LOVE

WHY LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART AND WITH ALL OUR MIND AND WITH ALL OUR SOUL AND WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH?

The teacher of the Law in Mark 12:28 asked the question. Y’shua replied, “When a man loses a purse, does he turn only his eye to look for it? Or only his hand to feel for it? Or only his tongue to ask for it? Certainly not! He turns his whole body and employs all his powers to find it. Is this not true? Now, is not your Father in heaven more valuable than your purse?” (Gospel of Barnabas, chapter 100)

WHY DOES GOD COMMAND US TO LOVE HIM? IS HE SELFISH?

God is not selfish. Our existence is one proof of this. He created us to share with us what He has.

God has no need to be selfish. The whole creation belongs to Him; everything in it is His (Job 41:11, Psalm 24:1, Leviticus 25:23, Psalm 50:10, Haggai 2:8). God is called God because He is perfect and complete. Nothing can be added to Him and nothing taken away (Sirach 42:21).

²⁵ He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. ACTS 17

God commanding us to love Him is for our own good. You see, our journey through life is always a matter of choice between the kingdom of heaven and the evil empire. It is like standing at the edge of a cliff—with Lucifer urging us to jump and God urging us not to. Lucifer is urging us to jump because it will kill us. God is urging us not to jump so we may live. 

The devil does not have our best interest in mind (John 10:10). But God is the opposite. He wants us to keep busy living, not dying.

⁶ I am the way, the truth and the life. JOHN 14 

IF GOD CANNOT BE SERVED BY HUMAN HANDS, HOW IS LOVE OF GOD PUT INTO ACTION?

Love of God = Love of neighbor.

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in the Scripture, which is Love your neighbor as you love yourself, you are doing right. JAMES 2 

²⁰ For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ [God] has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 JOHN 4

⁴⁰ … I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me. ⁴⁵ I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me. MATTHEW 25

The term neighbor encompasses our family members, friends and relatives, churchmates, schoolmates, workmates, townmates and countrymen—even the strangers that come into our sphere and the peoples that live in foreign lands.[1]

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is the second greatest commandment. Y’shua said the second is like the first (Matthew 22:39). For whoever loves God must also love his neighbor and whoever loves his neighbor must also love God. No one can love God and put his neighbor aside; neither can he love his neighbor and put God aside. The two commandments are corollary, made to be part and parcel of one another. In the sight of God one is not pleasing without the other. To love God is to love your neighbor and to love your neighbor is to love God. Love God and Love your neighbor are clamped together. This explains why the two are listed under one and the same chapter in this book.

The question is, does it follow that our neighbor must be loved as well with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength? The answer is Yes. That precisely is how Love God is translated into action. “And since a neighbor is every person, regardless of race, gender or age, we get to love everyone!” said Paul J. Meyer.[2]

IF AN OCCASION ARISES WHEREIN WE MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN THE TWO, WHO MUST WE CHOOSE?

Choose love of God over love of neighbor. Prioritize the Creator over the creation.

Why was Patriarch Abraham called righteous? He was called righteous because when he chose God over his beloved son Isaac. Abraham always prioritized God.  

We love our neighbor only because we love God. Make no mistake about it. Love your neighbor is but an offshoot (meaning only a subsidiary or an extension) of Love God. God should be our first and foremost priority, and Love God our focus.  

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. COLOSSIANS 3

WHY MUST WE LOVE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

We love because God created us to love and be loved.

Love is the divine nature. When God thinks, He thinks of propagating and perpetuating love. When God acts, He acts to propagate and perpetuate love. When God speaks, He speaks to propagate and perpetuate love.

1 John 4:16 says God is love. It doesn’t say God has love. He is love! Love is the essence of God’s character. “Long before He laid down earth’s foundation, He had us in His mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love” (Ephesians 1:4a msg). God made us so He could love us. This is a truth to build our lives on. (Purpose-Driven Life, p. 24)

Because we were created in the image and likeness of the First Tree, love too is our nature. We are potential perfections meant to grow into actual perfections—trees that constantly produce fruits of love.

