About Make the World Better
Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
God’s Strategy for Overcoming Division and Creating Unity: Love Your Neighbor
Summary of what Godly Love is and is not
Godly love is necessary for unity
What to expect from Make the World Better posts in Substack
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God’s Strategy for Overcoming Division and Creating Unity: Love Your Neighbor
Unity through loving your neighbor is the basic theme of Make the World Better: Love Your Neighbor. These are the basic themes of the bible hidden in bible symbolism.
Social, economic, religious and political divisions develop when people do not love, respect and accept one another the way they want and deserve to be loved, respected and accepted. More importantly, attitudes and behaviors toward one another are not up to God’s standards for loving your neighbor. This is the root cause of division and the obstacle to unity in all relationship — from personal to international.
Divisions begin as envy, pride, boasting, anger, self-serving, unforgiveness, delighting in evil, dishonoring others, and showing favoritism and partiality in relationships. To see the source of division we only need to look at the attitudes and behaviors that are not equated with Godly love. These unresolved micro-offenses spread like cancer throughout communities, nations and the world. This happens because most people are totally ignorant of what Godly love is and how to practice it – despite their sincere human love for one another. Human love is nice, and it is important, but it is powerless to overcome evil and division.
God’s solution for division is very clear: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Very simply, this means to do what Godly love does and not do the things that Godly love does not do. More broadly, division is created every time someone breaks one of God’s laws about how to relate to one another.
Summary of what Godly Love is and is not
It is not like sentimental human love.
Godly love is very practical and is always oriented to the well-being (e.g. physical, emotional, financial, educational, relational, etc.) of others.
It is always oriented to building others up.
It never allows for tearing others down.
It never focuses on the emotions or other benefits typically associated with human love.
Unlike human love which can be sustained in healthy ways only when the object of love returns it, Godly love is given unconditionally, without expectations for reciprocity.
Godly love is offered without expectation that people will reciprocate or reward the love given.
God's love is unconditional. It persists even when it is rejected.
Godly love includes a very broad definition of neighbor that includes all mankind -- not just people you know intimately.
See Godly Love is not Human Love for an in-depth discussion.
Godly love is necessary for unity
The verse that says “love covers a multitude of sins” refers to Godly love which effectively covers/conceals all micro-offenses with forgiveness so that they are no longer problems in relationships. Godly love has this power because Godly love always includes forgiveness which is absolutely necessary for healing division that inhibits unity. Forgiveness is not just a way to clear our mind from meditation on past hurts. Forgiveness is how Godly love creates unity out of division. This is possible because Godly love never engages in revenge and retribution.
God’s command to love your neighbor as yourself has always been his prescription for diversity, equity, inclusion and peaceful relationships at all levels — including international. God equates loving others with loving him. In fact, the bible says that people who hate their brother or sister (i.e. neighbor) do not love God.
Unity will never be realized until people – those who are religious and those who are not – understand God’s definition of love and hate. Hint: they are not the same as cultural definitions of these terms. See Do Not Judge with Favoritism and Partiality for more about unity.
Articles about Godly love
Like God himself, Godly love is complicated. Since God is love, the qualities of Godly love are also very complicated. That means that serious study is necessary to understand both God and Godly love. Therefor, those who are willing to study will gain a better understanding of both God and Godly love.
Visiting the links below is a good place to start learning the biblical standards of Godly love:
God’s Commands About How to Relate to Him and to One Another
Judge Character When Choosing Friends, Making Alliances and Voting
These links will constitute the bulk of posts in Make the World Better: Love Your Neighbor.
What to expect from Make the World Better posts in Substack:
Make the World Better posts in Substack will compare the observable attitudes and behaviors of Christians with the biblical standards of Godly love represented in the links above. These comparisons will not be welcomed by most Christians because, what they say they believe about the bible being a reliable guide for life, is inconsistent with the attitudes and behaviors they present to the public.
Christians are very good in the practice of religion, but they miss the mark regarding God’s command to love their neighbor. Those who are proud of their religious faith will not welcome Make the World Better posts. Those who are humble will find these posts challenging but welcome them anyway as they learn how to make the world better by practicing Godly love instead of religion.
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Paul Borene
