Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 48 – The essence of God – Love. Col 2:8; Rom 15:20; 12:13; 1Ti 6:10; 2Ti 3:1-4.Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 48 – The essence of God – Love. Col 2:8; Rom 15:20; 12:13; 1Ti 6:10; 2Ti 3:1-4.
Personal love directed towards God, His word, His Spirit, His +J, +R, L, OS, V, and OP that you possess are virtuous and the building material for SSE.
PL for justice – loving all God’s decisions as well as the hope of justification by works.
PL for righteousness – loving all that God approves; what is right, divinely good, and pleasing to Him.
This is PL, a total soul love for the things or attributes of God. It’s one thing to acknowledge that these things are good but it’s quite another thing to have a total soul love for them. Developing that love takes doctrine, application of doctrine, and perseverance in the CWL. It really refers to desire and want. Examples:
PL for love – loving the cross (docs of soteriology) as well as God’s comfort, patience, forgiveness, and gentleness for believer and unbeliever.
PL for omniscience – loving the wisdom of God, loving repetition, being a life long student of the word of God.
Remember the use of unfathomable in Rom 11:33.
Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
God, in a way, asks every believer how much rope he wants. The lover of divine omniscience responds, “I want it all.”
Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
“philosophy” – filosufi,a[philosophia] = total soul love of wisdom. Right or wrong here depends on the source of the wisdom. [ex: Paul at Athens in Act 17]
The context is to be very alert to not being taken captive by the love of wisdom based on the traditions of men rather than according to Christ.
In loving truth I come to love doctrine and hate false doctrine and falsehood. I love divine truth and abhor man’s so called truth and his bad interpretations of scripture.
In loving omnipotence I come to love the strength that comes from the filling of the HS and applied doctrine. I come to love God’s ability to do the impossible and the power that He keeps pouring into me.
PL for omnipotence – loving the filling of the Spirit and applied doctrine as well as God’s ability to do the impossible.
These attributes are yours to experience every day and so every day can be filled with a total soul love of events and circumstances both overt and in thought, no matter how small or big, for the positive believer.
Rom 15:20 And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man's foundation;
“aspired” – filotime,omai[philotimeomai] = total soul love of honor, to love the highest and most honourable values which motivates great labor.
2Co 5:9 Therefore also we have as our ambition [philotimeomai], whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
1Th 4:9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
1Th 4:10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more,
1Th 4:11 and to make it your ambition [philotimeomai] to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you;
1Th 4:12 so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
These are the attributes commuted to the believer, but in loving God I also love His:
In loving His Sovereignty I come to love the divine decree, the course of human history, eschatology, and all that God directs, allows, and overrules.
PL for sovereignty – loving the course of human history, eschatology, and all that God directs, allows, and overrules, 2Ti 3:1-4.
Verse for this coming up.
In loving His eternity I come to love that He is self-existent and therefore the cause of all things and so the cause of me and others. I love that He has called me to spend eternity with Him.
PL for eternity – loving God’s self-existence. He is the cause of all things and no one is before Him, so all good is His.
All so-called wisdom against Him must be false since no one is before Him and He is the creator of all. So no persons or thoughts or schemes can ever be greater than His. This becomes the object of the believer’s total soul love.
Job 38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding,
In loving His omnipresence I come to love that I cannot go to a place where He does not exist. I love that He is always with me and will never ever forsake me, and that He fills this universe and all that is outside it.
PL for omnipresence – loving that God is always with me and will never forsake me, no matter where I go. He fills the universe and beyond.
Rom 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
Rom 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;
Rom 12:11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
Rom 12:12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
Rom 12:13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
“hospitality” – filoxeni,a[philoxenia] = total soul love for hospitality. Xenia = guest room; xenos = hospitality shown to a guest.
This is a bit of a stretch, but omnipotence, which we cannot possess, can be likened to providing a place for another in comfort. The truth of it stands in any case in terms of total soul love.
In loving immutability I love that He is the one person in my life that cannot change. I love that He is 100% dependable.
PL for immutability – loving that God is the only 100% dependable person in my life and He cannot change.
Personal love in these things is virtuous because they are unshakable, unchangeable, eternal, holy, and perfect.
Love of other worldly things which are temporary, fleeting, imperfect, and corruptible results in an unstable life of misery.
The love of worldly things to the magnitude of phileo love transforms these things into gods. An author by the name of Rougemont stated that “love ceases to be a demon only when it ceases to be a god,” and he was writing of human love. It doesn’t matter the object – a man, a woman, nature, a chemical, money, power, fame, etc. for these all become demons when they become gods (to turn Rougemont’s statement around) and no demon ever kept his promise.
Total soul love of earthly things transforms them into gods and then into demons, and no demon ever kept his promise.
There is nothing wrong with any of these things as far as they do not become total soul loves or gods and therefore promise breaking demons. So the ascetic, who makes a god out of wanting or suffering, and therefore a demon out of wanting or suffering, is just as evil and ignorant of true divine love as the stingy, dishonest millionaire. I can rightly say that I love my wife, husband, child, or a rack of succulent ribs, but that is not necessarily saying that I have made a god out of them. And the most deceptive objects of worship are the ones of whom love is deemed to be divine, like the love of a mother for her children, or early romance; do they know that these are the most dangerous places in which to make total soul encompassing love of a child or a lover, and therefore a god, and therefore a demon. These will not forever be loved for in time they will be hated. [ex. Iconoclastic arrogance]
God is love, it does not say that love is God.
Every human love at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself the will of God Himself. It tells us not to count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it attempts to over-ride all other claims and insinuates that any action which is done “for loves sake” is thereby lawful and even meritorious. That erotic love and love of one’s country make this attempt to “become gods” is generally recognized. But family affection may do the same. So, in a different way, may friendship. [CS Lewis, The Four Loves]
The more subtle and acceptable these earthly objects of human love can be the more dangerous they are.
All of them are temporary. They eventually die just as demons will die in the eternal fire.
[begin quote] The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action: and till action, lust Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had, Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; A bliss in proof,— and prov'd, a very woe; Before, a joy propos'd; behind a dream. All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. –William Shakespeare, Sonnet 129
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had, Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad: [William Shakespeare, Sonnet 129]
It is interesting that he uses bait as a metaphor for the love of something in pursuit and its hatred once swallowed.
Jam 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed [present passive of delea,zw= to lure by bait] by his own lust.
Passive voice means the lure is acting upon the foolish person. The action of the fool is to have a total soul love for the lure. If we take the metaphor down a bit more and look at the fact that the fish is hungry, so we don’t blame him for being fooled. Man is also hungry and history has told him that hunger for the wrong things only results in demonic, hellish consequences. We don’t blame the man for being hungry, nor do we blame him for taking the bait a few times, since all of us do, but to continue to love what is turning from love to hatred, from false god to demon, places all the blame upon him. |