Friends Don’t Let Friends Be Unrighteous!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.’ (1 John 4:11)

After an advancement of peace in the Middle East, we find in part due to Israel’s recent actions, the Arabic Islamic nations are starting to discuss possibly retracting from the US-initiated Abraham Accords between the descendants of Ishmael and Issac, the two half-brothers sired by Abraham.  Ishmael of course became the father of the Arab nations while Issac became the father of Jacob, or his other name, Israel. 

While there have been many positive moves toward cooperation and peace between Israel and the Arab nations, the ’12-Day War’ Israel fought against Iran, the Persian competitors to the Arabs but ‘brothers’ within Islam, alarmed these nations with the dominant air supremacy Israel displayed.  The recent airstrike Israel struck against Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, though precise and limited to the Hamas compound, greatly angered the Qatari monarchy, and the continuing campaign Israel is fighting in Gaza against Hamas is becoming a thorn in the side of the Arab legion.

While God wants us to love one another, why would he allow such conflicts, especially when peace was in the threshold of the region?  Would it be better for Israel to stop its attacks in Gaza, and was it a good idea for Israel to perform an airstrike inside the territory of a nation it had a budding relationship with?

For the US, we need to be Israel’s friend and ally – but does this include being copacetic and quiet when Israel makes a mistake, especially one that could also gravely affect US relations with its Middle Eastern partners?  Should the US be willing to tell Israel it is wrong when it acts in a way that is counter-productive to both the US and its own interest?

1 John 4:11 (actually 1 John 4:7-21) talks of God’s love and how we are to reciprocate and use God’s love toward others.  Within the family of Christ, we need to share with each other; our time, our prayers, our needs.  Outside of our Christian family, we need to share the Lord and His Gospel.  Our God is the God of Agape Love, and He loves us so much that He gave us Jesus to be our Sacrifice and our Intercessory and Advocate. 

But we need to also be truthful.  Some interpret sharing God’s love as being meek, equaling weak and not providing constructive and truthful criticism, avoiding the discussion of negative behaviors for someone to correct.  God’s love is shown to correct, and to rebuke when necessary.  In Jeremiah, God did not tell Jeremiah (the Bad News Bear-er) that everything would be OK. 

God told Jeremiah, and the prophets before and after, that Israel needed to start flying right and come back to Him or they would be severely punished.  The Israelites didn’t listen and most found themselves in Babylon, with a small remnant living in the ruins of Jerusalem or running away to Egypt after the Babylonians sacked the city. 

We need to also show God’s love in the same way; loving, giving hope, but letting others know when they are living outside of God’s Word that they will not be blessed by the Lord until they repent, and that not turning to God is a turn toward Hell.  Our nation’s diplomacy, even with its Spiritual ally Israel, must also be in the same vein.  Israel is correct in it handling of Gaza and the actions taken to eliminate Hamas inside the Gaza Strip, especially in the aftermath of the massacres of 7 October 2023.  Israel also had justification of its air campaign against Iran for its culpability in arming its Hamas, Houthi, and Hezbollah proxies to wage attacks against it. 

However, Israel should be rebutted for its airstrike of the Hamas compound in Doha, Qatar as it violated the trust of the Persian Gulf nation, placed its fiercest ally the US in a very precarious position diplomatically, and possibly destroyed any further peace talks mediated by Qatar, between Israel and Hamas, to provide an end to bloodshed in Gaza.

Whether between you and your neighbor or between nations, we are to love each other, defend each other in giving of your lives, but also show full Truth in love and don’t be afraid to love enough to correct those who are in the wrong.