A dear pastor friend of mine posted this to his Facebook account the other day:
One comment stood out to me and prompted this writing, because the commenter clearly did not want to love others but was perfectly fine declaring that he was born again. I happen to agree with James post, scripture is clear on the subject of loving God and loving your neighbor. They literally go hand in hand.
When commandments become conditional - because we do not want to love those who we deem undesirable or someone who is not “worthy” of our love because they do not measure up to our standards of what a person is or should be. They don’t measure up because they’re not on our theological level, etc.. We forget that we once were an enemy of God, a reprobate, if you will, because of our inherited sin nature. We conveniently forget this biblical truth because we have no desire to obey God when He commands us to love our neighbors. I have noticed this truth play out in real time on social media platforms, in daily conversations, listening to other peoples excuses to justify their hate. It really is mind blowing to me that we can simply ignore Mark 12:29-31 NIV:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
So if there is no commandment greater than these - Jesus’ words by the way - then how on God’s green Earth can we say otherwise?
Hey! Here’s another one, 1st John 4:19-20:
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Apparently though this isn’t clear enough for a lot of Christians. Here’s a thought: maybe you cannot love because you have never experienced the love of God? You cannot give what you have not received. Here’s an idea let’s put that fleshly desire to justify our hatred for others to death. You know, like the Apostle Paul tells us to do in Colossians 3:5-10 NIV (Emphasis added):
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Unfortunately we’d rather put to death the “reprobate” instead of loving them and sharing the good news of the gospel. Again, we have forgotten that we once were the “reprobate” before God. How very Old Testament of us. We have somehow convinced ourselves that it is okay to hate other people in the name of Jesus. You know what the Word of God calls these kinds of Christians? A liar. Go read 1st John 4 again. By this point some of you are really upset, well to employ an old 80’s rap truth: You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.
I’ll close with this thought from 1st Timothy 4:1 NIV:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
Heed this warning from Scripture because a deceitful spirit will tell you that you’re doing the work of God when you’re ignoring the commands of God.
Quit being taught by demons and start being taught by the Word of Almighty God.
Good article! Love is complicated, love can be hard, but love is not an evil thing.