¹⁸ What is the kingdom of heaven like? What shall I compare it to? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. LUKE 13

³¹ It is the smallest seed you can plant in the ground. ³² Yet it grows and becomes [a tree] the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch on its shade. MARK 4

⁴⁸ You must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. MATTHEW 5

In us is love that “yearns to be expressed and shared; it needs an outlet.”[3] It is most natural for us to love and most unnatural for us not to. Act contrary to our nature—immobilize or isolate it—and we feel heavy, down and lonely; our life becomes empty and meaningless. However, let our nature fly, let it find an outlet, and we feel light… excited… inspired… fulfilled… easy to smile and laugh… 

¹² Love each other as I have loved you. JOHN 15

God created us to build love-relationships, to nurture and perpetuate fulfilling relationships. The mandate was given to our first parents and it extends to us. In this context John 15:12 becomes our accountability—an obligation—to our Creator.

⁶ God blessed [our first parents] and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number.” GENESIS 1

⁶ Fill all the world with fruit. ISAIAH 27

¹⁷ Wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then… full of good fruit. JAMES 3

Notwithstanding all the above reasons why we must love, gratefulness dictates that we reciprocate God’s love for us in a manner most acceptable to Him: by loving one another. God deserves nothing less.

¹⁹ We love each other because God loved us first. 1 JOHN 4 nlt

¹⁴ Anyone who does not love remains in death. 1 JOHN 3

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[1] Tertullian On Prayer quoted a saying attributed to Y’shua, as follows: “When you have seen your brother, you have seen the Lord.”

[2] Paul J. Meyer, Unlocking Your Legacy (Chicago, USA: Moody Publishers, 2005), p. 31.

[3] Billy Graham, The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (Nashville, Tennessee, USA: W Publishing Group, 2006), p. 27.

How to Love

Divine love is the opposite of erroneous love. Let us try to understand it from our Creator’s point of view.  

Divine love is all-inclusive. It does not discriminate whom to love.

¹ My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Y’shua the Messiah if you favor some people over others? ³ If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”—well, ⁴ doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives? JAMES 2 nlt

Divine love is oozing with generosity, uncontaminated with selfishness. 

⁵ God gives generously to all without finding fault. JAMES 1

²⁷ Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. ²⁸ Do not say to your neighbor “Come back later; I will give it tomorrow”—when you now have it with you. PROVERBS 3

⁴² When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him. MATTHEW 5 tev

²⁰ Lend without charging interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite [fellow Christian]. DEUTERONOMY 23 

Keavin Hayden told us this story: After Adam sinned, God taught him about the destructiveness of sin by having him take the life of an innocent lamb. Adam had never witnessed death. Yet it was presented to him as the only way to forgiveness. So he took the life of that innocent little creature that had always looked at his master with eyes of love and trust. As Adam stood there in shock from the horror of the scene, the stain of crimson on his hand, he looked up and in agony cried out to God, “Is this what must happen to me because of my sin?” But God’s answer came back with tender love that could melt the heart of the most hardened sinner: “No, My son, that is what must happen to Me because of your sin.” [1]  

Giving can cause discomfort or inconvenience to the giver, that’s true, but look at the divine example before us.

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Y’shua the Messiah laid down His life for us. 1 JOHN 3

God left His comfort zone and incarnated on earth to free us from bondage.

²² The whole world is a prisoner of sin. GALATIANS 3

We may not be aware of it but to sin is to buy selfish, momentary pleasure from Lucifer. In exchange for the pleasure, we pawn to him everything we got—our persons and dominion included—and let him do with them whatever it is that pleases him. It is a pledge that no man can redeem by himself. The penalty for unredeemed pledges is the Second Death (Romans 6:23).

