BIBLE STUDY on "LOVE"

[GARY WALKER]

Studies on love (Part I)   
      One of the words that is very frequently met in the Bible is the word "love". Given the importance that the Word of God gives to this word we will devote this and the next issue to examine it in more detail.

Love: what is it?
      Before we are able to speak about love, we have to make sure that we understand what it is. We have therefore to study the Word of God to see what this Word defines as love. This is exactly what we are going to do today, starting from Galatians 5.

1. Love: a product of the new nature
      Galatians 5 is a chapter that is in a large degree devoted to a contrast between the old nature (called "flesh" in Galatians 5), and the new nature (called "spirit" in the same chapter), and the conflict that there is between them. Regarding now the terms "old nature" and "new nature", they are employed to describe the state of a man before and after he believes respectively. Before one becomes a Christian, i.e. before he confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus and believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9), he is described as "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). Whatever work a non-saved man may do, before God he is always considered as dead in trespasses and sins. He may seem polite, he may give to charities, he may demonstrate for peace, for the animals, for the environment, but from God's point of view, he is dead in trespasses and sins, a ruined man, a man "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18) exactly as Adam was after the fall. Some of the terms that the Bible uses to describe this man, this ruined nature, are: "old man" (Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:9), "flesh" (Galatians 5:13-26, Romans 8:1-13), "natural man" (I Corinthians 2:14), "body of death" (Romans 7:24). The term "old nature" will be used throughout this study.
      Fortunately, this ruined nature is not the only possibility for a man. A man is not condemned to remain eternally dead in trespasses and sins. This situation can be changed by confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believing with the heart that God raised him from the dead. As Romans 10:9 tells us:
Romans 10:9
"if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED"
      When one confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus and believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead, he is born again1 and as a result he receives a new nature. From God's point of view, he is no longer dead in trespasses and sins but he is saved (Romans 10:9), he is holy and righteous before Him (Romans 3:21-28, I Corinthians 1:30), he has holy spirit that he can also operate (I Corinthians 12:8-10) and he becomes a son of God (Galatians 3:26), to refer just a few of the things that one has as a result of the new birth. All these things that a man has because of the new birth constitute the new nature, or to use the Bible's terminology, the "new man" (Ephesians 4:24), or "spirit2" (Galatians 5:5-25). However, the fact that after one believes he receives a new nature does not mean that the old nature disappears automatically. Instead after the new birth a child of God has in him both the old nature and the new nature. The fact that these two natures are opposite to each other creates a conflict between them. As Galatians 5:16-17 tells us:
"I say then: Walk in [Greek: by] the spirit [the new nature], and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh [the old nature]. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary to one another, so that you don't do the things that you wish"
      The old nature or flesh is against the new nature or spirit. To be winner in this conflict what is needed is not to try to tidy up the ruined old nature. Instead, what should be done is to walk directly by the new nature. As the passage says: "Walk by the spirit AND [AS A RESULT] you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." The way to not fulfill the lust of the flesh is not by keeping a list of do and don'ts but by walking by the new nature i.e. by putting on and utilizing all the things that the Word of God says that we are and we can do. As we do this, the works of the flesh, of the old nature, will be eliminated.
      The result of the walk by the new nature, by the spirit, is given in Galatians 5:19-23 together with the results of the walk by the old nature, by the flesh:
"Now the works of the flesh are evident which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."
      The first category of acts or attitudes are works of the flesh i.e. works that are the manifestation of the old nature. In contrast the second category consists "the fruit of the spirit" i.e. the product of the walk by the spirit, by the new nature. We repeat that this product does not come by tiding up the old nature but by walking with the new nature i.e. by putting on and utilizing all that the Word of God says that we are and we can do. As we can see from the above passage, love belongs to the fruit of the new nature. Love therefore is not a quality to be found in the old man, since it is fruit of the NEW man, the new nature. With the new nature we got the ability to love, to have joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. By putting on this new nature, all these come as a product, as a fruit into our lives.
      To conclude therefore: love is something that has to do with the new nature only. The old nature is dead in trespasses and sins and nothing good comes from it. This probably may help us to understand better the wrong of the phrase "I love you" as it is used in the world's vocabulary. Love, as it is defined in the Bible, is a product of the new nature and cannot be produced but only by those that have this nature (i.e. by people that have confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in their hearts that God raised him from the dead), AND also walk by this nature.
2. I Corinthians 13:4-7: love is.....
      Having clarified that love is a result of our walk by the new nature, we will now go to I Corinthians 13:4-7 to examine some of the things that love is and some that it isn't. There we read:
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not boast, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things"
(NKJV-KJV)
      Below we will try to examine in more depth each of the things that love is and each of the things that it isn't, aiming in a more precise understanding of them.

