Love

IT’S NOT YOUR MOTHER’S KIND OF LOVE

STUDY TIP: See Make the World Better: Love Your Neighbor for an in depth discussion of love.

Bible readers usually make the mistake of interpreting the Bible literally and not symbolically. That means they interpret words in the Bible according to their common, everyday, cultural understanding. With respect to love, therefore, when they read about God’s love for them, their love for God, and their love for one another, they interpret Biblical love as that warm, mushy, sentimental feeling that they experience in their personal relationships. This is habit is perfectly logical, but it is also totally wrong.

Most Bible readers accept that there is some symbolism in the Bible — even though they do not understand it. But, they might never imagine that it would be necessary to look for symbolism in the case of love. They might reasonably assume that the concept of love is so universal that even God thinks of it the way humans do. This is wrong thinking. He does not think the way we do. And nowhere is this more true than in the matter of love.

For humans, love is primarily an emotion. Human love may be expressed in some sort of action (e.g. a kiss, sex, touch, kind words, gifts, etc.) Godly love is different in several ways:

Human love is fairly well understood — at least people recognize it when they experience it. People love other people, things, nature, art, athletics, music, their jobs, serving others, and even abstract concepts like politics. Essentially, they say that they “love” anything real or abstract that excites their emotions and incites those internal, tingly, warm, fuzzy feelings often associated with human love.  If they feel strongly about something or someone, if they spend time or money on it/them, they will also probably say that they love it/them. But this kind of human love is not God’s idea of love.

Human love is often applied to religion. Religious people “love” their religion. They can often be found demonstrating their love for their religion in feelings of emotion, well-being and pride while practicing it, supporting it, advancing it or defending it. Love for religion is always a matter of great pride, and religious people tend to equate loving their religion with love for God. But love for religion is not God’s idea of love. In fact, God sees love of religion as hate, not love, because God hates religion.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is not Faith, Making a Name for Yourself, Gods at War, Music, Singing and Dancing,  Pride, Arrogance, Boasting, and Public Religion.

It is always true that man’s ways are not God’s ways. This is also true with respect to love. For God, the concept of love is very complicated, nuanced and focused. While human love can be focused on both real things (e.g. people, places, objects, etc.) and abstract things, God’s idea of love is integrated with faith. That means that Godly love, unlike human love, cannot be easily observed by anyone except God because God’s love, like his word/laws/commandments, is found in hearts. That does not mean, however, that Godly love is not observable by anyone. It is observed in the heart by people who hear God’s spoken voice. Godly love is made real in God’s voice. It is also made real when it is shared.

Godly love is not found in all hearts. Godly love is found only in clean, pure hearts. Godly love is not found in evil, impure hearts. Evil, impure hearts may have an abundance of human love out of which people do many good things and enjoy fulfilling human relationships, but that human love is not the same as Godly love.

Godly love, along with grace, mercy and peace is fully integrated with faith. That means that, unlike human love which is often visibly expressed, Godly love, like faith, is unseen. But being unseen is not the same as being unknown. We know God when his laws are written on our hearts. And when we know God, we know his love because God is love. This truth will not make sense to religious people because God’s laws are not written on their hearts. But, it will begin to make sense when they stop listening to religious leaders and start listening to God’s voice.

Understanding of Godly love is not easy. Understanding requires careful assessment of the following scriptures in a way that integrates them into one, unified thought:

1 John 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

COMMENTARY: The simple truth here is that God is love. That means that there is no distinction between God and his love. When we know God, we know his love, and when we know God’s love, we know God. God and Godly love, therefore, are one and the same thing.

STUDY TIP: Knowing God is not the same as knowing a human person. Knowing God has a special quality that transcends intellectual knowledge and human emotion. See this link for understanding of three kinds of knowledge.

Similarly, there is no distinction between God and his spirit or between God and his commandments or between God and his spoken word. God’s spoken word is the only evidence there is that God exists. To know God, therefore, is the same as knowing his word (i.e. knowing how to hear his spoken voice.) 

