's say simply; un-lovable. But the Bible tells us as Christians we have to love one another, and by God's grace we shall, but it's often so hard to do.

I found this excerpt at the beginning of a sermon on the web, and it expresses clearly the truth about love:

"Whoever said, "I love mankind; it's people I can't stand," was about right. People are just irritating. I agree with the guy who said, "To live above with those we love, oh, how that will be glory. To live below with those we know, now that's another story." Even people at church can be difficult to love. Sometimes we sing a chorus in church: "I'm so glad you're a part of the family of God," and then we look at the person beside us and sing, "I'm surprised you're part of the family of God." Sometimes it's hard enough to love our own family. One guy told his wife that if she had really loved him she would have married someone else." (Rick Ezell, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Greer, South Carolina.)

Love is so important to the world, and so vital to believers, that Jesus prioritised it as the one defining virtue for all believers, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:35). This shows that love is powerfully convincing, when on display among believers, in identifying those who belong to Christ.

The Apostle Paul, understanding better than most the centrality of love to the believer, said: "I may give away everything I have to help others, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing by doing all this if I don't have love." (1 Corinthians 13:3 Easy to Read Version).

Love is a virtue worthy to be possessed for its own sake, but also to enable all the others virtues to coalesce, to harmonise and to be of maximum effectiveness.

Just like the body cannot function without blood, nor the eco-systems flourish without heat, in similar vein believers cannot interact effectively with each other, or with God, or with the world to whom they are to be witnesses, without love.

Love is like a beacon that shines forth through the darkness, giving light in hazardous and worrying circumstances, and even the cynical is forced to acknowledge its comforting presence.

Many throughout history has tried to emulate the success and longevity of the Christian church and has failed. Why have they failed?

Napoleon Bonaparte is reported to have said: "The Caesar's, Kahn's, and Pharaoh's kingdoms have failed. For we have built our kingdoms by the sword, but the kingdom of Christ was built on love."

Love endures when all else fails. Because love is a divine creation it is impossible for humanity to destroy it; as it tries to destroy all things pertaining to God. They destroy church buildings, they bomb and destroy communities, they banish the Bible from public places, they subsidise casinos and brothels, they burn crosses and holy icons but they cannot destroy love.

Love defeats evil without violence; not by guile and trickery, not by raw military power and weight of arms of law enforcement, not by tit for tat and I can do to you what you can do to me, but by believers being true to their faith and being true to themselves under the most ferocious provocation.

Last June in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, Dylann Roof carried out a church massacre in which he murdered Christians; eight died at the scene and a ninth died at a hospital. These people had every right to hate the murderer, demand to have him executed, and hate all those bigots and racist of similar ilk. The survivors of this church massacre surprised the world by what they said. The daughter of one woman who was murdered sad this in court:

"I forgive you. You took something very precious away from me. I will never get to talk to her ever againbut I forgive you, and have mercy on your soul You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people. If God forgives you, I forgive you."

That is what love looks like in action, it's powerful, it's touching, it's effective.

To talk about love is one thing, and so many of us do only that, but to show it in its true form, as the Bible declares it, is quite another matter.

No matter what you may think to the contrary, light will always repel darkness, goodness will always defeat badness, and you can be sure that love will always defeat hate. What the world needs is a little less talk of love and more living of that love day by day.

May God help all of us, who truly believe in him, to make love a priority.

Enough said.

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Dr. Henderson Ward received his Doctor of Divinity in theology, with distinction, from Masters International School of Divinity, USA, where he is currently a post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Ward's career involved pastoring, evangelism, and teaching. Copyright 2017

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