i) Love suffers long
      The phrase "suffers long" is the Greek verb "makrothumeo" that is composed of the words "makros" that means "long" and "thumos" that means "anger", "wrath". In other words, "makrothumeo" means "to be long before being angry3" and it is the opposite of "short tempered". "Makrothumeo" has more the meaning of being patient with people than of being patient with situations. For the latter there is another Greek word that is used later in the same passage of I Corinthians. Love therefore does not get angry with people quickly, it is not short tempered, but it endures patiently.

ii) Love is kind
      Something else that characterises love is that it is kind. The Greek word for "kind" is the verb "chresteuomai" that is used only here in the New Testament. However, it is used quite a few times, in two other forms. The one is the adjective "chrestos" while the other is the noun "chrestotes". "Chrestos" means "good, gentle, benevolent, benign; actively beneficent in spite of ingratitude". Consequently "chresteuomai" means to show one's self chrestos i.e. to be gentle, good, kind despite that you may be confronted with ingratitude.

iii) Love does not envy
      The word "envy" that is used in this passage is the Greek verb "zeloo". The corresponding noun is "zelos". Zeloo and zelos are both used in a good and in a bad sense. In a good sense they are used with the meaning of zeal, ardour. Thus for example, in I Corinthians 14:1 we are called to pursue love, and desire [zeloo] the things of the spirit. However, zelos and zeloo are mostly used in a bad sense. In this sense zelos means envy, jealousy. James 3:14-16 makes clear the results and the source of jealousy:
"But if you have bitter envy [zelos] and strife in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy [zelos] and strife is, there is confusion and every evil thing" (NKJV-KJV)
      The source of envy and jealousy is the flesh, the old nature (see also Galatians 5:20). When there is jealousy, you are glad when I suffer and you suffer when I'm glad, quite the contrary of what the Word of God commands (I Corinthians 12:26). In contrast, and since love does not envy, when you love, you are glad when I'm glad and you suffer with me when I suffer.

iv) Love does not boast
      The word translated as "boast" here is the Greek verb "perpereuomai" that means "to show one's self a boaster or braggart". It is that kind of behaviour that says continuously "I did, I have, I made,...etc." The word "I" is very frequently used from a such kind of person. As Christians we also sometimes do the same thing. We say: "I did this for the Lord...", "I have prayed that much", "I spent so much time studying the Bible today", "I know this and that from the Bible" meaning that I'm worthier than you that you probably didn't do "that much". However, when we really love we don't boast, for we recognize that there is nothing that makes us different from any other brother or sister in the body. As I Corinthians 4:7 says:
"who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?"
      Everything that we have was given to us from the Lord. We didn't achieve it. That's why we have no right to boast in anything or anyone else than the Lord. As I Corinthians 1:31 tells us:
"LET HIM WHO BOASTS BOAST IN THE LORD"
(NIV)
      Will we therefore boast in our abilities, worth or even devotion? No if we love. For if we love we will boast in the Lord and only in Him.

