Start The Moment / Day / Year / Eternity With Love
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
- 1 John 4: 18What every single person desires is love.
One desires to be loved and also to love someone else.
I am not talking about physical love like between a man and a woman.
I am talking about a love that drives out all fear, insecurity, doubt, trouble and worry.
This kind of love is experienced between all kinds of people, even those who may have previously been considered enemies.
It is a love that only God provides.
A love that religion attempts to explain, or decipher, or teach...but fails to fully exemplify.
If anyone acknowledges that Yeshua is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Yeshua.
- 1 John 4: 15-17Religions typically teach more often fear of punishment rather than the teachings of love and grace.
Religious people focus on knowledge instead of experience, words instead of action, fear instead of love, rules instead of faithful freedom.
The fear is sometimes taught in a manner arguing that God demands obedience at all costs and by any means; either by force or coercion or physical punishment, even death.
But we know this is not from God through Christ.
Although God calls His creation to obedience, there is on compulsion through Christ.
The motivation is love for God and for all mankind, not fear of punishment from God or from man.
The 'fear' teaching is a kind of 'god' that is usually interpreted from the Old Covenant writings, and is still interpreted today in several religions of the world.
To be sure, God is holy and demands holiness from all His creation.
However, what is ignored is the manner God has provided for such holiness from His creation to be achieved.
In place of this, there are many ideas from quoting the many places punishment is prescribed, while ignoring the forgiveness and maturity of the people who were asked to follow that law.
The culmination, fulfillment and completion of such extreme punishments read in the law is found in Christ Yeshua.
This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His One and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- 1 John 4: 9-10The ignoring of God's love found in Christ ignores the evidence of love in the ancient text and what God accomplished in Christ.
It ignores the fact of maturity and fulfillment found in Christ.
It fails to recognize that continuity until this day in the believers across the globe.
The focus on religious fear and punishment ignores the sacrifice on the cross and evidence of grace established, taking the place of proscribed punishment.
Punishment has not vanished, nor is ignored by those who believe in the resurrection.
Punishment is realized by self-infliction due to continual sin, or by the systems of men (man's laws) that deal with waywardness and rebelliousness.
The law of Christ (love) transcends the laws of men, since those who love all others are not tempted to trespass against others.
The lovers are not apt to steal, nor lie, nor covet, nor kill others.
The loving believer is quick to forgive and love rather than punish others and attempt a carnal judgment.
The lover extends the same grace God has granted them in Christ.
In contrast, those not knowing love are very quick to spill blood, or inflict physical punishment in thinking God lacks the ability to bring swift or eventual justice either on earth or at the Judgment.
The believer may be tempted and troubled when they do not perceive immediate justice, yet they know in their hearts the wicked will not escape God's eventual and eternal justice.
The believer acknowledge's God as Judge despite what men think they are on earth (either earthly judges or religious zealots).
This is what God's love establishes in the hearts of the believers.
Faith in God.
Peace of heart and mind, a soul at rest even in the midst of physical trouble.
This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Yeshua is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
- 1 John 4: 13-15The believer understands they have submitted their heart and soul to God, and thus do not worry about God's punishment on them since they are now hidden in Christ.
The believer understands it is God who grants them Salvation, and this only through Christ (being hidden in Christ and thus reflecting God's love as Christ did when in the flesh).
Although the believer continues to exist on the earthly plain, and struggles with temptation and sin like all other humans, their confidence is not in their own flesh nor religious achievements, but in God's promise of Salvation.
They do not ignore the law, but in love and by faith they keep it.
This is what God's love has established for the believer.
The believer doesn't struggle as much over their achievements for God, but glories in what God has provided them in Christ.
It is not the believer's efforts, but God's work accomplished in Christ on the cross.
The believer's gratitude far outweighs the doubt of punishment since Salvation is promised...and God always keeps His Word.
It is doubt in both believer and unbeliever alike which causes consternation, fear, folly and fighting.
The clearer God's love is made in the believer, the more alight the world is seen to be by their eyes.
The more light breaks away the darkness, with love and grace being found in the most unlikeliest of places.
The sad plight of the wicked or the loveless religious who struggle with their many rules and rituals and with their own sin is made clear to the lover's eyes.
They see clearly how the wicked are incapable of understanding nor believing there is a forgiveness that is gifted to them in Christ the Lord their God.
In place of love, the wicked hate and make distinguishing lines between others and their own group.
They fail to understand we are all brothers and sisters and related according to Adam and Noah.
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
- 1 John 4: 20Instead of believing their inheritance promised by faith since Abraham, they follow the ideas of this world and are at odds with their distant family members.
They miss out on God's love, and thus abandon hope for redemption that God has provided them.
The wicked perceive God's love as weakness, and take pride in the carnal ways of this world; violence, force, coercion, fear, fighting and death.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Yeshua Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Yeshua is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
- 1 John 4: 1-3But the believer is saved and separated from such a clouded view of poor self-identity and confusingly identifying others as enemies.
We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
- 1 John 4: 19-21
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