Don't Judge God's Love by Man's Love

God’s love is too often judged by the love of man.  Our love, though real, is usually very shallow and thus if it we use our love to try to understand God’s love for us, our comparison is skewed to say the least.

To understand more fully God’s love is to look at it in biblical types of God’s love:

1. God the Father loved His Son and the Son loves the Father.  Remember that we are speaking of a Trinity and the love of each person within the Trinity for the for other persons of God.  You cannot understand this kind of love if you only see love in terms as man sees i, because this would be like a person saying, “I know how to love you because I Iove myself.”   In John we are told that the Father loves the Son both with (agape) John 3:35 and (phileo) John 5:20.  John also tells us that Jesus loved the Father in John 14:31.  Remember that Jesus’ actions were based solely upon His Father’s will and the love for the Father as well.
2. God also loves His Creation.  He lovingly made and keeps His Creation according to Genesis 1 and Matthew 6.  
3. The Bible also clearly tells us that God loves the world, even though they are sinners.  In John 3:16 does not tells us that God loves some elect hand full people, but the kurios (entire world).  God clearly has a love for those who have no love for Him as He sent His Son to die for the world before the world was even capable of loving Him. (1 John 2:2 & John 15:19)  We must also accept that because of this love for the world, He takes no pleasure in the death of sinners. (Ezekiel 33:11)
4. God clearly has a special place in His heart for His children, both the Jewish people and the born again.  When God chose Israel, He made it clear that His love was not because of their greatness, because they had no greatness (Deuteronomy 7:7).  He chose to love them even during the times they rejected His leading (1 Kings 10:9).  Now He has chosen to love the saved, not because of their actions, but because they are His children (2 Thessalonians 2:16).  Jesus loved the church enough to die for it too (Ephesians 5:25).  This is the love of unconditional terms.  God chose to love us even when we are doing anything worth loving us for.
5. Lastly, there is a place of God’s love for us based upon our obedience.  This doesn’t mean we must do things to be loved by God, but there is a specialness within the love of God for those that love Him (Jude 21 & John 15:9, 10)

The reasons that the love of God is a difficult doctrine is once again because we must  not see the love of God based upon our understanding of man’s concept love for his own kind.  Realize that God doesn’t love, but God IS love (1 John 4:8 & 16).  This means love is His character not just His actions or emotions.  Love comes from God because that is Who He is, instead of man’s concept of love which is based upon how we feel.  This will be the next section of our study here.

The Love of God - The Most Difficult Doctrine!

Over the next few posts I will be discussing the Doctrine of God’s Love.  This is based upon a series of sermons preached at VBBC from December 2015 to January 2016 in our Wednesday evening prayer/Bible study services.

Why is the God’s love the hardest part of doctrine?  It is not because God has made it difficult but because humanity has moved so far away from the biblical definition of God’s love that truly understanding this subject requires a complete rethinking of it.

This discussion must begin with the fact that basically all that call themselves Christian believe that God is love, but we too often define love by our culture and not the Bible’s definition.  Here are some examples:

1. Some say God’s love is totally unconditional and requires God to lay aside holiness as a requirement for daily living.
2. Others would say that God is so holy that His love is simply the motivation for living holy.
3. Still others would say that all forms of love are from God and there is no limitation on it.  t is the ultimate command and thus saying anything is wrong when love is the basis is doctrinal heresy, IE saying same sex marriage is wrong when two people “love each other.” 

These groups often use verses such as (John 3:16) to show love yet fail to remember that God will judge it (Acts 10:42).  Their the emphasis is seldom on the judgment of God or His holiness just the love. Why?  Because we want a God that loves us and want to downplay the judgment or holiness of God which caused the judgment to be necessary. 

Sometimes doctrinal heresy is not even discussed in some churches.  To be honest, some might even go as far as to say that to preach against heresy IS the heresy.  As an example, I hold that that King James Version is the preserved Word of God in the English language and all other english “versions” are simply commentaries of what men think God meant.  But when I say this, I am judged as legalistic and borderline heretic by some.  Why?  Because I have called someone else’s “doctrine” wrong and that is un-Christian in some minds.  They might even say I am “unloving” and “critical.”  They would admonish me to ignore the differences and love my fellow Christians because ALL English translations are okay, its just simple language differences, and to say otherwise is “unloving.”

How different this is from Paul and even Christ Himself.  Jesus said that the scribes and Pharisees were teaching commandments of men and calling it doctrine (Matthew 15:9).  Paul stop against Peter for teaching that Gentiles couldn’t really be saved (Galatians 2:11).  Yet, I would be wrong to say that these men didn’t love people!

To say it simply, God’s love is too often romanticized and emotionalized based upon our emotions and not God’s definition.  This is clearly seen when we try to defend God’s judgment in the Old Testament or trying to explain how God “allows” bad things to happen today.  We are defending and explaining based upon human emotions not the truth that God has every right to judge as He sees fit because He is both loving and just!

How the Bible Uses the Phrase "Sound Doctrine."

There are four times in the New Testament that the phrase “sound doctrine” is used.  Let’s quickly look at them:

1. 1 Timothy 1:10 - Paul is writing to the young (1 Timothy 4:12) whom he placed in Ephesus to serve most likely as their pastor/minister (1 Timothy 1:3; 4:6) even though never expected Timothy to necessarily stay there permanently (2 Timothy 4:9,13, 21).  Timothy was clearly a young man with great passion (2 Timothy 1:4) and yet a tremendous responsibility (1 Timothy 6:20) to watch for the truth being taught.  So here in 1 Timothy 1:10 Paul shows the great contrast between what sound doctrine is and what it is not.  It is interesting that Paul does not define what IS sound doctrine but what happens in the lives of people when sound doctrine is being rejected.  So sound doctrine is clearly a safeguard against sin.
2. 2 Timothy 4:3 - Here Paul explains that there will be a time when men will desire to have teachers sharing what they want to hear because they will bear with sound doctrine.  Now, it is true, that these verses are speaking of last days, as Paul wrote in verse 1 “in the latter days” and in verse 3 “For the time will come.” But is is also true that falling away from sound doctrine has been going on ever since sound doctrine was given!  Remember the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day rejected His sound doctrine (Matthew 26:65) as did the pagans (Acts 16:19-24) of Paul’s time as well.  Sound doctrine has always been rejected by those who desire to live their own lives in their own way (Mark 8:31; Luke 17:25; Romans 8).  Sound doctrine WILL be rejected by those who desire their own doctrine.
3. Titus 1:9 & 2:1 - Titus was a Gentile believer (Galatians 2:3) that was a precious companion to Paul (2 Corinthians 2:13) who appears to be the pastor of the church on the island of Crete (Titus 1:5).  In the book written to Titus, Paul gives two distinct commands about sound doctrine.  First in 1:9, Paul tells Titus to hold fast sound doctrine as a pastor (elder) must do.  It is clear that the first person that sound know and hold strongly to sound doctrine is the man whom God has given pastoral duty to!  This does not mean a pastor is infallible, but that he should clearly know and hold to sound doctrine.  Second in 2:1, Paul tells Titus to speak sound citrine so that those in the church can do their duty within the church body.  Obviously God has given to each person a duty to serve the Lord and sound doctrine MUST be the foundation of that duty.

Over the next several posts we will begin to share this sound doctrine.  In time, it will come in the form of a series of short videos with worksheets so that you can have both a visual and paper method of studying sound doctrine.  I pray that it will be a blessing as you seek to find your place of service within your local church.