Frankly, I gloss over chapter 4 of 1st John because it is about loving one another. Why? Because love is the hardest work that any Christian will ever do. Jesus should be easy to love because He is the source of love, but most people despise Jesus. Ironically, most people love Satan although he is the source of hatred!
“God is Love!” (1 John 4:8). How is the love of God
manifested, and how would we know that He loves us? “He has given us His Spirit”
(1 John 4:13). Just when did he do that? The last words of Jesus were, “‘It is
finished,’ and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). He finished
providing His Spirit in the form of His Holy Ghost; He was the completion of God’s
plan for the propitiation of His own Son on the behalf of mankind. He paid for
all the crimes of all inhumanity ever done. The Purpose of Jesus was finished: “For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
John is identified as “the beloved” because he understood love
so much. He knew that love is the antidote for sin, and that sin is ultimately hatred
of God. Now consider the most intense hater, Satan. The Bible does not outright
say that Satan hates God, but that he is God’s Adversary, and as such He
is the Antichrist. That is just as one Pope might be legitimate and another the
Antipope who illegitimate, as has been the case several times.
People think of love and hatred as “emotions.” Usually, theologians
expound on the four types of love, but that is not the key point in this
commentary. Let it be made simple: Love is desiring that none should
perish, and hatred is desiring that any should perish. God wants that none
should, and Satan that God perish. He is the “Any” in the last sentence. Satan
cares not whether you perish, but to become the Authority, God must perish.
God can never perish so the next best thing is for Satan to
diminish God. The phrase, “diminish God,” is not in the Bible, however, we are
to exalt Him: “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation:
he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will
exalt Him” (Exod 15:2). The first four of the “Ten Words” (what we call “commandments”)
of God is how to exalt Him. And assuredly, according to John, all Ten Words are
ways to exalt God because the last six “Commandments” are Ways to exalt God by
exalting one another. In other words, diminishing God is hatred, and so is
diminishing others.
“Sin” is diminishing God and others and exalting oneself.
Adam and Eve diminished God when they ignored His Authority and ate from the
forbidden tree. By doing so, they thought they were doing their own
will, but it was the will of the Satan that they were doing. Foolish man! But Eve
was just confused. Neither Adam nor Eve hated anyone, yet they sinned.
“Hatred” is not how we think of others, but inevitably, how
we think of ourselves. Hatred is diminishing others to exalt ourselves. As such
the construct of “Self-esteem” is valuing yourself, and that is to the
diminishment of others.
The point is that neither hatred nor love are emotions.
People may get emotional about either, but both are cognitive — how you compare
others to yourself. Our thoughts about ourselves are the standard of comparison:
“No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it” (Ephes
5:29). Our self-perception is the standard for perception of others: “Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mat 22:39). If you truly did hate yourself,
then the standard for loving others would be to hate them.
Furthermore, to love God is also cognitive — we are to love
Him with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strengths. All those ways to love
God are cognitive, and the “strength” is the cognitive power of love. That
further discounts love as an emotion. What we think of God — whether we exalt
or diminish Him — is love and hatred, respectively. Therefore, how we think of
others is how we know love of others.
“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?” (1 John 4:20). Now back to myself.
It bothers me that I think evil of others. I do not hate the
ordinary person, but those who diminish Jesus. In my book, Trump and
Triumph, the thread therein is that all His adversaries had one thing in
common — they all desired authority that they feared Jesus was obtaining.
The Chief Priest was protecting His spiritual and civil
power, the Herodians were protecting the Power of the Herod dynasty, the zealots
were protecting the Hasmonean (Maccabean) dynasty, Pilate was protecting Caesar’s
empire, the Saduccees were protecting the priesthood of Zadoc, and the Pharisees
their power over the people. Jesus stood n the way of all their power, and we
learned why Jesus died: It was political maneuvering between opposing political
powers.
