CHRISTIAN LOVE

There are certain commands given to the Christian upon which all Christian integrity depends.  If these commands are not adhered to there could be few if any rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, no ‘well done’ for faithful service; no gold, silver and precious stones, only a life of perishable works; the wood, hay and stubble of 1Cor. 3:12.               

                                                                        

The first and greatest of these commands, the catalyst of Christian living is to “...love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind...” Matthew 22:37.   This is an all encompassing love; with no self-delusion, no hypocrisy or false humility, but from a contrite and a humble heart which God will not despise.                                                                

                                                                        

How many can truthfully say that they love God when faced with the demands of this command, "all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind"?   Only those whose heart, soul and mind are saturated with the knowledge and experience and application of the Word of Truth.  God reveals Himself through His Word of Truth and no longer by means of dreams and visions and certainly not through the emotional responses of our flesh.  Any such divinations, are of the flesh and/or of Satan.                                  

                                                                         

The emotions are so easily aroused by the enticements of this the Devil’s world; they respond to stimulus both mental and physical and can quickly become subject to the world, the flesh and the Devil, unless as in the case of the Spirit filled Christian, they are subject to the mind of Christ.  However God has not left us at the mercy of these forces or of our own weaknesses, but has given us a complete canon of scripture upon which we can rule our lives, so that even against all the pressures of lust and emotion, we can say; ...sin shall not have dominion over me, for "...Thus sayeth the Lord...”

          

The heart, in the context of Matthew 22:37, is not the heart of flesh which pumps the blood throughout the body: but is the centre of ones being, the real you that resides deep within the consciousness and is reached only by means of your mind.  We are made in the image of God and as God is Spirit and not flesh, His image in us is not in the flesh but in the unseen part of our being: the soul, the spirit, the mind.                                                                   

                                                                        

It is with our mind that we gain knowledge of God and it is from this knowledge that a love for God is built up in our heart and soul.  Therefore, we need to know God in truth before we can begin to say we love Him.  We can test our love for God at any moment of the day, by simply gauging our feelings toward our fellow man, especially our Christian brethren.  If we say we love God and are angry toward our brother, we are lying to ourselves.  For if we are angry, contemptuous or even indifferent toward our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen?  This leads us to the second of the commands so vital to Christian maturity.                                         

                                                                        

1John 4:21

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loves God love his brother also.                            

                                                                        

The force of this verse is in the context of chapters 4 & 5 of 1John; that the one who loves God in truth, will love his brother also; it will be a spontaneous action stemming from his love for God.                    

                                                                        

The Christian, who does not love God will find it impossible to love the brethren, and those who do not love the brethren do not love God. For as it is stated in: -

 

1John 5:1                    

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loves God loves those who are born of God.               

This is not wishful thinking, but a statement of fact, every one that loves God, "loves those that are born of God".  You will love the brethren, the good, the bad and the ugly if you love God with all your heart, soul and mind.  As has been said, you can love God in this manner only when your being is saturated with the knowledge of Him and when your character has been transformed, by that knowledge into the likeness of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  We are then able to love, but only because God first loved us. 

God has expressed his love for mankind through Christ Jesus, yet there is more to His love than that outward expression for God does not just love, he is love.  He is eternal, immutable, tranquil integrity.

This scripture, "...God is love..." is another proof of the triune Godhead, inasmuch as love denotes oneness, empathy, esteem, honour and regard, and by its very nature has the characteristic of expression.  Love, because of its very nature, must express itself.  In eternity past, God the Father loved the Son and the Holy Spirit; God the Son loved the Father and the Spirit, and God the Holy Spirit loved the Father and the Son.  Divine love has been eternally expressed, expressed within the trinity of the Godhead.                                      

                                 

If we love God, we will walk in that light as he is in that light and will not only have fellowship with him but will love those who are born of his Spirit.                                                     

                                                                         

If we have aggravation, hostility, bitterness and even frustration toward the brethren, we are not ‘loving the brethren’ and are walking in darkness.  If we are not honest with ourselves in recognising these negative and therefore destructive emotions, we will never know ourselves, never judge ourselves, never confess our sins and never have fellowship with the Father in whom lies the only source of love.  If we have these negative feelings toward our brethren and say we love God, we lie and have no understanding of truth.

