Love and Christianity

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And 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 first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  
Matthew 22:36-40

The common theme in these recent times is for Christians to throw up "Love your neighbor" as that which is the most important command in all of Christianity. Because of the recent argument amongst people in the new public forum which is Facebook (the 21st century Aeoropageus), Christians who don't know their Bibles very well and know God less are "tossed to and fro by the waves and every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph. 4:14), showing that their faith truly lies in what seems right to the culture and what keeps the most amount of people happy. They forget passages such as Proverbs 14:12 ("There is a way that seems right to man, and its end is always death"), Genesis 8:21 ("The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth"), and Psalm 14:2-3 ("The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one").  In all honesty, they didn't forget these passages.  They never accepted them to begin with.

In this they fail to consider the very nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--since all people are sinful (see aforementioned passages, specifically Ps 14), beyond repair in and of themselves, with evil intent, headed towards death, and hostile to God (see Romans 8:7), the only way that anyone could be saved is if help from outside comes. That help has to come from God Himself; the Christian is supposed to know this, that if they call their self a Christian, it's because they believe that since "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15), He has saved ME from my sin and from this world. This means that whatever my leanings and whatever thoughts I have, I take my own understanding with a grain of salt, because I know that my heart is inherently evil and I don't know HOW to think. I throw myself entirely on Christ, because apart form Him, I have nothing and I know nothing.  "Lean not on your understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him."

This means that when I come to the Bible, I don't put it up next to my own understanding, tainted by the world, as though I'm the judge and the Bible is pleading for my approval. Rather, I believe God's Word is eternal (Ps 119:89), and that I'M the one who sits naked and exposed before it as it "discerns the thoughts and intentions of my heart" knowing that "no creature is hidden from his sight" (Hebrews 4:12-13). This means that I recognize the Bible is true before I begin thinking about it--if something doesn't make sense, it's not because it's not true or trustworthy. It's because I don't know how to think and consider things rationally...I'm driven by my own hunger for sin. Earning for myself the knowledge of good and evil, I've earned "evil intentions of my thoughts...continually" (Gen. 6:5). I understand this when I come to Scripture.

Instead, the world's population thinks that they are a law to themselves, and God and His Word have to stand account before them. But in reality, according to the Bible, WE have to stand account before IT. This means that just because someone struggles with a particular sin, that doesn't mean the Biblical message isn't true--and it certainly doesn't mean that it has some sort of alternative meaning. It means that whereas there are some imperatives in the Book of Leviticus ("Don't do this...") that we can understand the New Covenant as bringing us out from under, there are declaratives in Leviticus that still have to be observed, regardless of what Covenant ("Don't do this...it's an abomination").
This also means that just because someone struggles with a sin, that doesn't mean God created them that way--by no means! How could God call something an abomination, and then create someone SO THAT they will do that thing? If He did create them to do this, He's God, and we have to trust that He knows best and will judge best according to His holiness and goodness (see Genesis 18:25b). But He didn't. The far more Biblical possibility is that since man is fallen in his sin, one is raised by parents who are fallen and are imperfect, around a culture that is fallen and imperfect, is exposed to fallen and imperfect images at too young an age, is possibly tempted with enticements that go contrary to nature but in-step with culture, and since he wants to justify himself and have a sense of entitlement, he'll begin to believe certain things about himself until they become his reality.  Sin isn't always as simple as "a choice"--sometimes it's a series of choices and based on faulty reasoning until I'm enslaved more than I was in the first place.

"Because the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth," and who says this? The God of the Bible who created them and has created all people since the beginning of time. And since so-called Christians don't understand the nature of human sin (man thinks he's the judge) because they don't understand the nature of the Gospel (GOD is the judge, and man needs a Savior from himself), they'll be content to believe that someone's struggles with sin are God-given, and therefore isn't really sin. Therefore, the "loving" thing to do is accept things the way they are, because there isn't really anything wrong. "Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?!"

