The Love of God is infinite and inexplicable, so hard for our finite minds to understand its depth and capacity! An old hymn I came across long ago describes as best we can with our mortal tongues to explain a partial understanding of the Love of God!
“Oh Love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure, the saints and angels songs!
With that being said, with our finite understanding of the Love of God, we must look to the infinite in wisdom and understanding, The Word of God, to get a true grasp of what the Love of God means!
Many times in today’s church world, Christians are being told they must portray the “Love of God” to everyone that comes into their daily paths. How does one show the “Love of God”? In what ways and to what extent are we instructed by the Word of God to show forth this great love of God?
In the New Testament alone, we are encouraged 12 times (God’s governmental number) that we should love one another, even as Christ loved us! But is that to extend beyond the boundaries of the brother or believer? Am I to love everyone in the world, and give equal portions of that love to believer and unbeliever alike? What does the Word of God say about our love as believers? To many believers and followers of Jesus have never searched out the scriptures to see what HE desires for us to do and how HE wants us to show our love.
I am already hearing the loud disputations and rebukes of the milk toast Christians who have been fed for so long on only the milk of the Word, that this kind of meat being served up will surely cause some to regurgitate this portion of the Word that I am sharing. We have been so led down the flower lined path of “Love wins” and “God rejects NO ONE!” messages in modern day Christianity, that I am shocked at the presentation of so many in todays churches, who believe that to show the “Love of God” is to walk arm in arm with rebellion and backwardness, sugar coating the lawlessness of others as they just need someone to show them love! It is shocking to see how many churches have stumbled upon themselves to join up with the current “black lives matter” movement that they have placed banners upon their church walls and doors, proclaiming their solidarity with a Godless, lawless, racist, communist movement! If that group really believes that black lives matter, why are they not protesting in Chicago, where young black lives are taken every weekend, and at every planned parenthood clinic where millions of innocent precious black babies have been butchered for the sake of convenience! Who will stand up and proclaim that JESUS CHRIST died for all! Not for any particular race! But for ALL mankind! The church should be the FIRST and FOREMOST to proclaim this truth! Let us show forth the LOVE of GOD to all the world by proclaiming first the liberating power of the BLOOD OF JESUS!
Lets look at each of these questions and topics one by one….
What is the love of GOD?
We must go to the Word of God to understand the basics of the Love of God! The love of God is so different from the love of man! The Love of God states, You need me, so therefore I love you! The love of man can only state, I need you so therefore I love you! We see that picture of the perfect Love of God in the book of John. 3:16. It is the bedrock of the believers understanding of the “love of God. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This is indeed the Love of God personified! That He loved the world and sent his only begotten Son as a sacrifice and payment for the sins of mankind, so that men might be saved! Humanity was already condemned…Jesus did not come to add to that condemnation, but to give them a doorway through which they might enter and be saved! For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Jesus made a way for us to escape eternal death and damnation! When we believe on Jesus Christ with all of our hearts and confess with our mouth our sins, godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation and we are covered by His blood and are born again! By that action of faith, we escape condemnation and enter into life! Anyone who does not come through that doorway, was already condemned, and even more as the opportunity to escape condemnation gets presented to them and it is rejected and refused! He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The Love of God is universally available to all mankind! But contrary to popular belief, it is not universally applied! There are conditions that must be met before humanity can receive the benefits of being a child of God, the Love of God applied being one of those awesome benefits! In the following verses we see why the Love of God is not universally applied…even though it is so available to them! And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
When darkness is loved over light….when those who hate the light and commit evil…continue to reject the light and life that was made possible through the Love of GOD, condemn their own selves by their actions! Many times as a Pastor, I tell the church family, that we must speak the truth IN LOVE, because that is where truth was born! But we cannot speak the truth in love, until we fall in love with the truth! True love of God shown forth in the life of the believer is to tell the world the truth! You are not condemning anyone when you speak truth! It is the unbeliever’s rejection of light and truth that they condemn themselves with!
So, we see the Love of God was made available to us by receiving the personification of love, Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son of God! And now the “Love of God” is shed abroad in OUR HEARTS, causing us to love God even more, and making us into more of the image of God’s dear Son!
6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
So how are we to then take that love of God which was shed abroad in our hearts and present it to a lost and dying world?
How do I show the Love of God to unbelievers?
