I Love Mankind

In the comic Peanuts Linus once explained, “I love mankind; it’s the people I can’t stand.”  Somerset Maugham said it this way “I’ve always been interested in people, but I’ve never liked them.”

Maybe you can identify with those sentiments. People can be rude, selfish, foolish, trying and vicious. Some might even fall into the “enemies” category. When people mistreat or take advantage of us, it is just human nature to feel resentment, anger and even hatred.

The religious teachers of Jesus’ day taught you were to hate your enemies [Roman occupation]. Jesus comes with a radical new teaching, “Love you enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you…”

Our generation has a difficult time understanding this teaching because we look at love as an emotion. When Jesus gave the command to love our enemies He was not talking about our emotions but our actions. You cannot command your emotions to feel a certain way. “Bless those…do good…pray for those…” are all words of action. So, it does not matter how you feel about someone, to love is to do what is in the best interest of that person.

The Theology of Happiness

If you were to ask the average person on the street, "What do you want out of time for you and your children?" Most people answer, "I just want to be happy!" Even our Bill of Rights declare that man has an "unalienable right" to be happy. We are all familiar with the phrase "...and the pursuit of happiness." And it appears that most people are spending an enormous amount to time and energy in their pursuit of happiness.

This pursuit of happiness even carries over to the spiritual realm. We would never say it but we think God's major role in our lives is to see that be are happy. But unfortunately, that is not true. I know it sounds almost heretical that God's goal for us in not happiness. God is more interested in our holiness than our happiness. God's intent for us is to be Christ like. Romans 8:29

We treat God like a cosmic vending machine. We put in our spiritual quarter [prayer] into the vending machine [God] and wait for our prayer to be dispensed [answered]. And if God does not answer our prayer or at least like we think He should, we begin to complain that God has failed us.

Happiness is based on our circumstances. If our circumstances are "good" we are happy. If our circumstance are "bad" we are upset. But God offers something better, it is called joy. 1 John 1:4

God's joy does not depend on circumstances because joy is found in a personal relationship with Christ.