SERMON: Proverbs 8:34 (Warring By One Anothering)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherd's Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day sermon. We pray that as we declare the word of God, that you would be encouraged, strengthened in your faith, and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's word, and may the Lord be with you. In the summer of 1863, the Confederate Army marched triumphantly into the rolling hills of Pennsylvania. They were the envy of the world.

They had the sharpest marksmen, the best battle-trained men. They had studied hearts, and they were under command of one of the greatest generals in the world at that time, Robert E. Lee. Now, don't take my word for it just because I'm a Southerner.

That actually is a consensus of his Christian morality and his faith. And it was Lee and his men who followed him with great loyalty, almost like the Israelites were following Moses in the wilderness.

They had seen him win impossible victories in Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and they believed that there was no height that they could not take, no Union stronghold that they could not break. And truth be told, at that time, prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, momentum was on their side.

They were in Union territory moving forward. But on the morning of July the 3rd, in the muggy, hot Pennsylvania summer, the momentum began to shift. Lee stood aside his sturdy horse aloft the now-famous Seminary Ridge, gazing eastward across a mile of open farmland that would soon be engulfed in musket rounds, cannonballs, and the scream of wounded Americans.

And then, from there, he watched the Union cannons that were ever so slightly gleaming upon the crest of Cemetery Hill, and Lee was deep in thought and in prayer. As a deeply devoted Christian, Lee was in the war not to protect the perpetuation or the institution of slavery, but to fight against the unconstitutional theft and the consolidation of power by the federal government by Lincoln and his constituents.

And this is true. Now, there were people who were fighting for slavery. Slavery is morally evil and wrong. But Lee was not, and two quotes by Robert E. Lee will prove this. He said, I can only say that while I have considered the preservation of the constitutional power of the general government to be the foundation of our peace and safety at home and abroad, I yet believe the maintenance of the rights and the authority reserved to the states and to the people not only essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but a safeguard to the continuance of a free government.

I consider it as the chief source of stability to our entire political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic is sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, and it will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all governments which preceded it.

Talk about prophetic. Lee saw that the war was not a war to end slavery at all. Underneath the surface of it was a covert consolidation of power to the federal government, which he considered to be the precursor to the ruination of the nation.

That was Lee's opinion. But that certainly, again, doesn't mean that Lee was in favor of slavery. Listen to what Lee says after the war was over. This is his words, so far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I rejoice that slavery is abolished.

I believe it will be greatly for the interest of the South. So fully am I satisfied of the abolishment of slavery that I would have cheerfully lost everything that I have lost in the war and have suffered all that I have suffered to have this object attained.

So somewhere between those two ideas, Lee was fighting for his country. He hated the abominable practice of humans being owned by other humans, and it is an abomination. And yet he had a special kind of joy knowing that he was fighting for his country, his constitutional republic, that he believed the states ought to have rights that the federal government cannot trump.

You hear in his words, and in other words, a theme of anger over government overreach, disdain for the federal government attempting to bulldoze over the state's rights and sovereignty, and a prophetic expectation that ending slavery in this way instead of the church ending slavery in the right way would not lead to freedom for anyone, or at least not in the way that they were thinking, but it would actually lead to a government that becomes all pervasive, ubiquitous, and tyrannical in a different sort of way.

And that's exactly what happened. We now have a federal government that is in every corner of your life with a law for every room that you live in, and that is a direct result of this particular war. But that's a discussion for a different time.

As Lee stood, I'm just giving some justifications for why he was fighting. As Lee stood atop that vaulted hill, he grieved for the constitutional form of government that this nation was founded upon that was evaporating, and he dreaded the idea of going back to a tyranny like we left in England.

And on that morning, Lee believed that he and his troops were ready. He had planned, he had poured over the maps through sleepless nights, he had prayed, and now he was convinced that the moment to strike a final, decisive blow would end the war at Gettysburg.

That was his thought. He believed that if they could just have one great victory, Lincoln would come to the table and the war would be over. General Pickett, he said, form your division and advance, and in moments, 12 ,000 men stepped into that July Pennsylvania furnace.