v) Love is not puffed up
      Another thing that love does not do is to be puffed up. The Greek word for "puffed up" is the verb "fusioo" that literally means "to blow, puff, inflate". In the New Testament it is used 7 times, 6 of which in the first epistle to Corinthians4. In all cases it is used metaphorically with the meaning of pride. A characteristic usage of this word is in I Corinthians 8:1 where we read:
"Now concerning things offered to idols: we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up [fusioo], but loves edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him."
      Head knowledge puffs up. We don't study the Bible just to earn head knowledge but to know God, who reveals Himself in it. As I John 4:8 says: "he who does not love does not know God, for God is love". Without love we will not know God even if we have full head knowledge of the Scripture. Moreover, if this head knowledge remains mere head knowledge and it is not accompanied by love then the result is to be puffed up, quite the contrary of what love is.

[GARY WALKER]

vi) Love does not behave rudely
      Another thing that love does not do is to behave "rudely". The word "rudely" here is the Greek verb "aschemoneo" that means "to behave in unseemly guise, be void of proper deportment, to act with moral deformity". Thus for example in Romans 1:27 the wrong of homosexuality is called "aschemosune" (the product of "aschemoneo"). Love therefore does not behave with an immoral or unseemly way, and when such a behaviour is observed does not come but from the old man.

vii) Love does not seek its own
      Something else that love does not do is to seek its own. The phrase "its own" is the Greek adjective "eautou" whose meaning is himself, herself, itself. There are quite a few places in the Bible that instruct us not to seek our own. Romans 15:1-3 tells us:
"We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves [eautou]. Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please himself [eautou]; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me"
Also I Corinthians 10:23-24
"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial; all things are lawful for me but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's"
(NKJV-NIV)
      When we walk with love we don't seek to please ourselves, making ourselves the center of our activities (individualism). In contrast, by serving God in love we seek to please, to bless, the others. That's what Jesus Christ did. He served God in love and he didn't seek to please himself. That's why he also went to the cross. As Philippians 2:7-11 tells us:
"but [Jesus] MADE HIMSELF [eautou] OF NO REPUTATION [Greek: "emptied himself"], taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became OBEDIENT to the point of death, even the death of the cross. THEREFORE [as a result] God highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"
(NKJV-NIV)
      Jesus because of the love that he had for us emptied himself and went to the cross for our own sake. But was it something that was done in vain or something that ended up in a personal loss? NO. In contrast, because he did that, God EXALTED him. Similarly, when we love we give to our private interests the second place and to the fellow brothers and sisters in the body the first place. The result is not a personal loss but a multitude of rewards here and in heaven. As Christ said in John 12:25-26:
"He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life5 in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there my servant will be also. IF ANYONE SERVES ME, HIM THE FATHER WILL HONOR."

Also Mark 10:29-30
"So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly I say to you, there is no one who has LEFT house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive A HUNDREDFOLD NOW IN THIS TIME- houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions - AND IN THE AGE TO COME, eternal life."

      How many investments do you know that give back "A HUNDREDFOLD NOW IN THIS TIME"? Apart from turning from seeking our own first to seeking God's and the others' brothers and sisters in the body, I don't know any. To conclude: either we become individualists and lose everything, or we love and instead of caring first for ourselves we care first for God and the others brothers and sisters in the body. In this case we get back "a hundredfold" plus honors from God Himself.

viii) Love is not provoked
      The word translated as "provoked" here is the Greek verb "paroxuno" that literally means "to sharpen by rubbing on anything, to whet; to sharpen, incite, exasperate". The corresponding noun is the word "paroxusmos" from which the English derives the word "paroxysm". Evidently, provocation and anger can in no way coexist with honest love, for they are opposite to it.

ix) Love thinks no evil
      The word "think" here is the Greek verb "logizomai" that should most properly be translated as "reckon". It literally means "to put together with one's mind, to count to occupy oneself with reckonings and calculations6." From the 40 times that it occurs in the New Testament, the KJV translates it 3 times as "to account", 5 "to count", 6 "to reckon", 8 "to impute" and 8 times "to think". A more accurate translation is given by the NIV that reads: "love keeps no record of wrongs" i.e. love quickly and permanently forgets the evils that may have been done to it. Sometimes people in the world work for years planning how to avenge someone that harmed them. However, when we walk by the new nature, when we walk by love, then we don't keep a record of the wrongs that may have been done to us but we forget them.

x) Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth
      The word "iniquity" is the Greek word "adikia" that is used 25 times in the New Testament and is translated (KJV) unrightseousness 16, iniquity 6, wrong 1, unjust 2. Its meaning is: "what is not conformable to right, what ought not to be; that which ought not to be because of revealed truth; hence, wrong, unrightseousness." Everything that is against the truth is unrightseousness. And since from John 17:17 we know that the truth is the Word of God, whatever is against this Word, is "adikia", unrightseousness. Thus, according to this passage, love rejoices with the truth, the Word of God, and not with what is against it, which is unrightseousness.

xi) Love bears all things
      The word "bears" is the Greek verb "stego". A characteristic usage of this word is in I Corinthians 9:12 where we read that Paul and his company, despite their great responsibilities, preferred not to use their right to "live from the gospel" but "suffer [stego] all things lest we [Paul and his company] hinder the gospel of Christ." They suffered all things for the sake of the gospel of Christ, and they did it out of love, for love suffers, bears, all things.

xii) Love believes all things
      The word "believe" is the Greek verb "pisteuo" that occurs 246 times in the New Testament and is translated (KJV) almost always (238 times) as "to believe". Biblically speaking believing means to believe what the written rightly divided Word of God says and what God says through the manifestations of the spirit. Love therefore believes all things that God says both in His written rightly divided Word and through the manifestations of the spirit.

xiii) Love hopes all things
      Another thing that the Word of God tells us that love does is to hope all things. Again the phrase "all things" has to be taken within the more general context of the Word of God. As with believing so with hoping the reference is to all things that the Word of God says. Love therefore hopes all things that have been defined by God as future realities.

xiv) Love endures all things
      Finally we learn that love endures "all things". The word "endures" here is the verb "hupomeno". Its meaning is similar to the meaning of "makrothumeo" (to longsuffer) that we examined previously. Their difference is that "whereas hupomeno refers to one's response toward circumstances, denoting perseverance in the face of difficulties, makrothumeo refers to one's response toward people, denoting a patient endurance of faults and even provocations of others without retaliating7". Love therefore apart from being very patient with people (makrothumeo) is also very patient with circumstances (hupomeno). It waits patiently without fainting in difficulties.

3. Conclusion
      Concluding this part, we saw that love is a product of walking by the new nature, i.e. it is produced as we put on and utilise all the things that the Word of God says that we are and we can do. We also examined in detail the things that I Corinthians 13:4-7 says about love. In the next issue we will continue to see some more things on the same topic.

(to be continued)

-------------------------------

 FOOTNOTES :

1. For more about the new birth see: The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, Vol.1, Iss.6, June 1996.

2. Here it should be noted with emphasis that NOT any usage of the word "spirit" in the Bible means the new nature that one gets as a result of the new birth. This word usually has this meaning when it is put against the word "flesh" that means the old nature (see for example Galatians 5).

3. See: E.W.Bulliinger: "A critical lexicon and concordance to the English and Greek New Testament", Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1975, p. 464. Unless it is indicated differently, all the word definitions that appear in this study come from this source.

4. It occurs in I Corinthians 4:6, 18, 19, 5:2, 8:1, 13:4, and in II Corinthians 2:18.

5. The phrase "hate his life" is the figure of speech "exaggeration". By this figure, an exaggerated statement is made to make what is said very emphatic. In this passage, God does not ask us to literally hate our souls but He very emphatically tells us to put ourselves and our private interests in a second place.

6. See Dimitrakou: "The Great Lexicon of the Greek Language". Domi Publishers, Athens, 1964, p. 4,362

7. See S. Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, AMG Publishers, p. 1424

[GARY WALKER]

Studies on love (Part II)

   We saw that love is the product of our walk by the new nature i.e. it is produced as we put on and utilize all the things that the Word of God says that we are and we can do. In that issue we also examined some of what I Corinthians 13 says about love. Today, we will continue with the consideration of some more passages of the Word of God on the same topic, that will help us to appreciate the importance of love better.

