Everyone Will Let You Down

I'm going to share a current frustration with you: myself and everyone I know keep trusting humans.We are relying on each other for happiness and fulfillment, to inevitably get let down again and again. My Facebook news feed is filled with these stories; Friend X posts a status about how amazing Y is and  they are the best friend ever, oh so loving, etc., only for the friendship to be broken up and passive-aggressive statuses to be seen a week later. Rinse and repeat. The problem is that apart from Christ, we cannot love.

If you are not a Christian and you're reading this, you're ready to throw tomatoes. If you are saved, you may feel the same way. The statement that those outside of Christ cannot love is admittedly controversial, to say the least, because everyone thinks that they or their non-Christian friends love each other, and it's obviously offensive to claim otherwise. Now if you aren't a Christian, the Bible itself needs its own proving (I'd be glad to help you with that if you contact me), but my intent is to show you and Christian readers what it says about the ability to love, as I think our culture has some misconceptions on the issue.

 I'll start with the general idea (and you'll come to find out my favorite to teach about), humans are evil; I'll be honest, I think it is central to a lot of the issues in today's world. Paul lays it out well in Romans 3, quoting various passages of Psalms.

    “None is righteous, no, not one;
        no one understands;
        no one seeks for God.
    All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
        no one does good,
        not even one.”
    “Their throat is an open grave;
        they use their tongues to deceive.”
    “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
        “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
    “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
        in their paths are ruin and misery,
    and the way of peace they have not known.”
        “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
(Romans 3:10b-18)

It's a reoccurring theme, seen again in Romans 8:7-8: For* the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. If you accept that God is good, then not following God is intuitively the antithesis of good, or evil. One cannot seek the flesh, or selfish desires, and God's good and perfect will. This would be like a soldier fighting on the front lines for both sides in a war. It is impossible to fully serve either side.

So, in general, humans are of an evil nature. This follows logically to prove that they are incapable of love. Simply, love is good so the evil are incapable of partaking in it. It is displayed in the Bible multiple places, one such being 1 John 4:7-8: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. What this is saying is without a connection to God (being saved by Jesus' sacrifice and being sealed with His Spirit), one cannot love. Like a cord cannot carry electricity apart from the outlet or vessels cannot carry blood if disconnected from the heart. God is not just the source of love, he is love. So being disconnected from him, is a disconnection from love.

Now those who disagree with my claim will respond with something along the lines of "but my non-Christian friends love me" or "I am not a Christian and love my friends." I think a key to understanding this is the difference between what we have decided is love, and what the Bible is referring to here. What we see as love is a societal norm, or a means to a selfish end. I do it all the time: I show someone kindness as a bartering tool or because I'm supposed to, not selflessly as the Spirit would have me do. So you see I admit that Christians are not perfect in this and we still "love" by the world's standard when we do not let our Helper, the Holy Spirit, work through us.

There is still the question of why someone who is not saved can make others feel loved, but this post is long and accomplished it's original goal. I will continue that discussion sometime this week. Please comment with disagreements so I may address them in that post as well.


*Whenever you see "for" or "therefore" starting a verse, it means that there is an argument before this verse affecting the one you are reading. It is easy to take these things out of context, so always make sure the verse or passage is being used correctly, according to the surrounding text (even if it's being used by me).