Did you know that the vast majority of Christians do notbelieve nor do they even pay attention to the Bible? Did you know that if anyone were to act like Jesus did or the way the Apostles did today they would be branded as mean,ugly, unloving, that they had roots of bitterness or even that they were heretics? Ah, Christians will say that is impossible, I would never do that. Let us see.
“Mat 15:21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Mat 15:22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying,"Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed." Mat 15:23 But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us." Mat 15:24 But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Mat 15:25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" Mat 15:26 But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." Mat 15:27And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Mat 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said toher, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”
Now look at how Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who alwayswalked in love treated this woman. First,Jesus HIMSELF ignored her. He did not say a word to her. Finally, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our Lord and Savior, INSULTS this woman and calls her a little dog! Now she received that rebuke and the Lord cast the demon out of her daughter. But what if that were done today?
How many people reading this article ever paid attention to this? Was Jesus always sweet and nice and warm? NO! Yet Jesus always walked in love. If ANYONE treated another person like this today (including Jesus Christ) they would be branded as someone who was mean,cruel, unloving and maybe even a heretic. Perhaps we do not understand what it is to walk in love very well.
Joh 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was approaching, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Joh 2:14 There He found in the temple [enclosure] those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there [also at their stands].Joh 2:15 And having made a lash (a whip) of cords, He drove them all out of the temple [enclosure]--both the sheep and the oxen--spilling and scattering the brokers' money and upsetting and tossing around their trays (their stands). Joh 2:16 Then to those who sold the doves He said, Take these things away (out of here)! Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise (a marketplace, a sales shop)! [Ps.93:5.]
Here our Lord actually made a whip and drove out all the animals, and people who were selling things in the Temple. He also turned over the money trays and scattered the money all over the place. Remember also, Jesus did this twice. Not just one time. So, if someone did this today anywhere, do you think they would be looked at in any sort of positive light? In fact, would they not be arrested and charged with at least disturbing the peace and assault? Yet, Jesus ALWAYS walked in Love. Do we really understand what Love is and how it looks?
“Mat 12:30 He who is not with Me [definitely on My side] is against Me, and he who does not [definitely] gather with Me and for My side scatters. Mat 12:31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy (every evil, abusive, injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things) can be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit shall not and cannot be forgiven. Mat 12:32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Spirit,the Holy One, will not be forgiven, either in this world and age or in the world and age to come. Mat 12:33 Either make the tree sound (healthy and good),and its fruit sound (healthy and good), or make the tree rotten (diseased and bad), and its fruit rotten (diseased and bad); for the tree is known and recognized and judged by its fruit. Mat12:34 You offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil (wicked)? For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks. Mat 12:35 The good man from his inner good treasure flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things.”
So, how about someone who talks like this? Is this a person filled with the knowledge and love of God? Is this someone who is led by the Holy Spirit? Yet this is Jesus Christ who did these things? Jesus Himself said His disciples would act like Himself and they would be called evil things. One must wonder, if we are being brutally honest, are we overlooking how Jesus acted and being super critical of His disciples today? Is that not hypocrisy?
Mat 23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil,plunder) and grasping self-indulgence. Mat 23:26 You blind Pharisee! Firstclean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside may be clean also. Mat 23:27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you are like tombs that have been whitewashed, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything impure. Mat23:28 Just so, you also outwardly seem to people to be just and upright but inside you are full of pretense and lawlessness and iniquity. [Ps. 5:9.] Mat 23:29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, Mat23:30 Saying, If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have aided them in shedding the blood of the prophets. Mat 23:31 Thus you are testifying against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Mat 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' sins to the brim [so that nothing may be wanting to a full measure]. Mat23:33 You serpents! You spawn of vipers! How can you escape the penalty to be suffered in hell (Gehenna)?
I am not going to copy all of Matthew 23 here. Here is just a small portion of how Jesus spoke. Let me ask you all, how would you view someone who spoke like this? Be critical of how Jesus was talking. Was Jesus walking in Love? Was Jesus being mean, cruel, judgmental, etc.? So, are we beginning to see a pattern yet? Is it possible we have a very wrong idea of what it means to walk in God’s love? Let us look further.
Mar 10:17 And as He was setting out on His journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked Him, Teacher, [You are essentially and perfectly morally] good, what must I do to inherit eternal life [that is, to partake of eternal salvation in the Messiah's kingdom]? Mar 10:18 And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me [essentially and perfectly morally] good? There is no one [essentially and perfectly morally] good--except God alone. Mar 10:19 You know the commandments: Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. [Exod.20:12-16; Deut. 5:16-20.]Mar 10:20 And he replied to Him, Teacher, I have carefully guarded and observed all these and taken care not to violate them from my boyhood. Mar 10:21 And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, and He said to him, You lack one thing; go and sell all you have and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come [and] accompany Me [walking the same road that I walk]. Mar 10:22 At that saying the man's countenance fell and was gloomy, and he went away grieved and sorrowing, for he was holding great possessions. Mar 10:23 And Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, With what difficulty will those who possess wealth and keep on holding it enter the kingdom of God!