1. Love: the new commandment
      To start this second part on love, we will go to the gospel of John. What we will read happened in the night of the arrest of Jesus Christ. During that night, Jesus gave many instructions to the disciples and a large portion of the gospel of John is exactly devoted to it (John 13-17). Among the things that Jesus told the disciples that night was also something that he characterised as a new commandment. John 13:34 tells us:
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
      The new commandment that Jesus gave was to love one another. The great importance that he gave to this commandment is showed by the fact that he repeated it two more times the same night. John 15:12-17 tells us:
"This is my commandment, that you LOVE ONE ANOTHER as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name He may give you. These things I command you, that you LOVE ONE ANOTHER"
      Jesus Christ commands us to love one another, and in fact to love one another as much as he loved us. But how much he loved us? Ephesians 5:2 tells us:
"And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us AND [as a result of his love] given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma."
      Jesus Christ loved us so much that he gave his life for us. It is with such kind of love that he also commands us to love one another. "Love one another AS I have loved you", he said. He characterised love for one another as a COMMAND, as something that should necessarily be done. I Peter 1:22 also tells us:
"Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren, LOVE ONE ANOTHER FERVENTLY WITH A PURE HEART"
Moreover: I Peter 4:8
"And ABOVE ALL THINGS HAVE FERVENT LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER"
      Above all things we are to love one another. And in fact to love one another fervently. So fervently as Jesus loved us.

2. Love: the fulfillment of the law
      In John 13:34 we saw that Jesus characterized love for one another as a new commandment. This may have made some of us to wonder why he characterized it as such. Was it because it was commanded for first time? Obviously not for it is contained in the book of Leviticus that was written hundreds of years earlier. Really, Leviticus 19:18 tells us:
"you shall love your neighbor as yourself"
      Literally speaking therefore, the commandment that Jesus gave was not a new commandment. Why therefore he called it new? The simple reason is that though love was a commandment of the law, till then it was not possible to be kept. Really, love being a product of the new nature, it needs the new nature to be produced, and till that day, the new nature was not available. Thus though people were commanded to love one another they couldn't actually keep this commandment. However, from the day of Pentecost onwards people can freely receive the new nature by confessing with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believing in their heart that God raised him from the dead, and thus they can love. That's why Jesus called love for one another a new commandment. It was not new because it was commanded for first time but because soon (from the day of Pentecost) it would become possible to be kept.
      In fact, the commandment to love one another was not the only commandment of the law that it was impossible to be kept, because people lacked the new nature. Romans 8:3 characterise the whole law as "weak through the flesh [the old nature]". The problem with the law was not that it was bad. In contrast, Romans 6:12 tells us that it was "holy and just and good". However, there was no way to be kept and the reason was that the new nature was not available. As Romans 6:4 says: "the law is spiritual" but its subjects were "carnal, under sin". Thus people couldn't keep the law. However, from the day that the new nature was made available, one can love and by this he automatically fulfills all the law. Indeed, Romans 13:8-10 tells us:
"Owe no one anything, except to love one another, FOR HE WHO LOVES ANOTHER HAS FULFILLED THE LAW. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," You shall not steal," You shall not bear false witness," You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment are ALL summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" Love does not harm to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
Also: Gal. 5:13, 14 :
"For you brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity, but through love serve one another. FOR ALL THE LAW IS FULFILLED IN ONE WORD, EVEN IN THIS: "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF"
      Jesus Christ by his sacrifice, ended the administration of the law, opening at the same time a new administration, the administration of grace1. However, many of the things that the law said continue to be valid in the present administration as well. For example, the commandments that we should not steal or commit adultery, or murder, or lie are also commandments of our administration2. Now, according to the above passage to fulfill any commandment of the law, which may also be commandment of our administration, what is needed is nothing else but LOVE. As the passage says: LOVE is the fulfillment of the law and all the commandments are all summed up in the commandment to love one another as ourselves. We don't have to focus our minds on a list of do and don'ts like, "I should not steal, I should not murder, I should not commit adultery, I should not lie etc...." but we love and all these are not going to happen. For when we love we will neither lie, nor steal, nor murder etc. We don't start pointing out the negative (I should not do...) but we love and the negative will be eliminated. As Galatians 5:16 says: "Walk by the spirit [the new nature] and [as a result] you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh [the old nature]". When you walk in love, you walk by the spirit, the new nature, and as a result you will not fulfill the lust of the old nature i.e. you will not steal, murder, commit adultery or do anything else that is a product of this nature.

