WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE? PART 4

I must share with you that since I have started looking into this topic; God has shown me again and again how I fail to have in mind the things of God.  In my dealings with co-workers, brethren, family and even the kids on my school bus, God has shown me the deviousness of my wanting to have my way!  It is not that I must give way to the will of those around me – for that would also be idolatry – but the will of God is my prime directive.

In the previous installment we looked at a curious example of idolatry found in Matthew 16:21-25.  Let’s consider another – perhaps unusual – example of idolatry found in the bible.  This one is found in 2 Samuel 6:6.  King David wants to move the ark of God and Uzzah has the task of guiding the cart that is hauling the ark.  The oxen stumble, Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark and he meets with death.  Is he guilty of idolatry in this action?  Uzzah had the things of man and not the things of God in mind.  His work met with death.  I’m going to go with idolatry.  But let’s not forget David.  In 1 Chron. 13 we read that David conferred with “his officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds” – uh oh!  He did not consult the word of God for this endeavor which commanded that only the Levites may carry the ark of God.  This is a good example of the scripture, “There is a way which seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.”  There is here a spirit of idolatry that can influence our decisions.  These examples have nothing to do with idols of stone and wood but with flesh.  It is a spirit of idolatry that resides within the human nature.

And so let us look at David’s act with Bathsheba.  Was it his sin with this woman or his sin with her husband that might be considered idolatry?  It was both.  Remember, we have spoken of the fact that the idol is “eliyl”, it is nothing.  David did not idolize Bathsheba or Uriah the Hittite.  His idol was his own will; his ego and vanity. 

We could go on and discuss Saul and his failure to obey God’s command to destroy the Amalekites and all their livestock.  He did not have the things of God in his heart.  All of these examples have one thing in common – they failed to have that perfect love for God in their heart, their strength and their life.  These examples show forth a love of the world that John tells us to avoid in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Many times a brother or sister in Christ will refer to a certain scripture in Proverbs as a hallmark for their life.  Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in YHVH with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”  Note the emphasis on the word “all”. 

Trust in YHVH with all your heart (Prov. 3:5); love YHVH with all your heart (Deut. 6:5); serve YHVH with all your heart (Deut. 10:12); seek YHVH with all your heart (Deut. 4:29) – throw in the fact that you should do this with all your strength and all your life and you have a recipe for avoiding idolatry.

Simply put, this life is not about us.  It is wholly and totally about the God we serve.  It’s funny, isn’t it?  We are toward the end of a four part article and I just stated the gist of it in two short sentences.  If we find ourselves with a spirit of idolatry, we cannot love.  We cannot love God and we cannot love our neighbor, pure and simple!  And indeed, it is not always easy to see.  A brother or sister may be in some kind of trouble and we rush in to help.  Was God testing this person in some way and we just overstepped our bounds because we decided to help?  I’m sure that Uzzah felt that he was just doing a good deed in steading the ark – his work was a dead work. 

So, perhaps you’ve been wondering, “Is this series of articles about the opposite of love, as the title suggests; or is it about renewing your mind so as to have the mind of Christ, as the start of this article seemed to indicate, or is it about keeping ourselves from idols, as 1 John 5:21 warns us?”  And the answer is …. YES!!

Allow me to quote Paul in his letter to the Romans (Ah, the very letter where we began this study).  Romans 8:5-8 says, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the flesh; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on the Spirit.  The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace; the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

If we have our minds set on the things of the flesh, we cannot love God.  If we have our minds set on the things of the flesh, we are not renewing our minds.  If we have our minds set on the things of the flesh, we are not keeping ourselves from idols.

Paul goes on to encourage the Roman church in verse 9, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you ….”  Oh my, you might as well read the entirety of this chapter.  It all fits here.

I must assume that all of you who are reading this are striving to have your minds set on the Spirit and not on the flesh.  But sometimes the “old man” gets in the way.  After all, we know how some things should turn out for the best.  We should have our own way.  The Boss, the neighbor, our relative, our spouse, etc.; they just do not know how it should work and we need to have our opinion served.  And maybe we are right; but to what cost? 

“Continue to work out your salvation within fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to desire and to work according to His purpose.  Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe.” (Phil. 2:12-15)

So, perhaps you have read this far and you are wondering, “Where do I go from here?”  Simply put; down on your knees.  How should you conduct your life with this info in mind?  I don’t know, but God does!  Ask Him to show you.  And when He places a contrary spirit in your path, in your life – do not plead for deliverance, pray for insight.  Let Him lead and direct your path.  “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.” 

