True Biblical Love is Not a Sentimental Feeling, but Strives to Do the Will of God, No Matter What the Cost
Everyone in the modern Church loves to talk about God's love, grace and mercy, but hates to talk about His wrath, justice and anger. They snarl at anyone who dares point out that God is angry at the wicked everyday (Psalm 7:11) and that God hates (Psalm 5:5; Psalm 11:5; Leviticus 20:23; Proverbs 6:16-19; Hosea 9:15).
These Bible verses tell us this:
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity (Psalm 5:5).
The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth (Psalm 11:5).
And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them (Leviticus 20:23).
These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
(Proverbs 6:16-19).
All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters (Hosea 9:15).
Yes, God does hate the sinner, despite what you might have been taught by pastors, Bible study leaders, youth leaders, evangelists, missionaries, or campus ministry staff workers. His hatred of the sinner is a justified.
God hates the sinner because He is love. His love (agape) is righteous.
Agape love is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible, if not the most misunderstood concept among many concepts for which many have serious misconceptions.
Love seeks righteousness and holiness above all, and disdains all that opposes righteousness and holiness. Love pursues such things first. It is love for God itself by which a person seeks righteousness and holiness. Thus, where there is true righteousness and holiness, there is love. Show me a person who has no love and I will show you a person without righteousness and holiness.
Such righteousness and holiness, that is, true righteousness and holiness manifests is love without hypocrisy, despise all that is evil, because it offends God, not for other self-centred reasons. It is pure, hating evil without double-mindedness which seeks both evil and good. Such double-minded love cannot be stable love as it seeks both good and evil, that which cannot co-exist, but are diametrically opposed. It clings to that which is good, hating even the thought of compromising with evil, or bowing before evil. It despises even the slightest taint of evil. As Romans 12:9 says: Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Love is not a feeling. It is a practice, by which a person must solemnly vow to oneself to love, manifesting in acts of love, be it forgiveness, kindness, graciousness, gentleness or peaceableness. It is practice by which a person must treat it as his or her duty to love. Feelings in response to such acts of love only follow the act, but feelings are never the foundation of love.
Love does not simply give people what they want, just because they want it, as so many in the modern Church think. They think that telling people that homosexuality is a sin in a bold way is not loving, just because such sinners would not want to hear it. Love preaches the truth about sin. Love seeks to do good, clinging to it, despite the cost to oneself. Love is not blind as the world thinks, but seeks to discern between right and wrong so that one strive to do what is right and good.
God's love is not blind. It is because of His love that He sees every sin in all people every single time, and hates every single sin committed by every person, every single time.
Love may lead to some feelings, but it is not a feeling which feels good. It is a practice.
The greatest act of love, performed by the Lord Jesus Christ, who was fully God and fully Man, was by no means a feel-good act. Jesus suffered the agony of the pain of dying a death He did not deserve, and being separated from the Father with Whom He had been in union with since before the beginning of time. He was betrayed, scorned, mocked, despised, and beaten, forsaken by God Himself.
Psalm 22 tells of His pain and suffering:
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
His act of love, was in taking your sin and mine upon himself, for which you and I deserve to die, dying the death we deserve to die. He did so so that God's wrath may be turned away from you, so that we may be made right before God and live.
You have sinned against God, incurring His just wrath. The just punishment for sin is eternity in Hell, a place of nothing but torment and suffering. Jesus took your sin so that God can dismiss His case against you, and declare you right before God. So, to be saved from the wrath of God, turn from your sin and trust in Jesus Christ.
Do it today while you still have time.
These Bible verses tell us this:
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity (Psalm 5:5).
The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth (Psalm 11:5).
And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them (Leviticus 20:23).
These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
(Proverbs 6:16-19).
All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters (Hosea 9:15).
Yes, God does hate the sinner, despite what you might have been taught by pastors, Bible study leaders, youth leaders, evangelists, missionaries, or campus ministry staff workers. His hatred of the sinner is a justified.
God hates the sinner because He is love. His love (agape) is righteous.
Agape love is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible, if not the most misunderstood concept among many concepts for which many have serious misconceptions.
Love seeks righteousness and holiness above all, and disdains all that opposes righteousness and holiness. Love pursues such things first. It is love for God itself by which a person seeks righteousness and holiness. Thus, where there is true righteousness and holiness, there is love. Show me a person who has no love and I will show you a person without righteousness and holiness.
Such righteousness and holiness, that is, true righteousness and holiness manifests is love without hypocrisy, despise all that is evil, because it offends God, not for other self-centred reasons. It is pure, hating evil without double-mindedness which seeks both evil and good. Such double-minded love cannot be stable love as it seeks both good and evil, that which cannot co-exist, but are diametrically opposed. It clings to that which is good, hating even the thought of compromising with evil, or bowing before evil. It despises even the slightest taint of evil. As Romans 12:9 says: Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Love is not a feeling. It is a practice, by which a person must solemnly vow to oneself to love, manifesting in acts of love, be it forgiveness, kindness, graciousness, gentleness or peaceableness. It is practice by which a person must treat it as his or her duty to love. Feelings in response to such acts of love only follow the act, but feelings are never the foundation of love.
Love does not simply give people what they want, just because they want it, as so many in the modern Church think. They think that telling people that homosexuality is a sin in a bold way is not loving, just because such sinners would not want to hear it. Love preaches the truth about sin. Love seeks to do good, clinging to it, despite the cost to oneself. Love is not blind as the world thinks, but seeks to discern between right and wrong so that one strive to do what is right and good.
God's love is not blind. It is because of His love that He sees every sin in all people every single time, and hates every single sin committed by every person, every single time.
Love may lead to some feelings, but it is not a feeling which feels good. It is a practice.
The greatest act of love, performed by the Lord Jesus Christ, who was fully God and fully Man, was by no means a feel-good act. Jesus suffered the agony of the pain of dying a death He did not deserve, and being separated from the Father with Whom He had been in union with since before the beginning of time. He was betrayed, scorned, mocked, despised, and beaten, forsaken by God Himself.
Psalm 22 tells of His pain and suffering:
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
His act of love, was in taking your sin and mine upon himself, for which you and I deserve to die, dying the death we deserve to die. He did so so that God's wrath may be turned away from you, so that we may be made right before God and live.
You have sinned against God, incurring His just wrath. The just punishment for sin is eternity in Hell, a place of nothing but torment and suffering. Jesus took your sin so that God can dismiss His case against you, and declare you right before God. So, to be saved from the wrath of God, turn from your sin and trust in Jesus Christ.
Do it today while you still have time.
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