4.1 Christian Need for Holiness . (Matt. 5:48) an adjective related to the noun meaning end or completion. The basic meaning of the adjective is fully realized or having attained the fullness of its goal. It is usually translated as perfect. Interestingly, the Latin root of perfect (perfectus) means the same thing. Fectus (from factus) means done. Perfectus means completely done. That gives us the statement, You must be holy just as your heavenly father is holy. (Rev.21:27) k means common, profane or unclean. That gives us the statement about Heaven, Nothing unclean can enter into it. So, according to the New Testament, Christians who wish to enter heaven must be fully realized and without blemish. In other words, they must be holy! 4.2 Holy???? Who Us? Are You Crazy???? Step Two. Sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which one becomes conformed to God. This is a fancy way of saying learning how to seek abiding happiness where it can truly be found by loving selflessly as God loves. While most Christians agree that sanctification is required, they tend to disagree on what role, if any, the believer plays in it. The words of Scripture are plain. Christians must strive and ultimately achieve holiness in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and live eternally with an all-holy God. Just like the Beatitudes, this seems crazy. But, while holiness is impossible for humans, for God, all things are possible. Most Christians agree that getting to heaven requires two important steps. Step One. Justification Scholars and denominations have long debated about the exact meaning of this idea but it basically starts with the decision of the believer to accept by faith the new life offered by God in Baptism in response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. 4.3 The Need for Holiness However, if we look at Christian morality in the light of agape love and happiness, we can understand that a person lacking any bit of selfless love would feel completely out of place in the face of an all-holy God. Such a person would want to hide away from God just as Adam and Eve did. As odd as this sounds, an eternity apart from God for someone who endures in selfishness, may be a grace from God. It doesnt seem to be illogical that, if we are to find complete happiness by eternally sharing in the life of God, which is a life of selfless love, we must be capable of such love. Surely, this is how Jesus lived his life and Paul expressly tells us that we should imitate him (Paul) as he imitates Jesus If we look at morality in the context of crime and punishment, we can understand how people might say that those who spend eternity apart from God do so as punishment from God for their sins. Jesus loved selflessly his entire life. His ministry on earth ended with an ultimate act of selfless love. If we attempted to share in the life of the Trinity with hearts still tainted by selfishness, we would be like Adam and Eve in Eden after Adams sin. We would recognize that we could not stand being in the presence of an all-holy God 4.4 Holiness One View This viewpoint holds that believers, like Jesus in Luke 2:52, can grow in wisdom, age and grace before God and man. The Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote a great deal about how grace can influence habits and virtues in his Summa Theologica How believers can achieve the kind of holiness needed to enjoy being in Gods presence has caused some division among Christians This viewpoint offers the possibility that souls that have experienced new birth by water and the Spirit can learn to change the way they look at things (metanoia/repentance). They can learn not to follow the urgings of their damaged will to make selfish choices that lead not to abiding happiness but only to the grave. The grace of Jesus can enter their souls allowing believers to grow in the love of Jesus and conform their way of looking at things to his way. A Catholic/Orthodox/Arminian Protestant viewpoint believes that, at baptism, the human soul is cleansed from all taint of personal sin (justified and sanctified). The human will, however, remains damaged and prone to make the same wrong choices that our original ancestors made. 4.5 Holiness Another View Reformed Christians tend to hold that justification comes from accepting Jesus in an act of faith. Baptism is merely a public acknowledgement that you are following Jesus. Following Philippians 1:6, Christians can have confidence that God will complete (perfect) the good work He started in them, i.e. sanctification. Those Christians who come from a more reformed Protestant viewpoint, largely look to the work of John Calvin to describe how Christians achieve the holiness required for sharing an eternal life of selfless love with their creator. Calvin makes five specific points of belief about the condition of human beings and how God relates to them. For English-speaking people, the acronym TULIP describes these points P erseverance of the Saints Once saved, always saved I rresistible Grace The elect cannot say no to Gods call L imited Atonement Jesus died only for the elect whom God has chosen to save from all eternity U nconditional Election God chooses to save (or not save) human beings based on his will alone. This is interesting in light of 1 Tim. 2:4. T otal Depravity As a result of Adams sin, the human will was totally destroyed and is incapable of moral choices. Period. 