Love Is on the Board

Before Jesus came the idea of changing the world wasn’t on the board. There were some men who wanted to conquer and gain more power, most people just wanted to survive, but the system ran the same. Even the gods of men weren’t very creative. Any vision was about how to have more control.

At our end of the timeline, a lot of people imagine ways to change the world. Some of the most popular are guilt, envy, and hate. And while Christians know that those aren’t right, they are employed by men who still have bigger ideas.

It struck me while reading through a fiction book recently in which the plot included an effort to remove words from the dictionary. A big part of the reason for doing that was to eliminate even the possibility of change. If people don’t have the language, they can’t have the imagination, and so they can’t have better expectations that move them to do something different.

But once Jesus died and rose again, what isn’t possible? Once the eternal Word took on flesh and revealed grace and truth, the light just could not be turned off again. Men try to put a basket over it, but they can’t overcome it.

And because of the gospel we know that love changes the world. Guilt and envy and hate are powerful, but they tear down. We live in a world created by and ruled by the God of love.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9 ESV)