Love

Is it love to be a smooth talker, to put on a smile, to make promises that are never kept, and to blatantly flatter others?

Such a love is very popular; it’s widespread. Hypocrisy and flattery gratify the flesh, and people are willing to swallow the most absurd things as long as they are well-seasoned with carnal sweetness.

If this were only the case in what we call “the world,” we wouldn’t expect anything else. But, unfortunately, this hypocrisy prevails among Christians to such a degree that believers who are not contaminated with this spirit are regarded as hard, unloving, and unmerciful.

The fleshly mind has all kinds of preconceived ideas about how love is supposed to behave and when it is supposed to be shown, and people act accordingly. Based on these ideas, they think love must always be cuddly, sweet, and lenient. Regardless of how it’s expressed, it should never do anything that is displeasing to people.

Ungodly people have the same understanding, which is why they say that God is unloving and hard, because He doesn’t match up to their ideas about love.

It is easy to see that this kind of love will only lead to this: “Spare yourself.” Jesus responded to that kind of love by saying, “Get behind Me, Satan!”

The Spirit of God searches even the deep things of God, and in this Spirit we have understood, by God’s grace, that love for God goes beyond all these things that people thought were love. This love is so deep that it is willing to gladly sacrifice everything that we once thought should be nurtured and pampered. Here God gives us an opportunity to test ourselves, to see if we are willing to offer ourselves and thereby demonstrate that we possess a love for God.

The best wine is always saved for last. After someone has spoken two or three times out of their own human folly, God asks, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” “Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” Job 38:3-4.

Even Job, who spoke in such a way that rulers kept quiet and opposers covered their mouths with their hands, had to acknowledge that he spoke of things he did not understand, things too high for him, things he knew nothing about. Yet it was love itself that was working with him.

Our time on earth is usually about 70 years, and during that time we have ample opportunity to deny the carnal lusts that war against our soul, thus demonstrating in practical ways whether or not we have love.

God loves us so much that He wants to give us a divine life—an eternal life, full of His own nature, at the expense of our own self-life. People, in their darkened state, can hardly imagine this. They only see what is temporal and seek to gain every possible earthly advantage during this earthly life. Everything that interferes with these plans to make life comfortable is regarded as evil, even though their intended goal is eternal riches.

There is something called the “mystery of godliness”—a mystery that can only be obtained through godly fear. The knowledge of God’s eternal and sacrificial love is hidden in these mysteries. Once a person has tasted even a drop of this love, it will have such a powerful effect that they will forever reject everything that people think of as love.

No sacrifice is too great for this love, because by it we understand what God’s will is. No obstacle can stop us in our race, and no plot against us can discourage us. The Lord is with us, and what is man that we should be fearful of him? Those who have learned to lay down their own life have no fear of those who would take it from them. This is the faith that has overcome the world, and this is the love that has conquered every trace of “spare yourself.”