Recently, I made a trip to Alabama. The trip served as precursor as to what is taking place in our country today. During my stay, I met a distraught African-American pastor who shared with me how some people had burned his church down. These people had pulled the pews out of his church and left a swastika sign to notify everyone of who was there.
The encounter was ironic because before I had left for the trip, I had reminded someone that prejudice and racism still exist in our country. Call it confirmation or what you will, but the incident served to remind me that many people still act as if it is 1861.
Let’s face the facts. Slavery is a part of our nation’s history, but slavery is not the issue. The Civil War is a part of our nation’s history but removing the statues that act as symbols of the confederacy is not the issue. The issue is and always has been man’s heart. Jesus taught us that it is the things inside of a man or woman’s heart that defiles the person (Mat 15:18-20). These things include murder. Recall that Jesus taught that hating one in one’s heart is equivalent to murder (Mat 5:21-22). Jesus could look at a person and know exactly what was in a person’s heart. This is why Jesus could look at the Scribes and Pharisees and call them, “fools, hypocrites, blind guides, murderers, and a generation of snakes.” Because they were.
When I look at David Duke, leader of the KKK, I see a man spewing over with hate. Jesus would call him a murderer. Why? Because Jesus said that harboring hatred for another in one’s heart is akin to murder. God doesn’t see color! It’s not that God doesn’t know if we are white, black, or brown. It’s that God is looking into our heart. I Samuel 16:7 teaches that “the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
David Duke is a murderer, but so are we. We have “all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). In that sense, we all murdered Christ as he would not have had to go to the cross if we had never sinned. We’re all born into sin, we’re all evil, and we all need a Savior. Praise God that Jesus came to save us from our sin! Pray that David meets Jesus, full of grace and of truth and repents before it is too late. When is it too late? When he’s 6 foot under. Some of you may not like me saying this but yes, David Duke can go to heaven if he will repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He may not have many rewards, but at least he could say that he arrived. God’s free gift of salvation is offered to the worst of sinners. Just ask Paul the apostle after he was known as Saul the murderer.
The verses after John 3:16 teach that you are in either in the light or the dark. You are either full of love or full of hate. You either have believed in Christ and are not condemned or you have not believed and stand condemned already.
I would love to write how we as adults can pass down to the next generation our love for God and our love for others. But adults in our nation aren’t doing a good job of leading the way. Adults in the alt-right camp and adults in the alt-left camp can both be found in the wrong. There are those who are protesting and there are those who are protesting the protest that have both gone too far. When either camp makes advances toward the other, the line has been crossed. Police have a role to play and even they have failed as it relates to lack of foresight of what was to happen in Charlottesville. It’s no time to blame though. It’s time to pray. Pray for our nation. Pray for Charlottesville and other cities. And pray for those in both camps, including David Duke to come to faith in the Lord of love.
Let’s instead take a lesson from our children and sing with them: “Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world, Red, brown, yellow, Black and white, They are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” The lines we often don’t sing in church are the second and third stanzas – “Jesus died for all the children . . .” and “Jesus rose for all the children . . .” Jesus didn’t just love the children of the world by dying and rising, but Jesus loved the whole world, adults included, that if anyone should believe in him, they will have everlasting life (John 3:16). “What is the answer?” is the wrong question to ask today because the answer to the world’s problems is found in a Who.