The men trusted their general, they trusted the cause, they trusted that the same God who had given them victory after victory before was gonna give it to them once more, and they marched in perfect formation nearly a mile in open field, uphill, into the teeth of Union strongholds.

And as the air was that kind of bitter quiet just before a magnificent calamity strikes, cannon fire soon erupted, sending metal balls raining down on top of them, shells bursting over top of them, tearing holes through the ranks of those brave Virginians until the battle smelled like death and nickel.

The air turned to smoke and iron, and like a cloudy fog settling upon the plains, the foreboding doom was set. It was as one historian said, bravery without the proper strategy and passion without the proper prudence.

Now, this is important because Lee was a brilliant man. He was a God-fearing Virginian. He was a man who made one brilliant move after another, after another, and he was a better general than any general on the side of the Union.

But his army was not well-funded. His army was hungry. His homeland was exhausted for resources. His supplies were dwindling. The South was becoming desperate. So while they had the superior military, they did not have the economy or the industry that the North had, and Lee believed he had to make a very sudden and, looking back on it, impulsive decision to attack so that he could win the war and sue for peace.

And perhaps most of all, he believed that his men would not lose. But with his cavalry cut off from the battle, his intelligence on the Union position being at best incomplete, and with the ground he was faceling being immensely fortified, and the enemy deeply entrenched, he and his men walked away, or walked into, rather, an inevitable disaster.

And here's the point. They were fighting on the wrong field, in the wrong way, at the wrong time, and they lost. And from that day on, the Confederacy no longer fought in Union territory, but they fought as they were retreating, and retreating, and retreating, and that battle is the battle that signed their defeat.

It's recorded. I don't know if it's true. So if it's not, forgive me, I read it. When the broken survivors from this bloodbath stumbled back through the lines, it's recorded that Lee rode out on his horse to meet them with tears in his eyes, and it's reported that he said to them,.

It's all my fault,.

Which, of course, is admirable if that happened. But that day at Gettysburg was not just a changing tide in the Civil War, it's also a parable for the modern church, because like the Civil War, Christianity in America has devolved into sides and purity wars with various factions fighting one another, sniping one another, unloading their keyboard muskets on one another, brother fighting brother, father fighting father, and unlike Lee, who had an overarching purpose for fighting, Christians today who fight with each other, who draw their lines in the sand do not have a righteous purpose for their fighting.

Today, many in the church are fighting with all of their might, but not on the right battlefield. Instead of the Christianization of America, the absolute elimination of infanticide through abortion, the outlawing of sodomy and other heinous crimes against humanity, and yes, I did call homosexuality a crime against humanity, because Leviticus 18, 21 through 28 says that it pollutes the land and that the land that participates in it will vomit them out instead of fighting against those terrible abominations our nation is perpetrating, or instead of fighting for the evangelization and discipling of the nations, the church, many in the church, have wasted our precious time and precious strength blowing up one another over petty grievances, minute doctrinal positions, fractional denominational infighting, while the true enemy, sin, unbelief and cultural decay fortifies its poisoned position.

We have the medicine that can absolutely cure the world and instead of giving it to them, we're too busy bickering like two doctors arguing over which brand of stethoscope is the best while their patient is code blue.

We, the church in America, need to wake up and work together while we still have it together. I think I said it last week, but the church that hides behind stained glass windows will eventually end up sitting behind prison bars.

Because as we are disengaged, the culture will get worse. And as it gets worse, the hatred of God will grow more severe. And before long, they will start targeting, arresting, and even martyring the ones who love the Lord.

It's happened all throughout history. When the salt stops being salty, rot occurs. When the light stops shining, darkness prevails. And instead of addressing that, so many in the church today are like the Virginians crossing the Gettysburg Plains.

We're in the wrong field at the wrong time, firing at the wrong people, and we're losing the war. And I want to say this in passing, but you can do your own historical research. Robert E. Lee was a good man, morally one of the best men of his day.

He was an ardent Christian, an excellent statesman, a reluctant general, a brilliant tactician, but he was a man who got it wrong. And in getting it wrong, it led to a great defeat. And that has been my point for the last five sermons.

