By Joseph Akim Gordon
The power of love binds a man and woman together, allowing them to procreate children, be productive, and support their children and other relatives. Love creates sympathy and urges us to render support to those who are in need—the disabled, the poor, and the sick—and to all those who are not able to help themselves, the support that they receive is driven by the power of love.
When you do wrong to someone unintentionally, you immediately say sorry, but others will interpret this as cowardice and confront the person who said sorry. This kind of person is empowered by the power of Satan, who celebrates when you do wrong and encourages you to always take revenge on whoever wrongs you. This is unchristian; revenge killing will never end.
If we keep on paying wrong with wrong and try to pay wrong with love, gradually revenge killing will disappear. Because love is the greatest expression of our spirit, and when we allow ourselves to love unconditionally, it becomes transformational in our lives. Because love is the greatest expression of our spirit, and when we allow ourselves to love unconditionally, it becomes transformational in our lives.
Peace is achievable only when we promote love among mankind. As a result, all activities motivated by love and conscience are the most powerful forces for peaceful reform.
There is no peace without love; peace needs love to be balanced. The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love; he created us out of pure love, and we should share the same love with others (John 4:8). The love language includes acts of service, receiving gifts, and physical touch.
In wartime, many lives and properties were lost. After or during the war, we should reconcile and ask for forgiveness. This alone will bring peace. This can only happen when the power of love is in you.
In the genocide that happened in Rwanda, where thousands of people were killed and looted, a neighbour who killed his neighbour because he simply belonged to the opposing tribe was killed.
His crime was that he belonged to the opposite tribe. After several years, he went to the neighbour and confirmed that he had killed the neighbour. He said he recognized that he killed an innocent person.
He went to ask forgiveness for his wrongdoing. To his surprise, the person accepted the forgiveness and shook hands with happiness. This is simply the power of love in action.
If this happened in South Sudan, someone killed your brother and came to confirm his crime. In our situation, there is no negotiation but immediate revenge killing. Here, Satan will celebrate and praise the revenge killing, which means that Satan has already scored a victory in our lives.
South Sudanese citizens in the past had strong love among themselves; they were united because they were confronting a common enemy, but after independence in July 2011, the love evaporated and we started to confront each other based on ethnicity, which is tearing the country up. The nationalism and patriotism that existed in the past are wiped out.
But let us embrace love to unite us and empower peace; it is love that can unite us. This love of purpose evaporated when we became independent; we then forgot nationalism and were replaced by negative tribalism, which is now responsible for our negativity.
Employment is now linked to tribalism, not to your qualifications, experience, or merit. This is a system that, with love, can be wiped out, so that with love, we can build this country.
This country is potentially rich; if our natural resources are tapped, it will be enough for all of us in terms of socioeconomic development. What we need is for true peace to prevail so that we can embark on a development programme, and the prevalence of real peace is vital to enabling the movement of the citizens in farming and other activities, which will enable us to climb the ladder of development without delay.
Note that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Where there is love, there is peace, and where there is peace, there is God.
We need peace and love because they provide a sense of security and understanding and allow trust to flourish. Without peace, relationships can become filled with conflict and tension and ultimately break down. One of the most important aspects of peace in relationships is the ability to effectively communicate with one another.