But there are some Christians who do believe in the power of sin, and they don't condone something if it's sin. So they throw up the blanket statement, "Jesus commands us to love our neighbors" and stop right there. They'll never have an honest and humble conversation with one who is in sin, because they think "loving" them means letting them drown in their sin without AT LEAST letting it be known that the two don't share the same conviction (or lack thereof). "Love your neighbor as yourself" as though THIS is the greatest command. But Jesus didn't say that, did He? He said the GREATEST command is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength"...and a SECOND one is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The GREATEST two commands are these two, but the greatest OF these two is for a person to love God with everything that they have. Secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. (You may argue that Paul said in Galatians 5:14 that the Law hangs on "love your neighbor as yourself", but the context of the rest of the chapter is how Christ has set us free from bondage to the Law's slavery...clearly he means that since we love God with our hearts which are full of His Spirit, now we CAN love our neighbor as ourselves).

My concern is that many of the "Christians" who yell and shout "Love your neighbor! Love your neighbor!" as though that's everything there is are yelling and shouting from a heart that doesn't really love God with even PARTS of their heart, soul, mind, or strength, let alone "ALL your heart...". Remember Jesus' words, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."

How do you show whether or not you actually love God? It's simple, because Jesus answers it for us in the passage--"On these commands depend all the Law and Prophets."  Here's the question: Do you love God enough to uphold the Law and Prophets, the Scriptures? Do you believe that the Bible is true enough that no matter what direction the culture is going in, the Bible is true, because it's eternal and perfect, and our understanding is neither? Do you love God enough to come honestly up under His Word and say "Have mercy on me a sinner!", instead of "Well, surely we won't die...God just doesn't want us to be like Him."

If you remember, Paul said in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern the will of God is..." What is 'this world'? The place where Satan the Serpent reigns, enticing people into thinking God's a liar until they agree with him, so that eventually they think "truth" is defined by what seems best at any given moment TO US, the people. Why does Paul say not to be conformed to this? Because of what Proverb 14 said--it seems right, but it is death. YOU ARE DYING SLOWLY BUT SURELY IF YOU LISTEN TO YOUR HEART AND THE VOICE OF THE SERPENT THROUGH THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD.

And my concern is that the aforementioned 'Christians' are proving how little they actually believe in God or His Word, by showing that they really actually believe in the overall goodness of people enough to question the validity of the Word that is eternal. Friends, Jesus, the eternal Word of God (John 1:1) is asking you 2 simple questions: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matt 16:15), and "Do you love me?" (John 21:17). You can't love your neighbor truly without first loving your heavenly Father--if you try to, you'll be more influenced by your neighbor than you are by the Father (see Matt 6:24 and John 8:34). "Who do you say that I am?" If He's the Christ, then you and I need saved, and being saved, we must cling to Christ from first to last...that's the nature of the Gospel: Christ came to save sinners.  But if you think sin doesn't play a part in people's opinions and convictions, including your own, the Gospel will never be good news to you, because you don't think you need saved.  We must answer "Do you love me?" with "Yes Lord, you know I love you" in honesty, because we believed we've been saved, redeemed, reborn of imperishable seed, and "it's no longer (we) who live, but Christ in (us)."

Then and only then can we speak with authority about God's revealed Word in Scripture. Otherwise, we're the lukewarm who Christ has promised to spit out of His mouth. Let your statements and comments and arguments and debates be made 100% of the time underneath the checking of the Holy Spirit's "Who do you say I am?" Christians, do you even love Jesus? If you do, you will love the sinner...but not so much that you sacrifice the truth and validity of God's Word to accommodate the acceptance of their lifestyle. The fact that you have Christ will always keep you humble, and they'll see it, even if they call you bigots. But you will always stand firm on Christ. Who do you say that He is?  Because who you say HE is will inform who you say YOU are who you say OTHERS are.  Christians, get honest, and stop accepting sin at the expense of rebuking your brothers and sisters in Christ--that is, IF you're even in Christ.  Meditate on 2 Corinthians 13:5.