4.6 Christian Views on Predestination Double Predestination As just described, the Reformed viewpoint holds to double predestination where humans play no role in their final destiny. Gods will is supreme in all matters and He has chosen His elect from all eternity All catholic Christians believe in some form of predestination. Single Predestination The Catholic/Orthodox/Arminian viewpoint believes in single predestination. God knows what choices humans will make but doesnt cause those choices. There is some role, however small, that humans play in cooperating with Gods grace to achieve their final destiny and even that action begins with the prompting of grace by the Holy Spirit. As far as the supremacy of Gods will is concerned, God chose to give human beings a free will with the full knowledge that they might not choose to pursue happiness in the way that he intended 4.7 How Different Are These Viewpoints Reformed (and other) Protestants are of the view that "if you're truly alive, you'll eat," while Catholics/Orthodox/Arminian Protestants are of the view that "if you don't eat, you'll die." The difference between the two viewpoints is one of inches, not miles. We are both declaring, each in our own way, that it all starts with God. But to see any commonality, we have to be patient, and seek to understand what the other Christian actually believes On first glance (and second and third glances) these viewpoints seem much at odds with each other but a closer look may discover some level of commonality. This analogy may help to explain. The breath of God into Adam is like the role that grace and faith play. Eating is like the expression of faith through love (good works sort of). Breath (grace) precedes eating, and is necessary for it to be of any worth. But, once alive, we need to cooperate with grace by eating. God breathed life into Adam when he was just dust. Adam had to cooperate with God in maintaining that life by eating. Adam's not alive because he eats: he's alive because God breathed life into him. Adam did not cause himself to be alive by eating breakfast. But if Adam stops eating, he'll eventually die. 4.8 My Own Issues and Insights - I Paul on Sanctification Christians then, in general, agree that believers must be both justified and sanctified before entering into the happiness of sharing Gods life of love for all eternity. I have tried to explain in a few words the different viewpoints that Christians have about justification and sanctification. I will let Paul himself give some insights about the process If anyone builds on this foundation (Jesus) with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire [itself] will test the quality of each ones work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someones work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; (1 Cor.3:13-15). 4.9 My Own Issues and Insights - II Rather than use words to describe my way of connecting these three passages, I thought that one of PowerPoint animations might do a better job. As I completed my degree in Theology, I looked for a way to tie together the passage from Paul in 1 Corinthians with two other passages from the Christian Scriptures that stuck in my mind; one from John and another again from Paul; A Second Passage from Paul "We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, so that each one may be rewarded for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." (2 Cor. 5:10) A Passage from John In my Fathers house, there are many mansions.(Jn. 14:2) 4.10 Sanctification and Many Mansions My Own Issues and Insights - III 4.11 Review Baptism opened the door to both justification (a relationship of love was again possible between humans and God) and sanctification (humans could once again stand to be in the presence of an all-holy God). Christians today agree that both are needed but disagree on how they are accomplished Early Christian morality was based on beatitude, an inner peace and happiness that derived from agape love. Jesus lived what he preached and Christians were expected to follow his example. Jesus was what he revealed. Repentance implied a change in the way that Christians thought. External obedience to the letter of the Law based sometimes on fear of punishment and other times on using the Law to their advantage (e.g. The Woman Caught in Sin) was no longer acceptable. An internal adherence to the Spirit of the Law was now required based on love which lay at the root of the Law. All of this was made possible by the cleansing grace of baptism which flowed from the blood of Christ on the cross (washed clean by the blood of the lamb as explained in Rev. 7:14) To follow Jesus, Christians needed to take an action. They needed to be born again by water and the Spirit. The Apostles explained what that meant on the first Pentecost; Christians needed to repent and be baptized. 4.12 Christianity In the Early Years While the failure of Jesus to return quickly changed how communities were organized, it did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm of believers. Christian communities continued to grow in both size and numbers inside and outside the Empire. As Tertullians comment, See these Christians, how they love one another! indicates, how Christians lived was just as important to their growth as the message of love that they preached. When Jesus died, his followers were both crestfallen and in fear of their lives. Even after they experienced the risen Jesus, they were still confused and remained afraid. When the Holy Spirit descended on them at Pentecost, dispirited and timid fishermen were suddenly transformed. They were emboldened and willing to risk their lives to preach the good news of Jesus When the first generation of followers began to grow old and die, the gospels were written to continue to spread the word. (Pauls letters were largely directed to communities that he had established to deal with local issues) The word spread quickly and communities developed in Jerusalem and then Antioch. Christian communities even appeared in Rome itself. Yet these earliest Christian communities were completely wrong about one thing. They expected that Jesus return was imminent. 