                                                                        

Entwined in this command to love the brethren, is the command to love our neighbour; for Jesus stated, that to "...love the Lord thy God with all thy heart..." is the first and greatest commandment, with the second being similar, "...Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”                        

                                                                        

How do you love your neighbour?   To help resolve this question, ask yourself the following.  How well do I love myself?  How well do I look after my own interests and how much do I desire privacy and freedom from the interference and meddling of others?  This passage is saying; be mindful of the needs and desires of others; respect their freedom, understand and be compassionate toward them in their failings.  This does not allow us to condone their sin.  But to recognise the frailties of men and to forgive those who trespass against us is to maintain both our compassion for them and our peace of mind even in the midst of their transgression.  In this we are able to prove our love for God, by having an unfeigned, non-hypocritical love for the brethren and our neighbour.    

                                                                        

With these two commands fulfilling all the Law and the Prophets, surely they must also be the fulfilment of the spiritual life.  Yet how are we to love the Lord our God and our neighbour?  This takes us to a third command, a command so vital to their fulfilment.  “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;” Ephesians 5:18

It is only by means of the perfect God within us that we are able to know God and to love as God loves, for as 1Corinthians 2:12 says 

"...we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God...".   

These truths are not the production of men’s wisdom, nor of his imagination or his emotions: they are the wisdom of God, which the Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  The natural man, the one who lives according to the fleshly emotions, including many believers (1Corinthians 3:1-3), cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God for they are spiritually discerned, but he who is filled with the Spirit is able thereby to make judgments in all matters and also remain just himself.  

                                                                         

Despite the belief of many Christians, to be emotional is not and never has been spirituality.  To be ‘spiritual’ is to be filled with the Spirit and manifest the fruits of the Spirit as delineated in Galatians 5:22,23

"...But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law..."      

                                                                        

The Christian may be able to engender all sorts of ecstatic feelings toward other people, but unless you sustain a longsuffering or patient and gentle attitude towards them, and live a life of temperance or self-control, the fruits of the Spirit are not yours, and you in your claims to spirituality, are living a lie.                                               

                                                                        

To be ‘filled with the Spirit’ is not the same as the ‘indwelling of the Spirit’: we as Christians are commanded to be ‘filled’, but in regard to unbelievers Jesus said, ‘You must be born again’; born again by means of the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit (John 3:7, 8). 

It is by means of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we become children of God and therefore spiritual beings; and Paul, in his letter to the Romans, chapter 8:9, describes the standing of those who belong to God as being ‘indwelt’ by the Spirit. 

When we are born again it is by means of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, with this indwelling being a permanent feature of our life on earth.  Notwithstanding, in 1Corinthians 3:1, Paul speaks to Christians as being, not spiritual but carnal or fleshly, and likens them to babes in Christ: a clear indication that Christian growth includes a period of spiritual immaturity and indulgence in the things of the world.  This last scripture places great emphasis on the necessity of being ‘filled with the Spirit’ and thereby enabled to produce the fruits that include, first and foremost, the fruit of love.                         

                                                                        

Being born again is to be ‘indwelt’ by God the Holy Spirit; being a spiritual Christian, is to be ‘filled’ with the Spirit.

The filling of the Spirit is a prerequisite to spiritual growth and stability.  Without his ministry we are without power to understand, without power to perform, without power to hold our ground against the world, the flesh and the Devil.  There are two things we need to live the victorious Christian life: the filling of the Holy Spirit and knowledge: knowledge of God and his provisions, knowledge of ourselves and knowledge of the enemy.       

                                                                              

Gods provisions include, a. the filling of the Holy Spirit, b. the mechanics of spiritual warfare, c. the assurance of his continuing and unceasing support, d. the promise that though we may lose the battle, Christ Jesus has already won the war for although we might constantly be defeated in life’s struggles, if we persevere in truth the victory will be ours.               

