| by Nathaniel Burson (Big Sandy, Texas) |
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| Yes! What you have been taught by men today about love is a LIE, and God HATES IT! Understand, God does not hate TRUE, GODLY Love As a matter of fact, He IS love (1 John 4:8) but He hates DEAD Love! Allow me to explain what I mean by this. How to Love If you go to church, you are probably told every week to LOVE the brethren. And, more than likely you never hear what that love IS, or how to give it! You are probably told that love is simply showing concern or affection for other people, but what does the BIBLE say love is? It is time you cast off the traditions and preconceived notions of a Satan-deceived world and dug out the REAL TRUTH FROM THE BIBLE! Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Most people can quote this scripture but without telling you HOW TO LOVE, it is meaningless! How does the Bible define LOVE? Read the clear truth in your own Bible! Romans 13:8 Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. And now read the summary Paul gives us! Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW! If you love someone, you will not break the Commandments of God against them! In other words, if you LOVE me, you will not steal from me! This is the SIMPLE truth that Satan and his ministers, many of which claim to be part of the Church of God, have CLOUDED, and CONFUSED in this modern world! (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) Loving Your Enemies Love is not a nebulous, complicated FEELING you are commanded to have towards your fellow man it is simply obeying the law of God, and NOT HURTING OTHERS. A good example of this is how you treat your enemies. In the Old Testament, you were allowed to hate your enemies in other words, to hurt them if they hurt you. Leviticus 24:20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. But in the New Testament, you are not to hate even your enemies. How do you SHOW this love for your enemy? By obeying the law of God towards him! Matthew 5:43-46 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? Does God expect you to hug your enemies? To work up a happy feeling when you see them? WHAT DOES HE MEAN by this? He means exactly what the Bible says! You must allow the BIBLE, not MEN, to tell you what love is! 2 John 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. THIS is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. This means that even though a man steals from you, you cannot STEAL FROM HIM! “Love” is nothing more complicated than this! Love Towards God HOW do you show LOVE TOWARDS GOD? Let us read the answer Christ gave you. John 14:15 IF ye love me, keep my commandments. If you say you “Love the Lord”, then you MUST keep the commandments. Jesus Christ Himself said so and HE should know what He wants you to do better than your minister! 1 John 2:3-4 And hereby we do KNOW that we know Him IF we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, IS A LIAR, and the truth is not in him. Not only do you NOT love him, but you can’t even KNOW him unless you keep His commandments And if you claim to “Know Jesus”, and don’t do this, well, I don’t say you’re a LIAR, but YOUR BIBLE, THE VERY WORD OF GOD DOES! The Simple Truth About LOVE Now, it’s time to get to the bottom of this word, “Love”. What is the REAL meaning of it? If you truly LOVE someone, it means you want THEIR GOOD MORE THAN YOUR OWN. Take time to think about this! To really GRASP the meaning! This means that IF you love someone, you are going to think about what THEY would want. To take an extreme example, you might see a fine car, unlocked, with the keys in the ignition. You might really want this car. But then ask yourself Would this man want me to steal his car? and of course the answer will be “No”. If you love this man, even though you may want his car, you WANT HIS GOOD MORE than your own so when you OBEY the commandment of God that says “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, YOU SHOW LOVE TO HIM. Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. This scripture is the BOTTOM LINE of what love is. To “Love your neighbor as yourself”, you don’t just SAY you love him, you don’t give him a hug or a handshake and then do what YOU WANT, That philosophy ABOUNDS in the world today, but it is LOVE WITHOUT WORKS. And Love without works is DEAD. 1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth To LOVE other men, you have to do WORKS that show it “these works might be anything from picking up a hitchhiker, to not sleeping with another man’s wife” but there must be WORKS to show your love. Take the example James gives you… (Editor’s Note: To pick up hitchhikers can be dangerous. Use discretion should you decide to pick up hitchhikers. Thank you, Laura Lee) James 2:15-16 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? So, you see that YOUR BIBLE shows that if you LOVE someone, you must show works. And these works are nothing more than asking yourself what YOU would want done to yourself, then doing it to him. To say it one more time – Love is nothing more than wanting another person’s good MORE THAN YOUR OWN. There is one more TRUTH, one more bit of CONFUSION to blast away before you TRULY UNDERSTAND LOVE. This TRUTH is in showing love to God. You show Love for God the same as you do for any other man. By wanting His good, and His will more than your own Just as Christ did not seek His will, but the will of His Father. John 5:30… I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. And we know that Christ loved the Father. And He showed this love by seeking His Father’s will and keeping His Commandments. You can show this same Love for Christ and His Father by KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS. Not loving Him in word, or just saying you love him that is a dead love. But by loving Him with ACTIONS, and WORKS. This is the ONLY TRUE WAY to “Love the Lord”, which many of the DECEIVED MASSES in the world today claim to do! 1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. The one thing that destroys love in the world, the only thing that CAN destroy TRUE, GODLY love, is SIN. 1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And Christ prophesied almost 2000 years ago that LOVE would disappear in this endtime world today! And He told us why! Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Because INIQUITY, or LAWLESSNESS is EVERYWHERE today, the love of many is disappearing! The TRUE LOVE of wanting the good of others MORE than your own is being replaced with SELFISHNESS, with GREED and syrupy, MEANINGLESS, DEAD LOVE Because LOVE, WITHOUT WORKS, IS DEAD! It is time that YOU turned this around in yourself, time that you STOPPED following LIES and DECEPTION and THROW OUT THE SPIRITUAL GARBAGE OF THIS WORLD AND GET BACK TO THE BIBLE AND SHOW THE TRUE LOVE TOWARDS GOD AND YOUR FELLOW MAN! |
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