If we know how to fight, but we don't know where to fight, then we will inevitably lose the fight. And as I think about the Christian church and how we're losing today, we're not losing because the Lord of hosts has lost his muster.

We're not losing because the Bible stopped being true. We're not losing because Jesus said, go into all the world and be defeated in all nations. We're losing because we've stopped obeying the great commission.

We're losing because we've prioritized comfort over obedience. We're losing because our men are no longer standing at the gates, but hiding in their prayer clauses. We've stopped employing the weapons of God that have been given to us to win the war of the world.

The Bible, prayer, repentance, the sacraments, the church, obedience, biblical hope. And like we learned two weeks ago, as Rome was sacked by the Visigoths and as Germany was overrun eventually by the allies, and now today as the Virginians were overrun, all of them were fighting in the wrong battle at the wrong time.

And because of that, they lost great historical defeats. We need to understand that the right battle is we have to fight for the purity of the home. We have to fight for the purity of the Christian church.

We have to fight for the gates of government that our leaders would not be wicked and evil and do such horrendous things. We've stopped ruling over gates like the economy, education, the justice system, mercy ministries,.

Hospitals.

These are things that Christians created. And we've surrendered and squandered the legacy of Christendom in our land. And it's my hope in these six sermons taken together as six sermons that it will encourage God's people to fight again and to reclaim the gates again and to stand fast for holiness again so that we could see Christ proclaimed in our nation again.

And with that, as we are now looking once more, not just how to fight, but where to fight, I'd ask you to turn with me to Proverbs chapter eight one last time in verse 34 as we conclude this series on men at the gates.

Proverbs 8, 34 says this. Blessed is the man who listens to me watching daily at my gates and waiting at my doorposts. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would equip your church as Ron asked for earlier with courage, with holiness, with vigor, with passion, with a love for the things of God and a hatred for the things that are evil.

Lord, let us have emotions at least in part that are being sanctified towards imitation of you. What kind of a Christianity can we have if there is no anger over evil? Our Lord Jesus Christ braided a whip and chased the money changers out of God's house because he had a zeal for the Lord's house.

Your anger, Father, has burned at times, burned always against evil. Lord, help us to have righteous anger. Help us to have holy zeal. Help us to have passion for the things of God and for the mission of God.

And Lord, help us please to repent of the apathy and the indifference that causes us to not get involved and not share our faith and not make disciples and not evangelize the nations and not uphold what you told us to uphold from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the very utter ends of the earth.

Lord, we pray, we ask that you would breathe life into your church again, that you'd bring revival again. And Lord, we ask that you would do it in Jesus' holy name, amen.

Amen.

The Church’s Battlefield and the Lesson of Gettysburg

If the church is an army, and she is, then unity is one of the most important features of that army. Without it, every soldier becomes a casualty waiting to happen. Without unity, every gate that we are called to take, the gates of the home, the church, the culture, the nation, all become a fortified enemy stronghold.

When the lines of Christ's army are fractured and our ranks are broken and our witness crumbles and the world advanced unopposed, it is almost always the result of a lack of unity in the body of Christ.

This is why Paul pleads with us in 1 Corinthians 1 .10, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. I want you to notice Paul's urgency here.

He's not calling for a kind of wink and nod approach to unity. He's not calling for a kind of unity that only works on paper, or a cheap kind of togetherness and tolerance, or a kind of docile view of everybody gets to do what they want and we're all kind of basically good.

Your truth, my truth, it doesn't matter. Nothing like that. That's not what he's saying. He's calling for a militant approach to intimate cohesion among the saints of God. He's arguing for all of Jesus' people to start marching under the same banner and standards with one heart, one doctrine, one faith, one Lord, one hope, one baptism, one supper, one supreme commander, and one resounding mission to take the world for Christ.

Disunity, then, is not a mild irritation in the body. Disunity is not the eczema of the church. It is the disease. It is the God-despised cancer of the Christian church. Disunity and division are the festering, gangrenous wounds that make the church sick.

