Where Do Our Highest Loyalties Lie?
Our fleshly human nature reacts against the turmoil of war and the injustice of human suffering that results from it. We are strongly tempted to react viscerally, to take one side or the other of this current mili(dola)tary and ideological conflict – that's just human nature. But how should we respond rather than react? How to be proactive instead of reactive?
This requires forethought and spiritual preparation: our minds and our hearts must be filled with the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4). The Living Word of God should "pierce even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12), enabling us to see our own motives. We must let the Holy Spirit transform us by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). All this describes the way we Christians who are all "called to be saints" (Romans 1:7 and 1 Corinthians 1:2) ought to respond.
We need to spend much time in prayer, confessing our own sins and our human nature distorted by sin: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" Only then will we be able to respond in love and think fairly, not having our minds and hearts distorted by our old, fleshly, and sin-stained human nature.
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