Counterfeit Love
Posted on Saturday, March 28, 2015, 9:16 pm By
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The greatest threat to Christianity today is “love”, no not Biblical sacrificial love but counterfeit love (for you rebels in the south “counterfeit” means fake, I’m not talking about the good loving of a Southern confederate woman).  Today we hear the word “love” applied to everything.  I love these french fries, I love what you are wearing, I love that movie.  We used to say I “like” that movie or I prefer french fries over a backed potato indicating it was a choice, a decision of our will that we controlled.  Back in the sixties when I was a teenager you did not use the word “love” unless you used it in a sentence to the one you loved with intent for that love to lead to marriage.  So today when I hear someone say “I love these shoes”, I am saying in my head “well are you going to marry those shoes”.  I use to think it was funny and absurd that people used the word “love” in all these unnatural ways but today it is not funny, it is sad and dangerous as people who are lost in the pursuit of love are demanding that others acknowledge there is virtue in whatever they choose to call “love”.

Actually, one of the problems with understanding love is the English language itself.  In Greek there are six different words to distinguish the six different kinds of love; “philia ” – a deep friendship kind of love for a friend that you can count in times of trouble; “eros“ – a sexual passion kind of love that can make you loose control; “ludus” – a playful kind of love found in laughing and dancing; “pragma” – a longstanding kind of love found between married couples; “philautia” – a love of self that could be narcissism; “agape” – a radical selfless unconditional love for everyone.  Christian love operates at the “agape” level, the highest form of love which means I love you unconditionally since you are made in the image of God.

To see what unconditional love looks like, look to the cross, where Jesus paid the price for my sin and your sin.  Jesus loves me and you, even though we are born in sin, He died in my place and He died in your place, so we could be “born-gain” and free from sin.  Jesus does not expect us to be “free from sin” before He will love us because He knows we can not meet this condition.  Therefore, Jesus unconditionally loved us enough to make a way for us to be “free from sin” when you and I believe that Jesus died for our sin.

Unconditional love, does not mean that I unconditionally love everything you do but it means that I unconditionally extend the hospitality and curtsy that I would like others to extend to me.  This fulfills the “Great Commandment” from God, to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40).   Unconditional love also means that I share the gospel of Jesus Christ with my neighbor so that my neighbor can be saved from their sin and have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  This fulfills the “Great Commission” from God to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:16-20).

Here’s what Christian agape love is all about from Matthew 10:32-29 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Agape love can only be seen through the lens of scripture, which is only understood by God’s born again children who are empowered by the Holy Spirit.  And like the above passage explains, real Christian love is demonstrated on a Spiritual battle ground for truth not on a comfy bed of tolerance and indifference.  When you become a born again Christian you must evaluate your previous ties and personal feelings.  You must put the word of God and your love for Jesus above your everything else you once held dear.  To take up ones cross means to deny self, to deny the desire for sin in your life and to live by grace through faith the new life of Christ Jesus.  Real Christian love causes you to clash with the world of sin and those who are lost in their sin.  Christians are supposed to demonstrate a love to the lost by proclaiming the love of Jesus that saves a person from their sin and allows that person to overcome sin, not continue to live in sin.  Real Christian love, loves the sinner but hates the sin.

Real Christian love is the greatest of all virtues and yet the “love” of the world is the greatest of all deceptions that keeps someone from knowing real love, the love of God in Christ Jesus.  The “love” a mother has for her child is wonderful because it unconditional cares for the child and wants the best for the child.  Yet this love can be used to deceptively smother a child and control the child, insisting that the child put her demands above all other interests, including God.  A mother who pursues the love of her child over the love of God is in a dysfunctional relationship of love, a drama that will end badly unless there is an intervention.

