Nothing But the Love

I have a relatively short post today, and it is as to the point as it gets. When it’s all said and done, the entire calling, purpose and effect of the Gospel is to possess and demonstrate the love of God in our lives. Jesus said it this way: “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” (Mat. 7:12). And he also said the same thing this way: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mat. 22:37-39). And just for good measure we’ll let the apostle Paul in on this little discussion: “Now the end [summation] of the commandment is [love] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned” (I Tim. 1:5). And again the great apostle to the Gentiles brings this point home with no space for confusion on the topic: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not [love], I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not [love], I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not [love], it profiteth me nothing” (I Cor. 13:1-3). I think that is enough to make the point that God’s love dwelling in us is what it is all about; and the last quote from I Corinthians 13 makes it perfectly clear that we will not be saved UNLESS that love is what is motivating our deeds and lives. Jesus confirmed that saying with simplistic but graphic description: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mat. 24:12,13). The connotation is obvious, and that is that we will have to CONTINUE flowing in the love of God till the end of our lives, in order to be saved. That is what he said.

Now I could say many things about how the love of God is what it is and not what someone may say that it is. But I will only say this: God’s love is not man’s love, and God’s love is holy. There is an understanding to God’s love, and that understanding is not subject to man’s interpretation. If we have God’s Spirit and we continually do what is good and right in our lives, God’s love will be in us and we will have that understanding. I have to say that there is absolutely nothing that compares to the feeling of having the divine love of God at the center of your being, radiating and permeating in you and from you. I also have another point to make today about this all-encompassing scriptural and spiritual reality, and it is this: Seeing that having and operating in God’s divine love is the whole calling and purpose of the Gospel, and seeing that the scripture plainly tells us that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts BY THE HOLY GHOST;” how can we add anything to that and prosper? (Rom. 5:5). The truth is, we cannot. The messenger that God sent to pave the way for Jesus, and to tell of his purpose for coming, left no room for discussion on the matter: “There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost” (Mk. 1:7,8). That was it. So why was John’s message so simplistic and to the point? Because the baptism of the holy Ghost, administered from heaven by Jesus, is the experience that “sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts.” And it stands to reason thereby that the same Spirit baptism is the only way ANYONE gets into the one body of Christ and becomes a new creature (I Cor. 12:13; II Cor. 5:17). Not to mention that it is what washes us from sin, thereby sanctifying and justifying us (I Cor. 6:11). So again, it stands to reason why the scripture would declare, “Now if ANY man have NOT the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). So again I ask, what can we add to having God’s love infused into our hearts and souls, other than more of the same? Once again I declare that we cannot. We can only TAKE AWAY from the love and power of God in our lives by regarding anything else as being of God.

Now everything that has been written here is purely simplistic, and evidently confirmed by an ongoing flow of scriptural truth. But what CANNOT be confirmed by the Bible is all of the religious tradition that man has come up with, as though it were from God. Like what? Natural ordinances for one thing, meaning mainly water baptism and so called ‘communion services.’ These things have nothing to do with edifying and increasing the love of God in our lives, simply because they are not of the Spirit of God. They only pointed the way to us having God’s love in us. Unlike the holy Ghost, they are CARNAL ordinances that do nothing for the heart and soul. And what else? The erroneous ‘new birth’ teachings of “getting saved,” “accepting the Lord as your personal savior,” and “confessing Jesus as Lord.” All of these supposed methods of being born again are acknowledged among Spirit baptized believers as preceding the Spirit baptism, which is totally contrary to the scriptures. In fact these things are not even IN the Bible, except for confessing Jesus as Lord, which was given as an admonition to those who were already in the body of Christ (Rom. 10:8-10). It is certain that none of these so called ‘new births’ “shed abroad the love of God in our hearts,” and none of them put anyone into the body of Christ, as we can see from the scriptures (I Cor. 12:13). So the conclusion of the matter is that the body of Christ is carrying a whole lot of surplus weight by continuing in these errors and others like them, and this has eroded the unity, the love, the power, the holiness, and the truth of God from among God’s people. So as it has always been with God’s people, the traditions of men that have been ADDED TO the “simplicity of the Gospel,” have actually TAKEN AWAY from the truth and reality of the Gospel (Mat. 15:6). This malady will have to be rectified if we hope to be prepared as the true bride of Christ. Amen.