Almost everywhere you go, the message of love is preached, both in the world and in the church. You must love others and respect them and accept them for who they are. You shall love your neighbour as yourself and other Scriptures from the Bible about love are quoted. However, many times the Scriptures are taken out of context, so that it fits into the message of a new age love that is preached in many churches. A new age love, that approves everything and tolerates and accepts all things. Because God is love and the Bible says, that you should love your enemies and love your neighbor as yourself, which means that you shouldn’t judge their behaviour, works, and the way they live, but you should tolerate, approve and accept their behaviour, works and the way they live. You should not interfere in people’s lives, but you should allow them to stay who they are, because God has created people just the way they are. And since everyone is a sinner and remains a sinner, nobody is perfect. But what does it mean to love your neighbour as yourself according to the Bible?
The devil is an artist in twisting the words of God
Yes, the devil is a true artist in twisting the words of God and changing the truth of God into lies. The devil succeeded in tempting man in the garden of Eden and also thought he could tempt Jesus.
But Jesus loved His Father and knew His Father and His will and didn’t bow to the will, lusts, and desires of the flesh.
And so Jesus defeated the devil with the words of God, by using the words of God in the right context (Read also: ‘I will give you the riches of the world‘).
Unfortunately, not many people follow Jesus’ example, but many are misled and tempted by the devil and believe his lies, including the lie that you must accept the works of the flesh and the darkness, due to the love for your neighbour.
As soon as you confront people with their deeds or works, which go against the will of God, you immediately hear the pious words, that you may not judge but that you should love your neighbour as yourself.
And so many Christians are misled and put to silence and sin, strange religions and philosophies and their rituals and (occult) practices are tolerated and accepted and cause the territory of darkness to be enlarged (Read also: ‘The darkness extinguishes the light‘)
Has the first commandment been replaced by the second commandment?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40)
You don’t hear anything about the first commandment ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength’. No, you only hear them talking about the second commandment ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ and give their own carnal interpretation to it.
And so the second commandment ‘Thou shalt love thy neigbour as thyself’ has replaced the first commandment ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength’
This is not surprising, since God is no longer the center of many people’s lives and in many churches, but people have become the center.
The old man, who is carnal and possesses the nature of the devil and is led by him, has taken the place of God and has set himself as god in the church (Read also: ‘God rejected from many churches‘)
The righteous love of God has been replaced by the humanistic love of the world
For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons (Hebrew 12:3-8)
The righteous love of God, which is revealed in His Word has been replaced by the humanistic love of the world that is tolerant and approves, accepts, and promotes all things that go against the will of God. But the righteous love of God is not the false love of the world and has nothing to do with humanism (Read also: ‘‘What is false love‘ and ‘A counterfeit Jesus reproduces counterfeit Christians’).
The love of the world is a selfish love and revolves around the flesh and pleasing and preserving the flesh and giving the flesh what it wants and needs to fulfill the will, lust, and desire of the flesh.
This love of the world gives free rein to the devil and his minions and ensures that souls keep living in darkness and eventually be lost.
The love of God is an unselfish love that revolves around the spirit and the preservation of the spirit and doing the commandments of Jesus Christ; the Word so that the will of God will be fulfilled.
Those who belong to the world and are carnal don’t consider the love of God as true love, but they consider the love of God as unloving, harsh, relentless, judgmental, racist, and inhuman
That’s because the love of God confronts people with their works and testify that their works are evil and calls the people to repentance, so that souls are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and by corrections and chastisements stay saved (Read also: ‘Once saved always saved’ and ‘Whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges’).
The love of the world accepts sin and keeps the people in bondage of sin so that they persevere in sin, but the love of God takes care of sin and calls the people to repentance and the removal of sin and causes the people to walk in righteousness.
The love for God
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous. (1 John 5:2-3).
If ye love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15)
He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him (John 14:21)
When you are born again in Christ and the Holy Spirit abides in you, then you possess God’s nature and the law of God, the law of the Spirit and His Kingdom abides in you.