Here is where the real rubber meets the road! Here is where we must rightly divide the Word of Truth so that we do not find ourselves in error! Even though we recognize that Jesus Christ came for the sinner, he did not condone the sin! Even though he was no respecter of persons, he did show favor to the righteous and called out the sins of the sinner! We must recognize the same Jesus who patiently held the infants and children as they gathered around him, was also a force to be reckoned with as he plaited a rope into a whip to punish and chase the moneychangers and thieves out of his His Father’s house! Both of these instances was showing forth the love of God! The kind, longsuffering gentleness toward the young and innocent, and the fierce anger and rebuke to those who should have known better!
Obviously, we will not take a whip into places of worship to punish those who have fallen in love with money and worldly treasures. Even though it is tempting in this way to be “more like Jesus”, we must leave that type of chastisement and correction to the Lord of the House! He is more than capable of getting men’s attention who have gone astray and left the path of life and light to walk in the ways of the wicked one.
God is the only one who can love people when they are in their sins and not be affected by it. Jesus was the only one who was tempted in all points like as we are, and yet without sin. We must take the admonition of scriptures to know if and how we should “love” the sinner….and if so, to what degree, and to what extent?
Unbelievers are enemies of the gospel, having their eyes darkened by the god of this world, so that they should not see the glorious light of the gospel and be converted. Romans 11:28 “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. “They have chosen to live as children of darkness and of the night. To the contrary, the believer has chosen to live in the glorious light of Jesus Christ, the Word of God! As such, we are in a continual spiritual struggle with the powers of darkness. Are we struggling with the unbelieving individual? No! We are struggling against the fourfold powers of Lucifer. Ephesians 6:12 gives us this truth…“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against (1) principalities, against (2) powers, against (3)the rulers of the darkness of this world, against (4) spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Unbelievers are enemies in the sense that they are following the wrong master. Jesus told us that we cannot serve two masters, but must love one and hate the other. (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13) We cannot fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, without that darkness attempting to fill any absence of light! Light has no fellowship with darkness, because where light exists, it will inevitably push out darkness and expose what was once shrouded in its cloak! So how do we show the “love of God” to enemies of the gospel if we never fellowship with them? What is the limits of our involvement? First, let us look at a verse from the lips of JESUS and then discuss the meanings of love. Matthew 5: 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
So what was Jesus instructing us to do? There are two basic words in Greek which translates into one word in English. The first is agapao and the second is agape. The first means to love in a social or moral sense, and the second means to love with a deep affection, an overwhelming love, a feast of love, a love from the heart. Jesus was telling us in Matthew 5 that we have a moral obligation “love” to show to our fellow man, believer and unbeliever alike. That moral obligation is revealed in that every opportunity presented to us, we do good to all men, but especially to those of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10)
When enemies of the gospel revile us, we do not revile back. When persecuted, we do not seek revenge or when we are cursed, we do not respond in kind! We are obligated morally to show the same restraint of love that Christ showed towards us! We are IN this world, but not OF this world, so our response to persecution for the cause of Christ should show forth his marvelous light! However, we are never instructed to give away that second portion of love, the agape love! That love is reserved for only our Lord Jesus Christ and fellow believers who are also walking in that same love of Christ!
I find it interesting that the first portion of love agapao, when it is pursued in ways not intended by the gospel, it has the potential to become another Greek word for love, fileo. This kind of love means that you begin to embrace the judgement, sentiments, feelings, having a deliberate assent as a matter of principle, duty, or propriety. Here is where the problem of fellowshipping with unbelievers begins. This is where the attachment in the mind begins, ultimately leading to the fileo love. How many Christians throughout the ages have misunderstood the instructions of the Lord concerning loving our enemies, represented as the unbelieving world? They have allowed the agapao love for others to develop into fileo love and in the course of time, found themselves in the same pig pen of worldliness that they once avoided and disdained! Fileo love caused them to embrace the judgements, ways, thoughts, attitudes of the world by way of fellowshipping with that darkness, and now their light no longer shines to push out the darkness around them!! Many will try to fervently explain away their actions, proclaiming it is their duty, principle, place of propriety, that caused them to “show the love of God”! Many will also loudly protest, “This is my family, I must stand by them!” Many mothers have whittled away at their God given scriptural convictions to make room for a wayward child. Many fathers have looked the other way and allowed aberrations of the Gospel so a son or daughter would not be “offended”. The story is the same for grandparents, aunts and uncles who so desire to keep a relationship with their family members, that they have put their relationship with JESUS in jeopardy because they had not the heart to “speak the truth in LOVE” to a wayward loved one. Showing them love is not to be fileo, an acceptance of their judgements, sentiments or feelings, but only agapao love, which engages the moral duty “ love” to speak the truth and not fellowship with their darkness! So here we see that our fellowship must be limited to the moral duty love portion of speaking truth into the lives of all unbelievers around us, including once close friends and loved ones who may have gone astray!
