The world and many Christians have reverted to viewing God through a misunderstanding of the Old Covenant
Many religions acknowledge a supreme being but love does not feature in its nature. Many Christians acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but His love doesn’t feature in the relationship experience. They believe they have a handle on love based on natural experiences. They see God’s status as God as attributed to His Supreme reign, greatness, power, omniscience, omnipresence, miraculous works, salvation, living in heaven and creation of the universe. The essence of His love nature has been snuffed out in many cases. The world and many Christians have reverted to viewing God through a misunderstanding of the Old Covenant lenses, therefore their perception of and relationship with God, have denied the essence of our foundation scripture – “For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son….” It is about God’s amazing love toward us.
What is God really saying about all of this? God wants to be known as LOVE, the essence of His being. That is the reason He created man, so His love could be experienced and shared. If the Holy Spirit is not leading us and teaching us the Love of God, people will distort and completely emaciate its truth. As I have said before, I strongly believe this is the element that is missing even in Christianity – receiving and believing the Love which God has toward humanity (1 John 4:16).
The world can never see it if the Body of Christ is not demonstrating it and herein lies the problem. The knowledge of the glory of God (Love) must cover the earth as the waters cover the seas (Habakkuk 2 :14) and His love has been shed abroad in the hearts of Christians by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5: 5). If Christians do not believe the love, how can they show it?
What is the danger of mankind viewing love through the world’s eyes?
What is the danger of mankind viewing love through the world’s eyes? First of all, the world does not know God and hath not God, therefore they do NOT know LOVE or have LOVE (1 John 3: 1). The world is at constant enmity with God and therefore at constant enmity with LOVE (James 4: 4). In other words, the world does not have the capacity and capability to love because they do not have that nature. I find it to be a perfect example of what a ‘quack’ is, when I hear talk show hosts and others in the media at large, who have professed to not being born-again, trying to assess whether or not someone is advocating or demonstrating love because that person expresses his/her opinion on homosexuality, abortion and other acts that are clearly sinful in God’s eyes (John 14:15).
There are well known cult-like organizations that hold large seminars to teach love, when they have not the Spirit of Love. The world CANNOT show love and neither can they define it, because they do NOT have LOVE (John 14:17). LOVE is GOD. God is LOVE (1John 4:8)!
Through the enemy’s devices, many have a perverted view of LOVE, that they are unable to receive the true LOVE, Who is God
Let’s take a look at popular movies, recordings from popular artistes, as well as broken, fatherless homes and perpetrators of abusive relationships. When people see themselves as animals or objects to be used and abused, as some of these represent, then they cannot receive LOVE in its pureness. I strongly believe that the depiction of ‘love’ even through abusive human relationships, whereby it is conveyed in expressed beliefs such as –
“It is because I love you why I abuse you”,
plays a part in people’s view of the One Who is LOVE. Through the enemy’s devices, many have a perverted view of LOVE, that they are unable to receive the true LOVE, Who is God. This is revealed by people who would hear of God’s LOVE for them and ask,
“How could Almighty God love someone like me?”
Christians have compounded this with a doctrine that conveys an image of “God” who would make them poor, destitute, damaged, sick etc., because He wants to teach them a lesson. If I could get a dime for the number of times this is said to me, I would have millions of dollars in that account. This is not the God of John 3:16 and He is calling out with LOVE for people to truly know Him.
We were commanded by Jesus to love God and love our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22:37 – 39). He did not just tell us to do it; He gave us His ability (by the Holy Spirit when we became born – again) (Romans 5:5 ) to do so. If persons are unwilling to receive His love, then they cannot love Him; if they cannot love Him, they cannot love themselves and therefore cannot love others. This looks like a very obvious mathematical computation. Life and love are and must be based on knowing the Author and Finisher of them. Otherwise, it is a useless venture and that is the fantasy that the world is promoting – ‘Love without God.’
The results of that have been obvious from the fall of man and even worse now.
It is only in knowing Him that we can truly love and become His masterpiece.