Revival can become a pursuit not of love, but of zeal. And even prophets among us are blinded by this zeal. This is a historic problem inherent in religious separatism. I'm relatively new to this 'come out from among her' attitude, and already my own back feels sore under the lashes of my own judgement against the church. I am reminded of John's Smith prediction of the stubborn pilgrims who did not want his help. Such fanatics as these will not believe (that they need help) until they are beaten with their own rod.
When it comes to lovelessness we are our own worst problem. I do not know how to proceed unless we each find a way to love those we sharply disagree with.
I have irreconcilable differences of beliefs with some, even in this place. Yet, this is not a justifiable reason to break away in spirit from them, if they claim Christ. Easier said then done, I admit. The hardest spiritual things are made of flesh and blood.
Several years after John Smith made his cynical prediction about the pilgrims, it came true. They were dying off faster then the survivors could bury them. At first the sailors aboard the Mayflower mocked them for being such religious fanatics unprepared for the wilderness.
But they were more prepared then the world knew. Not because they were smart, or because they were experienced. They had no sudden visions or prophecies that saved them. They were less competent and less equipped then the near disastrous Jamestown settlement that preceded them, as well as the other infamous European settlements of death in the New World.
Their natural shelters were sticks against a literal Ice Age of coldness and starvation. But it was their spiritual shelter that made the difference. What was this shelter? Was it Christ? We could call it that, but that's the cheap and easy way out I'm afraid...even we can make his holy name an empty platitude.
I believe it was love that saved the pilgrims in wilderness conditions that proved devastating to earlier settlement attempts that were better equipped and financed. (I know it's not the most scholarly analysis.) History shows us that, despite the onset of winter, all construction of their shelters was stopped by the sick and dying among them. Soon the remaining pilgrim survivors were full time care givers, keeping fires warm, cooking food, washing stench ridden clothing, and cleaning foul chamber pots. (Appropriate metaphors indeed for my our own righteousness.)
Eventually the disease upon land took to those who thought they were safe on the ships. It was then that the 'lustiest', most arrogant sailor, fell fatally ill and found occasion to grasp the true heart of the separatists. It wasn't for liberty, or for religious purity as a pedigree, but for a liberty and a purity that leads to love.
As the Christians cared even for this miserable young sailor, he wept aloud, "Oh you, I now see, show your love like a Christians indeed one to another, but we let one another die like dogs."
I am the first to admit...perhaps I need to stop working on my shelter and to care for the health of another. Perhaps this is why Jesus called love a 'new' commandment. (Expositors grant me license here...) a new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, . Not because it's new dispensationally, but because I sometimes act like I've never heard it before.
Blessings,
MC
