‘LOVE’

A trend exists today in much of the church...forsaking the Law of the Lord in favor of 'LOVE'.

I am referring to the Law, not as in instructions concerning sacrifices and such, but to God's will concerning our life and how we should live and behave as given throughout His words we hold in a book we call the BIBLE.

I am not against LOVE. But there IS a shallow 'love' being encouraged which places great emphasis on the feelings of those who choose sin. There is also definite opposition toward those who, out of love for the sinner, would turn him who chooses intentionally to live and remain in sin, away from his sin.

I read the following passages this morning...

"The land is full of adulterers, and because of them the earth lies parched, the wild pastures have dried up. The course that they run is evil...prophet and priest alike are godless. I have come upon the evil they are doing even in my own house.

I found the prophets of no sense...they prophesied and led my people astray. They encourage evildoers so that no man turns back from his sin; to me they are like Sodom and Gomorrah. A godless spirit has spread all over the land from the prophets.

Do not listen to what the prophets say who buoy you up with false hopes; the vision they report springs from their own imagination, it is not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to all who follow the promptings of their own stubborn heart, 'No disaster shall befall you.' But which of them has listened to His word and obeyed? In days to come you will fully understand. I did not send these prophets, yet they went in haste. IF they have stood in my council let them proclaim my words to my people and turn them from their evil course and their evil doings. Am I a god only near at hand, not far away? I have heard what the prophets say. How long will it be till they change their tune? If he has my word, let him speak my word in truth. Do not my words scorch like fire? says the Lord. Are they not like a hammer?"
(from Jeremiah 23)

And this from Ezekiel...

"Say to those who prophesy out of their own hearts...Their inspiration comes from themselves...they have misled my people by saying that all is well when all is not well.

Now turn to the women of your people who prophecy out of their own hearts...You bring life to those who should not live, by lying to this people of mine who listen to lies. You discouraged the righteous man with lies when I meant him no hurt; you so strengthened the wicked that he would not abandon his evil ways and be saved. These people have set their hearts on and keep their eyes fixed on the sinful things that cause their downfall. Am I to let such men consult me? If such a man comes to consult me through a prophet, I, the Lord, in my own person, shall be constrained to answer him. I will set my face against that man...I will rid my people of him. Both will be punished; the prophet and the man who consults him alike are guilty. And never again will my people stray from their allegiance, never again defy my will and bring pollution upon themselves; they will become my people and I will become their God. This is the very word of the Lord God."
(from Ezekiel 13 and 14)

If it is true love the church has, then it will turn people away from their sin. True love results in obedience.

"Here is the test by which we can make sure that we know Him: Do we keep His commands? The man who says, ' I know Him', while he disobeys God's commands, is a liar and a stranger to the truth; but in the man who is obedient to His Word, the DIVINE LOVE had indeed come to its perfection. Here is the test by which we can make sure that we are in Him: whoever claims to be dwelling in Him, binds himself to live as Christ Himself lived."
(1 John 2:3-6)

Some would like to render the passage this way...The test by which we know God is if we keep His command to love. The man who says he knows God while disobeying His command to love is a stranger to the truth. But in the man who is obedient to God's command to love, divine love has come to its perfection. Here is test; whoever claims to be dwelling in Him binds himself to live as Christ did...love.

Not only does this interpretation make this passage redundant, but it is rendered subjective to the individual's understanding of love.  

I AM SICK TO DEATH OF HEARING OF THIS EMPTY AND POWERLESS LOVE! There is truth in their Scripture quotes concerning love...but only when taken to the full depths of divine love. It has been made very clear in the Scriptures that if the love one claims to have for the sinner does not encourage the sinner to cease from sin, that one is deceived and gives a false message of love. 

TRUE LOVE BRINGS DELIVERANCE FROM THE NATURAL DISPOSITION TO SIN AND FROM THE DESIRE TO SIN.

"You must face the fact: the final age of this world is to be a time of troubles. Men will love nothing but money and self; they will be arrogant...no piety...strangers to all goodness...adventurers, swollen with self importance. They will be men who put pleasure in place of God, men who preserve the outward form of religion, but are a standing denial of its reality. KEEP CLEAR OF MEN LIKE THESE. They get miserable women into their clutches, women burdened with a sinful past, and led on by all kind of desires, who are always wanting to be taught, but are incapable of reaching a knowledge of the truth. As some have defied Moses, so these defy the truth; they have lost the power to reason, and they cannot pass the tests of faith. But their successes will be short-lived, for, like those opponents of Moses, they will be recognized for the fools they are.

Yes, persecution will come to all who want to live a godly life as Christians, whereas wicked men will make progress from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But for your part, stand by the truths you have learned and are assured of. Remember that from early childhood you have been familiar with the sacred writings which have the power to make you wise and lead you to salvation... every inspired Scripture (by the way, this was referring to the Old Testament, the only scripture at the time of this writing) has its use for teaching the truth and refuting error, or for reformation of manners and discipline in right living...

