Day 5

Jesus Says, “Love Others

As I Have Loved you”

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

It is preached that you first of all must love God with ALL your mind, heart, soul and strength. Then you have to love others as yourself. Have you ever considered the fact that, if I love God with ALL I have — what do I have left to love others with? It’s a point worth pondering.

This is unreasonable! It is really even a human impossibility!

In Matthew 22:38-40, Jesus was asked for the greatest command under the LAW. He replied with two commands: (1) love God with ALL your mind, heart, soul and strength, and then (2) love others as you do yourself. As we will see, the law was not given for us to LIVE by, but to show us we could NOT live by it.

Is Jesus demanding something impossible from us? YES, he is! This is the purpose of the law: to declare us all guilty (Rom 3:19). We are told in the text that Jesus was responding to (1) a TRICK question (2) from a LAWYER (3) about the LAW. He was not being asked for a statement of truth — but only for a true statement. There is a huge difference between these. Instructors in Christ, not just lawyers, traffic in true statements — not necessarily or predominantly in truth.

There are various forms of love talked about in the Bible, but for our purposes let’s look at two of them: (1) phileo love, or human love, and (2) agape love: or God’s love. Human, phileo love is based on living by principles. It is a conditional love based on subjective evaluation and perception. Human love responds to something positive. I must see something I like before I will invest love in it. I must see performance I like, or hear words I like, as a prerequisite to giving my love. It is a qualified type of love.

Divine, agape love reflects the character of God himself. It is not responsive, but directive. It has no prerequisites to it. It is not conditional, but unconditional. There are NO conditions to God’s love or standards we need to meet. God’s love exists simply due to the fact that God exists. John says, “God IS love.” You and I may have a degree of phileo love, but God IS love. This is agape love.

The command of Jesus in Matthew was merely a statement of something true under the law — as he responded to a trick question from a lawyer. Here he said we must love God with everything we have, and love others as much as we do ourselves. Let me reiterate: this is a human IMPOSSIBILITY, and Jesus knew it! It’s purpose is to make us realize our need for gospel grace.

The actual command of Jesus is even more impossible

when you really sit down and think about it.

His command is, “Love others AS I have loved you” (John 15:12).

He is saying to love with God’s agape love,

not just with human, phileo love.

He is saying to love in a divine way, not just in a human way.

Wow, this is bleak, isn’t it? Humanly speaking, yes — but living in the gospel process of God it isn’t! Keep in mind: nothing is possible in our ability, but only by response to his ability. Our response-ability demands that we live by his ability.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #9

The key to the final command of Jesus is found in seeing he gave us two commands, not one: (1) repent and believe the gospel, and (2) love others as I have loved you. Instructors in Christ don’t see the first command, so they preach we only love with human, phileo love.

The first command empowers the second. ‘Done by the Son declarations’ are what cause belief to become reality in our lives. Belief is what empowers divine love in us and through us. A human response of BELIEF creates a divine ability to LOVE!

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In case you haven’t learned it yet, we human beings cannot traffic in divine dimensions — unless God empowers us to do so. The gospel is God’s means to preempt us, and then empower us. The gospel is God’s way of transforming human, phileo love into divine, agape love.

If we live by principles, the result is a never ending sermon leading to a never ending treadmill. Every week the quota is raised, and the ante goes up. Teachers can create hundreds of messages on the subject of love— enough to keep us busy for years exercising our phileo love. Paul is not kind to teachers who teach this way: “They don’t understand either what they are saying, or the matters about which they make confident assertions” (I Tim 1:7 NASB).

Paul says we should all say the same thing (I Cor 1:10).

Paul’s only message was the gospel (Acts 20:24).

His lifelong purpose was to proclaim the gospel (Phil 1:7, 17).

What did he mean by ‘saying the same thing’?

He meant believing, stating and living gospel truth.

Jesus knows that the gospel is the way to connect with God, and enter into his process of living life abundantly — in a divine dimension — in a super human way. This is what allows the flood gates of heaven to open, so his agape love is not poured out ON us, but THROUGH us. We’re a channel. We are vessels. We are the branch. We are the body.