[GARY WALKER]

3. Love: necessary to know God

      Another passage that shows us the importance and the necessity of love is I John 4:7-8. There it says:
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love"
      As the passage says: "he who does not love does not know God". Truly, God gave us the Scripture to know Him since there He reveals Himself. Nevertheless, as it is clear this cannot be done by head knowledge alone. It also needs LOVE. Even if someone has full head knowledge of the Scripture, he will not know God if this knowledge is not accompanied with love. As I Corinthians 13:1-3 tells us:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have prophecy, and understand [Greek: "know"] all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing."
      This passage does not say that prophecy, the great faith, the speaking in tongues etc. are bad or that the speaking in tongues and the other operations of the spirit (see I Corinthians 12:8-10) are not in existence now and should not be done. What the passage says is that if I do all these without love I'm nothing. It doesn't profit. Even if I have rightly divided all the Bible and I'm a monster of knowledge, a "concordance", I'm nothing if I don't love. Even if I spent all my life and money for God, I'm nothing, if I don't love. Even if I have given my body to be burned, i.e. even if I'm so much committed to God, I'm nothing if I don't love. For if I don't love I'm still ignorant of God, who is love. People that know less and love more will know God better than I. As I Corinthians 8:1-3 says:
"Now concerning things offered to idols: we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but loves edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him."
      The knowledge is not bad. However, when it is not accompanied with love, it will not result to a knowledge of God but rather to a puffing up. Moreover, the same passage in combination with I John 4:20-21 makes clear that the argument goes also the other way round i.e. if we don't love one another not only we will not know God but also we will not be known by Him.
I Corinthians 8:3
"if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him"
"If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him: that he who loves God must love his brother also"
      We cannot say that we love God when we don't love one another. In other words, love for one another is a prerequisite to love God. Since now love towards God is a prerequisite to be known by Him and since it first requires love for one another we can easily conclude that love for one another is a prerequisite to be known by God. Therefore, what does it take both to know and to be known by God? The answer is LOVE.

4. Love: not by words
      We saw previously that Jesus Christ loved us, and he showed it by giving himself for us. From this it is evident that love takes action, giving. You may give the Word, you may give encouragement, part of your time, money etc. but the thing is that love is ready to give and to really support when it is needed. I John 3:16-17 tells us:
"By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how does the love of God abide in him?"
(NKJV-KJV)
      Jesus showed His love for us BY GIVING his life for us. We know by this that he loves us. Similarly we should also love one another and show our love by the corresponding acts when it is needed. For really for what love we could speak if we see a fellow member of the body, a brother or sister in Christ, to be in need and we are indifferent, when we know that we can help? Obviously this does not constitute love. Love is not a theoretic concept but something that has to be manifested in acts. As I John 3:18 says:
"My little children, let us not love in word or in a tongue, but in deed and in truth."
      Our love is not to be in words but in deed and in truth. It is not to be in theory but in practice. It is not to be like in James 2:15-16:
"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give to them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?"
      It is so easy to love in words, to know all the "theory" about love. To say "God bless you." No it is not bad. But it has to be accompanied by the necessary actions when it is needed. As Galatians 5:13 tells us we ought to SERVE one another through love. We are not to be indifferent to one another, and run away when a fellow member of the body needs our support.
      Having said all these, some people may ask, how can we know whether someone genuinely needs our support, and how can we know whether someone whose needs we don't know exactly or at all, needs us? The answer is through God's spirit. God has put His spirit in us, so that He can tell us what to do, if to do, when to do, how to do. As Philippians 2:13 says:
"for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure"
      God has put His spirit in us and works through it. We have therefore to listen to the promptings of God's spirit and to leave it to work in us. Love does not mean I do whatever comes in my head, because I may esteem it as beneficial. What love means is that I'm ready, available, to do through love whatever the spirit of God in me prompts me to do, for whoever he prompts me. Thus, I don't give to the whoever comes in my way and asks money, for he may not actually need it. Instead I give to that man or for that purpose that God tells me. God knows who has a genuine need and who hasn't. He knows who needs support and who doesn't. He knows how to utilise our love with the best way for His interests.