The same must be said about God’s love. God and his love are one thing. To know God is the same thing as knowing God’s love. And to know God’s love is the same thing as hearing God’s voice. In other words, God, his love and his voice/word are all the same thing. They are all evidence that God exists.

People love other people and things that they considerable to be lovable and worthy of their love. But God is not a God who loves people because he finds them to be attractive, or admirable, or noble or good. Human love is often withdrawn when the object that is loved no longer meets the standards of what is worthy of love.

God’s love for people is not qualified by our behavior. God does not love us only when we are good and follow his laws. God’s essence is love. He does not turn his love on and off depending on how he judges our righteousness. Just like God does not change, God’s love does not change. What changes is our ability to receive his love.

God’s love is expressed through his spirit which is always moving and always speaking truth to whoever has ears to hear. Therefore, the variable in knowing God and receiving his love is not whether God is speaking or not. Rather, the variable is having ears to hear God’s voice.

The key factor in having ears to hear is whether or not we are listening to other voices that claim to speak for God. In other words, if we have a religious habit of listening to religious leaders (e.g. Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists) God respects that choice and does not give to us ears to hear his voice.

Abiding is a matter keeping God’s commandments. This is possible only when we continue to listen to listen to his spoken voice which writes his laws (i.e. commandments) on our hearts.

God commands that we hear and obey his voice.

However, when we choose to stop listening to religious leaders, and when we hear and obey God’s spoken voice, we will keep his commandments and we will know God and his love. If we do not have ears to hear God’s voice, however, we will not keep his commandments and will not know God and his love.

We conclude, therefore, that God’s love is embodied in the words we hear him speak and is known by people who have ears to hear his voice.

1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

COMMENTARY: See commentary on 1 John 4:16 above. Also see this link for more commentary on this verse.

STUDY TIP: See UNDERSTANDING LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS AS OURSELVES for more about loving one another.

We see here that knowing God’s love is equal to knowing God.

We also see that love is not just something to be received. The love we receive must be shared with others. If it is not shared, it is not Godly love.

We cannot share what we do not possess. But, how can we possess an invisible spirit that we cannot see? And how can we share something that is invisible in a way that will be meaningful to the receiver? These are perplexing questions for religious people who want to do the right thing but who are accustomed to handling material things but not spiritual things. They need to see what they have received and see that it has been received by another person when they share it. This is a common problem for religious people who walk by sight and not by faith.

This is not a problem, however, for New Covenant disciples who understand the difference between faith and religion. They do not need to see and touch something before they believe it is real. They understand that faith comes by hearing God’s spoken word. They understand that after they quit being religious, they received the anointing from God that empowers them to speak God’s words with authority. They understand that the love they receive is embodied in God’s words spoken to their hearts. And they understand that loving others is accomplished when they share God’s words.

Here is a summary of the process:

                      • Hear God’s call to come out of religion.
                      • Repent for practicing the sin of religion.
                      • Receive God’s anointing (i.e. love.)
                      • Hear more of God’s spoken word (i.e. receive his love.)
                      • Share God’s spoken word (i.e. love) with others.

That is how we love one another. That is how we love others as we love ourselves. Here is that principle stated as simply as possible:

Listen to God’s spoken voice and share what you hear with others.

Doing this fulfills of all of God’s commandments.

STUDY TIP: See UNDERSTANDING LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS AS OURSELVES for more about sharing God’s love.

Jeremiah 31:3 the LORD appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

COMMENTARY: To understand this verse, we must first understand that God is love, God is eternal and that God’s word is eternal.

When we combine these two truths with the truth in Jeremiah 31:3, we have three things that are eternal: God, his love and his word.

In other words, God, his love and his word coexist together. When we also remember that God is love God and his word are the same thing. They coexist together. The same can be said about God’s love.

Psalm 138:8 The LORD will fulfil his purpose for me; thy steadfast love, O LORD, endures for ever. Do not forsake the work of thy hands.

