Without Love You Have Nothing

[rivqah]

The Lord was really speaking to my heart today at work and I felt led to share this.

The Lord was showing me today through alot of the persecution I have been going through that there it is the belief of some professing christians that it is ok to hate sometimes. Yes, you heard me correctly. Let me explain, this is what the Lord showed me.

We all have experienced times where we wrongfully have been angry with another brother or sister. That is not what I am talking about.

There are professing christians out there who believe that under certain circumstances sometimes that it is ok to hate or have unforgiveness.

The Lord gave me this passage of scripture:

Mark 8:31-34
31And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

32And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.

33But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

34And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

John 18:10
Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.



This sounds so holy what Peter was doing at that time. Peter may have even had the right intention but we know what the end result would have been had Peter been successful with his plan.

My point there is that something can look SO HOLY but come straight out of the pit of hell.

There is what you could call a teaching, even though it is not something they proclaim to believe that advocates hate. They will as christians proclaim that we need to love God and one another first and foremost, they may profess to be hungry for revival, they may preach the gospel or even give their body to be burned but all the while believe that it's ok. to be hateful or to hate another brother or sister under certain circumstances.

Please be aware of this. As the scripture says:

1 John 4:20
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 Corinthians 13:3
3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

[rivqah]

I finally figured out what kind of christian I am. I'm a Luke 10:27 christian.

Alot of American christians especially speak of loving God but neglect to love their brother/sister. You can't say you love God and hate your brother.

You can't have one without the other. So I hold to both...loving God and your brother.

Others will continue on their way with hate in their hearts but I choose to love my brother/sister because I love God and God is love.

[runner4jesus]

Amen, Rebekah

[rivqah]

Feb 21, 2009 9:57:16 GMT -7 @runner4jesus said:

Amen, Rebekah

This is the #1 deception today in christianity in my opinion. It's garbed in religion so it's very subtle and a deadly poison. We need to get back to basics--loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourself.

I plan on expounding on this more.

The core of christianity lies in these two verses. It's hard for satan to convince a christian he is not supposed to love God but not so hard to convince him not to love his neighbor or even brother.

I remember awhile back I read a book by Charles Stanley on unforgiveness. He gave a list of things to help you know if you are harboring anything in your heart against anyone.

For example:
Not being able to pray for someone or rejoicing when they fall or stumble.

Christians need to allow God to search their heart and if there is any indication of these things in your heart we need to cry out to God for deliverance.

Hate is a serious matter with God and if you do not love your brother you do not love God. This is what 1 John is all about and
it's important enough that God dedicated a whole book to this very thing.

I'm doing a study now on 1 John.

[rivqah]

Here is some good commentary from the Geneva bible on one of the key verses in 1 John:

1 John 4:20 If a man say , I love God and hate his brother he is a liar: for how can he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen love God whom he hath not seen?


Commentary: As he showed that the love of our neighbor cannot be seperate from the love wherewith God loveth us, because this last engendereth the other:so he denieth that the other kind of love wherewith we love God, can be seperate from the love of our neighbor: Whereof it followeth, that they lie impudently which say they worship God, and yet regard not their neighbor.



Just a little history of the Geneva bible:

(These notes, run to approximately 300,000 words, or one third the length of the text of the Bible itself! Written by Reformation leaders John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, William Keithe, Thomas Sampson, Thomas Wood and several others. For nearly half a century these notes helped the people of England, Scotland, and Ireland understand the scriptures. The marginal notes were especially useful to the common people when Queen Elizabeth prohibited priests from addressing the congregations.)

www.reformedreader.org/gbn/abh.htm

[rivqah]

The Lord has been showing me this is a serious issue in the church.

"..because this last engendereth the other.."

Our love for God should engender our love for one another. The scriptures say "..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 At the same time we are not loving others we are not loving God. Loving God always engenders love towards others. If we are lacking in our love towards others we are lacking in our love towards God.

Why is it that there is no emphasis anymore on loving others? Why is it that loving others is optional? How many christians do you know that practice unconditional love? Not many. Any love that is conditional is not the kind of love that comes from God.

We cannot have personal revival, grow in our walk with the Lord or bless others if we do not have unconditional love.

The Lord is doing an awesome work in my life and it is radically changing my relationship with my family and others. I've seen what a lack of love and conditional love can do to us and that is not God's love.

There will be no revival without unconditional love.

Hate sin and love the sinner.

[rivqah]

Calvary Love by Amy Carmichael, taken from her book 'If'

If I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak points in contrast perhaps with what I think of as my strong points; if I adopt a superior attitude, forgetting “Who made thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou hast not received?” then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I find myself taking lapses for granted, “Oh, that’s what they always do,” “Oh, of course she talks like that, he acts like that,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I do not feel far more for the grieved Savior than for my worried self when troublesome things occur, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can rebuke without a pang, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If my attitude be one of fear, not faith, about one who has disappointed me; if I say, “Just what I expected” if a fall occurs, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, “You do not understand,” or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other’s highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace; if I forget the poignant word “Let love be without dissimulation” and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I hold on to choices of any kind, just because they are my choice, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am soft to myself and slide comfortably into self-pity and self-sympathy; If I do not by the grace of God practice fortitude, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have “a heart at leisure from itself,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If, the moment I am conscious of the shadow of self crossing my threshold, I do not shut the door, and keep that door shut, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I take offense easily, if I am content to continue in a cool unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I feel injured when another lays to my charge things that I know not, forgetting that my sinless Savior trod this path to the end, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I feel bitter toward those who condemn me, as it seems to me, unjustly, forgetting that if they knew me as I know myself they would condemn me much more, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the praise of others elates me and their blame depresses me; if I cannot rest under misunderstanding without defending myself; if I love to be loved more than to love, to be served more than to serve, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a soul in bondage, instead of caring only that it be delivered; if I nurse my disappointment when I fail, instead of asking that to another the word of release may be given, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I do not forget about such a trifle as personal success, so that it never crosses my mind, or if it does, is never given room there; if the cup of flattery tastes sweet to me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If in the fellowship of service I seek to attach a friend to myself, so that others are caused to feel unwanted; if my friendships do not draw others deeper in, but are ungenerous (to myself, for myself), then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I refuse to allow one who is dear to me to suffer for the sake of Christ, if I do not see such suffering as the greatest honor that can be offered to any follower of the Crucified, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone, making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading it to fasten upon Him, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If my interest in the work of others is cool; if I think in terms of my own special work; if the burdens of others are not my burdens too, and their joys mine, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I wonder why something trying is allowed, and press for prayer that it may be removed; if I cannot be trusted with any disappointment, and cannot go on in peace under any mystery, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked of me; if my fellows hesitate to ask it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

That which I know not, teach Thou me, O Lord, my God.

[rivqah]

1 John 3:11-13
11For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

12Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

13Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.


Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

1 John 3:11-15 We should love the Lord Jesus, value his love, and therefore love all our brethren in Christ. This love is the special fruit of our faith, and a certain sign of our being born again. But none who rightly know the heart of man, can wonder at the contempt and enmity of ungodly people against the children of God. We know that we are passed from death to life: we may know it by the evidences of our faith in Christ, of which love to our brethren is one. It is not zeal for a party in the common religion, or affection for those who are of the same name and sentiments with ourselves. The life of grace in the heart of a regenerate person, is the beginning and first principle of a life of glory, whereof they must be destitute who hate their brother in their hearts.

[rivqah]

Mark 12:30-31
30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.[/u]

Matthew 24:12
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Matthew 10:37
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 19:19
Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Matthew 22:37
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.

Matthew 22:39
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Matthew 23:6
And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

Psalm 45:7
Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.