THE MYSTERY OF LOVE
"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love . . . beloved if God so loved us we ought also love one another" 1 John 4:8, 11
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. ... He came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved...."John 3:16, 17
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. . . though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith . . . and have not love, I am nothing.. . . and nowabideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" 1 Corl3:l,2,13
As those who have been nurtured and growing in the kingdom message, and the elect by calling (2 Tim.l:9; 1 Peter 2:9,21; Heb.3:l; Rom. 8:28,30), we rejoice in the revelation of the ancient mysteries of the kingdom (Rom.l6:25), the universal message and mystery of the Gospel (Matt;24:14), the mystery of sonship and the great mystery of the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor.5:18,19), and the restitution of all things (Acts 3:21). The deep things of God are mysteries that He has, for reasons known only to Him, chosen to reveal to the eyes and ears of a few, and to the others they are but puzzling enigmas (Luke 8:10; 1 Cor.4:l). That too is a mystery. Lest we, however, by knowing this, and reveling in this wonder, become too smug, we need to again and again read 1st. Corinthians, chapter 13. "..Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries...if I have not love, I am nothing."
If, therefore, we truly understand all spiritual mysteries (Mark 4:11; John l4:26; 1 John 2:20,21,27) shouldn't we also understand the mystery of love - God's Love? "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 1 John 4:10,11
God IS love. Love is the very essence of God! True love is not something we conjure up or manipulate; it is God's gift to us - a part of Himself. "God is love, and He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16 . . ."abide in Me, and I in you" (John 15:4)
"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." (1 John 4:20,21 ). "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
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with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matt 22:37-40. "There is none other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:31)
Who is my brother? Who is my neighbor? In the 10th. chapter of Luke, the issue of "who is my neighbor" was addressed by Jesus. According to the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 52B, page 356), Moses only forbad adultery with a neighbor's wife, and (in the Pharisees' opinion) gentiles were not "neighbors", therefore it was permissible to seduce gentiles. Jesus, of course, was fully conversant with the contents of the Jewish Talmudic collection of "men's traditions" ("Traditions of the elders, Jewish fables," see Matt.15:2,3,6,9), and when, in Luke 10:25, the lawyer stood up to trap ("tempt") Jesus he was himself trapped, and in an effort to justify himself he said, "and who is my neighbor?"
Jesus then told the story of the man on the Jerichoroad who fell among thieves and was ignored by those who should have helped him (priest, Levite) and was ministered to by a Samaritan (a gentile, despised by the Jews) who had compassion on him. Jesus said to the lawyer, "Which of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Jesus said unto him, Go and do thou likewise." Obviously Jesus was not impressed by Jewish traditions and by their attempts to skew and twist the "law" to their own favorable interpretation of "neighbor".
Do we also love only the lovable, those closely associated with us, who believe like we do those who fit our approved lifestyle? "Ye have heard that it hath been said, (by Jewish traditions) Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. BUT I SAY unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; 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?" (Matt.5:43-47) (See also Luke 6:27-36). Or does the context of Christ's commandment presume that "neighbor and brother" takes in the whole gamut of God's human creation without respect to their present spiritual, religious, or moral condition? (Luke 10:29). I suspect that most of us, at best, practice selective love, not unconditional love. We love those who are "normal", without stigma, socially acceptable, sober, professing Christians (we liberally allow a little latitude here), without embarrassing or loathsome tendencies toward sin, crime, and social aberration. And what about the rest of God's creation? Do we have scriptural sanction to despise, and to totally turn our backs on, for instance, those of the homosexual lifestyle?
Now, before I go any farther along this vein, I want to state that I am fully aware that by referring to the subject of homosexuality I am putting myself out there as a target for "homophobia". So be it. I would like to think that God’s chosen, called, elect, Spirit enlightened people are wiser than that. God’s elect have been called to judge righteous judgment, and to discern and minister independently of the orthodox stream of implacable man-made theology; especially when it comes to the predictable and frenetic reaction to the "gay movement". God is not concerned with the "movements" of men, whether they be religious, denominational, political, social, or lifestyle. He is interested only in the heart condition of the individual man; "Son give Me thine heart".
