Jesus left us with a powerful message. God is love and we are ONE! And then He said FOLLOW ME or in other words, do as I do, do as I AM. Though we have taken on the name Christians, we’ve not allowed that anointing to fill and direct us. On the broadest level we created the good-evil paradim. On the medium level we’ve created the denominational paradigm. On an individual level we’ve created the saved or lost mindset.
If we follow Jesus our whole concept of God changes.
Many still embrace the Old Testament worldview of God. God is angry, has enemies, fights battles, and is constantly repenting for this or that (as though God was caught off-guard or didn’t anticipate the actions of the creations He brought into existence.
In the red corner we have evil and in the white corner we have good. Ring the bell and let’s brawl!
We need to let things BE. When we set up a dualistic world we’re constantly fighting, worrying, and ever ill at ease. There are not two powers. It only seems that way. Yes, here in the third dimension there are many ideas, many levels of consciousness where are greatly inferior to that of the fourth dimension. Here, accepting God’s love is optional because we live in this dualistic environment. There, we see the manifest awesomeness of love that we were blinded to here and accepting it freely and wildly is a no brainer.
Unconditional love just can’t be understood now as we see in a mirror dimly. 
>He and she are not either-or concepts, but a UNION of ONE.
>Christian and Muslim are not either-or concepts, but different views of the ONE God.
>Protestant and Catholic are not either-orocnepts, but unique traditions steeped in God
Religion and religious teachings have made them separate, taught division, spread imperialistic and hated driven images. We need to begin to SEE that there is ONE creator and whatever perceived distinctions there are must fold back into an “And-Also” understanding. What do we have to fear as children of God: ALL are God’s children. Ponder this quote from Linda Keith, “It is understandable for a child to be afraid of the dark; but, why would an adult be afraid of the LIGHT?
Why indeed!
God is obviously the only God and ultimately has the last say (Is. 46:9). However, throughout both the Old and New Testament, God shows us there is real evil that can plague the hearts and minds of men. That’s why God used Jesus delivered us from the domain of darkness (Col. 1:13) I John 3:8 encourages us that the Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. Two verses later John states that the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God. Jesus made it clear each person must choose: “Everyone who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny Him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 10:32,33). In the verses following Jesus states choosing Him will bring division–even between members of the same family. So, although God desires all men to be saved and one with Him, clearly Jesus articulated the choice is up to us.
All true…………in this, the third dimension! But the goal of humanhood is to not live by “appearances” and “this world” thinking. We are ambassadors to those trapped in 3rd dimensional- dualistic beliefs. Using your references, We ARE delivered from the works of darkness (done deal), Jesus life DID (done deal) destroy the works of the devil (metaphor for our egoic thinking that elevates us over God). Choosing Jesus, or meat instead of vegetables, or what TV program to watch obviously divides people: family. But in the end, as from the beginning we are ONE! ONENESS was a major theme of Jesus because it is the truth of who we are. Right now we live in a religious matrix that embraces Either-Or, but our core, our permanent Being is And-Also: ONE.
Well said, Ernie!