With our understanding opened to the meanings of love, we can now put into perspective the following verse from 1John 2: 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
I will break down the verse here to show the different loves listed here….15Love (agapao/fileo) not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love(agapao/fileo) the world, the love(agape) of the Father is not in him.
Here we see the difference in clear detail. If we (agapao unto fileo) the world, we will fall in love with the things that are in the world (these things are listed in the next verse: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life) and if you fall in love (fileo) with the world, the (agape perfect mature charity love) of the Father is not in you!
Notice in Paul’s letters written to the church, he used a unique portion of the word love (agape) and it is translated into English as “charity” We know that charity means love, but not just any kind of love! It is that perfected love of God in the life and heart of the believer who is completely sold out to JESUS and has no desire to fellowship with any works or appearance of darkness! Paul uses that word specifically in what we have come to call the “love chapter” in I Corinthians chapter 13! This kind of sold out, totally given to GOD love, comes ONLY WHEN YOU have ceased from fileo with the world! Paul uses that word instead of love, 21 times in the new testament, encouraging the believers to grow in the mature love of GOD! Peter also uses it 4 times in his writings, and John uses it twice, in I John and in the book of Revelation. And lastly, Jude used it once…with such a warning to not fellowship or associate with works or workers of darkness! Jude1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.11Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.12These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Conclusion
We have a moral obligation, a love obligation to speak the truth, not only in the epistles of our lives, but when that which is darkness presents itself to us in the lives of those around us, whether they be family, acquaintances, or co-workers. We must recognize that the darkness and controlling spirits thereof are what is coming against us. If we are reviled, we revile not again. If we are persecuted, for Christ or His Gospel, we do not respond with hatred or anger. It is sometimes hard to do these things, that is why Jesus instructed us in Matthew as his followers to do this. We are morally “love” obligated to pray for the lost, presenting the light of the glorious Gospel that their eyes may be opened to see! In all believer’s lives, we must go through life interacting with many unbelievers and those who reject the gospel. We are to “do good” to all men, and with all men live peaceably as much as possible. We can do these things and yet not fellowship with their works of darkness. Business relationships sometimes call for meetings in formal and informal places. The formal business situation is usually not an affront to the believer’s lifestyle or convictions. It is in the informal “get to know you” situations, that you will need to guard your mind and your convictions. The drinks will be offered, and you must refuse! They will notice immediately when you bow your head to pray over your meal, and your lack of rioting and cursing will also draw their ire and even ridicule. This is where you must not allow the mindset of the world to settle (fileo) into your hearts and minds.
Parents who have lost and wayward children must not compromise the gospel to obtain the favor and love of their child! Attempts will be made to get you to accept a lifestyle of sin or deviant behavior, or to cause you to turn away without comment! You must stand strong in the love of GOD and tell them the truth of the gospel! Grandparents, aunts and uncles must also be strong in the Lord, and in the power of HIS might! You must not enable those lifestyle choices that you know are in direct disagreement with the Word of God! With love remind the sinners and the wayward family member that fornicators, adulterers, thieves, abusers of themselves with mankind, deviant lifestyles of the homosexual, lesbians, gays, transgenders, queers and other such abominable behaviors shall not inherit the kingdom of GOD! Also the drunkards, drug users, whoremongers, idolaters, pornographers and abortionists shall also have their part in the lake of fire, and the smoke of their torment shall ascend up forever and ever!
You need not worry about the fellowshipping part. If you hold fast to the Word of God and with love speak truth into the life of a wayward loved one, they will not want to hang around much. Do not allow your feelings of loneliness and pain, cause you to be silent so that you may have more time to be with that loved one! You, speaking the truth in love will have much more eternal value, in your life and in theirs, if it is coupled with consistency. Plan on you being in the love of GOD, today, tomorrow, and into the future, whatsoever it may bring! Staying in the Love of God (agape) means that whatever the cost of relationship, be it friend or family, you will hold fast to the truth of God’s Word! And the peace of GOD shall keep your hearts and minds! Phillipians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.8Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Be strong in the LORD and show forth HIS LOVE!
Pastor Stephen