GOD's love comes with GOD's disciplines
Hebrews 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,ย and He chastises every son He receives.
The way GOD loves is not the same as a man loves. Those who misunderstand His love as a man's love will find GOD's love irrational. When a man loves, as seen when a man loves a woman, he loves her for what she represents, as if she is a product carrying a perceived promise. He loves for a reason or with a motive. No one loves for no reason except for the sake of loving. Unless he is like GOD, loving unconditionally. GOD proves His unconditional love: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is, despite us being vile, detestable and hideous according to His standard, GOD still loves us by dying for us.ย His love compels Him to do whatever is needed to make us right with Him so that we can be the beneficiaries of His goodness.
Some might think that GOD is blinded by love. Yes, He is because love takes no records of wrong. Since GOD is love, His love is blinded to our sins, and for us, He can sacrifice 100% of Himself without consideration for Himself. For love, Jesus could, as in the Epistle of Philippians: Existing in the form of Godย did not consider equality with Godย something to be grasped, but emptied Himself,ย taking the form of a servant,ย being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,ย He humbled Himselfย and became obedient to deathโ even death on a cross. For love, Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
The main difference between GOD's love and a man's love is that one comes out of selflessness and the other out of selfishness. A man cannot sacrifice himself because, by nature, he is selfish. This nature is not a biased opinion but a biblical fact. The Bible has other terms to describe our selfishness: selfish ambition, vain, conceit, lovers of selves, self-seeking, pleasing ourselves, seeking our good, etc. His love is self-seeking for the enlargement of his ego, for his egoistic carnal ambitions. Hence, a man's love is not pure but tinted with motives, schemes and deceits. To elaborate, if a man loves a woman because she is an angel, talented or beautiful, his love is laced with motives. No matter how noble it might sound, it is filled with 'I love you because'. It is not a love of 'I love you regardless'. One day, a person might outlive their appealing attributes, and the reason for love will no longer exist. Then what happens? Love is liken to having wings, and it will fly away. Time will reveal the foundation of a man's love. Is it as solid as a rock, or is it as shifting as the sand?ย
GOD's love is unchanging with time and is unconditional in what may happen. Nothing can change His love. The Epistle of John writes, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and onlyย Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life". The phrase 'GOD so loved the world' that John uses is unprecedented because GOD does not approve or accept the world. The people of the world, according to the Apostle Paul, are people of the flesh who are hostile to God. They do not submit to God's law, nor can they do so. Those of the fleshย cannot please God. In the Epistle of 1 John writes, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him". The message is clear - despite His opinion of the world, He refrains from judgment and loves the world without prejudice and discrimination. Even if we are the vilest of sinners, His love will still cover us. No one will be ostracized from His love, and His arms are always open to everyone. That is how deep and how wide the love of GOD is.
GOD's love is indeed magnanimous. It is a haven for all sinners, where GOD's judgement has to stay outside and where sinners find solace. In His love, there is no condemnation and where sins can hold nothing against us. His love becomes our source of comfort, strength and hope. No doubt, in His love is where everyone wants to dwell. Therefore, it is a topic that is well-preached and sung about. However, unbeknown to many, no matter how great GOD's love is, His love is not above His law. And no matter how much GOD loves us, He cannot allow us eternal life without complying with His law. The law states that eternal life only comes through Jesus Christ, and only those who believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. The Apostle John could have stated, 'For God so loved the world that He gave His one and onlyย Son so that everyone shall not perish but have eternal life', and that would be so sweet. But he did not. That is to say, GOD's love is unconditional, but eternal life is conditional. Think about it: Metaphorically, could GOD allow the hand of His love to slap the face of His law? That will be foolish of Him.