P.S.  You might just begin with Psalm 115.  May God bless you with insight!

WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE? PART 3

Idolatry is a huge subject in the word of God.  So let us enter in (not into idolatry, but to the study of the topic!).

We have already established the fact that the little book of 1 John uses the word agape, in the noun and verb forms, a disproportionate amount of times when compared with the rest of the New Testament.  And so my observation here is that John closes this letter, which is devoted to love, with a very cryptic statement, “My dear children, keep your selves from idols”.  (Oh, you did not think this closing statement was cryptic?  Cryptic:  “Hidden, mysterious or baffling.”)  I believe John ended with this statement in order to get us to think.  So what do YOU think?  Let’s reflect upon this.  The main consideration of this letter is embodied in the word “love” and so therefore we are to keep ourselves from idols.  These two words, love and idolatry, travel in opposite directions.

In this same vein, Paul tells us in 1 Cor.10:14, “Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry”.  In other words, run from it!

Let’s take a moment here to see where we began so that we can continue in a straight line.  We began with Romans 12, where we are urged to offer ourselves as living sacrifices; we are to not conform to this world; we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds; we should understand our gifts (graces) given from God; and our love must be genuine.  Will love transform your mind or will idolatry?

I guess if we are to flee from idolatry, then in what direction should we flee?  In the direction of God!!  In other words, seek His face.  We are told in scripture that our love for God is to be perfect; in other words we are to love Him with all of our heart, strength and life.  This is a tall task but we need to pay attention to how we are progressing.  This type of love for God is not attained in an instant.  It is learned over the course of our relationship with Him; it happens over many years.  In fact, (and I might be mistaken, but), I believe we may never accomplish this perfect love until we see Him face to face!  For when the weight of His glory and His holiness are fully revealed to us, what shall we say, but – “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD God Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”  (Isaiah 6:3) 

In the meantime, what shall we do?  “Keep ourselves from idolatry.”  Let us consider a few thoughts about this vast subject.

So what, intrinsically, is idolatry?  In one sense it is nothing.  One word used for “idol” in Hebrew is #457 “eliyl” and it literally means “nothing” and can be thought of as vanity.  It is used for and translated “idol” in almost every case.  The first use of this word is in Lev. 19:4, “Do not turn unto “nothing” (idols) or make gods of cast metal for yourselves.”  Some versions of the bible use the word “vanity” to translate the word eliyl.  This definition is helpful because I would suggest that the concept of idolatry has nothing to do with statues of stone and blocks of wood.  But it has everything to so with the mind and heart of the idolater.  Today, the notion of having carved images, from the view point of our tradition in Christianity, seems far-fetched.  But as one author stated, we will always try to “carve upon” those around us when we desire to influence them toward our opinions and motives.  We may go to extreme lengths to coerce someone to think or do as we want without regard to God’s will. 

Case in point and an unusual example of idolatry may be found in Matthew 16:21-25.  In verse 13 of this chapter, Jesus sets up this interesting scenario.  He first asks the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  They answered; John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or another of the prophets.  He then asks, “But what about you?  Who do you say I am?”

At this point they may not repeat this litany of answers.  Jesus already drew out of them what everyone else said – they now had to think for themselves and be quite honest with their answer.  We know the story; Peter spoke up and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Peter answered correctly and received a “pat on the back” from Jesus. He said, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah”.  But then it says that Jesus began to explain that He must suffer many things, He would be killed and would be raised the third day.  It is at this point that Peter slips from his blessed state (verse 17) in the eyes of his Lord and falls into idolatry.  Verse 22:  “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  ‘Mercy upon you, Lord; for this shall never happen to you!’  Jesus turned to Peter and said, ‘Get behind me adversary!  You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’”

First of all, knowing what you know about our Savior, the Messiah, could you honestly rebuke Him?  Peter had just called Him the Messiah, the Son of the living God and yet he rebuked Jesus!  We have here a very good definition of idolatry, “you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  Jesus goes on to say, “If anyone would follow me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

I will leave this lesson of Matthew 16 speak for itself at this time.  But I must ask the question; do you have in mind the things of God in everything you do and in everything you say?

Don’t go away folks, there’s still more to come!!

WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE? PART 2

Are you a living sacrifice?  Are you renewing your mind?  And are these two concepts related?  In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us to do one thing (offer ourselves) and to do it in view of one other thing.  “Urge” is a word that means “to beseech” and has the connotation of inviting to one’s side.  Paul is beseeching us to walk beside him in this matter.  And he wants us to do this “in view of God’s mercy”.  Has he just shown us something of God’s mercy?  Well, yes!  In chapter 11:32 we read, “For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.”  But it can be argued that chapters 9, 10 and 11 are an inset and so chapter 12 can follow chapter 8.  OK …., “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  God’s mercy is found at the end of chapter 8!!

And perhaps Paul here is talking about the entire letter; chapters 1 – 11.  In any event, one thing we know for sure; God is merciful!!  Would you agree?  God is merciful.  Paul then urges us to do something; “present your bodies as living sacrifices”.  Earlier in this letter he says that we have been baptized into the death of Messiah.  Shortly thereafter he tells us to reckon ourselves as dead (Rom. 6:4 & 11).  And what was a sacrifice to be?  Over and over in the Torah we see that it was to be “without blemish”.  Paul tells us our living sacrifices are to be “holy and well pleasing to God”.  And then we read that this is our “rational act of worship”.  Yes, the word for “rational” is the Greek word “logicos” and we get the English word logical, thus rational, from that.

I’d like to have my worship of God to be logical and rational wouldn’t you?  And when we consider God and His ways, shouldn’t we make sure we are not conforming to the pattern of this age but that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds? 

OK, so we have made our way full circle to the start of Part 1 of this discussion, but what does all this have to do with the title, “What is the Opposite of Love”?  I’m glad you asked! 

Let us first take a look at love.  It has been said that the most powerful force in the universe is love.  I suppose that one might debate this point.  But there are two scriptures in 1 John 4:8 &16 that state, “God is love”.  And in my mind this would shift the balance of any debate concerning the power of love.

First a few facts about the word love:  I believe we are all familiar with the Greek word “agape”, sometimes labeled as the highest form of love.  The word “agape” is a noun and the related word, “agapeo” is the verb form.  Together these two words are used in the New Testament some 258 times.  In the five chapters of 1 John they are found 46 times and if we add to that John’s use of the words in his gospel we can add 47, plus the other two letters of John and the book of Revelation adds another 12 uses.  So, of the 258 uses of these words, 105 (or about 40%) are found in John’s writings.  May we conclude he placed much emphasis upon these words and leaned heavily upon them to get his message across?

We have already looked at Romans 13:8-10 which ends up letting us know that “Love is the fulfillment of the law.”  Now that’s some power!

1 John 4:7-21; this whole passage needs to enter into our discussion here.  I urge you to read it in its entirety.  I will refer to parts of it.  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from God.”  Might we see the renewing of our minds beginning to take place with the implementation of this directive? 

“Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”  Do we understand that this statement is a word of fact?  This isn’t a “maybe” or a “kind of” statement.  John’s is a factual statement and implies the question, “Do you know God?”

John goes on to tell us that God’s love is manifest through His Son and that His love came a long time before our love.  And so, “God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”  Are we beginning to start to see an answer to our title question?  Let’s go a little further here:  “In this way, love is made perfect among us (why?), so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like Him.”

Let’s go back in 1 John to see the antithesis of this love for God.  In chapter 2:15 we read, “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  Please note that the word for “love” here is “agape” – so we see that John has not wandered from his use of this particular word.  Going on in verse 16 we read, “for everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the vanity (or pride) of life – comes not from the Father but from the world.”

Some time ago, I asked a gathering of God’s children, what is the opposite of love?  I basically received four answers: 1)hate – this word would probably appear in a dictionary as an antonym or in other words “an opposite” for obvious reasons; 2)apathy – this is an interesting thought because as someone said, both love and hate are emotions and show forth that an individual is at least alive.  Apathy on the other hand shows a lack of human interest and fits in with Jesus statement in Rev. 3:16, “Because you are neither hot nor cold, but are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.” A person who is hateful may be persuaded to love.  But a person who is apathetic has no hope; 3) pride or egotism – perhaps this would also be an obvious answer because of our venture into 1 John 2:15-16, especially the phrase, “the pride of life”; 4) fear – on this answer let me quote from 1 John 1:18, “Perfect love casts out fear”.  These four answers are very good and might cause us to end our discussion here.  But I find that there is, possibly, a fifth antonym of the word love and it lies in the idea of “idolatry”. 

