Our world seems to have lost its wheels and it caravanning out control. Hated and division are the axels on which we are spinning. We live in a world that racial injustice should not happen, and yet it does. My heart aches for the senseless murders of innocent black individuals at the hands of people of my race that has sparked and uncovered the hurt that has never really gone away.

What is the answer to all this?

I see followers of Jesus engaged in everything but the true answer and solution. They have actually contributed to the hatred and division that is everywhere.

I see followers of Jesus looking to politicians for the answer. The reality is they contribute and fuel the division and hatred. It does not matter what party you support, they only think of themselves, pinning for photo ops to oppose the other party. I see and hear their words and BOTH are filled with hate. Hate toward one another. All parties that are represented in the government have the power to use their words to heal and hurting country. Neither group does or has. I see followers of Jesus then choose political sides and contribute to the division. As followers, we are commanded to pray for all our governing officials, even those you do not agree with (1 Timothy 2: 1-7). As followers of Jesus we must make Jesus public and politics private. Anything less contributes to the division and fuels more hatred.

I see followers of Jesus looking to news outlets for the answer. All I can say to this is… REALLY? You look to the a source that is knows to lie and actually push the agenda of division and hatred. Brother and sister in Jesus, maybe you are filled with anxiety because you fill your heart the junk coming out of the media.

So what is the answer?

The reality is that is has been there the whole time, but we often ignore it and choose the easy path of hatred and division. The answer in one word is… love!

Scripture is filled with the command to love. Love is what brings unity. Love is what brings healing. Love is the answer. In Luke 10, we see Jesus having an interaction regarding the Law. In Matthew 22, Jesus sates the great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. In Luke 10, a question arose to who then in our neighbor. Jesus gives a parable that challenges the racial prejudice of the person asking. The answer to fulfill the law of Christ is love.

This is not the only place that God speaks to us about love.

Romans 13: 8-10 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

1 Peter 4: 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

1 John 4: 7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

John 13: 34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

1 John 3: 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

These are only a sampling but you get the picture on how important love is. I find it striking that the main attribute for a follower of Jesus is love. In fact, if you are not loving, then you may not be a follower of Jesus.

You maybe asking what is love? We also look to scripture to define this:

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Looking at this definition, it is easy to see that we are not living into this. If we really were, then there would not be racial injustice. We apply this scripture to everyone, nit just our spouses because we read this at weddings. There would not be division in this world if we really lived and applied this in our life. There would not be hatred. The bottom line to our life need to be love. Anything less is divisive.

Where do we find love?

Really simple as well. We find love in Jesus Christ. He came and died for ALL our sins, for the WHOLE world. He did not die for one particular race. He came to die for the sins of the world so that all people can have eternal life.

John 3: 16-18 “For God so loved the world,^[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Heaven and eternity is going to be filled with people from all races and languages.

Revelation 7: 9-10 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Do you know why heaven is going to be this way? Love! Very simple. We need to stop dividing and start loving. We need to stop hating and start loving. We need to stop looking toward sources that will fail us and start looking to the only source that will never fail us… Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 13: 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.