Does The Love Of Christ Control Your Choices?
You will never be relaxed in human relationships until you acquire impersonal love which is unconditional.
The only love that solves the problems of human interaction is impersonal unconditional agape love whereby the object can be acceptable or unacceptable, attractive or unattractive, obnoxious or pleasant.
Personal love is directed toward a few people in friendship, romance, and marriage.
Impersonal love is directed toward all mankind.
Personal love toward human beings has no built-in virtue, and it has no virtue guarantee.
Impersonal love contains built-in virtue and therefore has capacity for true love in friendship, romance, marriage, and all other human interaction.
Whether it's personal or impersonal love we will see that concentration is needed.
1JO 4:16 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
ROM 5:5 The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.
PHI 1:9 In fact, I pray this, that your virtue-love may excel to the maximum still more and more by means of metabolized doctrine resulting in all spiritual discernment,
1Th 4:9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are "taught" by God to love one another;
Personal love is based on attractiveness and rapport with the object.
However, impersonal loved is based on the virtue of the subject.
Personal love is a possessive and subjective attitude toward a few.
Impersonal love is an objective and relaxed attitude toward the human race.
Personal love is the expression of man's ego.
Impersonal love is the expression of man's virtue.
Personal love is vulnerable to arrogance and hypersensitivity.
Impersonal love is free from arrogance, including jealousy, hatred, bitterness, vindictiveness, guilt, self-pity, implacability, and revenge.
Personal love only has virtue as it relates to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The virtue of impersonal love is the great problem-solving device toward people.
Personal love in the human race has no built-in virtue.
Personal love in friendship, romance, or marriage must depend on something outside of that love for its virtue.
Love comes in four categories for the royal family:
- Category one is toward God.
- Category two is toward right man or right woman.
- Category three is toward friends.
- Category four is "loving the brethren" or impersonal love.
Apart from the consistent function of PMA, it is impossible to love God, HEB 12:2.
HEB 12:2 "looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Since God is invisible and the object of category one love, we must see and love Him through doctrine in the soul.
You cannot love God unless you know God, and you cannot know God unless you have metabolized enough pertinent doctrine, 1Pe 1:8, EPH 3:18‑19, Heb 6:10, 2Ti 1:13‑14, Col 3:1‑2.
1Pe 1:8 says and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe Him [His doctrine,
EPH 3:18 that you may be able to comprehend [here is the secret of loving TLJC] in the presence of all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
EPH 3:19 and to come to know the surpassing knowledge love of Christ, in order that you may be filled with all the fulness from God [doctrine filling the soul].
COL 1:19: "For in [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell."
HEB 6:10 says For God is not unjust so as to forget your occupation [the occupation in focus here is pastor-teacher] and the love which you have shown toward His name [there is category one love], [and then true love for the Lord is revealed] in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.
JOH 21:15 Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Feed My lambs.
JOH 21:16 "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Shepherd My sheep."
JOH 21:17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep.
A pastor's love for TLJC is manifested by how often he feeds the Lord's sheep!
JER 3:15 "I will give you pastors after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.
JER 23:4 "I shall also raise up pastors over them and they will feed them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing," declares the Lord.
- Category one love also sets up the standard for grace, Psa 119:132, Turn to me and be gracious to me, After Thy manner with those who love Thy name.
EPH 4:32, And become gracious to one another, compassionate, and forgiving each other, just as God also by means of Christ has forgiven you.
ISA 38:17, “Behold, bitterness became deliverance to me. In Your love You have delivered my soul out of the pit of destruction; for You have cast all my sins behind my back.”
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1CO 2:9 but just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him."
God's wisdom must be revealed and then believed or else it remains secret and hidden (ISA 55:8–9).
Isaiah wrote that no eye has seen, ear has heard, or human heart has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him, ISA 64:4.
JAM 2:19 "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder."
You have to give a “mental assent” which means that mentally you recognize that there is a God but you don’t believe that TLJC is God…
Known as the “Shema”, it is found in Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one."
PSA 37:4-5, Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
The Hebrew root word translated "commit" literally means "to roll."
The trusting believer "rolls" his burdens onto the Lord (MAT 11:28).
This concept is highlighted in other Psalms (PSA 55:22) and the teachings of Solomon (PRO16:3). Peter cites this concept (1PE 5:7).
- Category one love is the basis for personal and national blessing, DEU 30:15‑20.
DEU 30:15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
DEU 30:16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commands and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
DEU 30:17 "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,
DEU 30:18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
DEU 30:19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
DEU 30:20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."
Regard Him as our life and the length of your days, because if we love and trust Him, -- He is not part of our life, --- He is our life.
- Category one love motivates combat courage and military victory, JOS 23:10‑11.
JOS 23:10-11; "One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. (11) "So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God.
- Category one love provides strength for adversity and pressure; HEB 11:27 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Moses left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.
It is God who makes visible things out of invisible things—He works in ways we cannot always see, now, but will see, later on.
Moses "endured" the struggles and doubts involved in challenging the king of Egypt because he placed trusting faith in God.
This is why there is a special curse on believers who fail to have category one love in 1Co 16:22, they are said to be "cursed until the Lord comes."
