Our Pride or God’s Selfless Love?
God’s love is selfless, and those who love as God does will always put the happiness of others before their own happiness. Because God loves us, He wants us to experience His peace and joy, which exceeds our wildest idea of happiness. He knows nothing can make us more joyful than abiding in His love, “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:” (Lk. 24:51-52), so, He draws us with His loving kindness, “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jer. 31:3), and asks us to reflect His love to draw others to Him, “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” (Acts 13:47).
He has already demonstrated His desire to live with us, by walking with us in the garden, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day...” (Gen. 3:8a), again, when Jesus came Himself to live with us, “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matt. 12:50), and He also promises us eternity with Him, “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” (Rev. 21:3).
Only the unselfish will be drawn to God and draw others to His light by reflecting it. It is our willingness to humble ourselves, which opens our hearts and draws us to Him, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (Jn. 6:44). If we are selfish, our hearts harden, we disdain humility, and we will not surrender to God’s law of love. Instead, we will think our way is better, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 14:12). God does not force us to follow Him. He allows each of us to exercise the free will He has given us. He lets us live this life any way we want; still, He continues to offer us His love and eternity, until the day we die. Then, He will respect our ultimate decision, for we cannot expect Him to allow us to bring the chaos and cruelty of this world into the next.
God is pure love, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1 Jn. 4:8). And He asks us to love as He does, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (Jn. 13:34), which means we allow others the freedom to deny our love, as well as His. The unselfish do not try to control others, but instead, they enable others to fully live this life any way they choose, reflecting what God has done for each of us.
My personal feelings of fear caused me to withhold my forgiveness, disobeying God and thinking I would be somehow safer. However, I was missing out on this part of His plan. He wants to use us to draw others to His love. When people see us loving and forgiving everyone and contrast that with the evil those who refuse God’s love do to us, they are drawn to God. This happened when the early Christian church flourished, despite being tortured and killed. This is what is currently happening in many countries, like Iran. Of the roughly 85M people living in Iran, about 1M now call themselves Christians. This underground church has no buildings. It is not an organized church, no denominations, just people meeting in people’s homes and sharing His love. This is how the early Christian church grew, and this Iranian church is one of the fastest-growing Christian churches globally, despite the fact they need to hide to worship and are being persecuted and threatened with death. To better understand what is going on in Iran today, we can watch the Movie “Sheep Among Wolves.” When we finally accept God’s perfect love, fear is cast out of our lives, and forgiving others becomes easy, for we can see past our present situation to the eternal future He has promised, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1 Jn. 4:18).
This is His love in action, as He knows we are stronger when we surrender to His law of love, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor. 12:9). When we pretend our strength is sufficient, we cannot be humble enough to allow His strength to be perfected in our weakness. This is one of the ways our pride keeps us from Him. The key is living within His plan for our lives, which He calls abiding in Him, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (Jn. 15:7). When we abide in His love, we will not ask God for something that opposes His nature. Therefore, we will receive what we ask for in this life or the next. This is possible because we are no longer fighting against God’s plan.
However, if we ask for something that does not fit into His plan, He will say no. We must accept that there will be things we want in this life, which we will not receive. Jesus illustrated this for us, including that we must always be willing to accept the Father’s answer, “And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mk. 14:36). Jesus showed He believes the Father has seen the future and knows what is best for us, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28). The faith created by this attitude leads us to love as Jesus loves, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (Jn. 15:12). He does not ask us to do what He is unwilling to do.
Jesus came to show us what God’s love looks like and to deliver us from the fear and selfishness of this world. Once we understand this, we gain the faith that leads us to His will for us, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” (Jam. 1:6), and His Will leads us to do our part in tending His garden, “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Gen. 2:15). God created us to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Doing our part means we tend the soil and plant the seeds, “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow … But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” (Matt. 13:3, 8). But, of course, not all of the seeds we sow fall on good ground, “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.” (Matt. 13:19). We are to keep sowing because even though not everyone who hears us will choose to be saved, it does help the soul who desires to hear the Word, witnesses His love in our behavior, and is then drawn to reason with God. We cannot say we are Christians if we refuse to align our behavior with His law of love, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” (Eph. 5:11).