In the same way the love of family can drive a man to work to provide for his family which is a good thing however this love can deceive a man into thinking that loving his family is more important than loving God.  When something unexpected happens in the family he is disillusioned and crippled under the weight of the problem he is not designed to overcome.  And the problem or trial can be a good thing if it drives the man to repentance and a relationship with God, so the man can share his love of God with his family.  In fact, it is God who loves his family more than he does and it is God that blesses him and allows him to provide for his family.  The same is true of the love of country which is a good thing but it’s not the most important thing.  The most important thing is that people acknowledge that it is “In God We Trust” not “In Gov We Trust”.

The love of a man for a woman and the love of a woman for a man is a wonderful thing, yet it too can spiral into a dysfunctional relationship if God is not the foremost love of both the man and the woman.  We are created by God for love and to pursue the high ideal of love that is found in Christ.  A wife is supposed to respect her husband because he represents the leadership of God and a husband is supposed to cherish and love his wife as Christ loves the church, His bride.  Our greatest joy is found when we pour our self out in love for a person or cause in Jesus’ name.  The problem is not that we love to much but that we love to little and we set our sights on loving for greedy gain of receiving love instead of loving in order to give our self in love.  Only God can provide the proper love to fuel a wonderful marriage and only God can provide the love that is needed to heal a broken or dysfunctional marriage.  A marriage in God’s eyes means the two become one flesh.  This is a profound mystery and perhaps the greatest of blessing on earth (outside salvation in Jesus Christ).  Emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, financially, and in every other way, the couple is to become one but this is only possible when both husband and wife are pursing the love of God as they enjoy the love of one another.

The Beatles sang “All You Need is Love” and this is true, the only think we really need is the love of God (Luke 10:42).  Each of us has a big love size hole in our heart that only God can fill.  We long to find a place where we are accepted, belong and understood.  Our need for love is found in Jesus.  And this why Jesus came to give us His unconditional love, yet we can only receive His love by repenting from sin and being born again, becoming a new person in Christ.  Jesus’ love is unconditional, in the sense that no matter how bad you have sinned, He will forgive your sin, save you from your sin and fill you with His love.  But people today don’t want the true love of Jesus that frees them from their sin and gives them eternal life, they want a man made love of acceptance of sin that leads to eternal death and separation from God.  The Beatles had a revolution sound and look about them but they didn’t have the revolutionary message of Jesus.  At first they sang simple love songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” but later they studied Eastern religions and gave us songs like “Imagine” which teach an Eastern philosophy to accept everything as true, as though we have no responsibility to identify what is evil and try to deter it.  “Live and be yourself.  Afterlife is not even a concern to a true Taoist in the Chuang-Tzu“.

Today, after the brutal massacre of 49 men in a gay bar in Orlando, Florida on June 21, 2016, singers and celebrates are uniting and singing “What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love”.  Yes, the world needs love, but it;s not the love of acceptance of sin that leads to death but the love of Jesus that leads to eternal life.  This song even invokes the name of “Lord” but it is illogical and crazy to think “the Lord” will bless a nation with His Holy love that heals our troubles and divisions when the people in the nation love their sin more than Him.  The strong sexual attraction and “feeling” of love for a same sex partner are real but our feelings don’t change the truth of God’s word.  God has already demonstrated His unconditional love for the gay community by sending His only begotten Son to die on the cross for their sin.  The Son is shinning and the Holy Spirit is waiting for sinners to repent and be saved from their sin.

“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:36

The world needs love and craves love but they crave a love of approval for their sinful life and their sinful thoughts, not a love of God and a love of a transformed life in Jesus Christ, that is free from sin.  The word “love” has been high jacked by the world and people are demanding that the church give them a gospel of acceptance of sin, not one of repentance and forgiveness of sin.  People are hurting for the love of Jesus but if as a Christian, I accept them in love without giving them the message of God’s transforming power of love from sin, am I loving them like Jesus would love them?  No, of course not.  If we only love people to the degree that we accept them and let them die in their sin, what kind of love is this?

