In this age the Lord is calling us to His kingdom under His domain—we are not being forced. When He bodily returns to the earth to establish His kingdom, He will rule with a rod of iron. But in this age, He is calling those who prove their worthiness to rule with Him by their willingness to serve Him and walk in His truth, even when both the rewards for obedience, and consequences for disobedience are not immediate. This requires a walk of faith, but true faith is always obedient as we read in Romans 16:25-27:
 

 

     Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel

     and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery

     which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested,

     and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment

     of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations,

     leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ,

     be the glory forever. Amen.

 

 

Of course, the greatest test of our obedience will be in regard to the dif-ficult things He has commanded. One test is, we are to love our enemies. This is easy for those who do not have enemies, but let enemies arise and many of us will start praying for the Lord to send fire from heaven to consume them. Possibly every American who is reading this is right now thinking of the Islamic extremists who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. How can anyone love such people? God does. He loves every one of them and desires for each of them to be saved.

 

I believe it is important to biblically establish the difference in the mandates given to the civil government and the church. The civil government is an authority established by God, and as Paul wrote in Romans 13:4, "for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil." The civil government is not told to love its enemies, and would actually be in disobedience by not bringing wrath upon those who do evil because it has been given the sword for that purpose. However, the church has a different mandate. We are told to love our enemies. We are in disobedience if we do not love them.

 

I heard a most encouraging broadcast on Fox News. They reported that for every attack on Muslims in the United States since September 11, there have been at least ten acts of love, kindness, and reaching out to Islamic Americans, mostly by churches. They interviewed a number of Muslims who were overwhelmed by the kindness and support they had received from their neighbors, confessing this was something they were not expecting. To me this was one of the most encouraging indicators of the health of the American church and the soul of this nation that I have heard in a long time. 

 

It has often been reported that the man who planned the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the man who commanded the Japanese forces that day, were both educated in America. Most foreign students who come to America list two things as their most important goals when they come—to get a good education and to make American friends. Both of these Japanese military officers received an education, but it seems they were shunned and isolated, leaving without making any real American friends. How would history have been changed if they had?

 

Even if history is not going to be changed by our acts of love and kindness, we are commanded to love our enemies. This in no way infers that all of the Arab and Muslim people who live in the United States, or outside of it, are enemies of America. Many are our friends, who consider such terrorist acts as an affront to their faith. Even so, we who are Christians are commanded to love even the extremists and terrorists, even those who will not receive it, but rather view it as a sign of our weakness. We are not commanded to love only those who will love us back. This is truly a difficult thing, but are we going to obey all that He commanded?