It is the church that is sick and septic. It is treason in the Lord's camp. It is friendly fire on the battlefield. It is mutiny that weakens the walls from within. And is there any wonder why God says that he hates the fool that would cause division among the people of God?

I wanna say that one more time. The one who causes division in the church is hated and despised by God. I didn't say that Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 did. There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven, which are an abomination to him.

Skip down to verse 19. The one who spreads strife among his brothers is hated by God.

It's the climax of God's hatred.

We don't hate disunity enough. I said this a couple weeks ago when we were talking about the church. If there's any area of your life where you're causing disunity among the people of God, whether it be in your little home, which is a church, or in your neighborhood, or in this church, or in any church, I would implore you to repent because being under the hatred and indignation of God is not a laughing matter.

And the enemies of God know this. The demons don't need to defeat the church head on. They just need to slither inside of the camp and cause us to aim our rifles at one another. The devil doesn't even need to breach the walls if he can convince us to open the gate through disunity.

The moment we forget that our war is not against, or that our war is not against flesh and blood, the moment we forget that is the moment that we start seeing our fellow soldiers, our co-belligerents, our co-neighbors in the gospel as our foes instead of our brothers.

And when we do that, we lay down the banner of Christ and start marching under the flag of hell. The moment we make enemies of our allies, we stop fighting for the kingdom and we start fighting for darkness.

Disunity doesn't just wound the church, it arms hell with another ally. And when we do that, we're not just ceding ground, we are voluntarily signing up to be on the devil's payroll. Scripture calls this sin what it is, it is division.

Paul says, mark those who cause division and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught, avoid them. Romans 16, 17. This means that if there's someone in the church of Jesus Christ who's causing division over something that the Bible never tells us to divide over, or is adding some new qualification to orthodoxy, like the Judaizers were adding, saying that we can't be faithful unless we do this or that, this circumcision, that thing, then we are commanded to mark that person and avoid them, not because we're being unloving, but because division is so toxic.

If someone asked you to share a cup of poison as a token of your love and respect for them, you would not, because it's not loving to do that. It's loving to tell them to stop drinking the poison. Jude says that this was going on in their church.

Worldly-minded men devoid of the spirit. They're like hidden reefs that sink ships. They're like trees that are doubly dead that refuse to give their fruit. They're like clouds that don't have any water so that there is no rain.

And Jude tells us to flee from such people. And the reason that the Bible's so hard on this is because it's dangerous. You remember the disunity that Korah in the Old Testament perpetrated. The earth opened up and swallowed him whole.

You remember that the division.

That the 10 spies perpetrated that caused the entire nation to turn away from God, and they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. God commands our unity because God loves us. Jesus prayed for our unity in John 17, 23, because he loves us.

And by his death, burial, and resurrection, he has accomplished unity by bringing us in union with him. And by his spirit, he is enacting our unity, that unity onto us through sanctification. As we've said, hell rejoices when the church is divided, but the church is dangerous when she's on the same page and she's in unity.

The effect of Jesus's resurrection.

Is that the church is in unity with him.

Not only forgives our sins, but it brings union with Christ, which is another way of saying ultimate unity. Ephesians 2, 14 says, he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the dividing wall, Ephesians 2, 14.

And it's precisely that blood-bought unity that causes Paul to go on to say in Ephesians 4, be diligent to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. The words that are used for unity are not passive, soft, docile, flaccid words.

It's be diligent, work hard. Unity is hard fought and easy lost. If you and I are in perfect union with Christ, and we are, but we're not in union with one another, then we are lying to each other about what Christ has done.

Because union with Jesus Christ in softened hearts always produces unity among the body of Christ. If we are united to the same head, then how can the limbs of the body be at war with one another? That does not make, as I say in the South, a bit of sense.

And I wanna press this point further. We live in a unity with one another that does not mean getting along. We are living as a singular body, one mind, one heart, one circulatory system, one joy. This is why David could exclaim in the Psalm that we read earlier, behold, how good and how pleasant is it for brothers to dwell in unity.

That's why Nehemiah, as his men were on the wall with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, could build in unity. This is why the church of Jesus Christ must build the new Jerusalem with both the bricks of doctrine and also defend it with the sword of love.

