God's Love is Not about Feelings

 


 
 

I think it is very important to have a right understanding of God’s love as opposed to the world’s idea of love. The Bible tells us that God not only loves, but that God IS love. Everything He does is done in perfect love. None of God’s actions are tainted by sin, as are ours. Why then, do we seem to have such a distorted view of God’s love at times? I think we need to understand first and foremost, that God’s love should not be assessed from an earthly perspective. Isaiah 55:8-9 reads, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

From a human viewpoint, when we think of showing love to someone, we think in terms of feelings or emotions. We want to do what we deem as ‘good’ in order to feel good, or make others feel good. James 4:9 reads, “Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” The scripture surrounding verse 9 reads, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:8-10). God is not ruled by emotions as we are, nor does He concern Himself with whether or not we feel good. God does desire what is good for His people however, and that good can only come about through obedience to His words, “Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 12:28). If we are to “be imitators of God, as beloved children,” as admonished in Ephesians 5:1, then we must...with the goal of glorifying God.. allow our knowledge of God’s truth, and a desire for obedience to that truth, to make us demonstrators of God’s love. It is not always easy to show Christ- like love to others, and it will not always make us feel good to do so, for our decisions and actions will not always be understood or well received.

The good news of the gospel message cannot be properly understood without the balanced understanding of God’s wrath (against sin-which is idolatry)- versus His love. The following verse makes clear God’s stand in regard to anyone who practices idolatry, which is defined as “image-worship or divine honour paid to any created object”. Any time we place a higher honour on something or someone (which would include ourselves), above God- we are displaying a form of idolatry. “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart” (Proverbs 21:2). Romans 10:3 reads, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness,” and Ephesians 5:5-6 tells us, “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” In lieu of this teaching, a follower of Christ is, in fact, demonstrating the love of Christ when they refuse to condone or support in any way an immoral lifestyle-- even when it involves a friend or family member. To those who do not understand the truth of scripture’s teaching, this action would appear to be condemning and not at all loving, for it does not make either party feel good. To be un-supportive of behavior God condemns does not mean we should be unloving toward the individual person, however. It is God’s kindness which leads to repentance, “do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4)? Many will not accept that kindness however, if it is not followed up by support of the behavior they wish to indulge in. Sadly, this may lead to divisions—even among family members at times.

Matthew 10:36-38 reads, “a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

In Luke 14:26, Jesus tells us that, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” We know this does not mean that we are to truly hate our loved ones in the worldly sense of the term, but rather that God must come first in all of our relationships, even at the cost of losing them.

There is a cost to following Christ and in some countries a once- loved family member may face persecution or even death if they turn from their former religion to embrace Christianity. In Matthew 16:24 we read, “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The cross is a symbol of death, death to self, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). We must die to self and live for Christ, even if that means physical persecution or perhaps even death. In Philippians 1:20-21 Paul writes, “it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Our motivation, in all that we do, must be the glory of God, out of love for what He has done for us, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). When our motivation is sincere love for God and a desire to glorify Him through obedience to His word, then we can be assured we are demonstrating true Christ-like love to those around us, starting with our families and working out from there. Showing no acceptance toward behavior God clearly condemns in His word, while at the same time exhibiting kindness and patience toward those who live in defiance to God’s commands is a hard balance to strike. May we find that balance, by the grace of God, and through living in obedience to His Word, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).