Taking Action: Love Like God Loves
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Love Like God Loves
Love Like God Loves
As I prepared for this message the thought came to me that most people will think that this is an extremely simplistic thought for us to be talking about. In fact, the exact opposite is true for most American Christians especially. The American Church has been bombarded from within by movements such as modernist, postmodernist, emergent church, and deconstructionalist theologies. Each and every one of these are a departure from the truth of God’s Word.
The primary target that is repeated over and again is this.
If God is LOVE then _________ ?
I have been perplexed over the amount of people that claim to be Christian that are in direct support of things that God calls an abomination. I have asked that God would help me understand on a deeper level how people come to the place that their open defiance of the Word of God becomes justifiable not only in their own sight but sometimes on a denominational level.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
God Is Love
God Is Love
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
When you hear the phrase “God is Love”, most people readily identify and would agree that is the God they think of their Christianity is all about. However, many of those same people have a difficult time trying to reconcile a God of love with some of the things they or others have experienced in life or the idea that same God will one day pour out His wrath and indignation on those that chose to ignore His love.
For example, there is a growing movement among liberal factions within the Church that have a HUGE problem with penal substitution.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Believe it or not, there are some in the Church that would have you to believe that if you take these verses at face value that you are making God a cosmic child abuser for punishing Jesus for something He never did.
However, such thinking does not take into account the whole of God’s Word that shows the centrality of Jesus needing to deal with our sin and its penalty. It also fails to remember that Jesus was fully God, so in actuality, God took the punishment for our sin on Himself to satisfy the requirements of His righteous indignation and wrath.
Listen to what some “progressive church” leaders have to say about God’s love in relation to the crucifixion:
"The title of my most recent book is "Did God Kill Jesus?" Which I used because it was a quandary I had myself, and it was something that I had heard from a lot of people, and that is, they're struggling with their understandings of the cross, and Jesus' death on the cross, in which it seemed like God had to exact some kind of revenge or payment from Jesus. Some people call it the "Penal Substitution Theory" of the atonement. I refer to it as "The Payment" model of the atonement. So the big question underlying the book, and I think underlying the cross in general- when you think about it theologically at least- is: "Is God the author of the crucifixion? Or, to put it more bluntly: "Did God kill Jesus?"
-Tony Jones, American Gospel: Christ Crucified
“As far as I am concerned, the notion that God requires a blood sacrifice to forgive the sins of humanity is easily the saddest, most hurtful, and most discouraging doctrine ever invented.”
― Bart Campolo, Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son
So you can see there is a great deal of confusion in regard to how God’s love and mercy operate in connection with His righteousness and wrath.
Finding Truth In God’s Love
Finding Truth In God’s Love
We live in a society of acceptance where moral boundaries have been cast into the sea. Even the church remains silent on some contemporary issues so not to offend. This is wrong. We are called to love people. But is staying silent on the hard issues really loving them? If we don’t take a stand, we are essentially saying these things do not matter to us. And they must matter for every disciple of Christ!
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Did you know there are times when it is appropriate to hate?
Connection questions:
How many things does the bible say God hates?
According to Isaiah 5, when we don’t stand up for the things God hates, what are we essentially doing?
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
How does the bible define “fearing the Lord”?
What is the inherent risk in only loving what God loves and NOT hating what He hates?
What happens when we continue to ignore the Holy Spirit in our lives?
What is our responsibility as believers moving forward?
We can ONLY conclude that if we are to truly call ourselves Christians, we must not only love what God loves, but we must hate what He hates. This does not give us license to ever act hateful towards any individual; in fact we must love them deeper. It is the kindness of God that draws people into repentance. But we also cannot turn a blind eye towards the truths explicitly laid out for us in scripture. We can no longer sit on our hands on these issues. It is time to wake up and speak up! Let us love more fiercely than we have ever before and let us pray for our nation as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.
What does God hate?
What does God hate?
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
What Does God Love?
What Does God Love?
If God gives us a list of what He hates, it is simple enough to concede that He loves the opposite of everything on that list!
God hates “haughty eyes.”
Therefore, God loves eyes which gaze with humility. Not a false or broken humility of despising oneself, but a genuine, Christ-like choice to serve others, not draw undue attention to oneself, and treat others with great honor and respect.
God hates “a lying tongue.”
Therefore, God loves a tongue which speaks truth. Note that this does not say a brash tongue, or a loud tongue, or a tongue which speaks its opinion at any and every possible moment. Rather, he loves a tongue which, when it does speak, values honesty and artlessness.
God hates “hands that shed innocent blood.”
Therefore, God loves hands which protect the innocent. Throughout Scripture, God’s compassion for the defenseless and the innocent is clear. He commends his children (in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Covenant) to protect the defenseless (Psalm 82:3-4), welcome the alien (Matthew 25:35), care for the widow (James 1:27), defend the orphan (Deut. 24:17), and mourn with those who are mourning (Romans 12:15). We are to be peaceful citizens, not bloodthirsty citizens, and our hands should therefore strive to protect innocence.
God hates “a heart that devises wicked plans.”
Therefore, God loves a heart which devises good and righteous plans. God loves our desires to serve, our desires to help, our desires to minister. When our hearts long to carry out God’s plans for goodness, righteousness, and peace, it delights him.
God hates “feet that run rapidly to evil.”
Therefore, God loves feet which run rapidly to goodness. Our feet carry enormous power. Where we choose to walk can truly define who we are as a person. Will we choose to walk away from a fruitless argument, or remain in an attempt to stubbornly prove a point? Will we choose to chase after those whom we have wronged, falling at their feet with love and humility? Will we let our feet wander to where the Spirit leads us, or will our feet guide us to our own selfish desires?
God hates “a false witness who utters lies.”
Therefore, God loves a trustworthy witness who speaks the truth. When we are beacons of integrity, truth, and honor, God rejoices. In any situation, a witness is charged to faithfully report what happened to the best of his ability. The greatest witness we can be is a faithful witness of God’s redeeming work in our lives. Will we stand boldly and speak the truth of God to the world? Are we living our lives as false witnesses, or trustworthy witnesses?
God hates “one who spreads strife among brothers.”
Therefore, God loves one who spreads peace among his brothers. It is really only possible to spread peace or strife. Every word we speak contributes one of those two attitudes to our relationships. And God loves those who value peace over 1) proving a point, 2) being heard, or 3) manipulating situations. With one word at a time, God wants us to change our attitude and sow seeds of peace in our relationships.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?