Because Jesus was the enemy in common, enemies became
friends, to wit:
Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves. (Luke 23:11-12)
The adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” most certainly was
derived from that situation. Herod and Pilate diminished Jesus but exalted each
other. Loving others, or social justice, is not the kind of love that John
wrote about. It is wanting that “none should perish.” That is not whether the
flesh perishes, but the souls of anyone.
Divine Love is that God wants that “none should perish,” speaking of their
immortal souls, and we are to love others by wanting that the souls of none
should perish in Hell.
With that, the angry curse, “Go to Hell,” is the ultimate hatred. Satan
wanted Jesus in Hell, and the Ghost of Jesus went there; not to abide there,
but to deposit all the sins of mankind there. Satan got his wish, but it was
poetic justice. The Ghost of Judas went back to Hell that day, and Satan can no
longer go to and fro in this world again until the Antichrist comes, providing
another body.
The dictum to keep religion out of politics is a Big Lie. That is what is
wrong with government. Israel and Judah were destroyed because their kings, government,
and religion were corrupt together.
Eventually the world
will be destroyed because government and religion become so abased that both
will deserve destruction. There is no wall between separation of Church and
State! It was the “State” that crucified Jesus, and the “Church” stood idly by
and watched as their Savior was crucified. Judea deserved destruction because all
three “estates” killed Jesus — clerics, governors, and commoners.
Right now, the three estates are again diminishing Jesus.
They cannot crucify Him again physically, but by debauchery, they crucify Jesus
again cognitively (Heb 6:6). “The Great Reset” in the world this year (2020) is
a re-crucifixion of Jesus. The Church has gradually killed off our Savior by social
justice and liberation theology, the government by taking God out of civil
affairs, and now the people for voting for ungodly politicians. All three “estates”
are in the process of killing God all over again. Of course, it is by
diminishing Him since he has already suffered death. They all blaspheme the Holy
Ghost and that is the diminishment of Jesus.
The focus of my unwanted hatred is toward those who diminish
Jesus. I know in my heart that the modern church, the contemporary politicians,
and the “Stupid American Voters” (to quote Jonathan Gruber); diminish Jesus. By
hating them, I become like them and not the picture of Jesus that Christians
should strive to be. Ironically, hating for Jesus’s Name is as wrong as enemies
hating Jesus.
I want justice to be served on others, but here I sit — Larry
the unjust. I am emotional about what is happening in the world but hating is
not the way to defeat hatred; love is the Way. I do not like this verse: “Ye
have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate
thine enemy.” But I say unto you, ‘Love your enemies’” (Mat 5:43). That is a
hard saying! Even Pilate and Herod came to friendship, but Christians cannot love
their Christian brothers, let alone their enemies.
We Christians can be as bad as the antichrists. For
instance, the Crusaders killed Muslims in the Name of Jesus. What happened to
the souls of the dead Muslims? They perished in Hell. The Knights Templar
should have trusted Jesus for the Muslim problem, but they took vengeance in
their own hands, and what happened? The Knights Templar were destroyed by the Church
that also did God’s work for Him. The church in collusion with the government
diminished the Knights Templar.
I have had thoughts of revolution. With the political
situation where it is today, revolution would be a return to justice, but
rather than having faith in ourselves, Christians, to fight principalities and
such, must depend on God! That is the problem in the world, and that is independence
from God, and is called “original sin.” If the people of the nation return to
God and depend on Jesus, then the Holy Ghost will lead the armies of God and
destroy evil. That is where Christians miss the point. When we hate our
enemies, we become enemies of Jesus together, just as Herod and Pilate.
I have had thoughts of certain politicians as dead. I am as
bad as Madonna who wants Trump dead. With two opposing people thinking similar
thoughts, we both seem to be friends of Satan. I have known Satan; and he
is no friend of mine! It bothers me that I have the same disregard for the Will
of God as my enemies! How to correct the problem? Love even our enemies, and
that is hard work!
(picture credit: Stephen McAlpine)
(picture credit: )
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