The church, in its homophobic frenzy has forgotten about the two commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets (Matt22:40) and in the process have almost totally alienated the gay movement and have essentially consigned them, wholesale, to perdition. "He will have all men to be saved" (1 Tim.2:4), therefore, as His ministers of righteousness it is absolutely imperative that we be compassionate, and love all of His children, all of His human creation, and not, like the priest and the Levite, pass by those in need by crossing to the other side of the street. Unconditional love never says, "I love you, but...” “For I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer Him saying, Lord, , when saw we Thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall He answer them, saying, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these, ye did it not to Me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment ("Age abiding correction...Aionian fire"): (See also Psalm 103:9) but the righteous into life eternal").
Orthodox, fundamentalist, religion has long preached vehemently against homosexuality, using the accounts of Sodom and Gomorra, and other passages, as proof that God hates them and that their ultimate destination is hell. The emphasis has always been negative and rarely have I ever heard a speaker or writer even suggest that perhaps God loves the homosexual no less than He loves the average church goer. Occasionally one hears the anemic, half hearted apology, "we don’t hate them, we just hate their sin." In practice that hollow and insincere statement goes begging. I know that’s true because all I have to do is look at my own heart.
This article is not intended to be a defense of the gay movement. As I began to write on the subject of love the Spirit of God brought this other matter to my mind as an example of our Pharisaical approach to love. We love selectively and categorize ourobjects of love and friendship, and equally and conveniently we also make a mental list of the sinners and enemies of God that we have been taught we can legitimately "hate", because God hates them. I know they say they only hate the sinner’s sin and love the sinner, but then why do "they" (the sinner) have to go to hell forever, why not just their sin (if that’s all we hate)? Confusing, isn’t it?
Nowhere is there justification in the scriptures for making enemies of those whose sins we consider vile and evil. Our real enemy is the sin and the evil. People, no j matter who they are, are all the same in God's eyes and He sees them from the view I of ultimate reconciliation and restoration; part of God's family. Some Christians make a difference in the severity of sin, and perverts and murderers are lumped with those who, they say, deserve to go to hell, but the Christian’s sins of carnality, lying and gossiping are conveniently in the gray area called "little sins, little white lies”, etc.. God makes no difference; He puts them all in the same category. "All have sinned" (Rom.3:23; Rev.21:8), and all sin will be subject to the purging and purifying of the lake of fire. If it can be said that God, Who Is Love, is capable of hate, then it is the sin that He hates and destroys, but He takes full responsibility for the security and the destiny of the sinner. It is not left to the sinner to decide ("make a decision"), nor for the Pharisaical Christian to categorize, whether they go to "heaven or to hell".
Divine Love is our surety, backed by the Omnipotent, Sovereign, Everlasting God and it is He who has pledged our surety. Not one of His human creation, from the moment He said, "Let Us make man in Our image", will ever need fear that he can't find his way home. Father will be waiting at the door of that celestial family home for the return of all His wayward children, where He will then be All and in all. (And that includes all of us, every last one of us). I'm not suggesting here that "all roads lead to God", as some teach. Man will never find or devise his own way to God. His destiny is sure, but it will be in God's way and in His time and purpose, not through self effort, eastern meditation, mind over matter, or through cosmic consciousness, but rather through the ONE WAY and the only WAY, Jesus Christ the Lord. He is THE DOOR, the WAY, the LIFE, the TRUTH - "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). The simplicity and the mystery of this statement will never be altered and the Gate of access to God will never be removed or made easy. Some may try to climb up some other way but only thieves and robbers attempt such access. There is but ONE WAY.
The work of the cross is a finished work for all, for all time. Therefore all will have access to the Father's house, but "every man in his own order" (1 Cor.l5:23), in his own time, in God's way, according to the Plan Of The Ages. When all is said and done He will do it His way, through THE WAY (Christ Jesus), and every man will sooner or later bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. For some it will be a long and painful way, paying unto the uttermost farthing (Matt.5:24,26), but there will come that day when His house is filled and the family is complete and Christ will deliver up the kingdom to God, and the last enemy, death, will be destroyed and all will subject to the Father, including the Son Himself, that God may be All in All (1 Cor.l5:23-28).