Let us look at this idea further next time.

WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE? PART 1

Some time ago I was given an article on neuro-plasticity and how science has determined that we, humans, can change the way we think and thereby act.  I remember putting this together with Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.  The renewing of our minds is possible – but how do we go about it?  Ah!  Paul gives us the answer in Philippians 4:8 as he gives us eight concepts to think upon. 

At that time I developed this idea into a message and delivered it at several venues, i.e. church services and festivals.  I felt that this understanding was given to me by the hand of God.  And indeed it was well received with ensuing discussion.

More recently within our local congregation I began looking into this same subject with a series of bible studies, keeping in mind the thought that Paul did not write this admonition to the church in Rome and then expect them to send a delegation to Philippi so as to read their letter and find out how to renew their minds.  Paul must have given the Romans the answer within their letter.  And it must have been located somewhat shortly after this admonition in Romans 12:2.  Let’s take a look at this possibility.

“Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and well pleasing to God – this is your rational act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and discern what God’s will is – His good, acceptable and perfect will.” (Rom. 12:1-2)

Does this process of renewal have anything to do with our “offering our bodies as living sacrifices”?  The short and obvious answer is, yes!  For what shall we say, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit … you are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)  Whatever God requires of us is His right; for when we entered into covenant with Him, we gave our lives over to Him. 

But it has been my experience that being a “living sacrifice” to Him is not an easy concept to grasp, never mind an easy activity to put into practice each and every day.  Paul elsewhere says, “I die daily”.  Here he proclaims that he means what he says and puts it into practice.  We must understand that Paul either had renewed his mind or was well along the way to doing so.

OK!  Let’s set this daily “living sacrifice” aside for the moment (we shall come back to it) and move on to some of the other things Paul tells us to do in Romans 12.

Verse 3, “For by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

Oh my!  It is such a human, fleshly and “old manish” thing to do, to consider oneself better than others.  We seem to always want to put ourselves first.  Knowing this, Paul goes so far as to reiterate it in verse 10, “Honor one another above yourselves”.  And then again in verse 16, Paul says “… Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.”  Do you want to renew your mind?  This is a good place to start!

At this point Paul starts talking about the body with many members, each having a different function.  He says, “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  We have different gifts according to the grace given us.” (Verses 4-6)  The word translated “gifts” here would better be translated as “graces”.  It is the Greek word, “charisma”.  It is the same word Peter uses in 1Peter 4:10, “Each should use whatever grace he has received to serve others …”  The word “grace” is indeed a gift but the nuance is that one receives it without any merit of his own.  And the other concept here is that “each” of us has received a grace/gift.  In other words, when God calls His children, He gives each one a grace/gift, or it may be that He takes a look at us, sees what we have been born into and thereby raised with the aptitude of a certain personality and so calls us accordingly – we all must then take a look at Paul’s list of graces and see just what God has given to us or seen in us.

Let us not lose sight of the fact that we are striving to understand how we might renew our minds.  Understanding these gifts and where we fit into them will play a part of our renewal!

Let me briefly say that these graces or gifts listed here in Romans 12, are sometimes called motivational gifts as opposed to the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 (manifestation gifts) and Ephesians 4 (ministry gifts).  If you are interested in learning more about this, please see the book by Don and Katie Fortune entitled “Discover Your God Given Gifts”.  Don and Katie explain that we all have motivational gifts and they help us discover which gift is tops in our individual personalities and what other gifts we may have that complement this top gift.

For our purposes here, knowing which is our dominant gift, (prophesy, service, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading and compassion) will lead us to the greatest gift; which we all know and understand is love.  The very next thing Paul tells us here in verse 9 is that “love must be sincere”.  Our love must be honest, genuine and without pretense.  We must consider these graces, these gifts from God and we must pursue them.  But we must do so in love.  We must apply them with love.  We must prophesy in love, we must serve in love, we must teach in love, etc.  “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.  … Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10)

Some time ago an individual confessed to me that they did not feel they had a love for their brothers and sisters in the church.  After some conversation and consideration it became obvious that this person, whose “top tier” gifts were leadership and service, loved others through these gifts.  They were able to organize church services.  They made sure there was a place in which to worship at and that the room was clean and ready.  Their observation was that they didn’t love like those who were compassionate or giving.  But the reality here is that we must learn to love within the gift (or grace) that God has endowed us with.