4.13 Events That Caused Christian Morality to Lose Focus on Love and Happiness and Refocus on the Obedience to the Law Christianity experienced many reform movements over its two thousand year history. Perhaps the first began with the dessert monks. Thats hard to say. What does seem true is that they all tried to recapture the original zeal of the earliest Christian communities. Yet each attempt met its own frustration. The first Christians expected Jesus return to be imminent. Marcionites wanted to do away with the Old Testament while Ebionites wanted nothing to do with Gentiles and the Apostle Paul who preached to them Yet, despite all the division, catholic Christianity continued to attract many to the faith because their lives seemed to match their words and their worship. They lived, as Paul consistently insisted, not under the burden of a set of laws but in a spirit of obvious happiness fired up by the Spirit of selfless love. Over time, however, things happened to change the focus of Christianity from the love and happiness that came from imitating Jesus back to a focus on obedience and the law. I point to three things to help to explain that change; 1. The merging of Church and State that came in the fourth century CE 3.The impact of Nominalism in the fourteenth century CE 2. The rise of Islam in the seventh century CE The Merging of Church and State Christians before 380 CE were perfectly capable of defending their beliefs. Ignatius of Antioch, Clement of Rome, Justin (the) Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons are just some examples. Each man defended Christian beliefs and practices but did so through words that persuaded the human heart and mind, not through force of law. Lets face it, before Christianity became legal in 313 CE, they had no force of law to back them up since they themselves were law breakers While Rome was not the first government to make Christianity the official religion (bonus question: what country was the first?), it was the most important In 313 CE, the Emperor Constantine added Christianity to the list of religiones that were licitae (i.e. made Christianity legal). In 380 CE, the Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the only religio licita in the Empire. Ironically, for the first three centuries of Christianity, it was probably the only religio that wasnt licita in Rome and Christians were periodically martyred for their faith 4.15 Original Sin After Theodosius While Augustines teachings on morality were far more nuanced than the simple crime and punishment context I described, the context of his ideas have to be examined because they arose to contradict another Christian, a British monk named Pelagius who had quite a different viewpoint on original sin Augustine shared the common Christian belief of the benefit of being born again by water and the Spirit (baptism) but looked at baptism in more of a legal context (crime and punishment) than in the context of repentance (metanoia). Many Christians before Augustine practiced infant baptism but did so as a sort of Christian circumcision. Baptism marked the child as belonging to the Christian community, as belonging to Christ Christianity held to the Jewish understanding that Adams sin had consequences for his descendants. The Early Church Father, Augustine ( CE), Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, took the Christian understanding of Adams sin a step further. Perhaps influenced by his Roman culture, Augustine saw Adams sin as a crime against God. He believed that Adam and all his descendants had to suffer the punishment for that crime, the physical death of the body and an eternity apart from God. Once Christianity became the only legal religion in the Roman Empire, it, too, took a step down the road to linking morality with the law. Fear of punishment as a consequence of breaking the law soon followed. 4.16 A Counter to Augustine and Original Sin: Pelagius While Augustine changed the context of Ancestral Sin (Adams sin as an addiction) to Original Sin (Adams sin as guilt), Pelagius simply denied that Adams sin had any consequence at all. Pelagianism was declared a heresy in 418 CE at the Council of Carthage*. * A second form of Pelagianism which states that in the grace/faith relationship, humans can act completely on their own to come to faith in Jesus and then would become open to receiving Gods grace. The Council of Orange declared Semi-Pelagianism a heresy in 529 CE. Pelagius believed; - Adams sin was Adams alone and merely provided a bad example to his descendants. - Adam died because it was natural for human beings to die -Jesus death provided an excellent example of selfless love and its prime benefit was to stand as a counterbalance to Adams bad example - Human nature, minus grace, was capable of gaining eternal life - Sinless human