“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If you had the Infinity Gauntlet, what would happen when you snapped your fingers?

 “From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then…boom. The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence.” – Wong (a very underappreciated character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe)

I spent several hours continually studying and going back and forth with this Christian Infinity Gauntlet and its Infinity Stones and with the Infinity Gauntlet and its Infinity Stones. I chose the colors and tried matching up all the Infinity Stones the best that I could. I think I did a pretty good job, too. There were some that could have gone in a couple different directions, but it is all one in the same. However, if you disagree with any of this, feel free to speak up. I would love to hear your thoughts. 

“But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” 1 Timothy 6:11

When Paul wrote out 1 Timothy 6:11, he had order in mind. If he had order in mind, I think it is only right that I go through each of these Infinity Stones with order in mind. With that saying, we have done the first three Stones (Righteousness, Godliness, and Faith), now we will talk about the Love Stone. In accordance with the Love Stone I paired it with the Reality Stone. 

I chose the Reality Stone for a couple of reasons. The first thing I did with all the Infinity Stones, I wrote down all the colors that coincide with each of the original MCU Infinity Stones. Then I wrote down how the color of those stones match up metaphorically with the Bible. Throughout the Bible, the color red is portrayed as: Blood of Jesus, love of God, blood of lamb, atonement, salvation, and humanity.

Then I went and saw what the color of the original MCU Infinity Stone was. The red Infinity Stone was the Reality Stone. The Reality Stone could do a lot, but one of the main attributes is to have access to the multiverse and manipulate matter (we will talk about more of what it really could do later).

William Barclay wrote, “Second, there comes a group of three virtues which look towards God…Love, agape, is the virtue of the man who, even if he tried, could not forget what God has done for him nor the love of God to men.”

What is love? There is so much that is simplistically complicated about love. Love to me is a passion that drives to treat each other in the same way that we want to be treated. There is incredible power in love. The 70’s had the right idea when it came to the power of love and spreading love to everyone. Love changes minds and it changes lives. We live in a world full of hate. Love throws this hate off; it confuses it. It is a head turner. Everyone is conditioned to the idea of hate and hateful things. So, when they see and feel love instead of hate, where hateful things usually are placed, they don’t know how to react. They ask questions, and those answers lead to the love of Jesus.

In the Ancient Greek there are three different types of love. They are eros, philia, and agape. Eros is an intimate kind of love. Usually the love between a husband and a wife. Philia is seen more as a “brotherly love”. This is the kind of love that is about showing loyalty, sacrifice, and being noble. Agape is the love that we focus on, it is the type of love that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and in 1 Timothy 4:11. Agape is an abstract type of love. It is a universal, charitable type of love. This meaning, agape is the love that you give out freely and you give freely to people regardless of who they are and who they are to you. This is the type of love that God calls us to have.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

Jesus encompassed love and lived love. This is the standard, and he is the standard. He died on the cross for us, this is the ultimate sign of love. He sacrificed and died the death the we deserved. He became what God hates; he was set-apart from God for our sake. This shows the ultimate love, the love of God. This love of God brought us salvation through his grace and love.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

This was right after an expert of the law tried to stump Jesus and asked what the greatest commandment is. The greatest and the second greatest commandment is love, love, love. It is all based on and around love, the love of God and the love of others. With the love of God and the love of others, you need one or the other. You cannot say you love God but have hate on our heart. And you cannot love others and not still give God that love since we the image of God. 

We have to have and show this love with all our heart, mind, and soul; Mark 12:29-31 adds to love with all your strength. We have to do this with all our being. Moses gave 613 laws, David reduced it to 15, Isaiah reduced it to 6, Micah reduced it to 3 and Jesus finally set reduced it and wrapped it up in 2 laws. All the laws of the Bible are in encompassed into 2 laws, the love of God and the love of others. 

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)

Who is your neighbor? Everyone is our neighbor. Martin Luther King said, “Imagine the first question the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I step to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But by the very nature of his concern, the good Smartian reversed the question: ‘If I don’t stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”

The case of Ahmaud Arbery has left me weeping, unsettled, and in a fog this past couple of days. This was supposed to be devotional blog for last Friday, but I just couldn’t get my mind right. It just blows my mind and breaks my heart the state of this world and the state of this country. I just don’t understand how this could have been under the surface for almost 3 months! And this is the 3rd attempt for this to go to grand jury. We need to do better. We need to better as Americans. We need to do better as white people. We need to do better as Christians. We need to do a better job loving our neighbor.

This is why I have I am going to write this book, The Promised Land (ask me about it). As a white Christian something needs to be changed. Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” We need to start calling each other out. We need to start calling our self out. We have to call them out to teach and lead them. Hate only creates more hate, love defeats hate; this is reality.

I am going to educate you on the MCU for a second or two (a little closer to two), but don’t skip it because it is necessary for the full explanation and the full experience.

