Perfect Heart, Tested Love

Amaziah began well, yet not with a perfect heart. He obeyed in one matter, refusing to punish sons for their fathers’ sins, but later trusted his own strength, hired and counted troops, then lifted himself up after victory and fell into idolatry and ruin. Habakkuk likewise sees a land full of violence, where the law is slack and the wicked surround the righteous. John tells us how to stand in such an hour: not by a divided heart, not by boasting in power, and not by easy words about love, but by testing spirits, confessing Christ truly, and abiding in love with deeds.

The righteous man must not copy the world’s confusion. When injustice spreads, we do not answer it with revenge, nor do we call every religious voice true. "Believe not every spirit, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1" The church must prove what it hears by the apostolic rule concerning Jesus Christ come in the flesh, and then must walk accordingly. For if God is love, this is no idle name. It means patience under wrong, mercy toward the weak, forgiveness toward enemies, almsgiving without display, and a clean refusal to bow before the idols of success, nation, or self.

Cyprian says, "The word of the blessed Apostle John is: God, says he, is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells in him. 1 John 4:16" Therefore let your heart be made whole. Keep justice without cruelty, zeal without pride, and love without falsehood. In a violent age, the man who keeps Christ’s commandment is already resisting the spirit of antichrist.