Who created us? A God of love. 1 John 4:8 "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." And what does God want us to do? 1 John 4:21 "And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." So it stands to reason a God who is love and created us from his love also wants us to be like him in loving others. The Bible tells us in Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." If God is the image of love, we are the image of that love as well. This shows me that we all have a great capacity to love, for God place it within the human race at the very beginning.
To act out of violence is going against how we were created and how we are suppose to act toward one another. 1 John 4:11 "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." This violence that is in our world is becoming greater and I said to myself, "Why is this so?" I believe it is to draw us away from our true purpose for which we were created, to be God's loving reflection and image upon our world. Who would have an interest in stopping us from doing this? 1 John 3:10 "By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother." So the devil is involved and he is trying to turn as many of us as he can to his side.
The whole world is being deceived by Satan. Revelation 12:9 "And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him." With his deception, Satan manipulates people to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:26 "and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." The devil's deception blinds people from seeing the truth. 2 Corinthians 4:4 "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." We see the devil is trying his best to take our minds away from following God's path of love and to follow his rebellious path of hate and violence.
The apostle Paul called us God's workmanship. Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Here again we are showed that we are made to do good over evil. Doing evil is going against our true nature. Believing in the lies of Satan only brings us down into a spiritual death. Ephesians 2:1 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience." But God because he loved us rescued us and brought us back to life through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:4,5 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved." Only by God's love and mercy we are saved and brought back to a life that we were meant to live.
No one thrives in a violent world. When gun fire is heard it causes us to fear. We are made for peace and we thrive when we are loved. This is what God wants for us to live in a peaceful and loving world. He does not want us to fear for our lives on a daily basis. We were created in his image and that image is a loving one. If we would just close our ears to the messages of hate and violence and embrace the teachings of Jesus Christ, we would learn about our true nature. The way that God intended us to live. 1 John 4:7 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." (ESV)
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