I believe that if you love for yourself, and from yourself, you will become a hater. It is inevitable.

The Jesus of history, the Jesus of the biblical narrative, entered the world at the exact time and place to accomplish the exact purposes for which he lived. He came not just into a world dominated by political empire, but one bent on constructing religious empire as well – a religious setting filled with angst and hatred and one with a rich story of persecution at the hands of others; specifically Egypt, Assyria, Babylon – and now Rome. Many of his day believed that though they physically returned from exile hundreds of years earlier, there remained a spiritual exile as long as they lived under the oppressive reach of the Romans. And they would remain in that exile until a Messiah arrived to lead them to victory. It is their preconception of what that victory would look like, that singular-egoic-retaliatory view, which would prove to be their greatest demise.

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