The Urge To Slay

Why did Christians kill Jews in the Crusades,
When Christ clearly prescribes brotherly love,
Not instilling faith as torture persuades?
Killing the lost won't admit you above!
He sent us to convert all the nations,
By word of mouth, using tongues of preachers;
Why carry swords and wreak degradation?
O! How far we've strayed from scripture's teachers!
Saved slay saved, and do the same for heathens!
More blood has been spilled in God's name than hell's;
As if Satan, not Christ, in man's heart dwells!
The urge to slay cancels the rule of love
Established by Jesus who rules above!

The most difficult task for a new Christian is to uproot his inherent urges of how to act and react to others in this world. His natural reaction to any offense, slight or major, is revenge---"an eye for an eye". That is exactly opposite to the response Jesus wants His followers to give. "Turn the other cheek" when someone strikes you---that is His way. It will take you a long time to learn to do that, but you must, in order to love as He loved.

Translated into the way organizations are to behave toward other organizations, and nations are to behave with other nations, it becomes a responsibility to react in ways antithetical to the "bottom-line" mentality of business, and "sovereign" respect between nations. The history of man's nations is one of war after war; and that of business shows corporations becoming greedier and greedier, with less and less moral conscience to its employees, investors, and consumers.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ... If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1,3)

To get a taste of just how difficult it is for us to grasp the meaning of "love" in the way Jesus means for it to be, read and meditate on Chapter 13 of the Book of 1 Corinthians, not just once, but several times. Start your personality revision with "baby steps"; try it with your closest loved one, like your wife, or husband, then move to those outside your inner circle. This is not the "love" of television opera; nor is it the "brotherly love" of Philadelphia; it is the "agape" love that seeks nothing in return.