David Jeremiah said that God loves us and expects nothing in return. I know that he was trying to define “unconditional” love, but that missed the mark! God always expects something in return for his love, and that is that He be loved back.
The first occasion of the use of loving God is way into the scriptures. Some expressed love for the son (Abraham of Isaac), the love for the wife (Isaac for Rebekah), Isaac for meat, Jacob loved Rachel, Shechem loved (lusted) for Dinah, Israel loved Jacob, but not until years later did God mention love.
God was effectively saying, You all love each other, and even food, but what about me? So then, God commanded that He be loved so as to be included in the lovefest:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exod 20:5-6)
Not one time theretofore had scripture said that anyone loved God, not even Abraham. They feared God and revered Him, but godly love was not in their vocabulary nor in their hearts!
Let’s stop there for a moment and get personal: Few have said that they love me, and if they did express it, it was because I expected them to say it. Perhaps it came across that I demanded to be loved so the few who have said are only following commands.
What hurts the most is that some of those who should love me the most, never express any love. Yes, I am jealous of those fathers whose sons and daughters say they love them so much. Even the alternate non-Christian guys on the reality show, “Alone”, express how much they love and miss their father, wives, and children. When I see that, I am jealous of their loving relationships.
Now back to God: “I, the Lord God AM, a jealous God.” Let that be made clear: I AM (Anoki, meaning Yah Himself), the Yehova Elohim El qanna El. “Ganna” means jealous, but all the other words in that expression means that He, and He alone is God, and that He ought to be loved as well.
He even pointed out who He IS: Elohim El, the three on one! That he should be loved in Body, Mind, and Soul — as the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus expressed so many years later: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Mat 22:37).
It was good that the patriarchs loved others, but how about loving God? The Greatest Commandment was written on stone, seems to be a command, but is an expectation. God’s “Greatest Expectation” is that He be loved. The first four “commandments” were those expectations and how to metricize them. The subsequent six are how to metricize loving others, which the patriarchs already knew, but God wanted to point out that His Greatest Expectation is that He be loved firstly.
Jesus implied the same thing when asked about the greatest of the commandments: to love Him with all the strength available, and to apply that intensely felt love to others as well… love others as you do yourselves. [i]
The First Commandment in Exodus is the First Commandment written in the Book of Matthew. God still expected to be loved as He loves us — in the heart, mind, and soul. That is how He loves us and is with all three of His substances.
Since mankind is in His image, God expects love from all three of our substances. The question has always been the same as He asked Simon Peter, “Lovest thou me more than these?” referring to the disciples. He asked that question three times, perhaps for the Father, Himself, and the Holy Ghost… or perhaps three times for heart, mind, and spirit? Do you love me with all three of your substances?
Jesus was jealous! Do you love Me more than the others? Peter affirmed that he did. Then Jesus said to feed His “sheep”. In other words, show your love for me by expressing it. Feed them the Bread of Life from me. Of course, Jesus is the Bread of Life. [ii] Well, if you love Me, show it by elevating Me.
Why would both, the Father and the Son, be jealous? Because they are both the same God. Jesus is the “heart” of God who expressed love in the flesh. The “Word” is Jesus who expressed love in thought.
What about love for the Holy Spirit substance of God? “Unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10). Blasphemeo from the Greek is “revile” the Holy Ghost of Jesus. He too is jealous! God must be loved on all respects regardless of his state, whether He is there in Word, Body, or Spirit. When he was there only in Word and Spirit, nobody said, “I love you,” so he commanded it.
In the Commandment how much love is revealed: “Shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me.” In that passage, “mercy” is “checed” in the Hebrew or “loving kindness”. God would demonstrate love for them by showing kindness, and what did He expect from them? Their love (ahab), essentially to breath back (Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon) on Him, the Breath that He breathed on Adam-kind.
Well, God breathed life into man. That was love. He shared His Holy Spirit with man, to fully make Adam in His Image.
