Fear of Love

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     We live in an age of frustration, disappointment, and discouragement. In a Land of plenty men are not satisfied; living in luxury and physical comfort they are not at ease. Our educational institutions are filled to overflowing, but so are our courts for juvenile criminals. In spite of the numerous organizations dedicated to mental hygiene and social welfare, there are more neurotics and insane than at any time in our history. A symptom of our times is found in the tremendous upsurge of publications dealing with how to attain peace of mind, and the variety of suggestions is so great, and often so contradictory, as to upset the minds of some who were relatively at peace. The manufacturers of sedatives, tranquilizing drugs and barbiturates, are having a field day. America has one big headache and hangover. She is paying the price for it!

     In this state of crisis, what contributions are being made to the welfare of humanity by believers in the Messiah? When he came personally into the world, it was in much the same state as now, except that wars had been ended by the sway of a universal empire. The very extremity of man was an opportunity for God. The sun of righteousness beamed brighter because of the darkness of slav-

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ery, corruption, degradation, immorality and suicide of the world. If ever Christianity should be able to exhibit itself to the greatest advantage, it is under such conditions as presently obtain. Instead, the nominal disciples of the Master, seem actually to be enlarging the problem rather than providing a solution. The moral defections of those reared under Christian influence, the nervous and mental breakdowns suffered, constitute an alarming barometer of unhealthful attitudes

     It is high time that we awake out of sleep! The expenditure of effort to promote factionism and hate will take its toll of wrecked minds and sick bodies as certainly as we now live. Hate and fear are toxic poisons! They will kill as certainly as arsenic or strychnine! Many of my own brethren are the most unhappy people on earth today. They are gloomy, morose and despondent. They are fearful and unbelieving! They are worried and scared! They are spiritually sick! Many who put on an outward show of gay spirits are troubled with worries, jealousy and envy. They cannot save the world, because they have nothing real to offer it. What would be the gain for men to leave the world where they have been fighting their enemies to come in to the church and start fighting their brethren?

     Why is it that Christianity does not arouse the vibrant passions, kindle and enflame the spirit, and surcharge men with the thrill and joy that the first believers experienced? It is because men persevere in right actions and service to others, merely through force of habit, or because of social consciousness, or to escape from the brooding thoughts engendered by an imperious conscience. It is the lack of a guiding principle which poisons the springs of happiness in action, and makes life dull and spiritless.

     The guiding principle of Christianity is love! But it is not love for a particular race, nationality, faction, congregation, segment or group. It is a love for mankind, not for a certain kind of man. To be children of God implies more than entering into a relationship with God; it entails the responsibility of growing Godlike in character. But "God is love." The expression of that love was universal. "God so loved the world." His was a divine philanthropy. He loved men because they were men, made in his image. "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward rnan appeared."

     It is an amazing thing that under the guise of religion we are being taught today to not love men! The human heart was made to love. But it cannot retain a vacuum. If love is educated out of it, hate will rush in to fill it. Love is the most powerful, active, vital force in the universe. It is world-shaking and revolutionary. Nothing can stand before the application of its full potential. But a universal love for mankind is designated sentimentality, it is ridiculed, scoffed at, belittled even by those who profess to be children of that God who is love.

     We are urged to love our group, our race, our church, our nationality, our sect. We are afraid to love all men. To do so will upset our "little world" of security. We will be turned out of the little nest we have woven about ourselves. The churches of our land are employed to foster prejudice and animosity in the name of Christ." We are taught to have nothing to do with Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Negroes, etc. But God loves everyone of these. He sent his Son to die for them. That Son came among those who hated him. He ate with publicans and sinners. He visited in the homes of Pharisees. But we are told to not visit them, to keep away from them. They are not "faithful." We are! So our physicians are administering to the well. We have no sick among us. We do not love the spiritually sick. If you want our love and service you'll have to get well!

     Have you ever heard our brethren explain Matthew 5:43-48? Then, have you ever watched them try to put it into practice?

     "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate

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thine enemy. But I say unto you; love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." Love! Bless! Do good! Only by this means can we be children of God. The world of mankind is divided into friend and foe as respects relationship to each of us. But both are men and if we love mankind as such, we will have no problem of loving the various categories within the human realm. God made us men, we have made various things of ourselves. We should love men because God made them, and in spite of what they have made of themselves.

     If I am a true child of my Father, I shall desire and yearn for every man to be my brother. Man was created in God's image, and in whatever respect he has lost that image I must help him repair or regain it. He did not shatter that image because he was a Jew, a Negro, or a Japanese. Sin antedated the advent of racial differences. In the attempt to help one regain the spiritual image of God, I am not to see him as a Jew, Japanese, or Negro, but as a man. "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him."

     "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." To restrict our love to those who agree with us on some points of religion, is to deny at once the very basic element of Christianity, the equal and infinite value of every human soul. To love all men is actually looked upon as a sign of weakness. The truth is that it takes a strong man to really love his enemies. Weak men hate, despise, and feel envy. Cowards are jealous, embittered and distrustful. When Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" he was meek, but not weak!

     Those who are afraid to love all, may actually love no one. It is observable that those who cannot love all men, end up by disliking most men. Those who would restrict their love to their own brethren, do not even love those brethren, and will backbite, undermine and seek to destroy them. It is amazing that through the years those who have not learned to love, and who censure a deep affection for others than those with whom they associate, will divide those associates, and soon will not love a great part of them.

     Our problem is not so much of having love dwell in us, as it is of our dwelling in love, as a state. God, who made all men, cannot live in a heart that hates any man! "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." No man can say he is like God, whose love is partisan, national or racial. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." Many bold, blatant race-haters will be snivelling cowards in the day of judgment.

     The lever which will move the world to Christ is love! Regardless of how pure your doctrine may be, it will repel, instead of compel, when set forth in bigotry, intolerance and animosity. The real test of faith in the Christ is the reformation worked in your own life. "For we ourselves also were one time foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." Now we are associates of the Father and the Son, purveyors of love unlimited!