You shall love God above all, because that’s the beginning of the law of God and has been given by Jesus as the first commandment of the two commandments wherewith the whole law is fulfilled (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 6:5. Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30)
If you love God above all, then you shall submit yourself to Him and keep His commandments and walk after His will, just like Jesus, who was fully obedient to His Father and walked after His will, because of His love for His Father.
From the love, which you have for God, you shall be able to walk after the Spirit in love towards your neighbour.
From the flesh, you can’t walk in love towards your neighbour
From the flesh, it’s impossible to walk in love towards your neighbour, as God intended, but you shall walk in a carnal worldly love, which is a humanistic selfish love.
Therefore it’s necessary to put off the flesh and its works, so that you will walk after the Spirit in the true love of God and love your neighbour as yourself, as God intended.
Because the nature of the flesh, from which all the works of darkness derive, is selfish, prideful, rebellious, unfaithful, unforgiving, wicked, and wants to lie, steal, swindle, covet, lust after others, commit fornication, commit adultery, be angry, hateful and do all those wicked things that go against the will of God. Because by doing these things the flesh will be fed and be satisfied.
If you love your neigbour as yourself, you shall honor your father and mother
If you love your neighbour as yourself, you shall love your parents and honor them instead of hating them and you shall treat them, the way you want to be treated.
The flesh wants to rebel and stand up against them, but due to the fact that you have laid down the flesh in Christ, you shall not be rebellious and stand up against them, curse, and/or walk away, when they say something that isn’t according to your will and/or when they discipline and correct you, since this is part of the love of God. But you shall submit to them by respecting and obeying them.
You shall not speak evil about your parents behind their back and be unforgiving. You shall not leave them to their fate and don’t look after them, because you are too busy with yourself and your own life. But you shall look after them and care for them.
Thou shalt not kill
The new man is delivered from death and doesn’t belong to the death anymore and is no longer in his service. Therefore if you have become the new man you shall not kill. Because you love God above all and you love your neighbour as yourself and because of that you won’t harm another person and don’t do evil and therefore you shall not kill.
You shall not end someone else’s life and don’t take blood guilt upon you. This also means, that you shall not commit abortion or euthanasia. You shall not kill others nor kill yourself (commit suicide), since murderers will not inherit the Kingdom of God (a.o. Revelation 22:15)
The world may legalize the termination of lives aka killing the lives of others or yourself (suicide), but God shall never legalize killing others or yourself, since God has not changed and His Word stands forever.
Thou shalt not steal
If you love your neighbour as yourself you shall not steal. You shall keep your hands off your neighbour’s belongings. You shall not covet your neighbour’s belongings and therefore you shall not steal, defraud and/or borrow something from your neighbour and not return it.
But you shall be honest and walk in integrity and shall not secretly defraud, even when nobody is looking and even when the person or the company you’re stealing from has a lot of money. There is One, Who is looking and sees everything and for Whom nothing is hidden.
Thou shalt not lie
When have God’s nature and you love your neighbour as yourself, then you shall speak the truth and shall not lie against your neighbour and deceive your neighbour.
The devil is a liar and the father of sinners, who are also liars. The flesh wants to lie and deceive others. The flesh uses lies, including little white lies, as an excuse, a cover-up, to protect oneself and/or to accomplish something.
But God is not a Liar. God speaks the truth. Therefore God is reliable and trustworthy and everyone, who is born of Him shall speak the truth and be reliable and walk in integrity.
If you are born again in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit abides in you, then the Spirit of truth dwells in you and you shall speak the truth.
You shall not lie and deceive others and make false promises with your words, like you did before you were born again, when the devil was your father and you walked in darkness.
If you keep lying, without the Holy Spirit confronting you, you should seriously ask yourself, whether the Holy Spirit dwells in you or that another spirit dwells in you that causes you to keep lying (Read also: ‘Every culture disappears in Christ‘).
