Love knows well the art of war. (1)
It is the battle cry of armies, the weapon of warriors and the prize claimed in victory.
Love brings the sword of Truth, (2) and with it peace.(3) Slicing through the lies that have intricately woven themselves into the fabric of existence, it severs bone from marrow.(4) Truth, where it is realized, separates father from son.(5) He who stands in Truth cannot be at peace with he who will not stand in it. What do light and darkness have in common?(7) Truth divides because it must.
Love, you see, can find no delight in what is evil; but it clings to what is True.(6) Love necessarily shuns everything that is not Love, for they cannot co-exist. Where there is pure black, can there be pure white? Can two things share the exact same space? Can the positive and negative poles of a magnet not repel each other? Where there is evil, there is not Love. That which is not Love can have no part in Love.
Like a Samurai with the patience to train, to endure the tedious and difficult, to reject that which will not perfect in pursuit of what will attain victory, Love discriminates because it must. It cannot embrace all that it is not and still remain all that it is, for Love is Truth. It is the very essence of that which really is.(8)
And yet, in an ironic twist, Love longs to embrace all. It fights to remove evil so that purity might reign, because in purity there is unity and in unity there is peace.(9) Love longs for unity, it desires peace.(10) Unwilling that any should perish,(11) Love fights so that all might live.(12)
But those who would marshal themselves against Love, those who refuse to surrender will find themselves vanquished, for Justice is the demand of Love. What would Love be if it were not Just? And as we have seen, that which is not part of Love is against it and it is this we call evil. Who would argue that evil must not be punished? Who would say that those who have committed the atrocities of murder, of genocide, of child slavery and countless other evils ought not be punished, ought not receive Justice? Do we not all hope for Justice in some form?
By what standard can evil be judged and Justice administered? By Truth. We hold it as self evident that there is Truth, do we not?(13) We claim rights based on Truth, and violations of these rights fall under the domain of Justice.(14) Only fully resting in Truth can there be genuine Justice, and only where there is Justice can there be peace.
So, Love, in pursuit of Justice and under the banner of Truth, is waging a Just War of epic proportions. It spans the centuries of time. It is the war to end all wars. It is the war that will finally result in overarching, eternal peace. Until all humankind are enveloped in this peace that passes all understanding, the peace that emanates from Love, Love is at war.
(1) Certainly all we might term "war" is not born of genuine love. And yet the principle remains constant. We are speaking metaphorically here.
(2) For Christ did not come to bring immediate peace as man would understand peace. Matthew 10:34.
(3) But He came to provide the way to peace through Himself. John 16:33.
(4) And this sword of truth is the very Word of God. Hebrews 4:27.
(5) Matthew 10:35-38.
(6) I Corinthians 13:6.
(7) I John 1:6, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
(8) 1 John 4:8. Exodus 34:6. 2 Samuel 7:28. 2 John 1:3. John 14:6. Exodus 3:14.
(9) Colossians 3.
(10) Zechariah 8:19-23.
(11) 2 Peter 3:9.
(12) 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.
(13) "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Eights and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." - The Declaration of Independence.
(14) Isaiah 59.