beings existed even before Christ (e.g. Enoch, Noah) - The Mosaic Law was just as good as the gospels as a guide to eternal life Pelagius, a contemporary of Augustine, was preaching about Adams sin in a context that was different from any previous Christian understanding. Pelagius seemed to have no concern about the consequences of Adams Sin since Pelagius denied that it ever had any serious consequences. The Rise of Islam Islam recognized Isa (Jesus) as a great prophet but not as great as Mohammed and certainly not in any way divine. No longer a Christian lake, the Mediterranean ceased to be a highway of trade to countries in the East such as India and China. Trade between Christian Europe and the East broke down and a Dark Age settled over Western Europe Germanic tribes savaged the Western Roman Empire from the fifth through to the seventh century CE. Most of these tribes were Arian (believed Jesus was not fully divine but more of an exalted creature) rather than catholic Christians. The Mediterranean sea, through this era, was no longer a Roman lake, but remained at least a semi- Christian lake. The Eastern Empire remained largely intact and fully catholic in its Christianity The Christian Byzantine Empire lost most of its territory (eastern Africa along the Mediterranean and much of the Middle East). Christian centers such as Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria fell under the rule of people Suddenly, in the early part of the seventh century CE, a man who called himself a Prophet of Allah (an Arabic word for God) started a movement that, in less than one hundred years, changed everything 4.18 The Roman Empire at its Peak At its peak, the Roman Empire governed all the lands that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea. The Romans called this body of water, Mare Nostrum, our sea. 4.19 The Roman Empire After Theodosius (395 CE) By the time that Christianity was declared the only religio licita in the empire, the Eastern Empire was ruled from Constantinople. The court of the Western Empire was no longer in Rome but had moved to Ravenna 4.20 The Empire After the Gothic Invasions In less than 100 years, the catholic Christianity (followed the Creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople declaring that Father, Son and Spirit were all persons in a single godhead and that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine) required by Theodosius no longer dominated in half of the Empire. Germanic tribes that were Arian Christians took over much of the Western Empire. Catholic Christianity in Rome was allowed some degree of freedom but the Vandals and the Visigoths in Spain and North Africa were less accommodating. The Eastern Empire remained catholic. Antioch in Syria and Alexandria in Egypt became great centers of Christian learning 4.21 The Rise of Islam: 624 CE Mohammed was born in 570 CE in Mecca. Around 610 CE, Mohammed claimed that the angel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded him to recite verses. These verse were later to become part of the Quran. Mohammed began to preach his teachings in Mecca around 613 CE. In 620 CE Mohammed was asked to travel to Medina to settle a local dispute. Four years later, he led a raid against a merchant caravan from Mecca 4.22 The Rise of Islam: 632 CE By 632 CE, Mohammed had defeated Mecca and many of the lands located in what we now call the Arabian peninsula. On June 8, 632 CE, Mohammed died at an age of 62 or 63 years. 4.23 The Rise of Islam: 634 CE None of Mohammeds sons survived to adulthood. When Mohammed died, there was a dispute as to who should succeed him. Some claim that Mohammed had not designated a successor so, supported by Omar/Umar, a companion of Mohammed, they selected Abu Bakr, Mohammeds father-in-law, as the first caliph. Others claimed that Mohammed had indeed named Ali, his cousin and son-in-law to succeed him. In Islam today, Sunnis are those who recognize Abu Bakr as Mohammeds legitimate successor (kalifa or caliph). It is no accident that the head of the Sunni Arab ISIS movement took the name Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Shia Muslims believe that Ali was the legitimate successor. 4.24 The Rise of Islam: 640 CE Omar succeeded Abu Bakr who died of an illness after ruling as Caliph for only 27 months. By 640 CE, Omar had successfully captured lands from the Sassanid Empire as well as from the Byzantines. Major Christian cities such as Jerusalem, Antioch and Damascus became Islamic centers. By 644 CE, Omar had managed to sweep through todays Iraq and Iran and down even to the Punjab. 4.25 The Rise of Islam: 661 CE By 661 CE, the portion of North Africa controlled by the Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire) fell to Islam. Another center of Christian learning, Alexandria in Egypt came under Islamic control. 