Thou shalt not commit fornication
When you have God’s nature and Holy Spirit abides in you, you shall not deceive your spouse and shall not commit fornication with someone, who isn’t your spouse. Because you are one with your spouse and don’t want to hurt your spouse by cheating on her or him, because you love your spouse as yourself.
If you commit fornication, it shows that your flesh has not been crucified in Christ, but that your flesh reigns as king in your life instead of the Spirit.
A born-again son of God, who walks after the Spirit, shall not commit fornication. A son of God shall not even have a thought to (sexual) lust after someone else, let alone to put his birthright and eternity on the line in order to satisfy his carnal lusts and desires.
There are many, who put their eternity on the line, for carnal pleasures and to satisfy their temporary carnal lusts and desires. Just like Esau, who sold his birthright to Jacob in order to satisfy his temporary carnal lusts and desires. But God hates this behaviour, which He has made known to us by His Word (Malachi 1:3, Romans 9:10-13 (Read also: ‘Can you resist the temptation?))
Thou shalt not commit adultery
God has instituted covenants, under which the marriage covenant. The marriage covenant between a man and a woman is a holy covenant after His will.
When a man and a woman decide to get married and enter the marriage covenant the man and the woman become one flesh. They are no longer two but one. They are united with each other and shall live in this holy covenant for the rest of their lives until (natural) death do them part.
The devil hates God and everything that God has created and instituted, including the marriage covenant. Therefore the devil does everything in his might to defile the marriage and destroy the marriage covenant.
And if we look around us, we can conclude, that his mission has been quite successful.
How could the devil have been so successful? The devil has been so successful, because many people, who claim to be Christians are not truly born again and are carnal and have the mind of the world.
They don’t put off their flesh with all its feelings, lusts, and desires, but because of the hardness of their heart, they obey the will, feelings, desires, and lusts of their flesh.
Therefore many people, who claim to be Christians are divorced and have broken the marriage covenant that is sacred to God.
Many people think and assume that God won’t mind and that God understands the situation and that people get divorced and that God approves of divorce. But these people, who think this way don’t know the Word and don’t possess the Spirit of God but a lying spirit of the world. Because God shall never approve divorce in order to satisfy the will and the lusts and desires of the flesh. God hates divorce (Malachi 2:15-16)
Just like the Father is clear in His Word, Jesus was also clear, when He spoke with the Pharisees about adultery and only gave one reason, whereby people were allowed to divorce, namely fornication. But someone, who truly loves his neighbor as himself, shall not commit fornication (Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-9, Mark 10:2-12).
If you love God above all, then you shall stay loyal to Him and obey His Word and you shall not commit adultery. If you love your neighbour as yourself, from the love you have for God, then you shall not divorce, but you shall love your spouse from the love you have for God.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8-10)
When you love God above all and your neighbour as yourself, you shall treat others the way you want to be treated.
This doesn’t mean, that you shall compromise with the world and tolerate and accept all kinds of behavior, wickedness, the works of darkness (sin), strange religions and philosophies, and its rituals and (occult) practices (Read also: More reverence for people and other gods than for the Almighty God).
It doesn’t mean that you shall consider the things, which God considers as evil, as good, and consider the things, which God considers as good, as evil.
It doesn’t mean that you shall walk after the flesh in a carnal selfish love that doesn’t love God above all but himself and doesn’t love his neighbour but only loves himself and only wants to do those things, which are according to his will and what pleases and satisfies him and keep doing the works of the flesh.
If you love your neighbor as yourself you don’t want anything bad to happen to them.
You don’t want them to suffer and live in the bondage of the devil in the kingdom of darkness. You don’t want your neighbour to go to hell and eventually be cast into the eternal lake of fire, but you want your neighbour to be delivered and be reconciled with God through Jesus Christ and inherit eternal life, just like you.
Therefore you shall preach the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which calls the people to repentance and the removal of sin. You shall speak the truth, no matter what the people think of you and regardless of the persecution, so that many souls will be saved and through discipline, corrections, and chastising remain saved.
The love of God is not guided by feelings and emotions, but by the words of God.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