The Holy Spirit is not only Power but virtue. When Jesus loved, virtue left Him. [iii] That was to heal the woman with a “blood issue”. Just think of all the virtue that Jesus gave up healing all of us because of our blood issues!
When God created Adam, He lost some virtue. He gave that loving kindness to Adam, and He expected Adam to breath it back in return.
The Holy Spirit is meant to be shared, just as Adam did with Eve when he breathed life unto her from the curvature of his side. [iv] The Holy Spirit is meant to be shared, and once Jesus came, it was no longer by breathing on them, but feeding them the Word.
As a sidenote: Why the masks? Why can we not breath love on others? Why the mention of the “blood issue”? Perhaps because the vaccine presents an issue to our own blood! And it does — the manufactured messenger RNA substitutes for the true DNA to restore (sic) normality, or so they claim. The mRNA is a blood issue so strong and cunning, that I will not take the “fiery dart of the wicked.” [v]
So far as love is concerned, it is God desiring mercy, or our own loving kindness for Him.
On the other hand, hatred is mentioned long before love, and Wow! this is profound: “They (her mother and sister) blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, ‘Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them” (Gen 24:60). But was not Eve “the mother of all living?” [vi] She was, but her seed failed God. Now, Rebekah would be the new “Eve”. “Living” in this context are those on whom God had mercy; to wit: those of the Abrahamic Covenant.
Her “Seed” would Be Jesus, the Possessor of the gate — the Cross. Jesus possessed the gate of those who hated Him, and about everyone there at the crucifixion were full of hatred, and most still are!
Hate, in the Hebrew is “sane” — an adversary against God — to be our own god. Truly, that is spiritual insanity, but even Satan accused Adam and Eve of that attitude. [vii]
Hatred is not an emotion; it is an attitude of total independence from God. When science, philosophy, and even the media deny God, they are haters. But as usual, the first to hate call all the others the “haters”! “Hatred” is a superior attitude and self-esteem rather than Christ-esteem. It is any that are making a name for themselves above God.
So, there we have it: hatred is adversariness to God and love is kindness to Him.
In the Greek, the words are miseo and agape. The former is “to persecute” — be adversarial, and the latter, “goodwill”. (Strong’s Dictionary). So, “hatred” is still those who are adversaries of God and fellow men, and “love” is having good will toward God and man. Why else would the angels sing about the birth of Rebekah’s seed? “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
Rebekah would be the “mother” of goodwill — those whose hearts are loving, and non-adversarial to God and others. Unfortunately, just as with Eve, Rebekah’s seed were also of the Wicked One. They are the “tares” in the world from the “Parable of the Tares”.
Rebekah could not make them loving, but her “Seed” would. The purpose of Jesus; sing it, is ““Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men.” “Glory” is doxa in the Greek — to exalt God. He is above all things. Compared to Him, even we are to be diminished. Hence, we sing the Doxology, or should!
It seems that God expected love from mankind as He did from angel-kind. Not only to be loved but exalted above all things, even ourselves and others. In other words, social justice (Commands 6-10) is insufficient! God is loved by exultation via the first four commandments that are together, “The Greatest Commandment”; then God would not be jealous of the love of persons in the remaining Commandments.
Hence, “love” is not an emotion in the Lexicon of God but and attitude of “goodwill” toward God and man. In that God is with us in Spirit only, then to demonstrate love for Him, that is done toward peace on Earth and loving kindness for our fellow men. Doing that, without exalting God is as “filthy rags” to Him. [viii]
For our children and our mates, they can say “I love you” or they can demonstrate it by visitations. For God, saying “I love you” is not sufficient, but visiting God regularly is His expectation. Only those in His Last Will and Testament will be rewarded with his invisible “Estate” just as our heirs should not expect part of the estate unless love is demonstrated — that the heirs visit the father before the probation of his will!
That is what God wants from His children! Just come visit me, my children, so that I feel loved. Rest here in My bosom and I shall Comfort you in the end!
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