Divine love reaches out to the needy, whatever the cost. God allowed Lucifer, his demons and human agents the satisfaction of shaming Him and tormenting Him to death as a ransom to pay off our debts and release us from the pledge.

¹ It is for freedom that the Messiah has set us free. GALATIANS 5

¹³ The Messiah… took the curse for our wrongdoing upon Himself. GALATIANS 3 tlb

⁷ In Him we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. EPHESIANS 1 

We got ourselves into a predicament, so God came to help.

⁸ The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 1 JOHN 3

Divine love does not hesitate or retreat in the face of death or extreme suffering when necessary.

¹⁶ God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. JOHN 3

⁹ Here is how God showed His love among us: God sent His only Son into the world, so that through Him we might have life. ¹⁰ Here is what love is: …He sent His Son to be the kapparah [atonement, expiation, propitiation] for our sins. 1 JOHN 4 cjb

The Son of Man suffered cruel torment, including the humiliation of being nailed to the cross and dying on it—a punishment reserved only for the worst criminals of the time. He died so that all of us might live (Hebrews 2:9).

² The Righteous One… is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 JOHN 2

¹⁸ The Messiah died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 1 PETER 3

Divine love prevails over temptation. It is neither provoked by rudeness nor by meanness, nor by intimidation, nor by rejection, nor by hurt, nor by anger, nor by spitefulness, nor by revengefulness. Our temptation is to find fault, protest, condemn or react harshly against anyone who delivers discomfort, inconvenience or suffering to us. But the Son of Man did not do that. He meekly received the blows. At the cross His dying words were a prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). He always transformed negative situations into positive.

Divine love is gracious. It keeps on loving even if the beneficiary is unworthy to be loved.

¹⁰ This is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us… ¹⁹ God loved us first. 1 JOHN 4

The human tendency is to reciprocate love for love and tooth for tooth. But that is not how divine love works. Divine love responds to ungodly deeds with godly deeds.

⁶ The Messiah died for the ungodly… ⁸ God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, the Messiah died for us… ¹⁰ When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. ROMANS 5 

³ We were by [our sinful] nature objects of [God’s] wrath. ⁴ But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with the Messiah even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. EPHESIANS 2

God’s heart beats with compassion and mercy even for those who do not love Him.

⁴⁵ Your Father in heaven causes His sun to shine on the evil and on the good. He sends His rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. MATTHEW 5 

During Y’shua’s time, the Jews do not associate with the Samaritans (John 4:9). But in answering the question “Who is my neighbor?” He gave the parable of a Samaritan helping a Jew in need. Read Luke 10:29-37 to better understand this.

Somebody might have rubbed us the wrong way. He might have mistreated us, irritated us, failed us, grieved us... And he might have done it not only once but twice or more... But that does not give us a valid excuse to stop loving him... He remains our neighbor and a valued creation of God. Remember, the Son of Man shed His precious blood and died for him too. 

⁴⁴ I tell you, love your enemies; and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. MATTHEW 5

²⁷ I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. LUKE 6 

Divine love is edifying. To edify is to build up our neighbor in the Lord. The process is like putting up a skyscraper; it’s not easy. As we all know, skyscrapers do not sprout overnight. We have to plan our moves and accomplish them one step at a time. We start from the bottom, put up solid foundations, and inch our way up.

¹ We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. ² Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. ROMANS 15

Building up our neighbor in the Lord requires personal sacrifices on our part, a large chunk of which has to do with humbling ourselves. “A proud Christian is a contradiction,” said Billy Graham in The Journey. (See box on what humility means.)

⁴ Love is… never boastful or proud. 1 CORINTHIANS 13 tlb

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. ¹⁷ Do not repay evil with evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ROMANS 12

In summary, Scripture says of divine love:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 CORINTHIANS 13

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[1] Keavin Hayden, Truth That Matters (Ontario: Pacific Press Publishing Association), p. 21.