"Unloving Christian" is an oxymoron! "Unfriendly Christian" is a facade"!
The paramount concept of holy scripture is:
John 3:16a "For God so loved the world..."That's important scripture because I know that I am hard to love! God loves me anyhow, knowing that most people fail to love him back. "For God so agapao the world..." the word from the original Greek which describes the profound love that God has for us! He does expect something in return! (Dr. David Jeremiah is wrong about that!):
Matthew 22:36 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."God DOES expect something in return for his grace! He expects our love. Dr. Jeremiah clearly misstated God's expectations. Better said would be "God loves all his creation to the extent that he gave his only Son for all of us!" That's divine love. That's agape love.
Implied within the scripture is that "love" isn't optional; it's an obligation because it's commanded. Jesus clearly indicated how much we are to love God: "with all thy heart, and with thy soul, and with all thy mind". It is to be pointed out that agape love is love with all our being for God. With our "heart" it's a sincere love, with our soul, it's a spiritual love, and with all our mind, it is the focus of our love. God is to be our first love; the most important in our lives!
That type of love is described by Jesus and is how we are to love God. In that Jesus IS God, we are to love him that intensely! Figure #1 below shows God-type agape love in the top circle.That's the only type of love that we can have for him. True, we have a friend in Jesus, but his love is much ore than that type of love!
Also, from the scripture above, we are told how to love. God wrote "rules for love" in stone and called them The Ten Commandments. The same scripture asks the question "Which is the great commandment IN THE LAW?" The Law is God's Law, those same Ten Commandments. They tell HOW we are to love. It's by doing and not doing certain things. Again, being commandments, they are not optional. Loving God is: 1) to have no other gods besides him, 2) have no idols, 3) honor God's name and 4) keeping God's day holy.
Loving our neighbor, the second to greatest is: 5) honoring our parents, 6) preserving life, 7) keeping our marriage pure, 8) working for what we have, 9) being honest, and 10) not being jealous or lustful. Yes, we are to keep these Commandments within the "Covenant of Grace" which we're in now! Doing these things is how we love God and neighbor then and now!
Agape is not an emotion. Sure our "heart" includes our emotions, but The Law is things we are to do, and are consequently works. Love isn't an emotion. Love is works that we must strive to do. As such in our zealousness, we do get emotional, but we can show God love just by doing his will. It's not bad that people cry for the love of God or they shout with joy, but even those who are ascetic can still love the Lord. Agape love isn't measured by tears or yelps; it's measured by compliance to God's will!
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| FIGURE #1: ALL ABOUT LOVE |
The "Self" is shown in the left circle. The infidel "Self" is the "other god besides God". As such the "Self" operates on the pleasure principle. Who does the Self want to pleasure? It's him! It's each one's Self/ Love of Self for those who are "Old Persons" is a type of eros love. That is the physical and sensual love between two people and can be love of one's Self. Eros is pleasuring the senses. We can pleasure our own Self and in fact, self-love is the love of which God is jealous. After the old sinful person is "born-again" as a new creature, that person's nature changes. (If your nature hasn't changed, then have you truly been born again?)
The "Old Person" was one who placed utmost importance in pleasure, having erotic love for their own satisfaction. The "New Person" buries the sensual (physical) pleasures, as paramount anyway, and replaces self-pleasure with both love of God and love of others. This is obedience to The Greatest Commandment and the Second like unto it!
Because of self-love a person wants to save his idol for posterity, and then when God receives that person into his kingdom, gratitude for his grace should be forthcoming. We are "born-again" because of self-love, then truly Christians love God for his salvation. In effect the gift is desired and loved because it does good for the Self, but out of gratitude for the gift, the Self loves the giver! That's a must:
Before we continue with love, let's look at unrepentant man. In opposition to those who say those with low self-esteem hate themselves, their self pity would seem to be because they value their own self so much that they can't bear the hurt. Yes, what I am saying is that a "lack of self-esteem" is really having too much esteem for one self! Those who focus on others, including God, are the ones who are the functional individuals. (See Herrin Daily Thought Christ Esteem: The Answer to Self-Esteem )
In order to murder oneself, pleasuring would have to bottom out. Indeed the person who has the most despondency is one who fails to get pleasure from anything. His own idol fails him! He doesn't hate himself. He loves himself to the extent that he can't bear the pain his idol is suffering! God agrees that it's not the hate of self that is mankind's problem:
In Figure #1 the circle on the left is the erotic love of self, and is part of the old person. Hating the self is not a problem for anyone. It's the self-love, even the act of destroying the self to avoid further pain to the one a person loves.