4.26 The Rise of Islam: 710 CE By 710 CE, the Western portion of North Africa, which had been an Arian Christian Kingdom controlled by the Germanic Vandal tribes and later came, once again, under control of the Byzantine Roman Emperor, finally succumbed to the Islamic tide. 4.27 The Rise of Islam: 733 CE By 733 CE, the first lands of Western Europe fell to Islam as almost all of the Iberian peninsula came under Islamic control. In 732 CE, the Islamic tide was finally held in check as the heavy cavalry of Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, took on a much larger Muslim army at the Battle of Tours (sometimes called the battle of Poitiers) and soundly defeated the Muslim army. 4.28 The Impact of Islam on Christianity Islam had an immediate and obvious impact on Christianity. Cities that were great centers of Christian learning and pilgrimage were no longer Christian. Many people who had been Christians converted to Islam. Those who maintained their faith, if they were lucky, were allowed to pay the jizyah, the dhimmi tax. Those that were not lucky paid a more costly price. Leo tried to impose such a prohibition against images in 726 CE, prompting the resignation of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the revolt of those cities in Italy still controlled by Constantinople. After Leos death, the Second Council of Nicaea, the last of the seven great ecumenical councils, in 787 CE declared Leos iconoclastic decrees to be heresy but iconoclasm was never far from Christian thought. Islam had a somewhat less immediate and less obvious impact on Christianity. It started with the Byzantine Emperor, Leo III, the Isaurian. Leo did manage to hold off a massive attack by Islamic forces against Constantinople itself in CE. But, while Leo had to fight against Islam militarily, being raised in Syria, he had a certain respect for both Islam and Judaism. In both Islam and Judaism, there is no concept of Trinity. God is completely spirit and therefore no attempt to create an image of God was permitted. The Christian God was a trinity and one person, Jesus, was a human and another, the Holy Spirit, appeared as a dove. Given these facts, the prohibition against images was never a part of the early Christian culture. Leo ordered all such images to be destroyed. Leos notion was known as iconoclasm, the smashing of the icons (famous in Eastern Christianity) 4.29 Islam and Submission For several centuries, while Western Europe went through the Dark Ages, Islam led the world in mathematics, architecture, science and medicine. They also preserved much of the Greek and Latin literature which would later lead to the Renaissance in Western Europe. Despite these early trends, Islam seemed to distrust human reason more and more when it came to understanding more about the nature of God. That same distrust would also affect Christianity several centuries later The Islamic understanding of God differs from that of Christianity. Islam proclaims that there is no God but God. Isa (Jesus) was a great prophet but nothing more. It is easy for Christians today to believe that the Jewish and Islamic concept of God were very similar to each other and not far different from the Christian understanding of God the Father. That belief would not be quite on the mark. Allah is far more an ineffable character than the Jewish or Christian notion of God. For Muslims, what is known about God is what has been revealed. Full Stop! While Christian theologians could ponder endlessly on trying to better understand the nature of their triune God, and Jewish rabbis could engage in lengthy debates about God, Muslims focused more on understanding the will of Allah and submitting themselves to that will. The word Islam itself comes from the Arabic word al-silm which means submission. Nominalism and Yet Another British Monk Ockham begged to disagree. As was mentioned earlier, a British monk named Pelagius claimed that Adams sin had no effect on the human will. Augustine went beyond what was the early Christian viewpoint on the impact of Adams sin on humanity (ancestral sin as an addiction) and said that all of Adams descendants shared in the guilt of Adams sin. This tilted early Christianity back toward looking at morality in light of obedience to law. Ockham went even beyond Augustine but did it in an interesting way. Until Ockham, most of Western Christianity accepted the notion that, even though humanity shared in Adams guilt, Adams sin merely damaged the human will. Christians continued to believe that Christian virtues could lead believers to a more intimate relationship with Jesus and that the graces associated with a deeper relationship with Jesus made it easier to train the human will to seek happiness where it could be found 4.31 Ockham on Morality Ockham was an extremely skeptical person. He did not believe that there were any such things as universal component of truth among different elements. For example, if Ockham saw a beagle, a setter and a boxer, he did not see three dogs. The classification of each animal as a dog was a mere name supplied for human convenience. Ockham simply saw three entirely different animals. Since the Latin word for name was nomen, his philosophy was called nominalism, Ockham had some other interesting beliefs; - Human beings had a radically free will - A radically free human will was always superior to any influence that habits (virtues or vices) might have on it -Adams sin was sin simply because a will more radically free than his own declared it to be sin, Gods will - Gods will was so free that God could declare any human action to be either sinful or not. For example, if God so chose, he could declare murder to be good. - Jesus death was redemptive simply because it was Gods will that Jesus death was the means by which humankind would be redeemed. - Ongoing Christian morality was then based on the submission of the radically free human will to the even more radically free divine will (sound familiar?) - How could one come to know the essence of divine will? The Law of Moses was a great place to start 4.32 Ockhams Impact on Christianity Nominalism