                                                                             

These are God’s provisions to us and it is up to each of us as individuals to take hold of them personally, no one else can fight your battles for you, no one else can gain spiritual strength for you - you must do it for yourself.  During the trials of spiritual growth it is always good to remember that God will not allow you to face temptation you are unable to bear but will with that temptation give you the means to overcome.  He will never leave you nor forsake you and though he will sometimes apply the spiritual rod to chastise; you will be benefited by it.  

                                                                             

The mechanics of spiritual warfare are those steps of faith we take that lead us to know and experience the joy of our salvation and keep us from being entangled with the ‘yoke of bondage’; bondage to our emotions, bondage to pride and conceit, to the pressures from our unbelieving and our non Christian friends, bondage to anything that has priority in our thoughts over and above our Lord and Saviour.  This does not mean you cannot have fun in the world, but it does mean your enjoyment should be because of your salvation, not in spite of it.                                                                          

                                                     

The entry into this salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour; the victory in that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord.          

                                                                             

How do we make Christ Lord of our life?   How do we make anyone lord of our lives; by giving to them our allegiance, our loyalty and our obedience?  If Christ commands us to love the Brethren (John 13:34), do we obey and forgive from the heart even when they are unlovable or do we obey only when we feel they deserve it?

                                                                             

Salvation at any stage is not dependent on how we feel but on what the Word of God says.  He commands we obey.  When we are angry, contemptuous or even indifferent to our fellow men, those sins will separate us from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and we will lose his power to obey and fulfil Christ’s commands.                                                                     

                                                                   

We must obey the commands of Christ literally; it is of no use to spiritualise or minimise those commands, they are to be obeyed as you would obey your superior officer in any army.  Love your neighbour, go into all the world and preach the gospel, pray without ceasing, be filled with the Spirit, study to show yourself approved of God.  These are some of God’s commands to us as believers, but if we follow these commands without the filling of the Spirit, we will accomplish only wood hay and stubble (1 Cor.3: 10-12).     

                                                                             

How can you love that absolute pig of a man next door?  With what power and authority do we preach the gospel to the world?  How can we understand God’s word from our finite understanding?  These things can only be accomplished by the power of God’s Spirit within. 

Therefore the first step toward Christian maturity is to,   "...confess our sins..." so that we will be  "...filled with the Spirit..." and by being filled with the Spirit, enabled to "...study so that we may be approved of God...” and approved of God by "loving our neighbour" and by "praying without ceasing".                                             

                                                                             

Galatians 5:16-18                                                      

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.           

                                                                             

If we sin the Law condemns us, but because of the Cross we are able to confess our sins and God is faithful and just to forgive us those sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9).                                      

                                                                             

To be "...filled with the Spirit..." we must be cleansed of all unrighteousness, therefore it is through confession of sin that we are filled with the Spirit and enabled to follow out the mechanics of Christian living.  The confession of sin is the first step to fulfilling those two great commandments in loving God and our neighbour.                            

                                                                             

If we say we have no sin, we are saying that God is a liar and by doing so, we display the fact that the truth is not in us; if we confess our sin then God is faithful, not to us, but faithful to his Son’s obedience unto death, and he is justified in forgiving us those sins because those sins have already been judged on the Cross.                                       

His character remains uncompromised, for confession of sin is an act of faith; recognition and an acknowledgement of the victory of the Cross and our dependence on it.  God accepts that confession as an act of faith and cleanses us from all unrighteousness on that basis.  Righteousness is always by means of faith; it is not by means of works lest any man should boast.    

By confession, the filling of the Spirit is restored and with that filling, so also the power by which we live the Christian life and glorify God.                                                                          

                                                                             

There are definite steps by which we, as children of God, are equipped with the whole armour of God to live victoriously in this the Devil’s world and confession of sin is the foremost step.                                  

"...If we confess our sins, he is faithful to Christ and justified in forgiving us our sins and in cleansing us from all unrighteousness..."                                                   

"... Be filled with the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature..."                                             

                                                                           

Therefore:

"...be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to  the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name  of our Lord Jesus Christ...".

                                                                              

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  Through faith in God’s word we confess our sins, are forgiven and cleansed and empowered by means of the filling of the Spirit, to share with our brethren, in love; the praise and worship of our God.