The Damaging Impact

When a crime is committed on any level, the impact of that incident is far reaching.  That one act has an effect on the individual, person(s) involved, their families, bystanders, etc; and it trickles throughout our communities.  The overreaching impact of evil!

Jesus was all too well aware of this and expressed such to His disciples in His sermon on the mount: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” Matthew 5:44.  Just as a single act of evil ripples through society, a single act of love not only overcomes the evil done, it also has lasting effects that are life-changing and eternal.  

In Bible College one of my instructors said and I quote, "you cannot make a person conform inwardly to outward laws" end quote.  This is very true, for the plethora of laws passed yearly do nothing to prevent the evil we see today.  Yet, I witness daily the lasting impacts of God's love in action.  Coming alongside another person in some of their darkest moments, and walking with them into the light is the only way to truly see Biblical change.

We can quote verse after verse to you until we are breathless, but that is what you get in church.  This is real, this is a little beyond the church pews and right past the front doors.  This is discipleship, this is love in action.  This is the call.  The church's neglect of this crucial aspect of Christianity is… well just look outside or turn on the news and note its effects.

Jesus, when speaking about end times, said in Matthew 24:12 that "because lawlessness will abound [or is multiplied], the love of many will grow cold" – that is, it will die out.  Interestingly, the word for love here is “agape”, it is a love that has been poured out into a believer's heart, cp. Romans 5:5.  The love of God growing cold.  This is a choice on each and every one of our parts, we choose to love, choose how we love, when we love, and who we love, when the choice really is not ours.  Jesus commanded very clearly in John 13:34 that we are to "love one another" – how are we to love?  Jesus continues, “as I have loved you, that you also love one another.''  Just so there's no confusion, Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He actually states in v.35 that the mark of discipleship is love.  I am not saying this to brow beat anyone.  I am saying this because it needs to be said, in love.  Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.  We will reap what we have sown.