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October 12, 2014 |
| What is Love | ||
Once again I was on Facebook and once again I found a bad teaching from one Christian being accepted by other Christians. Facebook is a really good place to find really bad teachings. This one isn't a seriously bad teaching but we can learn a lot from it.
We can learn the true teaching and for that we will look at what the Bible says. We can also learn about how easily a bad teaching can be accepted by Christians just because it sounds good, looks good, or because it tickles their ears. We can also learn how Satan will give you 1000 truths just to sneak in a lie. Once we build our faith in a man because of the 1000 truths he says, we drop our guard and stop inspecting what we are told by that man. We stop checking to make sure what he says is true. We also stop watching to make sure what he says continues to be true.
This lesson begins with an image put out by John Hagee that looks good and sounds good but requires inspection.
John Hagee has a large following. When he put out this message on Facebook there were many who responded with general comments like "that's the truth" and "actions speak louder than words". Some went further on and quoted Bible verses such as 1 John 3:18 to support what John Hagee had posted. This verse is likely the basis of John Hagee's message.
18 Children, let us not love one another with words and with speech, but in deeds and in truth.
The first problem is that the verse does not say what the Facebook message says. The Apostle John is not saying what John Hagee's message said - that what you say is not love but what you do is love. If we look at a more paraphrased translation of the verse we can see a better overview of what the Apostle is saying. This quote comes from the ISV translation.
18 Little children, we must stop expressing love merely by our words and manner of speech; we must love also in action and in truth.
One thing the Apostle is saying is "actions speak louder than words" or "talk is cheap" which is quite a bit different from saying "love is not words." Actions do speak louder than words but words speak too.
The Apostle is saying something more. To make that easier to see we will look at this verse in a translation that is too heavily paraphrased - God's Word Translation.
18 Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words.
The translator has removed something important - the words "in truth". Actually he has tried to incorporate the idea of "in truth" into the sentence as the adjectives sincere (for actions) and empty (for words). Even so he has lost something the apostle is trying to say, the most important thing.
What does the Apostle mean by saying "in truth?" Right away we know that if truth is possible then a lie is also possible. Thus we know it is possible to say words that sound like the words love uses and to do deeds and actions like those of love but without there being true love. The words and actions can all be fake.
From this we know the truth about love. Neither words nor actions are love. John Hagee was off the mark. We can say the same words and do the same actions with or without true love. The truth is that love is inside of us … or not. If we have love inside of us that love will inspire the words and actions of love.
If we do not have love inside of us we can still say the same words and do the same actions but something else motivates us. We can say and do those things out of a sense of duty instead of love. Or we can do it because it's a traditional thing to do, society expects us to or it's just something we do because we always have. Or we can do it out of selfishness - because we expect to get something we want out of it.
These other things that motivate us are other loves, for example a love of duty, a love of tradition, or a love of self. Our words and actions show love. Our words and actions may, however, be intended to show a love of one thing but there is really a love of something else that is motivating them. In that case our words and actions are lies.
Now we'll take this a step further. Those loving things that we say and do are worship. Yes, they are worship of whatever it is that we love. We know this because these words and actions are sacrifices. We've sacrificed the time to say praiseful things. We've sacrificed the things we own to be with, help and enjoy the thing we love. Sometimes we sacrifice other relationships to build the relationship we truly love.
Jesus talks about this in Luke 12:341
34 "For wherever your treasure is, there shall your heart be also."
We are not distant from that which we love. Whatever we love that is what where we spend our time and that is what we seek to accumulate and fear to lose.
If we love sports, that is where we spend our time and money. The same is true of theatre, TV, nature, and so on. Love expresses itself in worship with praiseful words and caring actions.
This is in no way different from our love for God which expresses itself in worshipful praise and caring actions. What are these caring actions? We want to strengthen our relationship with him and never do anything to ruin that. We want to know all we can about the one we love, what he likes, what he doesn't like, and what he expects of us.
Some people, however, say worshipful things about God and to God and do worshipful things but the love that inspires those things is not the love of God. This was a problem for Israel and God spoke about it in Isaiah 29:13
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Israel was doing the worshipful things but not out of love for God. Instead they were doing them because they had been taught to do them. They were going through all the actions and saying all the words, but mechanically, without their hearts being in it.
In our time many people do the worshipful things for what they can get from God. They try to worship God in exchange for blessings and everlasting life. This is really love of self. We should love God for who he is, not what he can do for us. We should live the life he expects of us because we know that is the right way to live and that is what pleases him.
Yes, we know that God may choose to bless us in this life and our hope is on a future everlasting life but those things shouldn't be what motivates us. Neither should we be motivated by fear of God's punishment of those who do not trust in him.
1 Corinthians 13, often called the love chapter, talks about loving God for what he can give when it says love is not self seeking. By this the Apostle Paul is saying true love for someone isn't a business deal where we give something to get something. In pure love you give away yourself.
Romans 12:1
1 I beg you therefore, my brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God by a logical service.
John 4:23
23 But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship The Father in The Spirit and in The Truth, for The Father also is seeking such worshippers as these.
Hebrews 13:15
15 And through him let us offer sacrifices of praise always to God, which is the fruit of the lips giving thanks to his name.
1 Peter 2:5
5 And you also, as living stones, be built up and become spiritual temples and holy Priests to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable before God by Yeshua The Messiah.
Matthew 4:10
10 Yeshua said to him, "Depart Satan, for it is written: 'You shall worship the lord Yahweh your God and him alone shall you serve.'"
We started with a bad message about what love is and looked in the Bible to see what love really is. Then we looked at the expressions of love, the things that we say and do, and found that these are also the expressions of worship. Along the way we also found that what looks like the expressions of true love can be the expressions of a love of something else.
When we understand what love is then we are better able to see what love is not. This understanding also leads us to a better understanding of true worship of God.
As Christians we are called to love others and for this to be true love. We are not to say we love someone when we really don't. We are not to say we love someone because we know we should or because we know the other person wants to hear those words. We are to say we love them because we truly do love them. The same is true for our actions toward others. We are to do things that show love because we truly love.
This is hard for us, especially for people who oppose us or who have hurt us. Hate is much easier. We have to reach inside ourselves an uproot that hate. We need to turn our attitudes around and that begins with forgiveness. If we can forgive, forget, and move on then we can love again.
How can we improve John Hagee's message?
1 Also Matthew 6:21