Do you notice verse 21 where it says Jesus LOVED HIM? Do you realize that the Bible says that about only 3 different people? The Apostle John, Lazarus, the brother of Mary andMartha, and the Rich Young Ruler! Yes, Jesus loved everyone. But the Bible specifically states He loved these 3. So, how about the way Jesus treated him? Do we call that love? Jesus is rather blunt with him when the young man calls him good. Jesus corrects his mistake and rebukes him. Then tells him to do the absolutely hardest thing for him to do, go and sell everything, give it to the poor and then come follow Him. When the young man walks away sad, Jesus runs after him and tells him He was only kidding,right? NO! Jesus lets him walk away and uses it to teach the disciples that anyone who is rich will have a very difficult time entering the Kingdom of God. Is that what we call love? The Bible does. Do we agree with the Bible or do we have another set of “rules” we live by?
1Jn 3:4 Everyone who commits (practices) sin is guilty of lawlessness; for [that is what] sin is, lawlessness (the breaking, violating of God's law by transgression or neglect--being unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will). 1Jn3:5 You know that He appeared in visible form and became Man to take away [upon Himself] sins, and in Him there is no sin [essentially and forever].1Jn 3:6 No one who abides in Him [who lives and remains in communion with and in obedience to Him--deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] commits (practices) sin. No one who [habitually] sins has either seen or known Him [recognized, perceived, or understood Him, or has had an experiential acquaintance with Him]. 1Jn 3:7 Boys (lads), let no one deceive and lead you astray. He who practices righteousness [who is upright, conforming to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action, living a consistently conscientious life] is righteous, even as He is righteous. 1Jn 3:8 [But] he who commits sin [who practices evil doing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done]. 1Jn 3:9 No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God's nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God. 1Jn 3:10 By this it is made clear who take their nature from God and are His children and who take their nature from the devil and are his children: no one who does not practice righteousness [who does not conform to God's will in purpose,thought, and action] is of God; neither is anyone who does not love his brother (his fellow believer in Christ).
So, here is John, the beloved apostle. The one the Bible says whom Jesus loved. He was the closest of the apostles to Jesus. He laid on Jesus’ chest during the Last Supper. And now John writes some very exacting descriptions of those who are and are NOT the Children of God. He even states very clearly that whoever practices sin DOES NOT KNOW GOD! So, this is also LOVE, is it not? Do our ideas of love encompass John’s ideas? How would we react to someone who said anything like this today? If a person stood up and listed these requirements for anyone to be saved, what would the modern Christian say about him? Would they say he was mean, cruel, unloving, unkind, legalistic, a heretic? Are these ideas changing what we think about love or are we getting angry?
Let us look at just two places where Paul wrote to theCorinthians.
1Co 3:1HOWEVER, BRETHREN, I could not talk to you as to spiritual [men], but as to nonspiritual [men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates], as to mere infants [in the new life] in Christ [unable to talk yet!] 1Co 3:2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough [to be ready for it]; but even yet you are not strong enough [to be ready for it], 1Co 3:3 For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses]. For as long as [there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?
What? Paul is sitting there in Rome, writing to the Corinthians and telling them that they are carnal, babes in Christ, and that they are not spiritual people at all! Is Paul walking in Love? How would we think of someone who said anything like this today? Yet once again, are we not told that whoever is a disciple of Jesus will walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus and be treated like Jesus? Let us look at one more place.
1Co 13:4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.1Co 13:5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 1Co 13:6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 1Co13:7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 1Co 13:8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
Here is the definition of God’s love. But do we follow it or OUR OWN IDEA of what it says? Now remember, we MUST look at all those previous instances of Jesus and the Apostles to understand what Paul is speaking of here. We cannot ignore those places of rebuke and correction when looking at what it means to walk in love. WHY? Because Jesus always walked in Love. He only did what Father God told Him to do and only said what Father God told Him to say. He never acted from His own interests or His own ideas, wants or desires. We are told God is Love and everything He does is from Love.
So, anyone who hears someone speak or reads something written CANNOT immediately judge it is unloving, in error, unkind, cruel,etc. WHY? Because of all of those incidents copied above and many, many more that are contained in the Scriptures. In fact, the person who is filled with God’s Love will always rejoice and be exceedingly glad when right and truth are spoken of and prevail. BUT when they are not, when right and truth are NOT proclaimed, when the TRUTH is NOT preached, when Righteousness (not our ideas but GOD’s) are put down, then that brings about dissatisfaction, even sadness or anger. NO you say? What about Jesus and His anger at the temple? What about Jesus and His anger at the Pharisees? What about Paul writing to the Corinthians like he did, calling them unspiritual, babies and carnal? Are you sure you know what Love is all about?
