Love and Conflict

To love someone, do you ignore the trouble or hurt they cause you or others?

To love someone, do you stay silent because you may cause them trouble or hurt?

No, being loving means we do not avoid conflict. Instead we are to gather our strength and meet it head on, fearlessly. Because we know that love is perfect, even though we are not.

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Luke 22:49

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When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?”

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And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

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But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

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Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?

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Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

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Jesus did not ignore the trouble his followers created. He rebuked their actions against the High Priest's servant, and healed the man of his wound. Jesus did not stay silent when he was being detained by the Jewish people who came for him. He instead questioned their motives openly, fearlessly.

Love and all the states of love, come at a cost to self. It is unnatural for our flesh to love, and this world does not understand selfless love. Truly, the world loves what empowers or enables it, as does the flesh of each human being. Without Christ, what the world and the flesh consider to be love is what honors itself.

"I love how you make me feel."

"I love my job and my home."

"I love what makes me feel good."

"I love how giving makes me feel."

"I love you because you complete me."

Self self self. The children of the world, (which is who you and I were raised as), love what honors us. None of it is holy, all of it is meaningless. Love is an unseen quality of God. Love is selfless, meaning there is a cost to self to have it come through us. Love is the foundation of all the fruits of the Kingdom, the holy conscience of God. Everything else serves ego, pride, vanity, covetous, and/or worldliness.

Love is meant for honoring the Father and/or serving others. For believers, love is born of our faith. It allows us to supply holiness in situations where we would otherwise revert back into our worldliness. Love has Truth as its authority, and that Truth is in all things. This is how we know we can act on it with fearless confidence. We enter a conflict with others no to empower or enable ourselves or them, but to glorify love in its holiness.

In any situation, love is the only way to raise truth. Otherwise the situation will always carry division, separation, and bias. Even if two parties agree to disagree, this is self involved and a lie. The only way to have the truth in a situation is to let love bring light into the circumstance. And the truth will show what honors love, and love will glorify the truth.

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1 Corinthians 13:4-6

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Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

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It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

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Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

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Love is the root of everything good and holy. God is Love. As children of God and believers who carry the Truth in them, we can approach every circumstance as an opportunity to humbly set ourselves aside and seek first the holiness of the Kingdom to come through us. This might mean conflict, but only in a way that raises the truth as the light in the darkness.

Do not avoid circumstances for the sake of ease, or fear. We are the Body of Truth. As we are in him, he is in us, just as he is in the Father, and the Father is in him. The Father is Love, Christ Jesus is the living Truth. The Spirit of Truth is with us, all we need do is love.

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