and other isms that flowed from it did take hold in Western Christianity and remained in place for a long time. Thankfully, Western Christianity, first Protestant and later Catholic, has seemed to move away from this way of thinking starting in the second half of the Twentieth Century and continuing to this day. Before Ockham, Christianity had been an interesting combination of Judaism and Hellenism that trusted in the ability of human reason inspired by the Holy Spirit to explain the Christian gospel in a way that Romans, Germans, Arabs, Persians, Indians and many others could understand It is my contention that this understanding of morality is different from the understanding of early Christian morality. It is also an understanding of morality that never seemed to have taken much of a foothold in Eastern Orthodoxy. Ockhams influence grew. Western Christianity, both Catholic as well as Protestant, began to adopt a more Do as God says or risk Gods wrath approach to morality. Ockham seemed to have taken the final step in bringing Christianity all the way back to the context of obedience to the Law against which Paul had preached so fervently. Like the followers of Islam, Ockham had little trust in human reason to be able to organize much in the way of either the knowledge or the understanding of God. Like Leo the Isaurian, Ockham had little use for images. They were like words. They offered no real insights into truth. 4.33 Faith and Reason The first generations of Christians were not afraid to use the intellect that God gave them when he created them in his image and likeness. Their faith brought them to love and follow Jesus. Their intellects not only helped them to preach his revelation to the world but also to come to better understand that revelation in their own lives We all recognize how important faith was to Paul but he never thought of faith as something that opposed reason. He wrote in Romans (Rom. 2:14) that human beings could come to a basic understanding of the Law by reason for when Gentiles, who do not have the Law, by nature do the things in the Law, these, although not having the Law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them Jesus and, later, the Apostles used the faith of their Jewish listeners as a starting point in their explanation of the revelation of God that was Jesus Christ. When the Apostles began to extend their reach to the Gentiles, reason and the natural law were obvious starting points in their preaching to those who had no background in the Jewish Law 4.34 Fides et Ratio The Catholic Pope John Paul II, defended human reason as a means or reaching truth in his letter entitled Fides et Ratio. In this letter, he stressed that truth is truth whether arrived at through revelation or, as Paul wrote in Romans, discovered even in the hearts of those who do not believe. He wrote words that have always impressed me. Truth cannot contradict truth. Interestingly, the ideas of early Christianity are coming back into religious discussions and are once again influencing the Western Church. Eastern Orthodoxy, which never seemed to be terribly affected by the trauma in the West, seems more able to talk with Western Christianity today in a language that both sides understand I am most fascinated by the admissions of men like Bertrand Russell and Kurt Gdel when they say that any system of enquiry can only go so far before it becomes self-referential, that is relying on a set of unproven givens as it pursues truth. Holding to anything unproven sounds something akin to faith to my untrained ear. 4.35 Summary Christian morality, from the beginning, is about repentance, properly understood. Repentance is the desire for that born-again experience that allows us to see ourselves and the world we live in with new eyes These new eyes allow us to experience love and happiness even in times and experiences that others might see as painful. Paul tells us in First Corinthians (13:13) that three things remain with us; faith, hope and love and that love is the greatest of the three. When we see God face to face, we will no longer need faith or hope since God will be there before us, knowing us and being known by us. But love will continue to be the experience that will be with us eternally. This is the essence of Christian morality. Johns first letter sums it up: Love has no room for fear; and indeed, love drives out fear when it is perfect love, since fear only serves for punishment. One who is still afraid has not yet reached the full measure of love (1 John 4:18) 4.36 One Last Thing Keep the words of 1 Peter 3:15 always in mind Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and compassion. If you are a Christian, you must never be afraid to state plainly and clearly what you believe. But, as you make those statements, you must always keep in mind what Peter wrote because people will pay attention not only to what you say but also how you say it and how you live it Christianity requires a faith filled with conviction but it also requires a faith filled with love even in face of persecution, no, especially in the face of persecution. This is the lesson of the Christians, especially the martyrs, in the early Church. This is the lesson of the Amish community in Nickle Mines, PA in This is the lesson of the Emanuel AME church community just a few weeks ago in Charleston, SC. I pray that this will be a lesson that Christians of every church and denomination across the world will accept and embrace