Dark Side

Warning. I’m about to beat you up a little bit. So if this is not a good day to push you any lower than you already are, stop now. Take some time to feel better about things, then come back. However, if you feel that you’re up to it now, I promise, this ends way better than it starts.

As much as we strive to embody righteousness, we’re still very familiar with a part of us that has to be brought into submission. Sometimes this commonality, this familiarity is beneficial to explain things.

1 Corinthians 13 is called “The Love Chapter” (…love is patient, kind, etc) and if you’ve been in church for any length of time, you’ve probably been challenged to replace the word “love” with your name (Cros is patient, Cros is kind, etc). This shows us the scope of the transformation we’re supposed to be giving ourselves to. Only God can replace His name with love and still have it all be absolutely true. God is love (1 John 4:8). That’s not true for us. No, we have another verse that knows us just as intimately as 1 Corinthians 13 knows God.

Here’s The Word:

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

And there’s that familiar punch to my gut (and possibly yours). I have more familiarity replacing my name with “men” in this verse than I do with “love” in the other verse. Good thing that my purpose here isn’t to go on and on about our evil as much as it is to help us get a more clear understanding of love.
If you look at the idea of love in both verses, you see that love is a thing that seizes opportunity - and because we don’t have benevolence in us the way God does, it simply does us better to understand this thing at a point common to us all. Evil. And here’s where our “love” to seize opportunity is unquestionably expressed: Have you ever been pre-notified that you were going to be afforded an opportunity to be removed from under the usual "onlookers" of your life? Parents going away to leave you alone for the weekend, an out of town business trip without the wife(or husband) and kids, a sleepover for your kids that finds you home alone, guys night out, girls night out, etc. Basically, an opportunity for you to be alone in a place where no one knows you or you don’t have to answer to anyone for what you’ll do. What opportunities does your mind conjure up to seize after? Bible study? Meditation time? A visit to a homeless shelter? Maybe for some, but if you’re honest, most of us come up with very different ideas than those. Most of us seek to seize after selfish pleasures.

So now, look at that desire to seize – that’s love! That feeling of expectation and the promise of its fulfilment.
As natural men (and women) we desire to seize under the cover of darkness, because what we want is not benevolent, it’s selfish. I know, this has been a twisted mental exercise. But I don’t think was a waste of time, to touch the familiar and then elevate it to the transcendent, I can appreciate it. So now I know exactly how God feels when I see that He’s motivated to seize opportunity for our good as we see in John 3:16 “For God so LOVED the world”. His love is benevolent and desires good and He seizes opportunity to produce it. Not only that. Remember, I said that this ends way better than it starts. There is abundant, effectual hope.

Here's the Word:

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

2 Thessalonians 3:5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

So the next time you're anticipating being alone, and that feeling arises. That desire to seize an opportunity, remember, that's love. You just have to answer the question, is my love looking to produce good, or is that my dark side loving evil deeds? God has an answer for our dark side. It’s His light, which is not a side of Him, it’s the totality of His being. God is light. (1 John 1:5).
This should affect our approach to love and our desire to let it become to us, what it is to God as expressed in The Love Chapter. A benevolent motivation. God IS love, and His love is a precious gift to us that changes us. It changes our desires from evil to good so when no one’s watching, we no longer see an opportunity to seize to fulfill selfish desires. Whether anyone is watching or not, we’re in the light and we look to seize opportunity to produce and provide good.


In Him,
Cros