God is love. Let us take care to understand this properly. Many take this to lead into error in lifestyles today. God is love, yes. But how? Is he love in that he accepts everyone as they are without repentance and without change? Absolutely not. He loves us enough to send Yeshua to die for us so our sins can be forgiven. He loves us enough that Yeshua reinforced the teaching of the Torah and prophets as the core standard by which we should live. He did this by word and action. He loves us enough to send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us as believers as guide and counselor to help us turn away from sin and the ways of the world and live God’s way.
God Is Love
7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16We 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. 17By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19We love, because He first loved us. 20If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
A few more points John makes in today’s scripture… God loved us first, before we loved him. our love is perfected by abiding in God (living his way and in relation with him). There is no fear in love. In his perfect love, if we abide in him, we need not fear the day of judgment. John also emphasizes we love our brother.
Two questions come to mind for clarification… who is our brother? and how do we love God’s way?
Yeshua addresses the first question in Matthew. It is not “everyone who breathes”. He is focused on those who love and accept and submit to the Father, not just in words, but in “doing” the will of the Father.
46While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” 48But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
How do we love God’s way? Some claim it is to accept everyone how they are and have no expectation of repentance or change in their lives. This is man’s way, not God’s way. The entirety of the Torah and the prophets is based on loving God and loving one another. We love God and people God’s way when we live according to the law of God, which is documented in the Torah and the prophets. Who said so? Yeshua himself.
36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38“This is the great and foremost commandment. 39“The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40“On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Let us take great care not to use “love” as an excuse to encourage people to remain in sin and separated from God. True love shines a light on truth and invites them to follow us to the Father through the Son… to change and be less like the world and more like Yeshua.
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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.