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"And if I give all my
possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body
to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me
nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:3
Love is the greatest of the Christian
virtues. Jesus said that His disciples would be known
for their love for one another. The Law and the Prophets
are summed up in love toward God and love toward your
fellow man. No godly virtue has ever been attacked and
distorted as that of love.
Since Jesus has sent His followers forth as lights in a
dark world, it is extremely important that we accurately
portray and define true love. The Bible says that God is
love. God does not merely have love or feel love, He is
love - love is the very nature of His character.
Everything that God says or does is motivated by true
love. If the saints do not accurately define God’s love
the devil will present a corrupted version which will
deceive people. God’s love not accurately defined will
produce an idol.
Let’s take a moment to show what love is not. Love does
not rejoice in sin or deception. Love does not withhold
correction or discipline. Love does not break God’s
Commandments. Love does not tolerate sin in the Church
body. Love is patient and kind. Love forgives - and does
not hold on to a wrong suffered.
The Bible actually defines love
- you might be surprised by this truth. "By
this we know that we love the children of God, when we
love God and observe His Commandments. For this is the
love of God, that we keep His Commandments; and His
Commandments are not a burden to us." 1 John 5:2-3 -
as we just read, "love
is keeping the Commandments."Jesus often told His
disciples that if they loved Him they would keep His
Commandments.
When God destroyed the world with the flood He was
motivated by love. The Flood story is a love story. God
saw that man’s thoughts were continually evil and the
earth was filled with violence. It broke God’s heart
when He realized that He must destroy them if they
refused to change - "I
am grieved in My heart, and am sorry that I have made
man." A
just God could not allow the world to continue in such a
state. Noah preached a plea of repentance for 120 years
yet no one received the message that would save them.
This was God’s love defined.
"If you were of the
world, the world would love its own; but because you are
not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
because of this the world hates you." John 15:19
God is patient with sinners but He will never tolerate
them - He loves them too much to allow them to stay in
that condition. God’s love is designed to move sinners
to repentance, not to become comfortable in their sins.
The Bible says that God is storing up wrath for the Day
of Vengeance, yet He finds no pleasure in destroying the
disobedient and desires that all be saved. To forgive a
sinner who confesses His wrongs is much different from
allowing a person to continue to violate God’s Law -
this would be unjust.
There are many people in the world who are greatly
offended by the actions of God which are recorded in the
Bible. Noted Atheist Richard Dawkins, author of "The God
Delusion" writes that God is"arguably the most
unpleasant character in all fiction" - ‘psychotic" -
"unjust" - "unforgiving" - "control freak" - "blood
thirsty" - "a capriciously malevolent bully", etc.
God of course, is none of those things. But God, being
the author and creator of life - having made man for His
purpose and glory - to fulfill His plan of expanding His
Family by bringing many sons to glory through Christ -
has every right to command obedience to His will. We did
not create ourselves. We do not own ourselves. And when
man joined Satan’s rebellion against God and was
corrupted by sin which is punishable by death in hell,
God emptied Himself to become a man to suffer and die in
our place. The Father gave His Son, and the Son laid
down His life in order to save us and raise us up to
glory.
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