To love God will ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength seems like an obvious abstraction. This world, our flesh, and the great deceiver all call for such a pursuit to be relegated to emotions, symbolism over substance. Mankind could not fathom "denying self" in a world that appeals both to the pleasures of self and creates fears which threaten self.
Yet God took on flesh, came to live amongst us and show us how. Jesus said, "I will achieve this for you, I will show you how to follow Me, and I will never leave or forsake you... Take My hand and have faith."
We fail to comprehend all of God's Commands to LOVE...
We overlook that every Old Testament requirement for righteousness was based on LOVE.
The entire LAW derives from love. - Matthew 22:40
LOVE is the primary attribute of the Triune God, so much so that the Holy Spirit illuminates John's understanding to twice proclaim, "God is love". - 1 John 4:8,16
LOVE is God's motivation to act, "For God so loved...".
Likewise, LOVE must be a disciple's governing motivation... "Without Love i am nothing" - 1 Corinthians 13:2
LOVE identifies His own (John 13:35).
LOVE is the evidence we examine ourselves for.
LOVING like God is the transformation into Christlikeness (Philippians 2:5).
This Kingdom Love
That Holiness requires
That the Law demands
That Jesus displayed
That Christ calls us to....
Makes us afraid, because it antithetical to our understanding and natural instinct of LOVE.
Kingdom Love defies every fiber of self-preservation within us, to the extent that we don't even consider literally "Loving like Christ" or "To live is Christ" as even being in the realm of possibility.
It is scary because it appears to place my temporal security at risk, and it threatens the very standard of living for which those with possessions (the rich) have acquired for themselves (me, my, mine).
We make a confession, "Death to self, rising anew to Christ."
We call unto Jesus as Savior and proclaim, "Christ's Lordship over my life."
But yet we stand frozen at the threshold (the starting gate) and peer onward not acknowledging that our bonds have been broken to the things of this world.
We look back to the safety of what we have known, we consider the risks and unknowns of walking in FAITH... Not in faith that God exists, or that Jesus is God's Son (Love Incarnate). We never doubt that Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again, all to atone for the sin of a helpless and hopeless people. It is not hard to have "faith" in the Evidential and Obvious.
We fear the FAITH TO LOVE like Jesus displayed, taught, and commanded us to follow.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you should eat or drink, not about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" - Matthew 6:25
Jesus displayed perfect FAITH, that God would provide for His needs (ergo: Love Him) in an abundance, so that He could love likewise. Jesus's OBEDIENCE to the Greatest of Commands was to Love the Father with ALL His heart, soul, mind, and strength; by which He accomplished through loving those in need. "What you do for the least of these, you do unto Me." - Matthew 25:40
Jesus displayed perfect STEWARDSHIP, faithfully (sacrificially) taking care of all those that the Father had entrusted to Him (ergo: Loving them) - John 6:39
Jesus displayed perfect OBEDIENCE, yielding to and relying on the Holy Spirit. - Luke 4:18, Hebrews 9:14
Jesus FULFILLED every REQUIRMENT of Loving the Lord His God and of Loving His neighbor.
By this, Christ was enabled to meet our greatest NEED, one of eternal value... Salvation.
Christ took this display of PERFECT LOVE (righteousness) and redeemed those who would forever be His own.
UNDERSTANDING THE CALL TO LOVE:
Loving Like the World OR Loving Like Christ (Worldly Love / Kingdom Love)
Disciples are called to "Love like Christ," to BOTH our wives and to one another (Ephesians 5:25, John 13:34). To do so would not only align us with the New Command of Christ, but in pursuing that, it would move us towards God's Greatest Command of Loving like God.
Yet our greatest expression of love is most likely the relationship with a spouse. Men are told to, "Love your wife, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her..." - Ephesians 5:25
But are we displaying Kingdom love or Worldly love in this most intimate of relationships? Does this premier expression of our love show obedience or lack of understanding of what it is to "Love like Christ", as He taught and as He modeled for us to follow and imitate?
Jesus explained that the Greatest Love is to, "Lay down one's life for his friends." - John 15:13
Utter and total disregard to loving SELF, and instead pursuing loving an OTHER.
We are all born "Loving Self". Our infant self wants and demands. As we grow, we need to be taught to share, to thank, to think of others. We are trained to restrain the desires of SELF.
But as an adult, how exactly do we "Love our wives"?
Why this woman and not any of those women?
Think about it... while growing, men have female friends. Men enjoy interacting with women, yet what does it take to focus more strongly on one, eventually to make a commitment to care, provide for, and to allow her to "share" your life (what you have built for your SELF)?
My SELF must find her physically attractive.
My SELF must find her personality appealing.
Her life desires must either align with or be willing to yield to those of my SELF.
Men will even temporarily set aside their inclinations to SELF in pursuit of a woman that his SELF desires.
But MARRIAGE is to be a Covenant to COMPLETELY forsake loving SELF for loving the OTHER.
