A PERVERTED CONCEPT OF GOD’S LOVE
1 John 4:8
Morning Meditation 6/15/16
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” A. W. Tozer says, “some have taken this as a definitive statement concerning the essential nature of God. This is a great error. John was by those words stating a fact, but he was not offering a definition.” (The Knowledge of The Holy by Tozer). He says, “Had the apostle declared that love is what God is, we would be forced to infer that God is what love is. If literally God is love, then literally love is God, and we are in all duty bound to worship love as the only God there is. If love is equal to God then God is only equal to love, and God and love are identical. Thus we destroy the concept of personality in God and deny outright all His attributes save one, and that one we substitute for God. The God we have left is not the God of Israel; He is not the God of the prophets and the apostles; He is not the God of the saints and reformers and martyrs, not yet the God of the theologians and hymnists of the church.”
There is a concept being promoted that is commonly stated by many well-respected preachers that God loves us and accepts us like we are and loves us unconditionally. They speak of unconditional love. And the impression they are leaving is “God accepts me like I am and so should you. You have no right to judge me.” It is a license to live a self-willed life and a dare to anyone to challenge it.
In other words “I can be a card dealer at a local casino during the week and sing in the choir on Sunday morning. I can be a homosexual because this is the way God made me. He loves me and I believe in him as much as you do (totally ignoring Romans Chapter one). And it is contrary to the love of God for you to reject me because I am different in my sexual orientation.”
Love is an essential attribute of God. While one of God’s attributes is love, so is holiness, justice, faithfulness and truth. Tozer says that God “never suspends one of His attributes in order to exercise another.” God is not going to love the sinner and suspend his holiness and justice and act like nothing is wrong.
Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love, the essential manifestation of God’s love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life..” No one can read this verse and honestly say that God loves and accepts things as they are. He gave his only begotten Son to die on the cross to set men free. If God would give his Son and Jesus would give himself to die on the cross, you can be sure of one thing. His love did not cause him to suspend his justice toward my sins and yours. If his justice demanded that the penalty of sin be paid in the suffering and death of the only begotten Son of God, you can be sure God’s attitude is not passive toward those who claim to be his children who wilfully commit sin and justify it by saying God loves me unconditionally just like I am.
Paul said in Romans 8:32: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all . . .” This does not sound like God is tolerant of sin simply because he loves us.
The professing Christian who lives a life of sin and disobedience and wants to teach Sunday School, sing in the choir or sit in the pew and have no messages directed toward them and their sins are brain dead. That person has absolutely no evidence of repentance. Jesus said in Luke 13:1-5: “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” I simply ask, is there an exception to the exception? Jesus says in substance “turn or burn, repent or perish.”
It is the preachers job to love the sinner just like Jesus did. It is only possible because “. . . the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). It is completely consistent with God’s love to be angry with what God is angry and tell the truth about the destiny of the man or woman who professes to be saved but has not repented. Psa 7:11 says, “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” How often is God angry with the wicked? Every day. Psa. 9:17 says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Forgetting God is not forgetting that he exists. It is forgetting his requirements. It is forgetting our accountability to him. It is living as if there is no God and no final judgment and believing that God is too good to put anyone into hell. What does this verse say that God will do to the wicked and the nations that forget him? They shall be turned into hell.
God does not adjust who he is to love and save the sinner. He loves the sinner by dealing with him in truth. God disturbs the sinner over his sins. If the sinner can have sin in his life and talk about God loving him like he is, he either has never reached the age of responsibility or he is lying to himself about who God is and how he acts toward sin. When God is offering man the opportunity to be saved there is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This causes fear and trembling. Acts 24:25 says “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Felix was under conviction.
I believe it is a dangerous thing for preachers to leave the impression that those who are living with known sin in their lives are so loved by God that he can overlook what they are doing under the guise of his love.
Listen. This is important. There is no possibility for us to be right and commit knowingly sins that put Jesus on the cross. That is like saying “thank you Jesus for saving me. Now hold still while I put another nail in your hand.”
It is as if a person crucified Christ afresh and put him to an open shame (Heb. 6:6) or trampled under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and done despite to the Spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:29).
We are not free to define “love” as it is found in the Bible. The Bible defines its own terms. The Bible is being made meaningless by men who use Bible terms but mean something altogether different when they use those terms. When this happens often enough then the general Christian public begins to accept the distorted, perverted meaning of the terms as they are being used and accepted by liberal theologians. There is a perverted concept of God’s love abroad and it is being used to make Bible believers feel that they are judgmental if they say anything about the ungodly life styles of those who demand acceptance using the phrase, “God loves me just like I am and you are not right with him if you don’t.” I’m bold to tell you I don’t and He don’t.
God bless you
In Christ
Bro. White