I saw a show on TV about the healing power of hugs.  If you reach out an give a person a hug that will show them you care about the person and this will change the world for the better.  Sure we should tell people we care about them and hugging is a good way to demonstrate that but a hug alone will not save a person from sin.  Each person is born onto “death row”, if we do not acknowledge our rebellious sin nature that makes us want to do things “our way”, apart from God, we will die in our sin.  Hugging a person may heal a person from his alienation from the world but it will not heal a person from his alienation from God.  In fact, it sends the exact opposite message and tells them you are OK “just the way you are without God”.

These grass roots movements like “We are the World” and global organizations like the “United Nations” are meant to manufacture peace and good will among men but in reality only Christ is able to save a person and put the “peace of God” in their heart which allows them to have peace with in this world.  If you are trying to manufacture a peace on earth amount men without “first” receiving the peace with God though salvation in Christ Jesus, then you are actually committing a terrible sin of deception and delusion that furthers Satan’s agenda not God’s agenda.

The most delusional and twisted desire for love is the cry of the homosexual, as a man demands the legal right to marry another man or a woman demands the legal right to marry anther women.  Although, God’s permissive will allows us the “free will” to sin, the sin we commit is meant to reveal to us the error of our sinful nature.  Sin is meant to drive us to repentance and to the grace of God where we find forgiveness for our sin.  However, when a person ignores the guilt and remorse of his sin and decides to continue to sin, this causes a hardening of the heart, a condition where the Spirit of God can not convict the heart of sin.  This is why in Matthew 24:12 it says “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.”  God has defined love and marriage as the union between one consenting adult male and one consenting adult female … Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve or Madam and Eve.  And the desire to have sex with someone of the same sex is not love, it is sin.  Sin is not love, it is sin.  God hates sin because it is not the highest and best that God has to offer for us.  God doesn’t want people to condone sin but to repent of sin.  And God wants his children to stand up against sin and save people from their sin.

When Christians sympathize with sin we are in fact joining in the rebellion against God.  Yes, we are to sympathize with people concerning the struggle of our sin nature which tempts us to sin but we are not to ignore sin, condone sin, sit on the fence dumb founded and confused about what sin is doing, approve of sin or glory in the shame of sin.  We are to glory in the cross where our sin was paid for by the blood of Jesus.  Those who believe in Jesus believe that Jesus paid their sin debt and that one day we will be free of the sinful desires that plague us.  The Holy Spirit that lives in the believer gives the believer hope for tomorrow, power to overcome his sin nature and forgiveness when he fails.  However, when an unbeliever continues in the deception of sin long enough that person become insane by the effects of sin and eventually he calls evil … good.  And like Satan, that person puts his will above God’s will and his pride causes him to stumble and fall into an eternal hell of his own choosing.

Don’t misunderstand me, it is not the sinful desire or sinful act of homosexuality that keeps a person out of heaven or out of fellowship with God.  Deviant sexual sin is no worse that any other sin.  God can save someone that is plagued by the sin of homosexuality just like He saves any other sinner.  We are all sinners plagued by sin.  We all need God’s saving grace to be saved from our sin and we need God’s grace to overcome our sinful desires, after we are saved.  I am a “born again” Christian, my sin penalty is paid for by Jesus, I am His forever but I still struggle against the tempted to sin and I still do sin.  However, “when” I sin, I am deeply convicted of my sin by the Holy Spirit that lives in me.  I realize I am not in fellowship with God and I confess my confess my sin to God (1John 1:9) and He restores me to fellowship and cleanses my heart and mind so I can worship Him with thanksgiving and praise.  This is all part of the relationship a believer has with his heavenly Father, God disciplines and forgives his child as He transforms his child into the image of His Son, either with the believers’ cooperation on earth or by dragging us kicking and screaming into His Kingdom.

God has a true love that frees us from the love we have for our self and the world (the tolerance and acceptance of sin) until we desire to have the transforming love and life that is found in Jesus Christ we will remain slaves to the counterfeit love of sin.

– Rogersings

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