God's Love Clarified

What Does Love Look Like?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a defines it. The whole Bible demonstrates it. Jesus lived it and lives it still. But God's Love is so expansive that it will take a lifetime here on earth and all eternity to fathom it's depths. I'm absolutely sure I don't have the entire picture of God's Love and that I've got a long, long way to grow in this the first fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22. But please consider the nuggets below and see if these things bear witness to your own spirit and seem to flesh out by your knowledge of the scriptures:

God's Love is not sloppy. Love is not an emotion, though it may cause an emotion. Love does not wink at sin. Love doesn't mean "anything goes." Love is merciful, but love is just and truthful too. Love thinks long-range consequences and blessings, not just short-term convenience and comfort. Love doesn't whitewash sin. Love stands against evil. Love is not just mushy feelings towards another. Love is a decision - a choice. Love is what God says it is, not what men think it is, or hope that it might be. Love is grateful. Love is balanced. Love intercedes for another. Love hates demons. Love hates immorality but loves the immoral. Love hates sin that distorts and pollutes the very image of God in people. Love is smarter than men. God loving all people does not guarantee all go to heaven or that God is pleased with everyone's attitudes, actions, or wicked agendas. Love doesn't necessarily mean approval of all one's actions. Love can keep loving even if it is not pleased with another's actions. Love is not mere sentimentality.   Love without truth is mere sentimentality, not truly love. Truth without love is too harsh, and not loving. Love and truth go together. Love tells the truth for the right reasons. Hate may tell the truth for the wrong reasons. Love is not afraid to confront evil, sin, wickedness, or wrong. Love realizes that failure to confront guarantees the ultimate failure of any relationship. Love is much, much more than a warm fuzzy. Love is a commitment. Love forgives but also requires accountability from the wrongdoer. Love gives space and time to others for them to repent and change, but the window of opportunity is not always forever. Love dares to speak truth though it may initially cause discomfort for the hearer, because love has the interests of the hearer at heart, more than fear of its own rejection. Love loves the sinner but hates the sin. Love calls each and every sin out by its ugly name for what it really is, in order to offer pardon and power over each to any who choose to receive.  Love is indeed gracious and patient, forbearing and merciful, but love has conditions to be met in order to be received and enjoyed by the recipient. Love is unconditionally given, but conditionally received. Love is unilaterally offered but requires reciprocation to be enjoyed by the object of that love. God's Love never fails, but many fail to position themselves in true humility and repentance to receive and enjoy it, from God or from others. The God Kind of Love is higher and more powerful than the mere man kind of love.

A False Gospel?

There is a gospel that some are purposely or accidentally propagating that BYPASSES REPENTANCE. That form of the gospel says, JUST BELIEVE GOD IS GOOD, and YOU'RE IN! I beg to differ, and so does Jesus! Jesus said, "REPENT AND BELIEVE the Good News." If words mean anything, Jesus says REPENTANCE goes BEFORE believing or at least ALONG WITH believing. (Hard to separate these power twins!) Turning to God automatically implies turning away from something else. Changing your mind about something or someone means you forsake your previous loyalty. One cannot simply believe that GOD EXISTS or that GOD IS GOOD. More is required. Jesus said that even the demons acknowledge that God exists... big deal! Even the demons KNOW that God is good and they are evil.

Even Hebrews 11:6 says that one that comes to God must believe 1) that He is, AND [emphasis on the word "AND"] 2) that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (implying a seeking, or repenting or an internal process between God and the seeker, or a reward for doing something, not just mentally ascending to the mere fact of God's existence alone. Believing that "God is a Rewarder" automatically and simultaneously acknowledges that there is such a thing as a penalty, or at least the possibility of not being rewarded for some reason. FAITH pleases God but it always involves a change of one's mind, a turning away from one thing to another, a persuading by God deposited into one's heart.

The very first fundamental doctrine of Christ listed in the six fundamental beliefs of Hebrews 6:1-3 is REPENTANCE. The second is FAITH. The Gospel is one of repentance AND faith. Attempts to bypass genuine repentance are futile and result in failed and false faith. Repentance, in the Hebrew meaning to TURN AROUND, and in the Greek meaning to CHANGE ONE's MIND, is what energizes FAITH, undergirds FAITH, and is in fact, the foundation of FAITH. To GENUINELY SEE the error of one's way and to turn to God out of that revelation from God is the BASIS FOR FAITH. Hebrews 6:1-3 is in sequential order: First you must repent, then you can have faith, then you can enjoy the baptisms, then you can lay hands on others for impartations, then you can understand resurrection of the dead and finally eternal judgment, and then after a thorough understanding and practice of these six you can receive a building permit from the Lord to grow in Christian maturity. There is a sequence to these six fundamental doctrines in both practice and understanding. (To study, understand and practice the six fundamental doctrines of Christ as outlined in Hebrews 6:1-3, go to http://devotional.net/uploads/147/95709.pdf.)

REPENT is NOT a Four-Letter Dirty Word! It's 6 letters last time I looked! Rather it is a beautiful word, a word to be embraced, a word to get another chance, a word of astounding potential and grace. I love the word REPENT because it is a "PLOP, PLOP, FIZ, FIZ, O WHAT A RELIEF IT IS" kind of word. It is a "THANKS, I NEEDED THAT" kind of word. It's an "AHHHH, THAT WAS REFRESHING!" kind of word. REPENT: The magic word that's the door into everything God has for me! Yes!