Love Each Other?

John 13:34&35

Love Each other?

Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well known institution of higher

learning challenged his students with this question. "Did God create

everything that exists?"

A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"

God created everything?" The professor asked.

Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created

evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principal that

our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."

The student became quiet and did not answer the professor’s

hypothetical definition.

The professor, quite pleased with himself,

boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the

Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question,

professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you

never been cold?" The other students snickered at the young man’s

question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According

to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the

absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when

it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter

have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total

absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of

reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created

this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does

not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to

describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have

already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of

man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and

violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing

else but evil.

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least

it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God.

It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to

describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the

result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart.

It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness

that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down....

The young man’s name -- Albert Einstein

Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”(John 13:34&35 The Message)

This command he gave them as he was about to leave them, to be a badge of discipleship, by which they might be known as his friends and followers, and by which they might be distinguished from all others. It is called new, not because there was no command before which required people to love their fellow-man, for one great precept of the law was that they should love their neighbor as themselves Lev. 19:18; but it was new because it had never before been made that by which any class or body of people had been known and distinguished. The Jew was known by his external rites, by his uniqueness of dress, etc.; the philosopher by some other mark of distinction; the military man by another, etc. In none of these cases had love for each other been the distinguishing and special badge by which they were known. But in the case of Christians they were not to be known by distinctions of wealth, or learning, or fame; they were not to aspire to earthly honors; they were not to adopt any special style of dress or badge, but they were to be distinguished by tender and constant attachment to each other.