Love’s Kingdom

While listening to Hatred’s Kingdom by Dore Gold, I was struck by the similarities between Saudi Wahhabi Muslims and the Pharisees of the New Testament. Extremist Muslims desire purity and righteousness and pursue it with a passion unequalled in the world today. This zeal is very similar to the zeal the Apostle Paul had:

“If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” (Philippians 3:4-6).

Paul was the most righteous and zealous Jew of his day. No one could claim to be any more righteous than he, and his zeal for God was unmatched by any of his contemporaries. He was so zealous that he killed Christians, hunting them down in order to kill them. Yet Paul had a stunning revelation that caused him to realize that what he thought was the ultimate gain was actually the ultimate loss in God’s eyes. He was blinded by his own zeal and self-righteousness. He couldn’t see the truth until God dramatically broke through to him.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were very religious; praying, fasting, giving alms, and maintaining their purity. However, they had no love. They hated Jesus and sought to kill him, finally succeeding by having him crucified. They were intolerant of “sinners” and saw themselves as better than them. They loved to be seen praying and fasting, taking every opportunity to display their righteousness and piety yet they refused to lift a finger to help the poor and needy. They looked down on women and despised Gentiles, refusing to let them into their houses or to enter a Gentile’s house. Jesus had his harshest words for them:

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13)

“If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12:7)

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23)

Like the Pharisees, the radical Islamists have neglected mercy and love in their pursuit of righteousness and piety. Yet righteousness without love is a sham. John clearly teaches in his first epistle that to claim to know God but not love your brother is a lie:

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2:9-11)

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (1 John 3:14-15)

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8)

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)

Now, a Muslim may say that he loves his brother. Yet, loving those who are like you, are kind to you, and agree with you is easy. It is when you love those who hate you, persecute you, are different from you and don’t agree with you that you demonstrate your true character. If you do not love these people, then your love for your “brother” is a sham. Jesus said:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (Matthew 5:43-47)

Righteousness and love must mark the true believer. One without the other is deficient. They are two sides of the same coin. God is light and God is love. He is holy and righteous and demands holiness and righteousness of his people. However, he is also love and he demands love of his people as well. God’s love and holiness work together. God is both just and the one who justifies:

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

God’s holiness demands that sin be punished but God’s love provided the means for that sin to be cleansed and removed. The Pharisees saw, and extremist Muslims see, God as only holy and righteous, demanding righteousness and punishing sin, leaving no room for forgiveness, mercy and love. This produces a harsh, legalistic, self-righteousness that is intolerant, inflexible, uncaring, unmerciful and rigid.

The danger today is to go to the other extreme and see God as only love. This has resulted in a wimpy, feel-good, morally lax Christianity without any backbone. “If it feels good, do it”, and “Don’t judge me” are some of the mottos these antinomian Christians like to quote.

However, the key is to hold on to both God’s holiness and God’s love and seek to live a life characterized by both. Paul says that the law is summed up in love:

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)

We need to have a loving righteousness, a righteousness motivated and expressed through love. Anything less is not genuine faith. We must be careful that we as Christians don’t become like the extremist Muslims and seek righteousness apart from love. We must also be careful not to seek love apart from righteousness. We need to be lights to this dark world by loving righteously. The best answer we can give in response to the hatred of Wahhabi Islamic extremists is to demonstrate a radical righteous love to all.