Sectarian ‘Love’

Jesus said something for the ages that we should all look at very closely: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (Jn. 13:34). That sounds real simplistic, and it really is, IF we understand the love of God. The love of God is not the love of friends. It is not the love of family. It is not a romantic love. The love of God is HOLY love, and it is divine love; and THAT is the love that Jesus loved with. That is “the love of God [which] is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). That is if we have RECEIVED that which has been given. We cannot hold back any part of our self from God and expect to be baptized by Jesus with the holy Ghost that imparts the love of God to us. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, would not baptize anyone who came to his baptism without “fruits meet for repentance” (Mat. 3:5-8). Do you really believe that Jesus will baptize someone with his Spirit that he died and rose to give, unless they come with a fully yielded heart? Not in a million years my friend. Peter, when he recounted how God filled Cornelius and his household with the holy Ghost, said the following about it: “And God, which knoweth the hearts, BARE THEM WITNESS, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8,9). So what was it that God was baring witness to, regarding these first Gentiles who had the Gospel preached to them? Their complete repentance and faith toward Jesus of course. The baptism of the holy Ghost with the accompanying sign of speaking with other tongues is ALWAYS the result of “God, which knoweth the hearts, baring ANYONE witness, giving them the holy Ghost… [thus] purifying their hearts by faith.” You simply cannot shut any part of yourself off to God, and expect to be baptized by Jesus with his Spirit. It is equally as certain that nobody can love with the love that Jesus loved with WITHOUT being baptized with the Spirit, and thereby “having the love of God shed abroad in [their] heart."

Now that brings me to the point, and it is a very serious point that God’s Spirit in me bares witness to far more often than I care to admit. The sectarian religious spirit that reigns supreme over the various Pentecostal affiliations, has convinced God’s dear people to shut him out AFTER they have received his Spirit. It is done by shutting out God’s people who are apart from their sect, and not allowing them to love them with God’s love when it is available to them. It is a clannish, elitist spirit that conditions people through religious paranoia, dictated by erroneous doctrines, to only be able to ‘love’ those who are a part of their sect. That my friend is NOT the love that Jesus loved with. In fact, he said something about that kind of love that a lot of folks need to go back and read very carefully: "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mat. 5:46-48). The love that non-regenerated people love one another with is just a worldly 'love’ that only loves those who are like them, and that is only until they are crossed by one of them. The ‘perfect’ love that the Father has is a 'complete’ love that just loves because it IS love. The sectarian love that many of God’s people have been taught is not that love. I see it all the time, and with much sadness I must say. I am deprived of the fellowship of God’s love in many quarters with his people because they are afraid of the love they feel from me. Why are they afraid? For the same reason men are afraid of most anything; because they DON’T UNDERSTAND IT!

God’s people do not understand a free spirit of divine love when it comes their way because it is simply foreign to the sectarian 'love’ that has been dictated to them by the spirit of fear which is generated by the false teachings that they have had imposed upon them. Friend, when Jesus said that “the truth will make you free,” he meant that HIS word would make you able to love with his “perfect love” when adhered to over time (Jn. 8:31,32). That perfect love is the only thing that will cast out that fearful sectarian spirit that hinders people from loving or allowing themselves to be loved by someone apart from their clan (I Jn. 4:18). The reason for that is because his word is his Spirit, which is trying to teach all of his people the same truths about him, and about his Father (Jn. 16:13; Rev. 2:7). You see, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Cor. 3:17). God’s Spirit, when followed hard after, makes one free from sin and from the spirits of this world that try to keep God’s people from being able to love with God’s love. When something else is called the word of God to God’s people, it teaches them and conditions them in the exact opposite direction, because it is NOT the Spirit of God teaching error (I Jn. 4:6). But when it’s all said and done, as the old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding.” In this case that means “ye shall know them by their fruits,” and “wisdom is justified of her children” (Mat. 7:16; Mat. 11:18,19). Forsake the modern Christian traditions of error and Pentecostalism my friend, and settle for nothing less than a steady diet of hearing God’s word for yourself [from him], through his Spirit (Rev. 3:6). Amen.