But unless we know this, and live in the reality of this, it stops the process of God. He does not demand that we live in his process. The Old Testament demanded but could not produce. God produces but does not demand. We must choose to enter in.

We cannot make this choice if we insist on living life by principles.

Religious programs and principles are in direct conflict with the process of God’s divine ways.

One is demanded by the Old Testament law,the other is empowered by the New Testament gospel.

They reflect living in two different paradigms and dimensions.

When we repent and believe the gospel, we activate our choice to enter into the process of God. We must understand this is not just talking about salvation, as vital as that is. Instead, this means: By repenting, we turn our back on everything else except the gospel. We become separated unto the gospel, and declare we will continue in it at all costs.

By believing, we commit to have our minds transformed by gospel truth, and only trust gospel truth (Rom 12:2). We are then translated into the vertical, divine dimension (Col 1:13).

Our starting point is no longer SELF. Our starting point is GOD. This takes things out of the flesh and puts them into the spirit realm. We enter the process of the gospel. It is a process. It is a lifelong journey, just like Paul’s ministry (Acts 20:24).

Our goal is to be translated from our human dimension into the divine paradigm and dimension. When this happens, nothing in the Bible looks like it did before. “All things become new” (II Cor 5:17). Our eyes and hearts no longer have a veil over them (II Cor 3:15-17). Our minds are no longer blind to truth (II Cor 4:4). True statements no longer excite us. Only gospel truth excites us.

The process of God is a river that never stops flowing. We are either on the shore, or we enter into the river. When we enter in, the river becomes a constraining, and a sustaining force that we are caught up in. We are caught in its process. Paul describes this in II Corinthians 5:14 where he says, “The love of God constrains us.” Instructors say we are constrained by the LAW of God. Paul says we are constrained by the LOVE of God. The gospel is what propels us in the flowing power of God’s love, in what we think, do, and say.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #10

If you make the decision to enter into the process of the gospel, God will honor it, and he’ll reveal things you’ve never seen in the Bible before.

The Old way might seem better at times (Luke 5:39). It defines things in black v. white, or bad v. good. The gospel is grey, and it is subjective, not objective. The gospel is spiritual, not natural. It is relational, not regimented.

God is not a respecter of persons, and nor is he a commander of persons. He invented free will. If you are going to continue on this 40 day fast, decide now to enter into the gospel here and now, and begin to sample ALL of its good fruit.

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I want to close today by showing you the process of the gospel in action, as described by Paul in I Thessalonians 3:12: “The Lord make you increase and abound in love one toward another.”

First, please see that God initiates it. It is the Lord who moves on us by means of the process of his gospel. We are meant to continually receive the seed of his love into us, like daily manna. Jude 21 says to ‘keep yourself in the love of God.’ John 17:23 says the Father loves us as much as he does Jesus. Continuing in gospel truth will allow you see yourself loved by God — as much as he does his only begotten Son Jesus.

Second, the word ‘increase’ is a personal word. It means that the seed has taken root, and expands in us. Ephesians 3 says to be ‘rooted and grounded’ in God’s love. To increase means that we become FAT in God’s love — even obese, spiritually speaking. It packs us so full that we’re like a balloon that is so inflated it is ready to pop.

Third, the word ‘abound’ is a community word. It means that we do ‘pop,’ and spill over onto everyone else. The picture is, as you have freely received, so freely give. What are we giving? We’re simply giving used love — recycled love that we have already received and have become rooted and grounded in.

God empowers us in the process of his gospel, which enables us to love others as Jesus loves us. We can only give what we have received. It works like this in all things we receive in God’s kingdom. In God’s Kingdom and ways there is no lack. His supply is unlimited. Our ability is very limited. “He who did not withhold his own Son from us, will surely give us ALL things.” — “ALL that I have is yours.” Our response is to pray, “Lord, I’ll take all you are willing to give.” This is putting Mary’s words into motion: “Be it done unto me according to your word.”

Have you experienced the love of God? Do you believe he loves you unconditionally — or only when you do good? Are you ready to leave the firm footing of the shore and jump into the river of God’s love?