By the way, eros-type love is not in the Bible, but is described in the Song of Solomon. David had this same type of "love" for Bathseba when she exposed her flesh on the roof and David watched her. However, I don't see erotic type of love as merely sexual, but whatever pleasures the senses.
Now, we look at how we love others. This is philio love. It's used in the Bible. An example of this type of love is the friendship between King David and Jonathan. You won't find the word there though! Why? It was written in Hebrew and philio is a Greek word. Philio love is loving another as oneself. Even those who are not Christians can have that type of love, but for a Christian, it is a requirement! You can see from Figure #1 that even unsaved people have philio love (center circle above the lines). As a subset of brotherly love (love of others) is storge love which is love of family. Although it's not shown in Figure #1, familial love is very real and special!
When we are born-again we must stop hating others, family or otherwise. John's Epistle says it very well:
And before we proceed, there is a fatal virus in the air. It's been here for over 2000 years. Many people have always hated Jesus. Why? Because he requires that they change and people love their own self too much to change! Jesus interferes with the erotic love our little gods have for their self!
The Jews claimed that they loved God. They still do! Here's Jesus' truth about that:
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:Which one's are we to keep? All of them! I suppose that any type of righteousness is covered under The Ten Commandments. We aren't to pick and choose. We are to do them all! (No multiple choice obedience!)
Before we continue with love, let's look at unrepentant man. In opposition to those who say those with low self-esteem hate themselves, their self pity would seem to be because they value their own self so much that they can't bear the hurt. Yes, what I am saying is that a "lack of self-esteem" is really having too much esteem for one self! Those who focus on others, including God, are the ones who are the functional individuals. (See Herrin Daily Thought Christ Esteem: The Answer to Self-Esteem )
In order to murder oneself, pleasuring would have to bottom out. Indeed the person who has the most despondency is one who fails to get pleasure from anything. His own idol fails him! He doesn't hate himself. He loves himself to the extent that he can't bear the pain his idol is suffering! God agrees that it's not the hate of self that is mankind's problem:
Ephesians 5:29a "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it..."Hey... I'm just the bearer of what God says! I know it's in opposition with all that we've been told, but who are we to believe, Truth or Deception?
In Figure #1 the circle on the left is the erotic love of self, and is part of the old person. Hating the self is not a problem for anyone. It's the self-love, even the act of destroying the self to avoid further pain to the one a person loves.
By the way, eros-type love is not in the Bible, but is described in the Song of Solomon. David had this same type of "love" for Bathseba when she exposed her flesh on the roof and David watched her. However, I don't see erotic type of love as merely sexual, but whatever pleasures the senses.
Now, we look at how we love others. This is philio love. It's used in the Bible. An example of this type of love is the friendship between King David and Jonathan. You won't find the word there though! Why? It was written in Hebrew and philio is a Greek word. Philio love is loving another as oneself. Even those who are not Christians can have that type of love, but for a Christian, it is a requirement! You can see from Figure #1 that even unsaved people have philio love (center circle above the lines). As a subset of brotherly love (love of others) is storge love which is love of family. Although it's not shown in Figure #1, familial love is very real and special!
When we are born-again we must stop hating others, family or otherwise. John's Epistle says it very well:
1 John 4:20a If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.."I know people who claim to be Christians, but hate me. According to this verse, they can't love God and if they say they do, they lie! I know that I'm not very lovable, but people are required to work at loving, even the unlovable!
And before we proceed, there is a fatal virus in the air. It's been here for over 2000 years. Many people have always hated Jesus. Why? Because he requires that they change and people love their own self too much to change! Jesus interferes with the erotic love our little gods have for their self!