We must preserve our purity. Purity is important, but not at the expense of unity. And we must preserve our unity, but not at the expense of purity. The two work together so that we will be able to build something of merit.

When you lose purity for unity, you're a Unitarian Universalist. When you lose unity for the sake of purity, you're a modern day Pharisee. We need, absolutely need both. This is why Jesus says, you will know them.

Christians, you will know them. Not by how much doctrine they know, not how well they quote Calvin and Beza and Bootser and Luther and Knox and everybody else. You will know them by how much they love one another.

Because love is the cauldron where unity is formed. It's the true mark of a Christian and Christ army. Not our denominational insignia, not our doctrinal precision, not that we baptize infants here and others do not.

Not that we believe the tongues have ceased here and oh, those silly ones who think they haven't. Do you see how easily we draw lines? Go on and on and on down through every doctrine. We are supposed to be shoulder to shoulder and brotherhood under fire against the real enemy instead of shooting each other.

Christians are the only army on earth that tries to win the war by fratricide,.

Because by the love of the Lord,.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, not because of sentimentality, not because love blinds us to real violations of the truth, not because we accept just anyone.

My God, Jehovah's Witnesses, they don't believe Jesus is God, oh, they're good. No, I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about a love and a purity and a unity that is tied together in Christ. When we have that, we are unbreakable and unstoppable, and we are not today because we do not have that.

The church has been discipled by Karl Marx more than it has by Jesus Christ. From one end of the canon to the next, scripture reveals this truth. Today is gonna be a lot of Bible in a church where we often quote a lot of Bible, but I want God's word to speak.

Ephesians 4 .3, be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Romans 15 .5 -6, now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another so that with one voice you may glorify the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Complete my joy, Paul says, by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in the same spirit, intent upon the same purpose. Philippians 2 .2, this unity that we are called to is not a fragile truce, it's a war-hardened commitment.

It's the strength of soldiers.

Locking their shields together, brothers trusting brothers, and working for the things of God over a lifetime, and then handing off our swords and handing off our shields to our sons. That's why John 17 .21, this is Jesus, this is Jesus praying to the Father that they may all be one, even as you, Father, and me, and I, and you are one, that the world may believe that you sent me.

Did you hear that? The world will believe that God sent Christ to earth by how well we, the living example of Christ on earth, are in unity with one another. That means when we are in disunity, we dishonor Christ.

That means when we are in disunity, we tell a false gospel. That means when we are in disunity, we cling to idols instead of true faith. Unity is our credibility to the watching world. It is the visual proof that the gospel actually works.

Disunity, on the other hand, is desertion. It's fracturing that forms side formations. When we divide, we hand Satan our map, our weapons, and our stronghold, and we wonder why we lose. But when we move as one body with one head, 1 Corinthians 12, 12 through 17, when we build together as one temple, Ephesians 2, 19 through 22, as we march in step with one spirit, Galatians 5 .25, hell trembles, and that is because a divided church cannot conquer a world united in sin.

But a united church will throw down the gate.

Of hell.

Hopefully, I've proven the necessity and the biblical centrality of unity. There's more verses we could go to, and we will. But now that I think that that's proven, that God cares about unity, that God hates disunity, there's no middle ground.

I like to say there's no neutrality. There's really not in a lot of Bible doctrines. Jesus vomits things that are lukewarm out of his mouth. He loves, especially ardently, unity in his people, and he hates, especially vehemently, disunity in his people.

So now that we've shown that, I want us to actually give some practical application on how we can do this, on how we can pursue this thing that God loves so much, and how we can despise this thing that God hates so much.

I want to do it by saying a lot of scripture here. The first thing, have you guys, by the way, have you ever heard of the passages in the Bible called the one another passages? There's bunches of them.

Love one another, serve one another, care for one another, pray for one another, bear one another's burdens. That's the ammo by which we win the war for unity, by which we win the war for the world. If unity is our fortress, love is the fire that keeps it warm, if unity is our formation, then love is the shield that keeps it unbroken.