COMMENTARY: Another way to say that God’s  love is steadfast and endures forever is to say that it is eternal. The interpretation is verified in several scriptures that say that God’s love is eternal. When we combine this truth with other truths that say that God’s word is eternal and that God himself is eternal, we conclude that God, his love and his word are all the same thing. See this link for understanding of the work of God’s hands. Also see Eternal Life.

Psalm 118:1-2  O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever! 2 Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures for ever.”

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

Psalm 136:1-2 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever. 2 O give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures for ever.

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

Psalm 118:29 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever!

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

1 Chronicles 16:34 O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever!

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

Psalm 136:26  O give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures for ever.

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

COMMENTARY: See commentary above. It is curious to notice that God says at least seven times that his love endures forever. When we notice that he also says many times that his word is eternal, we might rightly conclude that he repeats himself many times to make sure that we do not miss the point that his love and his word are the same thing.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (and others): “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ” declares the LORD. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

COMMENTARY: The main truth found in this verse is this: We know God when he writes his laws on the hearts of his people. God’s laws are his spoken words — not the written words of the Bible. The significance of this truth with respect to love is that God’s love and his laws are one in the same thing — not two different things. In other words, we will know God’s love only when he writes his love/laws on our hearts, and that happens only when we hear his spoken voice.

1 John 2:5  but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.

COMMENTARY: God could not have said it more simply or clearly: His love is perfected in people who hear God’s words and share those words with others. God’s love is perfected only when it is shared. His word, however, is not the written word of the Bible. The written word and God’s spoken word are not the same thing.

References to God’s words, laws, commands and love are always to his spoken word. With this understanding in mind, 1 John 2:5 could be legitimately paraphrased like this:

God’s love is perfected in people who respond to  (i.e. hear and obey)  his spoken words (i.e. his laws and commandments. We will know that we are created in God’s image when we hear and obey his spoken words.)

Hearing and obeying is a two-step process.

                      1. First we hear God’s voice.
                      2. Then we share what we heard God say with others.

This is the story of Jesus. He heard God’s voice and then he spoke for God to people who could not hear God themselves because they had hard hearts (i.e. they were religious.)

John 14:23  Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.

COMMENTARY: Jesus’ “word” is not his word because Jesus speaks for God. People who keep (i.e. obey) God’s word must hear God’s spoken voice because God’s written word and his spoken word are not the same. People who keep (i.e. obey) the written words of the Bible are only obeying religious laws based on the written words.

Religious laws are made by men who write them down on paper. God’s spiritual laws are written on the hearts of men when he speaks to their hearts.  Since Jesus speaks for God, Jesus’ word is the same thing as God’s spiritual law written on clean pure hearts. God’s love, therefore, is received only by people who have ears to hear God voice and obey God’s spiritual laws.

1 John 2:3  By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.

COMMENTARY: Since God’s commandments (i.e. his laws/words) are written on clean pure hearts, it must be said that only people with clean pure hearts know God. Furthermore, since obedience to God’s spoken word is a condition for receiving God’s love (see commentary above), it must be said that knowing God’s love is possible only for people who have clean, pure hearts. Therefore, God’s love, God’s word, and God’s commandments are all one thing. This is consistent with scripture that says that God is one.

1 John 3:24  Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.

COMMENTARY: God’s commands are also called  laws, precepts, ordinances charges and statutes. Whatever they are called, they come from God’s mouth and may be equated with his spoken word. Therefore, anyone for whom it could be said that “God remains in him” must have God’s spoken word remain in him. This is Biblical shorthand for having God’s word/laws written on the heart according to the terms of the New Covenant. They are written on the heart by the spirit of God which is another term that describes God’s word/mouth. 

Everything we know about God (e.g. who he is, what he does, his commands, what laws determine his actions, who he loves, how he loves, etc) all come from God’s mouth. Thus it can be said of people in whom God’s love remains (i.e. exists), that it remains in them because God’s word, God’s laws/commandments remain in them. These all come from God’s mouth. It is only because these all remain in people that anyone is able to fulfill God’s command to love one another.