What does that mean? It means that LOVE cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, LOVE sent the Flood to destroy all life on the earth, LOVE confused the languages of men, LOVE sent Abraham to the mountain to offer Isaac his only son as a sacrifice, LOVE sent the children of Israel to Egypt to be slaves for 430 years, LOVE killed the child of Bathsheba that she had from the adulterous relationship with David, LOVE sent Israel and then Judah into captivity, Love did not speak to Israel for over 400 years, LOVE sent Jesus to die for us, LOVE sent Paul to SUFFER all those things he suffered along with rest of the apostles.
Do all of these things incorporate our idea of LOVE? If not, then we have a very man sided view of what LOVE truly is. We are told about God correcting us and chastising us and disciplining us. We are told that when we are disciplined, it is NOT comfortable, nice or pleasant. Do we include this in our definition of LOVE? If not, why not? Because GOD NEVER does anything without doing so in Love.
Would not His TRUE CHILDREN, those who are led by the HolySpirit and have the VERY LIFE of Christ Jesus flowing out from them act in the same way? YES!
So before you start putting your idea of what Love should look like out there, it would be better for you to include all of these things as part of that Love, FOR LOVE IS how Jesus always acted. And if Jesus were here today, if the Apostles were here today and they all spoke and acted as they did in the Bible, they would once more be called, mean, cruel, unloving, bitter, and heretics!
If these words have caused you to be angry, I must ask you why? Did I not take large quotes from the Bible to show you the reality of how Jesus and the Apostles acted and spoke? If you are upset, angry, what about I Cor 13 and what it says? Stop judging according to what you think and judge a righteous judgment. What is a righteous judgment? One that includes all of these incidents where Jesus and the Apostles spoke by the Spirit of God and corrected, rebuked and even called others names. WHY did they call others names? Because that is how those people were acting or in the case of the Canaanite woman, that is what the Old Testament called them and the woman accepted that description.
The Bible and Jesus and the Apostles all called sin what it was, sin. They did not make it nice. They did not treat the people gently who were involved in those sins in a gentle manner. Like a father who corrects his children does not allow their cries to deter him from their correction, so too do the people of God speak JUST LIKE JESUS.
We must cease being hypocrites about this. It is time to recognize that those who TRULY walk in God’s Love will not condone sin in any manner, will not be nice to those who are practicing sin, may even use derogatory language against them. Are we willing to believe this or will we continue to believe that God’s Love is not what the Bible says it is?
BUT, I have been told this very morning that no matter what I say, no matter how I say it, almost NO ONE will understand or believe what I am saying. People, Christians, no longer understand what it means to take a stand for the TRUTH NO MATTER WHAT. Instead, if it bothers someone, if it offends in any way, if it causes emotional pain of any sort, then that saying, that speech, that article is wrong, UNLOVING, unkind, etc.
So, I leave you all these words. You may judge me unloving if you wish. That is your prerogative, it is your choice. God and I know better despite what you say about me behind my back or to my face. Jesus knew. He chose to obey God NO MATTER WHAT, even if everyone misunderstood what He said or what He did. He would not change, make it easier, nicer, nor would he cater to the flesh. Too many people, yes Christians today, are far more concerned with HOW THEY FEEL instead of what God says. And that is ONE of the major problems of today. It is one of the things that will bring about the GREAT FALLING AWAY!
My heart yearns to see ALL follow Jesus in the manner HE says He wants us to follow Him. I could wish all would walk in this kind of love, not concerned with whether or not someone’s feeling are hurt by His truth. Unfortunately, this will NOT come about until the Great Tribulation begins. I pray that it would be soon. And for this prayer, I will also be judged. How very sad. Do I want it to be? NO! But I KNOW that it must come about in order for the Lord Jesus to return and for many prophecies to come to pass. I greatly desire to see those prophecies fulfilled and the Lord to return. We all need it. The sooner it happens the better we all will be. As John wrote near the end ofRevelation, so too do I write and pray.
Rev 22:11 He who is unrighteous (unjust, wicked), let him be unrighteous still; and he who is filthy (vile, impure), let him be filthy still; and he who is righteous (just,upright, in right standing with God), let him do right still; and he who is holy, let him be holy still. [Dan. 12:10.] Rev 22:12 Behold, I am coming soon, and I shall bring My wages and rewards with Me, to repay and render to each one just what his own actions and his own work merit. [Isa. 40:10; Jer.17:10.]
It is how you respond to His message His Grace whether this is a curse or a blessing. So many of God’s promises are conditional and two sided. They promise great and wonderful and marvelous things for THOSE WHO OBEY and they promise terrible, grievous, and everlasting horror to those who do not. Which kind of person are you?
A bondslave in Christ Jesus, Dirk.