LOVE FOR OTHERS IS NOT SEPARATE FROM LOVE FOR GOD
Judaism and Christianity have misrepresented God to the degree that no one really understands who he is or what he stands for. This has always been true because Jews and Christians have always made names for themselves by practicing their religions in public. In doing this they have always violated the Third Commandment. The tragic result of these religious displays is a distorted view of God that says he cares more about personal morality and religious rituals than he cares about people. Actually, he hates religious traditions and has the well-being of all people — not just Jews and Christians — as his only priority.
Religious people, including Christian Nationalists, fail to understand that God’s laws always focus on relationships with God and others — not on religious laws and morality. It is not that he is unconcerned about personal morality. But, because personal morality issues are fully resolved when his laws are written on hearts, there is no need for religious or civil laws to codify or police morality. And God is only concerned about religious laws because he sees them as heartless traditions which he hates because they divert and distract people from knowing him and his commandments which focus exclusively on how people should relate to one another.
It is fair and accurate to say that America would not be in its current divided state, and the world would not have so much conflict, if everyone obeyed God’s laws about relationships. Political and social unity can be achieved only when Christian Nationalists quit trying to be the sole arbiters and enforcers of personal morality and religious practices. Christian Nationalists arrogantly believe that they alone understand what is required for righteousness and that they alone have been chosen by God to enforce those standards — first in America and then in the world. They are much deceived on these points and everything else they believe.
Christian Nationalists are deceived because they find their standards of righteousness in literal words of the bible and do not understand that it is full of Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Allegories, Copies, and Shadows. These false interpretations lead them to design and enforce religious and governmental laws which are by nature divisive and unjust. These laws contrast with righteousness based on God’s laws that leads love for God and love for neighbors and unity.
When we read scripture carefully, we see that it is impossible to separate love of God from love of neighbors. When we love our neighbors the way God commands us to love them, unity with God and neighbors is the result
Love for God and love for neighbors are elusive and abstract concepts that people misunderstand because their small, incomplete, fleshly concept of love is entrenched in the simplicity of human affections and emotions. It is a mistake to equate Godly love with human love. This is true for love for God and love for neighbors.
Love for neighbors is clearly defined by obedience to God’s commandments about how to relate to all other people — not just people with whom there is a familial, sexual, religious, political, racial, ethnic or ideological relationship. When we love our neighbors the way God wants us to love them, we simultaneously love God. Love for neighbors and love for God cannot be separated:
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Awareness of these truths raises these questions:
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- What are the practical aspects of loving God?
- What are the practical aspects of loving your neighbor?
The answers to these questions are distributed widely throughout scripture.
Christian Nationalists have developed an expansive view of what it means to love God, love your neighbor and be an American patriot. These values include, but are not limited to, the following and may not be held by all Christian Nationalists with equal fervor:
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- Good feelings enjoyed while singing and worshiping at a religious service.
- Loving the bible.
- Giving to religious organizations and other charities.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in practicing and promoting religion and religious values and receiving public recognition for their efforts.
- Feelings of pride for efforts to pursue Christian Nationalism goals and principles.
- Mutual affections for co-religionists.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in practicing and promoting conservative values.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in practicing and promoting American values.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in practicing and promoting Judeo-Christian Values.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in practicing and promoting small-town Values.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in practicing and promoting Traditional values.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in practicing and promoting Libertarian values.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness in efforts to help Christian Nationalist candidates elected to political offices.
- Feelings of pride and self-righteousness when their elected candidates pass legislation that advances their values.
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In general, the concept of “love for God” for Christian Nationalists centers on fleshly religious and political activity. This activity elicits natural emotional responses generated in all kinds of group settings. These emotional responses excite positive, visceral emotions that they equate with loving God and being loved by (i.e. touched by) God. This activity can happen in the context of religious services or politics. All activity is planned by and orchestrated by men who like to believe that their motives are biblical and inspired by God. When we consider what God said in James 1:26-27, however, we see that all their religious and political activity is worthless in God’s eyes.
Godly love is not at all like human love. Here are a few things to understand about the differences between Godly love and human love:
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- Human love involves positive emotions of giving and/or receiving good will.
- Godly love does not include such feelings.
- Human love is often associated with sex and other forms of physical affection.
- Human love is typically expressed in public view — except when sex is involved.
- Godly love is typically expressed out of public view — except when truth is spoken face-to-face.
- Evidence of human love is often associated with giving and receiving material gifts.
- Godly love is always associated with sharing spiritual truth, but may also include material gifts, encouragement and emotional support.
- Human love is always motivated by some form of self-interest or payback.
- Godly love is often a matter of not doing something — not out of neglect but out of honor and respect for the rights of another person.
- Godly love is given freely and never expects anything in return.
- Godly love has an element of personal sacrifice for the giver.
- Godly love always works to restore justice, change hearts, repair divisions, and establish equity and inclusion for people who have been hurt or marginalized by religion, government and hostile social environments.
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STUDY TIPS: See this link, this link and this link for a deeper understanding of love.
Since God is love, and since God’s words express who he is, everything God says is an expression of love. That means that the words of the bible represent God and Godly love.
The literal words of the bible have deep symbolic meanings that are not understandable by using human knowledge and intellect, but some of the literal words in the bible can also be understood and applied in their pure, literal sense. This is especially true for God’s commandments about how to love one another in the links below:
Analysis of Christian Nationalism policies and practices clearly reveals that nothing it stands for satisfies God’s commands about loving your neighbor as yourself. Christian Nationalism is all worthless religion that heaps injustice on marginalized people — including other Christian Nationalists. Someone needs to tell this truth to Christian Nationalists. Who knows, perhaps they will see the light and get pure religion.
All of God’s words (i.e. his commandments) are expressions of God and Godly love. The list of links above and God’s Commands About How to Relate to Him and to One Another includes statements that may not seem to carry the weight of a commandment but should, nonetheless, be regarded as commandments. Sometimes they are commands to do something and sometimes they are commands to not do something. Either way they are commands to be obeyed in their literal, human sense.
Anyone who obeys these commandments demonstrates love for God and neighbors. This includes unbelievers.