After the whole universe came to be, the four immensely powerful Cosmic Entities created the 6 Infinity Stones out of 6 singularities. The Reality Stone represents the fragment of reality. The Reality Stone has the ability to bend the very laws and idea of reality and physics. It is able to convert matter into dark matter. The Reality Stone makes it MCU debut in Thor: The Dark World. At the universe’s creation the head of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, Malekith, discovered the Reality Stone and forged it into a liquified weapon called the Aether. Every 5,000 years there is an occurrence called the Convergence, which causes all Nine Realms to perfectly align. In 2988 B.C. Malekith tried using the Aether to create eternal darkness in all Nine Realms. However, this attempt failed when the Asgardian army defeated them in the battle during the attempt. The Asgardians decimated most (even though they thought it was all) of the Dark Elves. Bor, had the Aether hidden somewhere in the Nine Realms. 5,000 years later the Aether was woken up and caused a fluctuation of polarities and anomalies on earth. In 2013, during one of these anomalies a portal to the Aether opened up and Jane Foster walked through. When she saw the Aether she became curious and reached out to it where it encompassed her. Once it encompassed her body, the surviving Dark Elves (including Malekith) woke up from their hibernation. Jane then arrived back on earth where she projected energy when a cop tried arresting her for trespassing. This is where Thor then took her back to Asgard to try and extract it and figure out what to do. This is where Odin told them the origins of the Reality Stone. The Dark Elves sensed the Aether to be in Asgard and sent to invade and capture it. They caused one of lieutenants, Algrims, to become the last Kursed warrior to start the invasion with an invasion. Frigga, Thor’s Mom, laid her life to defend Jane from being captured. After this, they devised a plan to get “captured” by the Dark Elves so the Aether can be extracted saving Jane life and then destroying it and the Dark Elves at the same time. The plan worked but didn’t at the same time Malekith survived the fight and went to the center of the Convergence to complete his original plan from 5,000 years ago. This didn’t happen due Thor battled Malekith killing him and recapturing the Stone. After the battle was over, they sent the Stone to Knowhere and place it in the hands of the Collector (who had the plan of obtaining all the Infinity Stones himself). Several years later, Thanos went to Knowhere and took the Aether from the Collector. This is where once he took it and placed it on the Infinity Gauntlet it solidified into the Reality Stone. Once the Guardians of the Galaxy arrived to Knowhere, Thanos altered reality to make it look like they defeated him, but once it was realized that it is was fake Thanos used it to turn Drax and Mantis into pieces of matter and turn Quil’s blaster into a bubble blaster. He then turned Gamora’s dagger in to bubbles when she attempted to commit suicide. Once he arrived at Titan, he showed Dr. Strange what it looked like before and then he used the Reality Stone in battle to create different kinds of debris matters and then used it with the combination of the Space Stone to pull Strange to him. Thanos then after obtaining the Time Stone teleported via Space Stone to Wakanda where he ripped the final stone needed, Mind Stone, out of Vision’s head; then we all know what happens next…SNAP (If you had the Infinity Gauntlet, what would happen when you snapped your fingers?)

The Reality Stone is incredibly powerful, it has the power to effect reality on a universal scale. Just like the other stones, it is basically indestructible. When Malekith was one with the Reality Stone he was able to regenerate limbs and endure Thor’s blows. He was also able to send out energy blasts of energy and teleport. Just like the other Stones the knowledge and the ability to use the Stone determines the limits the capabilities of the Stones. Thanos’s intellect and strength shows that the there is more to the Stone than Malekith showed. Thanos was able to create physical simulations and false realities. These simulations and realities were so real they were able to interact with the fake Thanos, even be killed by Gamora. Thanos is able to make these illusions and false reality take up more than a small area and in fact the length of a planet (ex. Titan). Thanos is also able to manipulate and control matter itself. He used this feature both offensively and defensively. When he pulled and created debris in attack. As well as splitting Drax and Mantis apart and turning both Quil’s blast and Gamora’s dagger into bubbles. Combined with the Space Stone he was able to pull the terrain to him forcing Dr. Strange to come to him. Combined with the Soul and Time Stone he was able to heal wounds. 

If you had the Infinity Gauntlet, what would happen when you snapped your fingers?

The reality of life is that we live in a world full of hate. We are called to be the difference makers in this world. Jesus was not of this world and neither should we. The greatest commandments are to love God and to love others. We have to do this with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. Jesus encompassed love and radiated love in everything that he did. There was not a day that went by that Jesus didn’t show love. Thanos used the Reality Stone to alter reality to the way that he seemed fit. We have the ultimate Reality Stone in Jesus. We can change the world with the love that Jesus gives us. What would Jesus do? He would love first!

“Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” Luke 10:37

“Reality is often disappointing. That is, it was. Now, reality can be whatever I want.” – Thanos 

If you had the Infinity Gauntlet, what would happen when you snapped your fingers?