“If you look long enough into the void, the void begins to look back through you” – Nietzsche
I find the above quote to be true for evil. If one stays in a negative state of mind for long enough, the negativity will pervade every other part of life. If this is true of evil, how much truer is this for love and perfection? If we were a people who spent as much time meditating on the perfect grace of God, on His everlasting, all powerful, all redeeming love, as we did meditating on our frustrations, how would we begin to treat our neighbors who we disagree with?
“Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].” – Philippians 4:8
This leads into the question: what is love? Is love simply kindness or patience? No, or else the word love would be replaced by these words alone. Love is more than these things, because love will not hold back correction if destruction is at hand. Yet so many Christians hold back correction in the name of love and tolerance. Tolerance is only loving when given to unbelievers, but when shown to believers, it is no longer loving, but rather a poison suffocating their chances of growing closer to God. So, is it loving to accept a sinner who is curious about God? Absolutely. Is it loving to allow a Christian living in sin to continue living a sinful life? BY. NO. MEANS. Therefore, we are called to live in community, to hold one another accountable to both God and each other. Christianity is a communal religion. The responsibility of the community is to take care of one another, not just physically, but spiritually as well. Unaddressed sin is death.
“for if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever.” – Romans 8:13