Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 50 – The essence of God

Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 50 – The essence of God – Love.

God esteems every believer being described by the same word that He uses for Christ – beloved.

If this esteem is not reciprocated then the believer will live under a curse.

1Co 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha.

“Maranatha” – until the Lord comes back, which means that the curse will not exist in eternity, but only in time.

So then every believer must know what this curse is. It is a failed relationship with Christ for the believer.

Is it not for this reason that God made us social beings who need relationships. Loners become morbid, distant, and unrelatable. They often become killers. They often become evil people who search for the destruction of others since they themselves are destroyed. No one is a rock or an island. Only God can be perfectly self esteemed. He knows that and so He has given His self esteem to you.

We humans need others. We need relationships with others in order to be normal and coherent in our souls.

Jesus didn’t go it alone, He chose twelve. Paul was with Silas, and Mark and Barnabas. Peter was with Mark. Every church was built on multiple people who were commanded to love with this same love, and not for the unsaved, but saved. There was something in all of them that made them unique, which was the righteousness given to them at salvation.

So the natural part of us is given for relationships, but now- why?

It’s natural, in terms of how God has made us, to seek for a mate or a friend. And in this same state He calls us and we find comfort in an eternal mate, God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit to be our mates even if we’re unsuccessful in finding others, but who is this world is unable to find at least one other, or more? Our social cravings are a part of the soul God has given us so that we would long for Him. The other relationships are just a byproduct, and a good one, of that hole in our heart for the eternal relationship, the eternal love, our desire for our eternal and unfailing relationship.

Ecc 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart [the desire for eternal things in their heart], yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

The curse is a failed relationship with the only relationship that you’ll ever need. It is not having that desire in your heart fulfilled.

Yet, your relationship with God doesn’t exclude other relationships with people, but only makes them more fantastic because you have lost your fear.

You see, tapping into His love only makes you a better lover to friends and in romance. Yes He has rules or laws for both, but they are only laws for our benefit and success. So again, loving Him is first priority. After that you’ll be able to enjoy the human relationships that God sends your way.

However, love misplaced spells disaster.

All loves that are human and earthly based are temporary, changeable, corruptible, and unstable.

2Ti 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2Ti 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money [philarguros – adj], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

2Ti 3:3 unloving [of family = astorgos], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;

2Ti 3:5 holding to a form of godliness [overt form as a mould, an image, impression, or semblance which in this case has no reality of substance], although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

Friendship with the world is hostility towards God, Jam 4:4. The disciples disputed [total soul love of victory] over who was the greatest, even up to the upper room. Diotrephes, a man of the church loved to be first.

Luk 14:7 And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table; saying to them,

Luk 14:8 "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,

Luk 14:9 and he who invited you both shall come and say to you,' Give place to this man,' and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.

Luk 14:10 "But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, 'Friend [philos], move up higher'; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.

Luk 14:11 "For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

Jam 2:1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

Jam 2:2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,

Jam 2:3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,"

Jam 2:4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

There are three categories of divine love: God’s personal love in self esteem, God’s personal love of +R in others, and God’s impersonal love toward all creatures.

Also this includes impersonal love which is unconditional, unchangeable, self-sacrificial preference in regard to the benefit of the creature; using Christ as the ultimate example.

This love eliminates the MAS’s that would accompany your dealings with the real jerks of life. Therefore, you become a servant of others – those whom you love and those whom you dislike.

A word not unique to the NT, but distinct in definition, agape (and the verb agapao) lies at the heart of the Christian faith. In the NT it expresses a love that wills to initiate a relationship and show kindness and self-sacrifice regardless of whether the object of the love is worthy or even likable. Thus it is a love that does not depend on emotional response. Rather, it is an expression of the nature and character of the one who loves. [Complete Biblical Library]

This is what truly makes an expert witness in the AC.

Jud 1:10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.

Jud 1:11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

Jud 1:12 These men are those who are hidden reefs [sink ships] in your love feasts [Lord’s supper] when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;

Jud 1:13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

Jud 1:14 And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones,

Jud 1:15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

Jud 1:16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

Jud 1:17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Jud 1:18 that they were saying to you, "In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts."

Jud 1:19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.

Jud 1:20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit;

Jud 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God [in the sphere of], waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

Category two is God’s personal divine love, which is always directed towards perfect righteousness in the born-again believer.

All three persons in the Trinity love the perfect righteousness of the other two members of the Trinity, since all three possess co-infinite, coequal, and coeternal righteousness. So God’s personal love is always directed toward perfect righteousness. In personal love, the virtue of the object is emphasized.

Joh 5:20 "For the Father loves [phileo] the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel.

Since the believer is in union with the Son we conclude that the Father has personal love for the believer.

Joh 16:27 for the Father Himself loves [phileo] you, because you have loved [phileo] Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.

The word beloved in the English NT:

Rom 1:7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

“beloved” – avgaphtoj[agapetos] = beloved, esteemed, dear, or favorite. The adjective of agapao.

It may seem difficult to understand the difference between the impersonal, unconditional love of God towards the sinner and the love for an esteemed, dear, or favorite one. But the difference is in the object itself. Agapao toward the sinner results in sacrifice while agapao towards the saved results in blessing.

The Bible states that God loves the believer and the believer loves Him with the word agape as well as phileo; agape being more prevalent. After salvation He is not needing to sacrifice Christ again and again nor do we love Him impersonally as if He is some jerk that demands virtue on our part for love, so agape takes on a different meaning. God continues to serve the church based on His virtue, to discipline the believer when necessary, and to bless +R through logistical grace and the justification by works through super-grace blessings. Agape then is a mental attitude love. When the love sees righteousness, capacity, election it responds accordingly. God loves the believer and unbeliever with agape love, but the response to both are not the same. The Love doesn’t change, but rather the object does and so there is a different response. The same is true for one believer who is under divine discipline and another who is under super-grace blessing – God’s love doesn’t change, but the response the object does.

Communion:

The branch must abide in the vine in order to produce much fruit that glorifies God. It’s not because God is a stilted lover. The curse, in this case for a born-again believer, results from God’s personality being offered to the believer and the believer not responding. It results in no relationship, communion, or fellowship with God. By this, the believer curses himself, and because God is love, righteousness and justice, divine integrity demands that divine discipline will follow. A believer’s life under divine discipline is truly a curse. When unlimited potential is wasted or thrown away, the ultimate curse applies, which is unrealized success when all the assets for success where freely given.

That curse is experienced in time, but the believer can defense mechanism that all away, though it never really goes away, and the ultimate curse is experienced at the JSOC.

1Jo 2:28

And now, little children, abide in Him [commune or have fellowship], so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

This time is given for us to reflect on Him alone. All personality conflicts or any other barriers or problems you have with people should all melt away because you’re only thinking about Him. This is lesson in occupation with Christ. This is why Jude called it a love feast.

Yet there are consequences to celebrating the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner.

1Co 11:17 But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse.

1Co 11:18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part, I believe it.

1Co 11:19 For there must also be factions among you, in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you.

1Co 11:20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper,

1Co 11:21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.

1Co 11:22 What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

1 Co 11:27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

1 Co 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

1 Co 11:29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.

1 Co 11:30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

1 Co 11:31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged.

1 Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world.

1 Co 11:33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

1 Co 11:34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you may not come together for judgment. And the remaining matters I shall arrange when I come.

1Co 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;

1Co 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.