Even the authority over our bodies is, "No longer our own." - 1 Corinthians 7:4
Marriage is intended to be a transforming aid and crucial object lesson into Loving like Christ. Marriage is to MIRROR the relationship between Christ and His Church.
Yet, marriage becomes a bastion for self instead of being a steppingstone which helps us to move from self and progressively into Christlike Love.
Man learns to cater to his wife's SELF in response to her doing likewise... catering to his SELF.
The self of ME simply morphs and transforms into the self of MY and MINE.
REPENT oh sinners, oh stiff necked and stubborn, oh timid and fearful.
Repent from what?
If Holiness, Righteousness, and Obedience are all rooted in and emanate from, "Love the Lord your God with ALL...", then what is the one and only alternative to Loving God?
Where is our natural instinct of love directed to while walking in rebellion and disobedience?
The opposite of loving God is not hating God... It is loving self.
LOVING GOD directly correlates to DENYING SELF.
Denying SELF of what? Denying self of hoarding God's love... Loving Self.
Fallen, spiritually dead, man can do nothing but love self, because he has neither the knowledge nor the desire to love in a pure OTHER-FOCUSED way... A way that makes no sense in a world functioning on survival of the fittest, a world infected with the consequences of SIN.
GOD knew that man (made male and female) would never, could never, PERFECTLY Love like He loves... In a way so pure and undefiled that it is called HOLY.
So instead of demanding us to either fulfill PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS or be banned from His Presence forever, God sent His SON to achieve all righteousness and show us how to LOVE.
Jesus, the King of Kings, became like us in order that we may witness this KINGDOM LOVE. Jesus showed what relying on and receiving God's promised Love (faith) while Loving others by denying self (faithfulness) looked like.
Jesus resisted every temptation from the world, flesh, and devil, to NOT deny self.
Every appeal to consider SELF, whether from threat (you better...) or from temptation to embellish (you deserve...), was resisted.
Jesus was obedient to Kingdom Love despite His circumstances; even when abused, tortured, nailed to a Roman cross, and hung bleeding and naked for all to mock and ridicule (Psalm 22:16-18).
Husbands, are we even trying to love our wives like Christ loved us (the church)? Following His example to forsake and deny loving self for the sake of loving another? To become washed (sanctified) by this clear COMMAND in Scripture to Love like Christ, AND to teach our wives and train our children to do likewise (by washing them in the Word)? (Ephesians 5:26, Proverb 22:6)
OR will we continue to gauge our expression of Loving God upon its impact to my SELF. Restrained by the ebb and flow of our emotions?
In our AMERICAN CULTURE we stand in a love where "Two become one", and now we cater to and cultivate the expression of OUR-SELF. We choose a mate and jealously guard their love unto MY self. Instead of uniting gifts and producing offspring to advance the Kingdom where the Love of Christ abounds... We build CLANS which prioritize and proliferate our lifestyle and our standard of living. We are generous, but only to the point where SELF becomes put-off or threatened.
BUT CHRIST... Spoke of an unusual and antithetical LOVE to that which we so ardently embrace. A Kingdom love where, "Men and women will neither marry not be given in marriage," because there is a "More Excellent Way", a superior way to LOVE. (Matthew 22:30, 1 Corinthians 13:1-7)
A LOVE that we misunderstand because, "We do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." - Matthew 22:29
A LOVE that vastly supersedes the nepotistic love we currently display.
We have nothing of ETERNAL value if we don't have CHRIST.
And how can we have Christ if we don't Love like Him? (Luke 6:46).
Is the love we've received from God used by us to reflect HIM or reflect our own SELF IMAGE?
God's TIME and TALENTS building MY lifestyle and MY standard of living, while others with genuine needs live among us... in this temporal PROVING GROUND (Matthew 26:11).
PRIOR TO CHRIST we had no understanding of a LOVE that did not regard and become a reflection to SELF (I deserve...).
Every Religion was formulated to justify and receive favor for SELF in the sight of an Almighty God.
But Jesus explained that life is NOT about self...
"I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly." - John 10:10
"Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for My sake will find it." - Matthew 10:39
"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it." -Matthew 16:25
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." - Ephesians 4:22-24
We can learn many things from observing CHILDREN...
The sin nature that we're all born with is fully displayed in children, "Me, My, Mine..."
Yet we also see the strong attribute of Faith, where a child easily believes and trusts.
Children also have a strong desire for being loved and reciprocate it outstandingly well.
But a child can also be hesitant to do the unknown, to walk into a dark room or jump from a ledge to the outstretched arms of a loving father.
But every child will take the hand of a loving father, one who desires to show the child something that heretofore was impossible. Where a few pangs on a keyboard can transform into a concerto, where a dark and winding path can open into a beautiful meadow.
Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom." - Matthew 18:3
Christianity is a RELATIONSHIP... Walking with the God of Love, holding His hand, and learning to Love like Christ.
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