LOVING UNTO DEATH: A Question of Values

Returning from the airport with an international high school student named Chen I had an opportunity for witness to my Lord. The conversation had turned to some aspects of Chinese history, which is a topic of interest to me. Chen mentioned what a great hero was the Emperor Chin Shi Huang who unified China around 200 years before Christ following the period of warring states. Emperor Chin was a bloody man who murdered thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people, not only in his wars but also in the slave labor conscripted for building the Great Wall.

I asked, How is Chin such a great hero when he murdered so many people? What I hear you say is that in China the unity of all China is of far greater value than the lives of 10,000 or 20,000 Chinese people. If so, I must confess that Americans have the same idea about America, the American Civil War being the supreme proof of that.

Well, he responded, “I guess that is just the reality of the world we live in. ””

“Yes,” I answered. “But this is a reality WE created.” For the early Christians the one and only great supreme value worth dying for was the Lord Jesus, and that is how I feel about him too. Love for him is the only cause on earth truly worth dying for as I see it. Later I thought, yes the reality is as the student told me. We had the power to create the  culture of death we live in, but we lack the power to un-create it. It was our Lord who undid the reality of this world and brought a new reality for us who believe in him, and that is why we love him so much.