Without love, the army of Christ becomes a firing squad. Without love, the family of God turns into a twisted courtroom. Without love, every sermon, every hymn, every mission is just a clanging gong, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13.

That's why our king began with so many passages of one another, especially love, there's more one another passages focused on love than any other. That's why Jesus said in John 13, 34 through 35, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, and you also are to love one another.

By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Love's not a suggestion, it's our standard issue rifle. If you're gonna point something at someone else,.

Point with love.

If you have no love, you have no loyalty. If you have no loyalty, you have no army. If you have no army, you have no victory. Jesus repeats this command over and over. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you, John 15, 12.

These things I command you so that you will love one another, John 15, 17. Why is he repeating this so much?

Because we forget it.

We forget love, the most basic thing. And even in our reformed circles, we say, we make fun of those churches that talk about the love of God, the love of God,.

The love of God, the love of God, but we can't forget it.

Paul says, owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. For the one who loves one another has fulfilled the entire law. Love's not only the debt that you will never pay off, it compounds daily with heavenly interest.

If you are in Christ, you are enlisted in the job of pursuing, perpetrating, and pouring out love. 1 Peter 4, 8, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins.

Love doesn't deny sin, but it disarms it of its power. It doesn't sweep the shrapnel away, it absorbs it. It conquers it. It doesn't let the wound fester without pointing it out, but it does bind the wound so that it can heal.

That's why hell trembles when the church forgives, because forgiveness is an act of love. Romans 12, 10, love one another with brotherly affection. 1 Peter 1, 22, having purified your souls by the obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

That's the language of battle because love is a battle. Because if you try to love me long enough, I'm going to make it hard on you. And the same is true for you. I don't mean to burst bubbles. You are difficult.

I am difficult.

Love is a fight. It's not easy. 1 John 3, 11, for this is the message you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3, 23, and this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another.

Belief in the name of Jesus produces love. 1 John 4, 7, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. 1 John 4, 11 through 12, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. John says elsewhere in his book, he said, if we say we love God, and yet we hate our brother, the love of God is not in us.

Love is not an elective in the Christian life. It is the proof of Jesus Christ in you. If you don't love your brethren, you don't know the Father. That is what the word says. Paul sums it up like this, let everything you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16, 14, say everything. Say it again. Say it one more time. Which means there's nothing that you can justify yourself on being unloving. Everything be done in love. That means every confrontation that you have, every rebuke that you offer, every act of discipline that you are trying to accomplish, every act of courage, every argument, every conversation, every driving to work, speaking to myself, must be done in love.

Because without it, it's treason to the word of God. And I wanna be clear, love is not soft and sentimental. It's not hand-holding in the midst of sin and saying, oh well, we must have tolerance, we must accept everything.

That's not what love is.

Love is bloody.

Love is cruciform. Love caused our Savior to hang and die upon a tree for the disgusting nature of our sin. That's why John 15, 13 says, greater love has no one than this that he would lay down his life for his friends.

The most gracious part of that passage is the fact that he said friends. Because you and I were enemies. And you and I were rebels. And if you and I were there, we would have spit in his face too. And we would have turned him over to be crucified.

And he says, greater love has no one than the man who would die for his friends. Jesus is being so gracious to us. And if we're supposed to imitate Christ, then we are to imitate him in loving even those who hurt us.

Even those who hate us. Even those who slander us. Even those who do all manner of evil against us. Love sacrifices, it doesn't slander. Love covers, it doesn't criticize. Love fights for the things of Christ and the things that he died to unite under the banner of his name.

Because unity without love is a dead soldier in a uniform. You can have fake agreement. You can have fake niceness. You can have fake manners. But you cannot fake love. And if we share one spirit and one heart, and we're united to the same head, we will not hate his hands and feet.

And we will not hate his people. You cannot fight for unity while harboring hatred. You cannot defend Christendom while despising other Christians. You cannot hold the line in the kingdom without drawing your sword with and not against the king's men.

Love is a cannon in the war for unity. And when love fires first, division doesn't get to pull the trigger. But love doesn't stand alone. If you want unity, you have to love first and foremost. But there's other things.