1 John 4:13  By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

1 John 4:12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

COMMENTARY: See commentary above. The Greek word that is translated in English as “perfected” should not be interpreted in a way that his love is imperfect before he dwells in us. Rather, it should be interpreted as being made complete, accomplished or fulfilled in us. This is true, however, only for New Covenant disciples who have God’s laws/commandments written on their hearts.

1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments.

COMMENTARY: All of God’s commandments/laws are fulfilled when we love others. Love of God and others is not fulfilled through religion.

2 John 1:6  And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.

COMMENTARY: All of God’s commandments/laws are fulfilled when we love others. Love of God and others is not fulfilled through religion.

1 John 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

COMMENTARY: Knowing God and knowing his love are the same experience. When you know God you know his love. We know God and his love when his laws/commandments are written on our hearts. We know God and his love when we hear his voice spoken to us directly or through true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses and warriors.

John 15:13-15: Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

COMMENTARY: Understanding of this verse depends on understanding of Godly love and on the nature of religion. 

Before he was born again, Jesus was religious. He had many Jewish brothers and sisters with whom he shared religious beliefs and practices. That all changed when Jesus was baptized with a baptism of repentance. Jesus had to voluntarily put his religious life to death. He had to die to being a religious son of religious men before he could be a spiritual son of God.

Therefore, the first life that Jesus laid down is the love of religion that sustained him for the first thirty years of his life. The Bible calls the end of this life the “first death.” This death occurred when Jesus was baptized.

STUDY TIP: See this link for the symbolism of baptism.

Jesus died to religion and became spiritually alive at the moment he was baptized by the spirit of God. It was then that he became a messiah.  Until that moment, he was accepted as a faithful Jew as because he obeyed the rules of Judaism. But when he was born again, he became a religious law-breaker and began fulfilling his ministry functions. That is when his former coreligionists started persecuting him and plotting to kill him. That is when former friends and family started wondering about his sanity and speculating that he was possessed by demons.

From the time Jesus was baptized and began his ministry, he was no longer a religious insider but he became a non-religious outsider. This history is all part of the second death that Jesus suffered. The second death is not a moment in time. It is a process that begins as soon as we are born again.

The second death must happen because most religious people will be greatly offended when someone breaks their religious rules, challenges their beliefs, or threatens to tear down their kingdoms and their idols. These activities are part of Jesus’ ministry and they are the things that his followers will do also. People who do not experience second death treatment from religious people are not true followers.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is the Enemy, Gods at War and Sibling Conflict for understanding of religious conflict. Also see Jesus and the Money-Changers in the Temple.

Jesus broke religious rules and told the Jews why their religion was sin.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of Jesus as a lawbreaker.

See Jesus Ministry Functions for a review of the things that Jesus told religious leaders that offended them.

It is no wonder that people despised and hated him. His words caused conflict with his former religious friends and his family.. As soon as Jesus started to preach about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Jews was threatened. Thus it can be said that he sacrificed (i.e. laid down) his good relationships with his Jewish coreligionists when he began to preach.

Jesus suffered the second death trusting that he would always have spiritual life. He understood the meaning of eternal life.

It was his willingness to leave religion and suffer persecution of the second death at the hands of religious leaders that qualified him to be a spokesperson for God. By speaking for God and putting his own life at risk, he expressed great love for others. That kind of love is the qualification for all true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors who speak for God. It must be this way because it is impossible to preach about the promise of a changed heart unless you have personally experienced the miracle God has performed in your own heart. By doing this, Jesus gives us the perfect example of greater love which is the perfect example of Godly love.

But greater love does not exist only in the heart. It is also expressed in works and deeds. It is an outward expression of inner faith as we see in this often-quoted scripture about faith and deeds.

This collection of verses above forces the conclusion that God’s love is his word. God’s love and his word are not two different things, but they are the same thing. In fact, God’s love, God’s word and God’s spirit are all the same thing because these terms all describe God.

In order to understand God and how he lives and works through his people, we must combine the following truths into one unified truth:

The overriding, unifying truth is this: God cannot be divided into separate concepts (e.g. love, spirit, word, etc.). God is all of these ideas and much more than we can possibly comprehend.

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