No matter how much GOD loves us, He does not allow us to trespass against His law. In other words, He does not allow us to sin against Him. Therefore, His love is not above His law. However, many have misconstrued GOD's love to supersede His law, quoting from the Apostle Paul that we are no longer under law but under grace. That is picking words out of context. The Apostle Paul did not suggest that grace had replaced the law. He only meant that when we believe in Christ, our master is no longer sin but Christ. Therefore, we are no longer slaves to sin but to righteousness. When we no longer sin, we are no longer under the law, and the law has nothing against us. We can understand it in this way: if we do not contravene any legislation, the government will not come after us. We will not be under any sentence of imprisonment, a fine, or other sanctions and are free to do whatever we want. In biblical terms, when we are not under the law, we are under grace. We are only under grace if we do not sin. We must remember that nothing is above the law, not even GOD's love. Therefore, we should not go overboard when anyone tells us that GOD is madly in love with us. It does not mean anything, as it is not an open door to eternal life, and it does not give us a license to sin.
If GOD's love is not a ticket to eternal life, then what is its purpose in the architecture of humanity? Though GOD's love cannot directly give us what we want, it can pave the way there. As an analogy, GOD's love is like a mother's love, nurturing a child for greatness. Though a mother cannot bestow greatness on her child, she can nurture the greatest within him so that he can be great by his own merits. GOD's love will nurture us from sinners to saints, so by our merits, we will enter heaven. We will be able to stand tall among angels because we do not enter, figuratively, by the back door. In this journey to sinning no more, GOD promises that He will not leave us nor forsake us. He will be our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. No matter how many times we fall because of our weakness, like the Apostle Peter, GOD will be there to pick us up because His love will never fail. Like in the Apostle Paul, GOD's strength is made perfect in his weakness. He will be ours, too.
GOD's love is not based on merits. Anyone is qualified for it. Therefore, no matter where we are in our relationship with Him, He will accept us as who we are. Even if we are the vilest sinners or non-Christians, GOD has no issue with that. He wants to give to us and not take from us for His purpose. Therefore, there are no criteria, conditions, or baselines except that we wish for His love. For the fallen world, He is willing to sacrifice the most precious of heaven, Jesus Christ, in suffering for its redemption so that heaven's gate is open for all who wish to enter. However, eternal life is not as simple as Apostle John put it simplistically - everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. What should we believe in Him, then? That He is the Son of GOD? Even the demons, Legion, knew that. Yet, it got them nowhere except to be cast into the pigs. We need to believe more than that. We need to believe every word of Jesus. If we say we believe, then we must do accordingly. If not, we are as good as non-believers. In GOD's context, knowing His Word is not enough, as we must be doers of His Word.
When we believe in Jesus, we must be doers of His Word. Only when we do that will we not perish but have eternal life. Well, this is easier said than done. Many might be unaware that to be a doer of His Word is to sin no more. However, expecting a sinner to 'sin no more' is more challenging than for a drug addict to be drug-free. David wrote, "Surely I was brought forth in iniquity;ย I was sinful when my mother conceived me." ย That means we are born in a state of sin, and we have been doing wrong since birth. Hence, to 'sin no more', we need to do more than change the habit of sinning; we need to eradicate the DNA of our sinful nature. If not, we are clean on the outside, while on the inside, we are still unclean.ย
We need a spiritual transformation of our inmost being. Without this, we will never be free from our sinful nature. That is when GOD's love comes with care, support and guidance, seeing us through our transformation of dying to our sinful selves and being empowered by Him in obedience. His love will surround us like a tiger mother, coaching us to stand against our enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion waiting to devour us. GOD will discipline us to be fierce warriors against the devil'sย schemes and chastise us in our areas of weakness so that the devil will not have a foothold in us. We should not underestimate the devil as he can cause the downfall of any man and create havoc in anyone's life. Looking at the destruction he did to Job, we should be wary of him. As described in the Book of Ezekiel, the devil is the seal of perfection,ย full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. We are no match for him. If GOD is not with us, disciplining and chastening us to obedience, many would not be able to elude the devil's perfect temptation, causing us to sin. We will fall like Adam and Eve without any resistance.ย
The Epistle of Hebrews writes, "No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peaceย to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed." GOD loves us, and He has our best interests at heart. Through discipline, our limp hands and weak knees will be strengthened so we will not fall into sin away from GOD. Consequently, we will overcome sin and not perish but have eternal life.
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