The time will come when people will not want wholesome teaching, but will follow their own fancy and gather a crowd of teachers to tickle their ears. They will stop their ears to the truth."
(from 2 Timothy 3)

Why is the Christian movement today muddling LOVE? Why must they make adulterers and homosexuals and fornicators feel loved? They already are loved.  God so loved them that He sent His only Son to pay the penalty for their sin so that He can live inside them and change their desire to sin.  Christians who try to turn them away from their sin and warn them of their impending destruction love them enough to warn them.  When did what one feels determine the truth of something?

Why does the church in general neglect the study of the Scriptures (the Old Testament) in order to understand the will of God and His righteous prescribed manner of life? The will of God is plain...OBEDIENCE to Him. Christ's sacrifice made the way for Him to live in us and change us from the inside out, rather than the impossible way before Christ came of changing the outside while the nature and desires of our heart were elsewhere. Through the faith that Christ is living to make intercession for us and through His living in us as we yield ourselves to Him, our natural desires are altered through our unadulterated love.  Only when the Spirit of the living God has come to live inside and control us, is His law implanted on our hearts.  Otherwise we are a slave to our own heart and its naturally sinful inclinations.

An adulterer does not and can never know true love as long as he remains in adultery: i.e. a love for anyone or anything PLUS God. ANY other love IS an act of adultery. The church MUST speak out against the other 'loves' in peoples’ lives. The cross of Christ is the place of death...deliverance from the natural disposition to sin! Life in Christ is a free gift ONLY to those who are willing to come to the cross and die, go to the grave and wait ("Be still and know that I am God"), and let Christ Himself raise them to new life, new desires...the old will be past and the new will come. That waiting upon the Lord after death is the faith that leads us to salvation...DELIVERANCE from the old 'me', the 'me' I was born with. To live in sin while we claim to be waiting for God to change us is still slavery to sin. We DON'T have to live that way. Those who will find God will find Him ONLY by seeking Him with their whole heart and soul and mind and strength. Christians today are seeking God on Sunday and when in the doctor's office, but then seek TV and games and books the majority of the seven days in a week. Their heart is mostly wanting and wishing for stuff having nothing to do with God. Their mind is thinking and thinking about stuff, news, movies, purchases, life goals, others' failures...thoughts having nothing to do with God. Their efforts are strong toward their own goals and they are ecstatic or frustrated within themselves, but all apart from a yielded and meek attitude of prayer and thanksgiving to God. Even Paul says,

"Whatever you are doing, whether you speak or act, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Colossians 2:17)

You CANNOT be homosexual in the name of Jesus! 

You CANNOT live in adultery in the name of Jesus! 

You cannot do half the things Christians do under the license of 'grace', 'mercy', or 'love'. 

Fellow Christians are bound to love in a way that leads sinners to "Go and sin NO MORE." The love that forgives and gives hope to 'go and sin no more' is true love. The love that makes the sinner feel loved and makes him feel encouraged while he remains in his sin is false and not love at all.

Those who have had courage to speak against this adulterated love and the false hope people mistakenly call 'grace', have been rebuked and discouraged by those who are confident of a 'love' that does not rebuke sin but rebukes the one who discouraged a sinner from remaining in sin. This is how Jeremiah felt after speaking in defense of righteousness and being rebuked for it...and I know some today who can relate...he says,

"O Lord, thou hast duped me, and I have been thy dupe. I have been made a laughing-stock all the day long. Whenever I speak I must needs cry out and proclaim destruction. I am reproached and mocked all the time for uttering the word of the Lord. Whenever I said, 'I will not speak again', then His word was imprisoned in my body, like a fire blazing in my heart, and I was weary with holding it under, and could endure no more. For I heard many whispering, 'Denounce him! We will denounce him.' All my friends were on the watch for a false step...but the Lord is on my side. O Lord, thou dost test the righteous and search the depths of the heart; to thee have I committed my cause." (Jeremiah 20:7-12)

P.S.

And to those 'Christians' who look at their God-fearing parent's 'old fashioned' beliefs and replace them with their shallow interpretation of 'everything is summed up in my definition and understanding of love'...HEAR THIS!

"Think of your father: he ate and drank, dealt justly and fairly; all went well with him. He dispensed justice to the lowly and poor; did not this show he knew me? says the Lord." (Jeremiah 22:15-16)

For those who would yet continue to dispute even the testimony of their godly heritage...these must continue, because they have chosen to be blind. Their attitude of rebellion toward their parents, rebellion against any accepted standards of godly appearance and its identification with that of a godly character, and their rebellion against sound Biblical principles betrays them. They have become friends of the world; have begun to look like the world and have seared their conscience in so far as their love for the true brotherhood of Christ. Their conversation and license in their 'freedom' bring discredit to the name of Christ while carrying His name on their lips. They look and act like the world but carry not with them the fragrance of Christ. The world loves them because they belong to it.

"If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own." (John 15:19)

"They are of the world, and so therefore is their teaching; that is why the world listens to them." 

(1 John 4:5-6)