1Co 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha.
- Even witnessing must be motivated by category one love, 2CO 5:14 "The love of Christ motivates us."
Paul answers firmly that he is not crazy.
Instead, he is compelled to act by the "love of Christ." ( 2CO 5:14).
One has died for all and therefore all died.
The first sign of momentum and progress in your spiritual life is personal love for God manifested by occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Occupation with Christ is defined as personal love for God the Son caused by perception, metabolization, and application, which manifests the fact that the mystery doctrine of the Church-age has been and continues to be the #1 priority in your life.
ROM 8:28 gives us the answer "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him,
God "does not" work all things together for good" until there is love for God and there is no love for God until there is an X amount of metabolized doctrine.
Love toward God then becomes a major issue.
Not love for people but love for God.
There is no real divine love toward people until there is first, personal love toward God.
ROM 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
ISA 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
ISA 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And clever in their own sight!
Category One Love is not only important for true unity within the church, but it is necessary.
EPH 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
EPH 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,
EPH 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
EPH 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
EPH 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
EPH 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
This concept is so fundamental, and so critical to the faith, that it can be traced to the first words of Scripture: "In the beginning, God" (GEN 1:1).
EPH 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
There are two major principles that really endanger man's relationship with God and man's relationship with man.
- Familiarity
- Selfishness -- Love for Self.
2TI 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2TI 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2TI 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self‑control, brutal, haters of good,
2TI 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
2TI 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.
First, this advice is in a personal letter to Timothy, so the wicked ones Paul is referring to existed when this letter was written.
Second, it’s important for the Christian soldier to demonstrate a clear separation from those who claim to be Christians but whose actions say otherwise.
Flexibility is not compromise --- it is the freedom given to all members of the human race the right and the ability to reveal their love and worship toward God in their own unique way whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, black or white, no matter what their nationality and personal preferences may be.
JOH 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
COL 2:16 Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day‑‑
COL 2:17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
COL 2:18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self‑abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,
COL 2:19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
COL 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
COL 2:21 "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"
COL 2:22 in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?
COL 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self‑made religion and self‑abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
COL 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
COL 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
COL 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
COL 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
COL 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
ROM 14:1 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
ROM 14:2 One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.
ROM 14:3 Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
ROM 14:4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
ROM 14:5 One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.
ROM 14:6 He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.
ROM 14:7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;
ROM 14:8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
Whether it's impersonal love or personal love, the royal family honor code demands no hypocrisy or mendacity.
You cannot love God unless you know God, and you cannot know God unless you have metabolized enough pertinent doctrine, 1Pe 1:8, Eph 3:18‑19, Heb 6:10, 2Ti 1:13‑14, Col 3:1‑2.
1Pe 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, [a reference to TLJC,] you love Him,
prin-When you start to love someone you have not seen, it's because you have linked up with their thinking.
1Pe 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe -- ["in Him" is not found in the original.]
The pres-act-part of “pisteuo” which refers to believing doctrine or having it metabolized.
The key to loving God...BELIEVING!
Answer: Bible doctrine, you believe the Word of God!
1PE 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believing, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
"full of glory" is a reference to the spiritually sustained believer who reflects the glory of God with the structure in his soul.
How can you ever assume that loving God the Father, loving God the Son under occupation with Christ, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit be set aside for a lot of nonsense called "Christian fellowship" or social life with Christians?
Christian fellowship is no substitute for fellowship with God.
You never put fellowship with visible people above your relationship or fellowship with God.
You cannot fulfill the #1 priority of fellowship with God simply by resolving to make God #1; it comes through the consistent perception of Bible doctrine.
Christian fellowship is no substitute for learning Bible doctrine from whomever is your right pastor.
Spiritual growth and the execution of the PPOG and subsequent glorification of God only occurs through perception of doctrine, not through Christian fellowship.
- If you do not have Bible doctrine within, you cannot and do not have love for God, JOH 5:38-42.
- If a believer really loves God, it will be manifested by his desire to hear God's word, JOH 8:47.
- If you love the Lord, you will guard and protect His doctrines in your soul, JOH 14:15.
- It is doctrine abiding in Christians, not works, that reveals to the Father how much we love Him.
- If you guard or keep God's Word in you, God's love will be in you, JOH 15:10.
- Having God's mind or Bible doctrine is that which produces God's love, PHI 2:2
- Keeping doctrine in the soul is the only way to love with God's love, 1JO 2:5.
- Loving God is revealed by your impersonal unconditional love toward one another, 1JO 4:7.
- Loving God and His people can only come through knowledge of doctrine, 1JO 4:16-21.
- Since God is invisible and the object of category one love, we must see and love Him through doctrine in the soul, 1PE 1:8.
- Category one love also sets up the standard for grace,
- Category one love is the basis for personal and national blessing, DEU 30:15‑20.
- Category one love motivates combat courage and military victory, JOS 23:10‑11.
- Category one love provides strength for adversity and pressure, HEB 11:27.
- There is a special curse on believers who fail to have category one love in 1CO 16:22, they are said to be "cursed until the Lord comes."
- Even witnessing must be motivated by category one love, 2CO 5:14 "The love of Christ motivates us."