The Jews claimed that they loved God. They still do! Here's Jesus' truth about that:
John 15:23 "He that hateth me hateth my Father also."It's dangerous, stupid and prideful that anyone doesn't love Jesus. He never ever did anything wrong! His crime is that he existed. Because of his existence, people were convicted of their sins, and some people would rather hate the one who loves them rather than change the self. Their eros love is so powerful that they won't relinquish it for even the preservation of their "self'. In other words, people destroy their Self for eternity just because they love their selves so much. (People are in the flesh; pleasure; self-gratification!)
Unsaved people, even with their spouses, are capable of philio love, actually storge, and eros love as well. (See Figure #1 right circle above the lines). Of course people pleasure and lust for their spouse. Likewise, most often, even non-Christians have a special bond with their wife. Husbands and wives are expected to be friends (philio love), but also have that added closeness by being a family unit (storge).
Now let's jump down under the line to the "New Person" in Christ. Something should change! Agape love can be added to each of the circles of the "Old Person" and put in the circles of the "New Person". First, off let's continue to consider those married. Marriage is symbolic of a relationship with Christ. Of course Christians are the bride and he's the groom. Although we don't love each other as God has the capacity to love, Christian couples have a special bond because of the sanctity of marriage, ordained by God. They become one in holy matrimony. Sure they focus on each other, but if the eyes of both are on God, philio, and even eros love, comes easily! (It's a known psychological fact that those who feel guilty because of sin a Christian may not even be able to perform!)
In the upper half of Figure #1 I show a broken arrow between God and the Self (the individual). Since the unsaved person has no trust in Christ, there is no love there, hence communion is broken, Regardless, the arrow still points toward the self (individual). Even though we're still sinners God does love us! That arrow in reality, points toward the New Person as well, but that's implicit! The one deeper in sin actually has the capacity to love God even more, once he becomes a New Person, because he is forgiven the most! Look how much:
Luke 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love (agapao) the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.This passage is Luke's version of the Greatest Commandment. The bond between the saved person and Jesus is agape-type mutual love! Agape love is added to the individual and philio love and agape love exceeds any remnants of love of self! The living sacrifice was made to God and the flesh (pleasure, eroticism) was snuffed out (or at least under self-control with the aid of the Holy Spirit).
The philio love that the New Person has is a communion with others. It's in response to "loving thy neighbor as thyself". Yes, Christians can have a special brotherly-type love for their own selves! We can love ourselves because God made us that way! It's not to pleasure, but to care for God's creation. It's in our purpose and attitude. If we do things to preserve what God made, we're okay with philio-type love of ourselves. It's that erotic pleasure oriented love which is man's problem!
In addition, the New Person has communion with God. God even moves in with us spiritually speaking! We become his temple and God becomes part of our daily life. Maybe with the closeness we have a little storge love for God too, but it's more profound. He's our heavenly Father and our Friend, but he's an awesome God, so agape love supersedes familiar or philio love!
Then we not only have a philio love for others, but a commanded agape love:
John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love (agapao) one another, as I have loved you.Jesus says to love others as he has loved us! That love is agape! Sure we still feel camaraderie, but there becomes a spiritual closeness. It's easy to feel love with our brothers in church, but even for those unsaved, it's a Godly love. Think in terms of "I love this man so much that I cringe at the thought of him going to eternal damnation!" It's this type of agape which drives "The Great Commission"! It's the love of the soul! It goes right back to how we're to love God: mind, hearts and soul! We love even the unsaved that much... if we are truly lovers of God and obedient to him! (Remember that agape love is a work. It's not easy, but we're to do it!)
Philio and agape love are in the New Testament, written in Greek. The words are not there in the Old Testament (written in Hebrew), but the same concept is there. Here's an example:
Proverbs 19:8a" He that getteth wisdom loveth (Hebrew: ahab; "have affection for"as we love God) his own soul..."Ahab, in the Hebrew has exactly the same meaning as agape in the Greek. Yes, we can have ahab (agape) love for our own self. Once our idol, the Self is washed clean by God, and the eros (pleasure) toppled, then we can love who we are. It's a healthy spiritual self-love because it's of God. We recognize that we are what we are because we are of God. The New Person is no longer the Self. It has been sacrificed! Now that New Person is a temple of God. That temple replaces the idol that once was. It's all part of God''s plan. He planned well!
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