WHEN CHRISTIANS DON'T LOVE THEIR NEIGHBOR
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 7:21
(Christian Gallery News Service June 20, 2007) At least three things happen when Christians don't love their neighbor. While any one of the three creates a catastrophe, all three together create a terrible tragedy that includes within it all the symbols of catastrophe known to man--earthquake, tsunami, war, pestilence, famine, thirst, volcanic eruptions all rolled into one visitation of horror, destruction and death on earth. In short, vast historical evidence exists to prove that when Christians don't love their neighbor, hell breaks loose on earth.
Here's why:
When Christians don't love their neighbor there is no model for God's love visible on planet earth: the only type of "love" that remains is earthly, selfish, beastlike love.
Hear Jesus Christ define neighbor:
Luke 10:25And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
THE POINT? ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST, OUR NEIGHBOR IS ANY PERSON IN DANGER OF UNJUST IMMINENT DEATH...And if you don't love your neighbor you don't inherit eternal life (Remember Jesus was answering the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life.")
When we study, the first thing that becomes clear is Jesus Christ offered a different definition of neighbor than the one offered by the dictionaries in this world. The dictionaries say neighbor is someone who lives near me. Jesus Christ said neighbor is someone who will die an unjust death if I do not step in and prevent it. This conjunction of the idea of neighbor with the imminent unjust death of a human being created the unique definition of neighbor offered to the world by the Jesus whose words are recorded in the New Testament.
To disregard the definition offered by that Jesus is to shut oneself off from the foundational truth about the love of God taught by that Jesus.
But in spite of the importance of Jesuses teaching, this generation of American Christians is doing everything in its power to ignore the point Jesus made to the lawyer who tried to tempt Him.
No wonder. Not a day passes in the USA without each and every one of us walking by the place where thousands of people are in danger of unjust imminent death and we do nothing to prevent 99.99999% of them from dying.
Christians all over the country are beginning to manifest the same kind of heebyjeebies every lawbreaker manifests when they know they are close to getting caught. You can see the great tension working in the Body of Christ in this generation by watching the flurry of activity every time evidence can be found that some one was deterred from killing their baby by the actions of the pro-life movement.
An email I received today from the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) is a good example of literally hundreds of emails like it I have received over the years. The email subject line declared, "More Babies Saved by CBR website."
"I am 9 weeks pregnant and being pressured into an abortion. After seeing your site there is no way I can go through with it. — 25 year old female from Australia
I thought of myself as pro-choice until visiting this website for a research paper on the subject. Now, I do not feel the same. — 28 year old female from Houston, TX
I had always been pro-choice even though I could never have had an abortion. As a nurse, I refused to ever even consider assisting with one. However, in the last 10 years I have changed to pro-life. These pictures finally made up my mind. — 44 year old female from Terre Haute, IN
My husband wanted me to get an abortion at 12 weeks, but I couldn't do it. This website has helped me with not even considering abortion. — 18 year old female from San Diego, CA
In the years since 1995 when I first published a website that tried to deter people from abortion, I have sent out many emails like the one above. I trumpeted every example of deterrence I could find in hopes that enough people would join with me until the day came when we could marshal all the power of the government to deter people from killing God's children. I sent out those emails because I was doing everything in my power to believe that educating people about the horrors of abortion was capable of ending the holocaust my Lord Jesus Christ had called me to fight. I no longer send out such emails because I have realized they are part of the problem rather than a part of the solution.
Look at the pictures below and you will see why I say that.
These pictures showing a million people supporting abortion in
2005--who represented many millions more--prove that the attempt to use the
pictures of dead babies to soften the stone-cold hearts of Americans has
failed. Ordinary persuasion has failed to move the majority to act like
they love their neighbor.
SEPARATING THE PROBLEM FROM THE SOLUTION
People who send out testimonials giving the impression that people are being deterred from abortion by seeing pictures of dead babies are part of the problem because their testimonials provide a basis for hope for change that others use to help them ignore the central fact of American life which is: the last 34 years of resistance have done nothing more than prevent about 1 out of every 100,000 people thinking about abortion from deciding to kill her baby.
That is the real number that shows the "success" of our "pro-life" movement. After hundreds of millions of dollars and decades of waiting, we now can reasonably expect that about 1 out of every 100,000 people who thinks about having an abortion will be deterred from killing their baby because of the actions taken by American Christians.
CHRISTIANS LOVE 1/100,000TH OF OUR NEIGHBORS
The point is clear: to date this generation of American Christians can prove we love 1/100,000th of our neighbors scheduled for imminent unjust death. The remainder are torn limb from limb protected by all the power of the federal government of the United States of America.
In light of those material facts, we the Christians of this nation are supposed to believe we love our neighbor?
God deliver us from such delusion!
Based on the way Christians conduct themselves in this nation, we all might be the ones who say, "Lord, Lord" and then in return, "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "Then they will go away to eternal punishment..." Matthew 25:45-46
People who fail to protect other people in imminent danger of unjust death, yet who still claim to love their neighbor, are doing everything in their power to make Jesus Christ look like a liar. Folks who inadvertantly collaborate with the murder of the unborn--with unjust imminent death--and then stop it when they find out, have every reason to expect to be protected by Jesus. Those who don't stop it, yet pretend to be sure they will avoid hell, end up making Jesus look like a liar.
I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy what people who don't do everything in their power to love their neighbor are going to find out about the Jesus I know before this is all over.
If you want to show you love your neighbor, you will help us do this: http://www.tcrp.us
Neal Horsley