God’s ways are the ways of Love, but not all understand His Love. Most Christians operate in the realm of the senses and minister from the point of reaction to human love or hate and not from a revelation of divine love that sees God's creation from God's point of view. Man therefore resorts to human reasoning and human solutions, trying to solve spiritual problems with the natural man's understanding. In recent years the so-called "extreme right” and the "moral majority” have waged literal war against the "gay movement", by way of the electronic media, seminars, publications, and special legal teams. The private jets of several of the notable fundamentalist televangelists have been kept busy as they have gone out of their way to do battle with this "enemy", and their faithful T.V. and church audiences have been thoroughly indoctrinated to hate the "gay movement" and to fight it at every opportunity, in every way possible, verbally and even physically - and to treat it, and every individual in it, as God’s manifest enemy. Christian activists regularly participate in anti gay rallies and parades, carrying posters and banners that denounce and deride the "enemy" - such as, "God hates Fags", and other terse and hateful signs that promise hellfire and damnation. Not much love there! "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love".
There are many books being written by Christian writers, denouncing and deriding homosexuality and the gay movement, using the scriptures to "prove" that God hates the homosexual and ostensibly has, in the Old Testament, plainly set out the punishment and destiny of these aberrant sinners: unless they repent and forsake their lifestyle their fate will be that of Sodom and Gomorra, namely the fire and brimstone of an everlasting, torturing hellfire. The spirit of this "crusade" is so vengeful and venomous it can only be viewed as devilish, Ungodly and blasphemous. And certainly it is not related in any way to anything spiritual or of the will of God and His plan of the ages. And books are not the only means used. The internet and web sites provide a ready means for carrying on this "holy crusade". One of these hate web sites is operated by a Pastor Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church. I have viewed his web site and was shocked and disgusted at the tirade of hateful verbiage that was vomited across the screen. Look up "false prophet" in the dictionary and you should find his picture. He obviously knows nothing of the mystery and glory of love, God’s love. If I was him I would never utter the word, lest lightning struck me. Sadly, such an one has imbibed deeply of delusion and is incapable of receiving the truth and revelation of the mystery of love. (2 Thess.2:ll).
From this inordinate hate campaign, led by these preachers and activists, there has evolved a virulent bitterness and a repugnance among sincere church-going Christians. They have, by example, and through vitriolic sermons and web sites, been taught to fear and to loathe the gay movement. It has created a battlefield mentality and a climate of acrimony that has brought out the absolute worst in some, whose misdirected zeal to do battle for God has at times resulted in destruction of property and even loss of life. Homophobia has become an accepted and expected reaction in the fundamentalist church, and anyone who dares question it is himself suspect and is silently viewed by some as having gay tendencies. This sub-surface hysteria (sometimes overt) is a festering disease that true Christians need to desperately come to grips with, in the truth and understanding of God's Love.
Webster defines "phobia" as "any persistent, morbid fear or dread”. In John 4:18 we read, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." "Fear engenders torment. The surest way to be relieved of that torment is through love. But, woe to the natural man, there is great sacrifice involved in loving God, and loving one's neighbor as one's self. It involves learning the sacrifice of giving (Luke 6:38; Matt.l0:8;19:21; Luke 19:8,9), self effacement, submission to the will of God, releasing the clutching, grasping hand and letting go of the "things" and the belief systems that enslave us and keep us from growing in God, and opening up our secretive, selfish, private lives that have too long been held too closely to our bosom with the grip of "death". Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is not just some magnanimous gesture on our part, but it is required (Rom.l2:l). We either give it freely or God will, sooner or later, surely take it, one way or another - He is a consuming fire. We make vows, sometimes rashly; "When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst vow and not pay." Eccl.5:4-7; Num.30:2; Deut.23:21.