I’m going to approach this topic from the perspective of why “good” people, or rather believers love war. Being reborn means you have arrived into a new approach for how you interact with justice. The truth is that justice is the love and war is simply the means. Loving a means can prove beneficial but also only holds so much validity to it. Approaching war by loving war itself provides an outlet for pursuing justice, but the believer ought to love justice for what it communicates about revealing absolute truth.
The question of loving war essentially is another approach for loving the fight between good and evil. In this fight it is essential to remind yourself that there is absolute truth. There is a difference between good and evil. There is right and wrong. Good is willing to stand up for the truth of right and wrong when fighting for it is the most reasonable solution. When you are willing to uphold what is good, what is right, what is true, and what is just in the face of the opposites then you begin to love the means of protecting that purity. For example, I view my writings, my poetry, my music as a means of protecting what is good, and often it means there is a fight I endure through the creation and communication of it. This art is my fight; and I love it. While I also hold the approach of my creations from the perspective of loving whom I created it for and the value I find in that person and the love I have for that person. That value, that love is where greater lengths of depth are found.
To put this into a more eternal perspective, I believe God created human beings in His image because 1. He is good, 2. He has a profound love for them, and 3. He is willing to give power to them. The story of God’s most valued creation is that they were unwilling to uphold the standard of His goodness. Therefore, God fights for them. I believe God certainly does enjoy fighting for His beloved but I would put it more along the lines of God is willing to fight for those he loves the deepest even if that means excruciating pain. God’s love for His beloved is incomparably larger than His love for the war to protect and draw them back to Him.
God’s love for His creation is a story. This story includes a love that goes to war in order to draw His creation back to Him. For the believer, if the love of war surpasses the love of the one you are willing to go to war for then there is a misplaced focus. My encouragement would be for believers to be hungry to go to war for the truth of who God is only if you are loving Him wholeheartedly through the fight.
Written January 13th, 2024
Jake Wentworth 