5. Love: it should be honest
      Though from the previous part and generally from the discussion that we have done by now it should already be clear that love cannot be but only honest, based on a genuine interest and concern for the fellow members of the body, let's also go to Romans 12:9 to see it better. There we read:
"Let love be without hypocrisy"
      The phrase "without hypocrisy" is one word in the Greek: the adjective "anupokritos" that is composed of the word "an" a prefix that gives to a word a negative meaning, and the noun "hupokrisia" from which the English derive the word "hypocrisy". "hypocrisia" means to pretend to have a quality that you don't actually have or to be something that you aren't. For example, II Corinthians 11:13-15 tells us that Satan "TRANSFORMS himself into an angel of light" and his servants "TRANSFORM themselves into the ministers of righteousness". This transformation of Satan and his servants to something that they aren't is called hypocrisy3.
      Returning now to Romans 12:9, it asks us to not pretend that we love having probably in mind something else, but to honestly love. Only honest love is real love. The same is also said in I Peter 1:22 :
"Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in SINCERE [anupokritos] LOVE of the brethren, love one another fervently WITH A PURE HEART"
   Our love is to come from a pure heart, to be sincere and true. To be not in word but in truth and in deed. To be fervent.
      May therefore we grow in our love towards one another and in our appreciation that we all belong to one and the same body, the body of Christ, and to one and the same family, the family of God and we are brothers to each other. May we put love above everything else for love "is the bond of perfection" (Collosians 3:14). May, we overlook the weaknesses that each one of us has and love one another out of a pure heart, honestly and without hypocrisy.
 
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Footnotes

1. For more on this see: The Journal of Biblical Accuracy, Vol.1, Iss.8, August 1996.



2. See for example Galatians 5:19-23 Colossians 3:5-14 and Ephesians 4:17-32.



3. A classical cast of people that Jesus characterized as hypocrites were the scribes and the Pharisees. See Matthew 23:13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29.

[GARY WALKER]

"Love does no harm to a neighbor"

     We find this passage in Romans 13. There, starting from verse 8 we read:
Romans 13:8-10
"Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
     "Love does no harm to a neighbor". We will not do any harm to our neighbor when we love him. We will not steal him, nor lie to him, nor deceive him nor harm him in something. All the law, the "you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet and any other commandment" as the Word says, is summed up in this single phrase: in "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Here is what the Lord said concerning the magnitude of this commandment:
Mark 12:28--31 ...
"Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. `And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. "And the second, like it, is this: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
     Though the scribe asked Him for the first commandment, the Lord answered him with two commandments. The "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength" and together the "you shall love your neighbor as yourself". As He said this commandment is LIKE the first one. As another gospel adds to these words of the Lord: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:40). Also as I John 4:20-21 tells us:
"If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And his commandment we have from him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."
     Many try not to fail in this or the other point, or not to deviate from this or that commandment. However, what the Word of God tells us is that all this will come to pass, will be kept, simply when we love our neighbor. All the commandments are summed up in this love. If we don’t love, then we will in vain try to keep what only through love can be kept.