God tells us to allow the tares to grow alongside the wheat, “But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matt. 13:29-30), because we do not know who among us will ultimately choose to be tares, so He asks us to love them all. This is another reason He asks us not to judge others, “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.” (Rom. 14:4). When we judge others, we push them away from God’s love, effectively pulling them from His garden. He calls us to be part of His family, working to save the ones who want to be saved, “How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?” (Matt. 18:12). Showing them God’s unselfish love is the best way.
God asks us to love as He does, which means we love Him more than we love ourselves and put no other gods before Him, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3), as He has set no other people before us. His love is unconditional, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38-39). He wants us to love Him and everyone else unconditionally. If we refuse to love Him, how will we ever find the path to eternity?
The alternate choice is the horror of eternal separation from God, which Jesus expressed on the cross, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). He wants us to understand nothing in this world comes close to the pain of eternal separation from God. The story of Oscar Wilde’s deathbed conversion, whether true or not, forces us to deal with the question we must all face; “will we choose to remain separated from God or become part of His eternal family?” Many of us, like Wilde, will finally face this decision on our deathbeds. How do we benefit from waiting?
Watching the movie “The Passion of Christ” was very painful, for it took me past the intellectual misinformation of that moment into the world of feeling Christ’s pain, as I felt Him reach in and grab my heart. It begs the question, “would I take His place on that cross?” Seeing Jesus’s life slowly draining from Him on that cross demands a decision. It startled me into realizing just how much God loves me and hates sin. The veil of my pride, which stood between His love and my life, was torn, and now I clearly see God’s version of reigning; selfless, not selfish. He demonstrated this while hanging on that cross, wearing a crown of thorns, and flooding this world with His love, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.” (Lk. 23:34). The intensity of that moment destroyed the shield I had built to hide from the reality of His sacrifice. For now, His scars are eternally etched on my mind, and they continually draw me to Him.
His scars have helped me see past my own scars, allowing me to appreciate the story they tell of my journey to Him, “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” (Gal. 6:17). He bore His scars to save me, and I now willingly accept the scars of a life in pursuit of Him. This is part of my picking up my cross, “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mk. 8:34). So, His peace and joy strengthen me enough to bear the pains of this life, allowing me to get out of my own way, for I have always been the biggest obstacle on the path to my own salvation.
We can only be fit for eternity when we fully love Him. He knows we cannot divide our love between Him and anyone or anything else, for then we would not be drawn to Him and eternity, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matt. 6:24). It is a matter of priorities, and when we put God first, everything else falls into place. Once we decide to follow Him, we cannot look back, “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Lk. 9:62). God asks us to burn the ships, as Hernán Cortés did when he arrived in the New World in 1519. Cortés sent a clear message to his men; there is no turning back, as God does to us.
He calls us to spread His message of eternal love to the uttermost part of the earth, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mk 16:15). If we choose otherwise, we will be tossed from wave to wave, by the sea of lies being spread by this dysfunctional, chaotic world, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” (Eph. 4:14-15). However, Jesus has carved a way through those lies to His salvation. And it is fully explained in the Bible.
God describes His love to help us understand it is selfless, and living selflessly is the only way to thrive within the laws His creation obeys. He is willing to expose the lies of this world to bring us the truth if we would only honestly seek it, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33). If I chose to let go of an egg I was holding, it would fall to the ground and break. God did not cause that egg to break. He just set up the laws His creation would obey. When I chose to drop the egg, I decided to rebel against the law of gravity, ending in the destruction of the egg. When we choose to rebel against what God tells us about love, we cannot blame Him for the destruction that follows. He has told us. His love is selfless. We just need to hold on to our egg of selfless love instead of dropping it.
We keep trying to deny His existence in the face of the fact that the more we learn about His creation, the more we discover we do not know, like, gravity and DNA. Trying to use science to deny the existence of God testifies to the fact we are ignoring the proof He has already placed before us, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Rom. 1:20). Only God could create the billions of galaxies in space and the trillions of amazingly diverse cells in the human body.
It is interesting to note that scientists understand the mathematics behind the law of gravity, which allows them to recognize how some parts of His creation physically interact with each other. However, they have been unable to explain what causes it, as they have been unable to explain or demonstrate their theory of life coming from non-life. False science occurs when people use unprovable information to argue for their current beliefs. Unprovable, in scientific terms, means it is unobservable and unrepeatable. None of the lies about evolution are observable and repeatable. This is another example of God’s creation obeying Him, our rebellion, and part of the mystery of how He created everything to work together for good. Our disobedience has left us struggling in a dysfunctional world because we refuse to accept He is the Creator.
The correct path to fully understanding the coding of DNA follows the truth, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim. 2:4). The truth of DNA is that there are mutations from one generation to the next. However, there has never been a mutation that added information to a genome. Instead, elements are destroyed, information is lost, not gained. When God created Adam and Eve, their DNA was perfect. However, there have been mutations throughout every generation since His creation. Science has recently learned that the human genome follows a process of genetic entropy, which means we are losing parts of God’s perfectly created DNA with each generation. Our DNA is decaying, as is the rest of His creation. Before this deterioration reaches a generation unable to reproduce because that part of their DNA no longer functions properly, God will send Jesus to bring us home, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matt. 24:22).
Darwin’s finches developed different shaped beaks, leading him to believe they were evolving. Darwin’s observations occurred before DNA was discovered. Darwin did not understand that those finches were already capable of changing the shape of their beaks, allowing them to feed on the seeds available in their environment. The coding was stored in their DNA. Those with an agenda attribute these events to evolution. Dr. Lee Spetner, an American physicist with a Ph.D. from MIT, rightfully identifies it as part of the original design. Instead of an example of survival of the fittest, it is an example of innovative design elements being activated, allowing the organism to thrive in an ever-changing environment, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10). If God created organisms to live in a wide range of environments, this design would certainly be the most efficient way for them to thrive. This is creation doing what it was designed to do, not evolution. The idea of evolution is just man rebelling against God.
To help us understand that God’s original design was perfect and is now deteriorating, instead of evolving, we will take a look at one example of adaption, not evolution, in that original design. When DNA was discovered, we began the process of studying the incredibly complicated systems that allow our bodies to adapt and survive. One of those systems is our immune system. Our B cells and T cells are part of that system. When bacteria or viruses enter the body, the immune system attacks them, breaks them down, and sends their structural information to the B and T cells. These cells can then identify ten or twenty of the more than a trillion types of antibodies they can produce, which have the best chance of defeating the invader. Then those cells produce millions of the most effective antibodies. So instead of storing millions of cells of trillions of types of antibodies, the B and T cells act as manufacturing plants for the specific antibodies needed at the time, a form of just-in-time manufacturing.
Each generation has seen a breakdown in this process, as mutations continue to decay the system’s effectiveness. Over the past 50 years, we have had many medical breakthroughs, learned about healthy diets and the need for exercise. By now, life expectancies should be nearing 100. But, instead, we find ourselves battling to get over 80. This is because this life is not the goal, it is a period designed to allow us to choose our eternal fate, and this period in God’s plan is nearing an end.
It is our pride that keeps us from reasoning with God, from choosing Jesus, and it leads us to pretend we are gods, which is impossible for He has no equal, “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:” (Isa. 45:5). And every evil we witness in this life could have been prevented if everyone had followed God’s law of love, which is what heaven will be like. This further demonstrates that all things are possible with God when we abide in Him, “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26), for when we are abiding in His love, we become humble and focus on the needs of others, leading us to love everyone, all of the time.